Tasha Thompson | Black Girls Do Run UK

Tasha Thompson | Black Girls Do Run UK 

Words: Tasha Thompson

Images: Black Girls Do Run UK

"Black Girls Do Run UK was founded in March 2019 by Tasha Thompson. Tasha has been running and taking part in races for 20 years and had always noticed a lack of black women running, so she decided to do something about it and started the Instagram page to increase imagery of regular (not professional) black women running and to meet up at races. In this time it has become so much more than a social media page! We have grown into a team of five people Linda, Sacha, Celeste and Annie and we meet periodically to discuss our plans and directions and of course to run.  Prior to the last lockdown we met up once a month to run together in different central London parks as our runners are all over London and beyond.  We have a busy WhatsApp group and private Facebook group where we share our runs and encourage and cheer each other on.  Our aim is to encourage more black women to run whilst enabling them to lead healthier, happier active lives to benefit their physical and mental health. The result will hopefully have a ripple effect through to their friends and family. 

We have a few times been accused of excluding people, but it really is not like that. We are tapping into a niche, underrepresented area and are trying to encourage more people to run who may think that it is not for them because they do not see women who look like them #youcantbewhatyoucantsee or lead a similar life to them.  We draw inspiration from many in the running community and hope that others draw inspiration from us too." 

You can learn more and follow the crew at the below links:

Instagram

Facebook PrivateGroup

Facebook

Twitter

We are on Strava