Glasgow FrontRunners is my home, they are my friends, they are my family.
To me, running is so much more than just a sport. It’s so much more than a way of maintaining physical fitness or improving mental health.
For me, the main reason I run is for the community and sense of belonging that it brings. This is something that I have found in many places during my time within the sport, but nowhere more so than in Glasgow FrontRunners (GFR).
Glasgow FrontRunners, for those who do not know, are an LGBTQIA+ running club based in the city centre of Glasgow. We are the largest FrontRunner club in Scotland and the second largest in the UK with over 260 members. The club focuses on maintaining a balance between regular training runs and races, alongside social events and fundraisers. I have been a member of the club for almost a year, and have absolutely loved every minute of my time here. I can honestly think of no better group of people to go for a run with every week.
I joined GFR after volunteering at their annual 5 mile race around Kelvingrove Park and the River Kelvin, a landmark event for GFR, which every year brings in hundreds of runners from the International FrontRunner community and other runners alike. The funds go to TIE (Time for Inclusive Education),our main charity partner. Their aim is to bring the teachings of LGBTQIA+ history and rights into the education system. We’re aiming to raise around £2000 for TIE this year.
As soon as I began chatting to members of the club, I felt immediately comfortable, immediately at home.
I came in as a runner on an extended hiatus who knew nobody they were working alongside, and came out as the newest member of a fantastic club with newfound friends.
GFR for me, offered the perfect rehab program after almost a year of no running and a tentative return of a few months of short, gentle runs to bed myself back in cautiously.
A club night is structured perfectly, no matter what sort of run you are looking for; there are groups of varying distances and paces depending on if you are training for something specific and want to push yourself, are tapering for something and want to do something shorter or slower, or are a complete newbie to running and just want to have the chance to try it out and meet some new people. Since joining the club, I have moved upwards through the groups, meeting so many fabulous people along that journey with so many stories to tell about their running and life experiences.
Take Ross for instance; an athlete for Central AC as a youngster competing against the likes of Andy Butchart and Jake Wightman, Ross is now a seasoned ultra runner, but still has the speed in his legs for fast road racing. Loves to show me up in a sprint finish!
Take Sarah; practically a non-runner just over a year ago, but took up the challenge of joining the club in Belfast to run her first ever marathon, absolutely smashing it in the process!
Take Nicky; a solely treadmill runner until he joined GFR as part of our Couch to 5k program and subsequently our 5 to 10k plan, completing his first 10km race just over a week ago at the Men’s 10k.
Take Adam; one of our newest and fastest members, the winner of OUTRun 2022 was previously an athlete for Law and District but specifically commutes to Glasgow to run for our club because of the draw of the community atmosphere within the club.
These are just some of the incredible people that I‘ve met since joining the club, there are many, many more that I could mention; everyone has their story to tell. We are all brought together by one thing, a lot of us would probably have never crossed paths before if it wasn’t for GFR and the collectiveness and community it brings.
As members of the LGBTQIA+ community across varying periods of the recent past, we have all experienced our own struggles and prejudices.
This is something though that we do not need to worry about when surrounded by our fellow FrontRunners, we are a running club first and foremost but we are very much a group of friends brought together by our collective identity and belonging in a place we can all be our authentic selves, somewhere we all trust each other and are comfortable with who we are and how we identify, no matter our age, gender, sexuality, race, religion or background.
Through GFR, I feel like I have genuinely made friends for life. It’s very much a cliché, but it really feels like somewhere that I can unapologetically be myself. Something as simple as my fellow clubmates getting my pronouns correct, something a lot of the other people in my life seem to struggle to do, comes as second nature to them all.
There is something about being surrounded by people like me; of all ages, genders and backgrounds; that makes me feel more at home than anywhere else I have ever been.
The community feel at GFR is home to me; more so than school life ever was, more so than any workplace I've ever been in, more so than many friendship circles I’ve kept. The people I have met in this club mean so much to me, they know the real me and I feel like I can be that real version of me when I am around them; whether that’s post-race debriefs or discussing everything and nothing over a pint after that week’s training run.
We are all so different, and yet there is one thing that has brought us together. We all love running. Some of us were in other clubs before, some of us were never in a club, some of us were never even runners, but we all collectively feel the camaraderie of being a part of this fabulous club.
I often joke that running is all I have, but honestly since joining GFR I can’t think what my life would be without it.
Glasgow FrontRunners is my home, they are my friends, they are my family.