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Natisha Hiedeman's Run Club Grew From 25 to Nearly 400 in Two Weeks

A Seattle Storm guard announced a run club on a Twitch stream. The first run drew 25 people. The second drew nearly 400. Here is how Run Budz took over Tuesday nights at Green Lake.

<h2>From 25 Runners to Nearly 400 in a Fortnight</h2> <p>Natisha Hiedeman plays guard for the Seattle Storm. In August 2026 she started a run club called Run Budz, announcing it first on her Twitch stream. The first run drew about 25 people. The second run, at Green Lake Park, drew nearly 400. That jump landed within two weeks of the first announcement. Run Budz now meets Tuesdays for a 2.8-mile loop of Green Lake, gathering near the Seattle Public Theater before the group sets off around the water. Updates go out on Instagram at @run.budz and on Strava.</p> <h2>From a Twitch Stream to a Standing Tuesday</h2> <p>Run Budz began on a livestream. Hiedeman announced it on Twitch, the platform where she already streams regularly, and the name nods to StudBudz, the viral streaming duo she runs with Courtney Williams. The naming is worth pausing on, because it makes the run club a spinoff of a streaming brand rather than of a basketball career. The audience was already assembled before there was anything to attend. One announcement converted a share of it into people standing at a lake on a Tuesday evening, which is a shorter distance from screen to sidewalk than most fitness marketing manages with a budget behind it.</p> <h2>The Loop Green Lake Already Knew</h2> <p>Green Lake did not need a new run club to matter to Seattle runners. The park hosts the Seattle Kraken 5K on October 3 and the Greenlake 5K and Wellness Festival on October 24, three weeks apart, and both use the same water&#x27;s-edge path as their staging ground each fall. Both also cost money and run on deadlines. The Kraken 5K is $35 for adults and $15 for kids twelve and under, with the price rising after August 31. The Greenlake 5K holds a $45 rate only through August 30 before jumping to $55. What Run Budz added was frequency. A race comes once a year and closes registration months ahead of itself. The Tuesday loop happens every week, costs nothing, and requires no entry at all.</p> <h2>&quot;I&#x27;m Like a Connector&quot;</h2> <p>Hiedeman has been direct about what she is building. &quot;I feel like, in a sense, I&#x27;m like a connector,&quot; she told FOX 13 Seattle. &quot;So to be able to bring all these people together and connect people... that&#x27;s what my biggest goal in life really is.&quot; Connector is a notable word choice from a professional athlete, who could reasonably have said coach or captain and had either fit. It describes a role rather than a training program, and it matches how she has run the thing since: the route is the occasion, the crowd is the point.</p> <h2>Showing Up Is the Whole Bar</h2> <p>The second quote sets the entry requirement lower still. &quot;Hey, I would just say showing up... that&#x27;s what matters,&quot; Hiedeman said. &quot;I feel like you don&#x27;t gotta run, but just come support. You can walk, you can scooter, you can do whatever... That&#x27;s the first step.&quot; No pace, no distance, no expectation of finishing the 2.8 miles. That is a strikingly low bar for a club organized around someone whose profession runs on the opposite terms, where showing up is the minimum and performing is the job.</p> <h2>Built Without a Franchise</h2> <p>Seattle already has the other model to compare against. Cooldown Running started with a handful of friends in Denver in fall 2022 and now operates as a national franchise, listing chapters in roughly 17 to 21 cities depending on which of its own channels are counted. Its Seattle chapter meets Wednesdays at 6:30pm in South Lake Union, led by a five-person team, and calls itself &quot;a social club disguised as a run club.&quot; The company has also collected the trappings that come with scale, including a retail partnership with Fleet Feet announced in April 2026 and a separate deal with Altra Running. Seattle was not among the four cities Fleet Feet named for that partnership&#x27;s launch. So the franchise with national retail deals skipped this market in its first round, and the club with no deals at all drew nearly 400 people to a lake here in a fortnight. Run Budz went from one Twitch announcement to that crowd with no apparatus behind it, in a single city, on a single loop, organized by one person who already had an audience.</p> <h2>A Hard Season, Off the Scoreboard</h2> <p>The Storm&#x27;s 2026 season was rough by any measure. Seattle finished 6-27 and was eliminated from playoff contention after a year that included two separate double-digit losing streaks, the kind of record that usually keeps a roster out of the local conversation entirely once the standings settle. Hiedeman built Run Budz during that same season. A guard on a team with almost nothing to show for its record started a Tuesday gathering that outgrew itself in a fortnight, on a loop in her own city, open to anyone willing to walk it. The day and the route go out through Instagram at @run.budz and on Strava. The standings say one thing about the Storm&#x27;s year. The Tuesday crowd at Green Lake says something else about the guard who built it anyway.</p> <p><em>Photo: Run Budz (@run.budz), from the club&#x27;s Tuesday run at Green Lake.</em></p>

From 25 Runners to Nearly 400 in a Fortnight

Natisha Hiedeman plays guard for the Seattle Storm. In August 2026 she started a run club called Run Budz, announcing it first on her Twitch stream. The first run drew about 25 people. The second run, at Green Lake Park, drew nearly 400. That jump landed within two weeks of the first announcement. Run Budz now meets Tuesdays for a 2.8-mile loop of Green Lake, gathering near the Seattle Public Theater before the group sets off around the water. Updates go out on Instagram at @run.budz and on Strava.

From a Twitch Stream to a Standing Tuesday

Run Budz began on a livestream. Hiedeman announced it on Twitch, the platform where she already streams regularly, and the name nods to StudBudz, the viral streaming duo she runs with Courtney Williams. The naming is worth pausing on, because it makes the run club a spinoff of a streaming brand rather than of a basketball career. The audience was already assembled before there was anything to attend. One announcement converted a share of it into people standing at a lake on a Tuesday evening, which is a shorter distance from screen to sidewalk than most fitness marketing manages with a budget behind it.

The Loop Green Lake Already Knew

Green Lake did not need a new run club to matter to Seattle runners. The park hosts the Seattle Kraken 5K on October 3 and the Greenlake 5K and Wellness Festival on October 24, three weeks apart, and both use the same water's-edge path as their staging ground each fall. Both also cost money and run on deadlines. The Kraken 5K is $35 for adults and $15 for kids twelve and under, with the price rising after August 31. The Greenlake 5K holds a $45 rate only through August 30 before jumping to $55. What Run Budz added was frequency. A race comes once a year and closes registration months ahead of itself. The Tuesday loop happens every week, costs nothing, and requires no entry at all.

"I'm Like a Connector"

Hiedeman has been direct about what she is building. "I feel like, in a sense, I'm like a connector," she told FOX 13 Seattle. "So to be able to bring all these people together and connect people... that's what my biggest goal in life really is." Connector is a notable word choice from a professional athlete, who could reasonably have said coach or captain and had either fit. It describes a role rather than a training program, and it matches how she has run the thing since: the route is the occasion, the crowd is the point.

Showing Up Is the Whole Bar

The second quote sets the entry requirement lower still. "Hey, I would just say showing up... that's what matters," Hiedeman said. "I feel like you don't gotta run, but just come support. You can walk, you can scooter, you can do whatever... That's the first step." No pace, no distance, no expectation of finishing the 2.8 miles. That is a strikingly low bar for a club organized around someone whose profession runs on the opposite terms, where showing up is the minimum and performing is the job.

Built Without a Franchise

Seattle already has the other model to compare against. Cooldown Running started with a handful of friends in Denver in fall 2022 and now operates as a national franchise, listing chapters in roughly 17 to 21 cities depending on which of its own channels are counted. Its Seattle chapter meets Wednesdays at 6:30pm in South Lake Union, led by a five-person team, and calls itself "a social club disguised as a run club." The company has also collected the trappings that come with scale, including a retail partnership with Fleet Feet announced in April 2026 and a separate deal with Altra Running. Seattle was not among the four cities Fleet Feet named for that partnership's launch. So the franchise with national retail deals skipped this market in its first round, and the club with no deals at all drew nearly 400 people to a lake here in a fortnight. Run Budz went from one Twitch announcement to that crowd with no apparatus behind it, in a single city, on a single loop, organized by one person who already had an audience.

A Hard Season, Off the Scoreboard

The Storm's 2026 season was rough by any measure. Seattle finished 6-27 and was eliminated from playoff contention after a year that included two separate double-digit losing streaks, the kind of record that usually keeps a roster out of the local conversation entirely once the standings settle. Hiedeman built Run Budz during that same season. A guard on a team with almost nothing to show for its record started a Tuesday gathering that outgrew itself in a fortnight, on a loop in her own city, open to anyone willing to walk it. The day and the route go out through Instagram at @run.budz and on Strava. The standings say one thing about the Storm's year. The Tuesday crowd at Green Lake says something else about the guard who built it anyway.

Photo: Run Budz (@run.budz), from the club's Tuesday run at Green Lake.

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