“We want a representation of every person that’s in Birmingham in our group,” Graham says. “That’s how people learn from each other. That’s how barriers are broken down.”
Five nights a week members of the Alchemy Run Crew pound the pavement of the streets of Birmingham, Alabama. On Tuesdays, 80 to 100 runners of all fitness levels gather to run three to four miles. On Wednesday, it’s ladies’ night as 30 to 40 women run 2 to 6 miles. Thursdays are for experienced runners who get in 6 miles at a fast pace. Experienced runners also come out for the Saturday long run, covering 7 to 13 miles. Then the group slows things down for the Sunday Sunset 6 Crew, covering six miles at an easy pace.
Surprisingly, however, members talk little about running when discussing Alchemy Run Crew. They don’t brag about how many medals they’ve earned or about setting a new personal record in their last race. Instead, they talk about building relationships – with one another and the communities of Birmingham and beyond. This is exactly what Ace Graham wanted when he started the group in 2021.
“Creating a space for mixed demographics of people to be able to engage was the biggest focus for me because that’s been my whole life,” Graham says. “My parents were in the military when I grew up, so we lived around a lot of different types of people.”
Because he grew up in a military family, Graham often says he’s a “native of nowhere,” but he’s been dedicated to Birmingham since he opened his business in the city in 2016. Graham’s store Alchemy is a creative boutique that sells high-end streetwear, including running shoes and apparel.
Each run of the Alchemy Run Crew begins at Graham’s shop. Long before starting the running group, however, Graham was community-focused, hosting art, fashion and music events at his store.
Though he’s always been a runner, Graham usually got in his miles on a treadmill. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Graham had to take his running out of the gym and onto the streets of Birmingham.
“As I was running through the city on my five-day-a-week running regimen, a lot of people that were customers would see me and they would talk about coming to run with me,” Graham says.
In August of 2021, Alchemy Run Crew was born. Graham says about 15 to 20 people showed up for the first Tuesday night community run. Now this run consistently attracts nearly 100 runners – sometimes more.
“I would argue that we are the most diverse group in Birmingham,” Graham says of Alchemy Run Crew, which includes college students as well as middle-aged professionals, Birmingham natives as well as people who’ve moved to the city from across the country or around the world, and people of various ethnic backgrounds.
“We want a representation of every person that’s in Birmingham in our group,” Graham says. “That’s how people learn from each other. That’s how barriers are broken down.”
Currently located in the heart of Five Points South, Alchemy’s location is essential to Graham’s mission. Five Points South (or the Southside as locals know it) is one of the most eclectic and energetic areas of Birmingham.
Nestled at the intersection of five key streets, the area blends historic charm with a modern artsy vibe and is within walking distance from most buildings of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The neighborhood is home to an array of local businesses – such as Alchemy and other boutique shops, award-winning restaurants, coffee shops and bars. With the iconic Storyteller Fountain standing as a central landmark to the area, Five Points South is like the city’s cultural melting pot.
“This is the most densely, diversely populated community in Alabama,” he says. “So for us to be in an area where there are all kinds of people, we want to create that same type of experience.”
To ensure the safety of the runners, each run is led by ambassadors who direct traffic, watch for potholes and act as security.
“People drive by, let their window down and say, ‘I see you all the time. Keep doing what you’re doing.’ It’s super motivational,” Graham says.
The Rewards of Outdoor Running
Graham believes that one of the best ways to keep runners feeling safe is to help them get to know the city of Birmingham better, and this is one of the greatest benefits of outdoor running.
“A lot of fear comes from the uncertainty, unknowing,” Graham says. “Let’s run these streets. Let’s go to places where you would normally feel uncomfortable driving in your car and see that space on foot.”
Carmen Eichhorn, who works in logistics for Mercedes-Benz, moved to Alabama from Germany about two years ago and has gotten connected to the area through Alchemy Run Crew.
“It’s a really, really beautiful way of getting to know the city because you pay so much attention to everything,” she says of outdoor running. ”I always hope for all of the new people that come to Birmingham that they find this community.”
Even Birmingham native Ricky Vaughn, who serves as one of the group’s ambassadors, feels that outdoor running has helped him experience his hometown in a new way.
“I have worked downtown all my work life but there were places downtown I had never seen, just driving through, going back and forth to work,” Vaughn says. Now that he runs throughout the city he notices much more. What he enjoys most is watching the progress of different developments around town.
“I’m getting to see it in real time, versus just all of a sudden, seeing a new building is up,” he says.
Graham echoes this sentiment.
“Outdoor running is far more challenging, and rewarding for exploration,” he says. “I was already familiar with Birmingham, but running downtown has allowed me to learn the city better. I’ve become an asset to someone seeking direction, I’m well-versed in new city developments and extremely knowledgeable about Birmingham’s vast diversity in communities.”
Alchemy Run Crew member Christa Wininger also uses road running as a way to get to know Birmingham.
“You get a totally different perspective of the city,” she says, “especially in Birmingham, where we don’t have the most walkable city. Running outside has given me the opportunity to see the city in a whole different way. I’ve found coffee shops, a cute thrift store, and a park—all of which I’m sure I had driven by before, but hadn’t noticed. Also even if it’s just a nod or wave, you get to interact with people you maybe otherwise wouldn’t.”
Graham knows that many people may prefer to hit the treadmill when temperatures outside rise or fall.
“However, there’s nothing better than a good rain run in Birmingham with crisp clean air,” he says. “That’s something you can’t create indoors.”
Wininger believes that running outdoors makes her a stronger runner too.
“Running outside actually engages more muscles than inside,” she says. “Street, sidewalks and trails aren’t as perfectly flat or uniformed as a treadmill or track is and that requires more muscles in your feet, legs, and core to engage. Plus in the summer you get extra vitamin D. Outdoor running is absolutely the best, even when it’s super cold.”
Athlete and Activist
In his own way, Ace Graham is as much of an activist as he is an athlete.
“I will never be a person that shows up at a protest,” Graham says. “I’m not going to take that direction. I’m always going to figure out what I can do on an everyday basis, consistently, that will effect change in my community.”
One way Graham is making an impact is by hosting runs that are about much more than getting in a certain number of miles.
For the group’s anniversary run, for example, Alchemy Run Crew partners with brands such as On that agree to donate a pair of shoes for each runner who participates in the race, shoes that Alchemy donates to Birmingham’s unhoused residents, many of whom Graham and other runners know by name because of the time they spend running the streets of the city. To date, Alchemy crew members have gifted over 400 pairs of high quality, brand new shoes to their “street neighbors” –neighbors who often cheer on the runners as they zoom by or give them a high-five for extra encouragement.
In September 2024 – leading up to the anniversary of the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church by members of the Ku Klux Klan that took the lives of four Black girls – Alchemy hosted a 250-mile Civil Rights Running Tour. The relay-style run took members from Birmingham to Marion to Selma to Montgomery and back to Birmingham. Eight runners participated in the relay while others drove to some of the cities to provide support and made time for a run in each city.
“We had people who are a part of our community that drove through the night and met us at Selma at six o’clock in the morning,” Graham recalls.
The weekend also included tours of Selma, the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, and the 16th Street Baptist Church.
“For everybody who is not from Alabama who comes here to run, you’re not just going to come here and run and not learn anything about Alabama,” Graham says.
Graham and his team at Alchemy are also working on a documentary that not only chronicles the Civil Rights Running Tour but also highlights important stories of the civil rights movement. He hopes the documentary will be ready for screening in February 2025 for Black History Month.
More Than a Running Crew
When Christa Wininger attended an Alchemy Run Crew meetup for the first time about three years ago she didn’t get to do any running.
“It was storming really, really bad,” she explains. Yet, she stayed at the shop for two hours talking with the other women who had come out for Women’s Crew Wednesday.
“They were super welcoming, and it made me feel really comfortable that there was no pressure to run fast or run far. Just come get your run – however that looks for you – and we’ll be here to support you.”
Today Wininger is an ambassador with the group, leading runs and serving as a pacer. She also makes sure newcomers feel as welcome as she did when she first joined.
“At this point, running is just a small part of what I get from Alchemy,” Wininger says. “Ace is one of my best friends and I joke that he’s my unpaid therapist.”
Wininger helped with the Civil Rights Running Tour and went to Las Vegas with the run crew for a service project to get shoes donated to unhoused individuals in Vegas as the group has done in Birmingham.
On a cool October evening, Alchemy’s women’s crew gathered at the shop for a special event. Instead of their usual Wednesday night run, the women listened to live music and sipped mocktails as they laughed and chatted about life.
“These women have met each other through our running experience, but we want them to have relationships that supersede running, that last longer than their ability to be able to run,” Graham says. “So we have to foster environments for that to happen.”
And it’s working. Many of the women of Alchemy have forged friendships and some have even taken beach trips together. A diverse group of women – one from Palestine, one from Michigan and one from South Alabama – recently traveled internationally together, Graham shares.
Though the group boasts more age diversity now, Wininger says that when she first joined the Alchemy running crew many of the other women were much younger than she was. Even today, some of the group members jokingly call themselves her baby ducks when she’s leading a run. But she doesn’t mind.
“I feel like Run Crew keeps me young,” says Wininger, who’s 38.
The group has also encouraged her to be more engaging in her personal life. As a criminal defense lawyer, Wininger moves through her work days with a take-charge attitude. So after work, she’d often retreat from being outspoken.
“In my personal life, I was definitely the person who’s in the corner, who didn’t say anything,” she says. But through her ambassador role in Alchemy, she’s found a way to be a leader in her personal life too, in a way that is rewarding, not draining.
Ricky Vaughn has had a similar experience. At work, Vaughn manages sales for a major transportation company. After work, he found it hard to talk to people he didn’t know. Being an ambassador for Alchemy has helped him come out of his shell.
“This running community has helped me out in all kinds of different aspects in life,” says Vaughn, who leads runs, assists with security and helps Graham plan routes.
Graham has seen his running group change his life too.
“Running for me has really defined who I am and my level of confidence,” he says. Running has especially helped him as an entrepreneur.
“I can’t control who comes in and shops but when I say I’m going to go out and run five miles without stopping – I’m in control of that,” Graham says. “So through setting those goals, it’s trickled over into my business and allowed me to set effective goals and learn how to hit those goals too. Sometimes when I’m running and I’m winded, it’s not that I need to start walking, but I need to slow down and get my breathing together. Sometimes, when I’m thinking about a goal with my work, it’s not about going faster, it’s about slowing down and paying attention to what you’re doing.”
When Graham was choosing a city for his shop he settled on Birmingham instead of a larger Southeastern city such as Nashville, Atlanta, or New Orleans because he figured they’d be too saturated with high-end streetwear boutiques. But what Graham has learned from his time in Alabama is that consistency is key, regardless of your location.
“You think that you’re going somewhere for buying potential, but that’s not how you build a brand,” Graham says. “It’s really about how you engage the community, how consistent you are with the community. Birmingham has been great to us because they’ve embraced what we’ve done. It’s our job to do it consistently.”
