About 65 people lined up outside Tir Na Nog Irish Pub on Aug. 4.

But they weren’t about to enter the green-and gold-trimmed double doors.

They were about to run away from them.

That night, the first Monday in August, marked the first time the Nog Run Club — a partnership between Tir Na Nog and Fleet Feet on Wade Avenue — took to the streets.

Club members ran, jogged or walked through downtown Raleigh, weaving through one-way streets and capitol landmarks before heading back to Tir Na Nog.

And this time, they went through the doors. They populated the pub’s chairs, stools and benches. Many downed a few discounted beers and ate provided appetizers.

They’ll do it again tonight at 6 p.m.

Co-organizer Eugene Wheeler estimates about 100 to 200 people will complete the run.

Wheeler, who works part time at Fleet Feet, said the partnership between the shoe store and Tir Na Nog began when he was fitting a customer for a pair of shoes.

“She mentioned that her brother owned a club downtown,” Wheeler said.

Her brother is Pete Pagano, and Wheeler said he had wanted to start a pub run. So Wheeler went to Fleet Feet owner Bob Morris, who approved the partnership. Through word of mouth via patrons and an e-mail — which read, “Want to meet good-looking, healthy people in a bar?” — the first run’s turnout was about 430 percent more than expected.

That, and the first run’s smooth completion, is part of the reason Wheeler expects tonight’s run to gain at least 40 more people.

“Everybody I run into that was at the first one has taken ownership of it,” he said, citing a man whom Wheeler ran into after the first event at a grocery store. “He said he wants it to get huge, like it’s his baby.”

It’s the same with many other runners who participated in the first event, Wheeler said.

Annie Nice, Tir Na Nog’s general manager, said the run has caught on because of its atmosphere and the fact that it combines an entire market’s two favorite things: running and beer.

“You take people from all over the country. Everybody has one thing they enjoy doing socially,” Nice said, joking that “you can run, come back here and get drunk, and then carry each other home.”

“It’s really informal,” Wheeler added.

He later said the atmosphere is not raucous — nobody “got hammered, it was just fun.”

Michael Clayton, a junior in environmental engineering who has worked part time at Fleet Feet for about a year, said the run sounded like something in which students would be interested.

“Students, well, have an interest in beer,” Clayton, who could not make the first run due to a conflict with his class schedule, said. “And a good number has an interest in running.”

He said the run serves mainly as a social event in that students can run with friends, but also meet people who have similar interests.

“It’s people of all different abilities,” he said. “Most people out there aren’t serious runners, they’re serious beer drinkers who run as an excuse to drink a few more.”

The pub run trend has roots in hashing, a social event based on hare hunting, that involves one person — the hare — leaving a trail as he or she runs from the rest of the group — the hounds. Wheeler said hashers here will use items like flour to guide the group.

However, unlike hashing, Nice said patrons participating in the pub run “don’t run with beer in their hand.” Clayton said the run is also different in that runners are not chasing each other, just following a set of trails.

Tonight’s run will give runners the option of completing either two, three, five or six-mile trails that take them through downtown Raleigh.

Turnout for this run will determine how often the event occurs, Wheeler said. If 200 people show up, organizers will have to schedule the run more often — every two weeks — to avoid filling the bar past capacity.

“We don’t want to get too many people,” Wheeler said. “Then again, we don’t want it to lost its luster by having it too often.”

Although both businesses promote fitness through the run, Wheeler said the health benefits depend on how far patrons run, and then how much beer they have afterward.

Clayton said he plans on heading out to the run tonight — everyone he’s asked either has to work or has class.

“I hope to make it out there,” he said.