how jellybean works, start to finish.

• Sign in with Apple. No password to make up.
• Look around for free. After you sign in you can browse runs without paying or showing anything.
• Get the Starter, once. The first time you join or post a run, you buy the Starter, US$3.99, one time per account. It pays for your ID check and comes with 10 credits. If the check fails or shows you're under 18, you can ask Apple for a refund. Apple handles refunds, we can't.
• Check your ID once. Right after the Starter, you take a photo of a government ID and a live selfie. Stripe Identity checks that the ID is real and that the selfie is the same person. Everyone does this, once.
• What we keep from it. That you passed, that you're 18 or older, whether you can join women-only runs, and when you did the check. Not your ID photo, your selfie, your name, your date of birth or your ID number. The privacy policy has the details, including how long Stripe keeps its copy.
• Who sees your ID. No other runner. Ever.

You show up as a jelly bean. You pick the colour when you sign up. They're named after jelly bean flavours, like peach pit, guava, ube and sea salt. I spent longer naming them than building the sign in screen, I had a whole theory that ube is the exact colour of the sky at 6am, then I knocked coffee onto the list and lost guava for a day. Next to your bean is a number: how many weeks in a row you've run. On a run, people see your bean, that number, the pace, the distance, the time and the start corner.

They don't see your name, your photo or your age. There's no profile, no chat and no messages. On a run card, dashed circles are open spots.

The bean is who. The /km number is how fast.

• A run is a public corner, a time, a pace and a distance. Whoever posts it picks how many can join, 1 to 5. 3 is the default, because 3 felt right and I was the one typing.
• Every pace is named after a coffee order, like honey or espresso, and the real number always sits right next to it, 5:45/km, because nobody knows how fast oat milk is. I'm vanilla on any hill, my knees make a noise going up Bathurst like someone stepping on a bag of chips.
• We start in deep downtown Toronto and open more neighbourhoods one at a time, like a pizza place with one oven that moves to the next corner once this one's busy, I had a whole map on the wall with pins for where the oven goes next and then I leaned on it and the pins went into the drywall.
• You can leave any run at any time, for any reason.

paces in min/km

• A credit gets you into one run, that's it.
• The Starter is US$3.99, once. It pays for your ID check, that's what it costs for everyone here to be real. It comes with 10 runs.
• Joining a run costs 1. Joining a jar, a run that repeats every week, is free, and each jar run you go to costs 1. Host a run and if at least one person shows up, you get 1, up to 1 a day. The ID checks and the servers cost real money, so this is the business plan now, and my accountant made a smaller face.
• Run out? Packs are 8 credits for US$3.99, 20 for US$7.99 or 45 for US$14.99. They pay for the ID checks and keep the lights on.
• jellybean Unlimited is US$5.99 a month. While it's on, joining runs and jar runs costs nothing. Like the packs, it pays for the ID checks and keeps the lights on. It renews every month until you cancel it in your Apple account settings.
• Cancel before the start and your credit comes back. If the run gets cancelled, everyone's does.
• Credits never expire. Women-only runs, report, block and check-in never cost money. All purchases and refunds go through Apple.

Every run and every runner has a menu with report and block. Block means you stop seeing each other's runs. A person at jellybean reads every report and can warn, suspend or ban an account. The person you report isn't told who reported them. The community guidelines say what gets someone removed.

In an emergency, call 911 first. Then report it in the app.

what are the little coloured jelly beans?

That's everyone. You pick a colour, it comes with a flavour name like ube or peach pit, and that's you on jellybean, no name, no photo. The number is how many weeks in a row you've run, it goes up and the bean glows. I check mine at crosswalks, I've walked into a newspaper box doing it. Dashed circles on a run are open spots.

is there a profile, or a chat?

No. No profiles, no photos, no messages, nobody to scroll through. You see a pace, a distance and a corner, and you run. I've done the other kind of running group, I spent four kilometres learning a stranger's sourdough schedule and I still think about the starter. His name was Gregory. The starter, not the guy.

why do I have to show an ID?

So everyone on every run has passed the same check, and so women-only runs go by the ID, not a checkbox. You do it once, through Stripe: a government ID and a selfie. We keep only three answers: verified, 18 or older, and women-only eligible. Other runners never see any of it.

will people know who I am?

Other runners see your bean and its number. Not your name, your photo or your age. We know you passed the ID check, and that's how we can act on a report.

who can see women-only runs?

ID-verified women. Women-only runs show up only for members whose ID check shows F, and only they can join. Everyone else sees mixed runs. If your ID is wrong, or doesn't reflect who you are, you can ask a person at jellybean to review it.

is it a run club?

It's the small version, I call it a jar. One or two people at your pace, a corner near you, a time you pick. No DJ, no group photo, no guy with a megaphone explaining the route. Post the same run every week and congratulations, you run a jar now, put it on your LinkedIn. I would. I'd put it on there twice.

what does it cost?

It's free to download, and browsing runs is free once you sign in with Apple. To join or post a run you buy the Starter once, US$3.99. It pays for your ID check, that's what it costs for everyone here to be real, and it comes with 10 runs. Joining a run costs 1 credit, hosting a run someone shows up to gets you 1. I call it the potluck rule: bring a run, eat a run. Credits never expire, and packs start at 8 for US$3.99. If you run a lot, jellybean Unlimited is US$5.99 a month and joins cost nothing. Packs and Unlimited pay for the ID checks and keep the lights on. I wanted a hat in the premium tier. There's no hat.

what if I'm slower than everyone?

The pace is on every run before you join, so you only join runs at your pace. Vanilla is 7:00/km and slower, it's a talking pace, nobody apologizes on a vanilla run. I'm a vanilla. I once tried a faster flavour, wheezed at a red light on Queen and pretended I was taking a phone call. Nobody called.

where and when?

Deep downtown Toronto first, this winter. There's a pun about chill in here and I'm not gonna say it. I'm not. iPhone only. It isn't in the App Store yet, so join the waitlist and we'll email you when your neighbourhood opens.

what if I post a run and nobody joins?

Then you go for your run anyway. The hosting credit only comes when at least one person shows up, so this one's just a run. I've been the only bean at Spadina and King at 6am, stretching against a pole like I'd planned to, while a streetcar driver watched me through her window the whole time she was stopped. She had a thermos. She knew. I did one calf stretch and left.

how old do I have to be?

18 or older. The ID check confirms it.

android?

Not yet. iPhone first. It's one founder and one app, and most nights it's just the two of us. Android after.