Black Girls RUN! EGL Interview

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BLACK GIRLS RUN

Founders Get Real About Staying Fit, Healthy and Sexy BY: CHEYLIN PARKER

Ashley Hicks and Toni Carey

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feature You and Toni call each other sisters, how did you two initially meet?

Ashley: Toni and I are line sisters, AKA’s, so we met back in 2008 in college.

So tell me how Black Girls RUN! came about?

Ashley: Toni and I started BGR back in 2009. At the time I had been running for a few years, she had just started running. We were having a conversation about how few black women were involved with sports and that kind of led to us saying ‘You know what? We should blog about this and give people advice and tell our own personal journeys and stories about running.’ We just started blogging and two years later we were thinking it would be cool to have running groups. So we launched a running group and it just grew from there.

You first started the blog in 2007, then you launched the running group.

What was the turn out like?

Ashley- “As long as I’m alive, I’m going to be working out. As long as I’m alive, I’m going to be eating healthy.”

Ashley: The turnout was really good. We actually had a meet-up in Atlanta before that, and at a race they were just like, “you guys are really good.

You want to come and run a race with us?” We thought that would be cool and we had people come and we were really pleasantly surprised.

Everyone was like, “you guys should have a running group.” We just put a post on the blog stating, “If you would like to start a BGR running group let us know,” and the emails just kept rolling in from all these different cities

We know… ladies don’t necessarily like to talk about their weight. But with obesity becoming prevalent in our communities, Toni Carey and Ashley Hicks say it’s time to put the shyness to the side and get REAL. Former college classmates, line sisters, running buddies and now business partners; Carey and Hicks are setting the fitness world on blaze! Black Girls RUN! (BGR ) is an effort to tackle the growing obesity epidemic in the AfricanAmerican community and to provide encouraging resources to both new and veteran runners. The organization strives to encourage women to make fitness and healthy living a priority. EGL recently chopped it up with the BGR founders about getting focused and healthy and building a business and initiative to impact the world! everythinggirlslove.com

On your blog and website it says your aim is to really tackle the issue of obesity in the African-American community, but what are some other goals that you have for Black Girls RUN!?

Ashley: It’s to inspire a younger generation to get fit and healthy. To create healthy eating habits and exercise. I believe that’s one of the most powerful things that’s come out of the groups is now that we realize that by inspiring our members who are moms, they are now inspiring their kids. So we have a lot of kids who are running which is really cool! It’s something we didn’t initially think of, but that’s now our goal; to constantly give our members resources on how to get their kids active.

Toni: I want to inspire people to do something different and take our health seriously. History speaks for itself. It’s time that we take the steps, no pun intended, to change how history has defined us.

What’s been your personal journey with running and exercising that you bring to Black Girls Run? Ashley: I think for me, my story is that [I’m] really just embracing the lifestyle. I grew up being an athlete. I played soccer pretty much all my life. I played in college and after I stopped playing, I started to gain weight. I didn’t understand how to be fit outside of the organized sport realm. So that is when I found running and I thought that this was a great way to manage your weight and stress and all these other things.

Even now, it’s just embracing that lifestyle.

As long as I’m alive, I’m going to be working out. As long as I’m alive, I’m going to be eating healthy.

What inspired you?

Toni: When you look at the statistics about African-American women’s health, they are absolutely alarming. I’m crazy enough to believe that those statistics CAN change! I also want to dispel all of those myths and stereotypes that often prohibit the African-American community from progressing.

What have been the high points of Black Girls Run? Ashley: I think it’s the success stories. We hear how it’s just really impacting people’s lives. Sometimes these people are crying and they have these stories that are so amazing. We had our event in New York and this lady was saying how her best friend’s son was shot and killed, going on to explain that running really saved her because it was like she could go do that and deal with the stress that way. It’s a healthy way to deal with stress. Just things like that everythinggirlslove.com

really keep us going.

Did you ever think you would become a business owner?

Toni: Yes! It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.

Ashley: Yea, I’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit and Toni’s the same way. Even though this isn’t the first for either one of us, we didn’t even go into this thinking it would be a business.

What are some of the lessons you all have learned as business owners? Just with trying to keep Black Girls Run afloat and successful.

Toni: Owning your own business is tough.

You have to be willing to sacrifice ALOT to make it work.

Toni- “When you look at the statistics about AfricanAmerican women’s health, they are absolutely alarming.”

Ashley: I think one is building a strong team, finding people who are experts in their field and allowing them to give you advice and advise you on how to make your business stronger. Also, knowing how important communication is; it’s absolutely vital. It’s a virtual business, so Toni and I talk almost every day. We’re texting, Facebook messaging, and on the phone. There are so many moving parts so it’s just imperative that we do it.

Where do you see Black Girls run in one year to five years? Where would you like to see it go?

Ashley: We hope to expand into other sports, like Black Girls Yoga. We hope to

feature launch more events so right now we have our annual race and conference, which I think is a fabulous opportunity for black women to get together. Hopefully we’ll do a HBCU tour at some point. People are always like,“hey you’re really needed on college campuses,” so those are things we hope to accomplish in the next year.

Toni: We definitely want our membership to continue to grow and [to] add more groups. Our hope is that in 10 years, we will see the obesity rates among AfricanAmerican women dramatically decrease.

What are some things you have been faced with to keep Black Girls RUN! going?

Toni: One of the biggest decisions I had to make was quitting my full-time job in order to commit more time to Black Girls RUN! It was an extremely difficult decision and very scary, but I really believed in Black Girls RUN! Looking back on it, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Have either of you ever wanted to give up or ran into obstacles where you were just like, ‘you know what, maybe this isn’t what I should be doing?’

Ashley: I think so. I mean the funny thing is, Toni and I are always like we boot shopped this business. We don’t have any loans or anything of that nature, and there are days that you’re like, “I literally took a pay cut to start doing this full time.” And there are days that I’m like, “let me polish up my resume.” But then you know, I’ll hear about a good story and focus on what our mission is; impacting people’s lives and creating a need for social change.

Toni: There are definitely days I want to throw in the towel, but I stay focused on our mission and what we have been able to accomplish thus far.

How do you stay dedicated to your running and workout schedule?

Ashley: It’s really difficult because the more we grow the business, the less time we actually have to run. To me, it’s just finding a balance of how many days a week I’ll definitely have to work out, finding new things to do. The group has really been a blessing to me.

Toni-“We all have a responsibility and the power to make this world a better place.”

What would you say to women who aren’t exercising or eating healthy to take those steps to make positive changes or feel like they don’t have time to?

Toni: Change is hard, but not impossible. Set a goal and take it one day at a time. If you fall off the wagon, because you will, don’t beat yourself up too bad. Just get up, dust yourself off and try again.

What’s one thing you would want people to take away from Black Girls RUN!?

Ashley: They have to know that there’s support out there. There’s an entire network dedicated to helping them with their running fitness and journey. That’s one thing we want people to know.

Toni: We all have a responsibility and the power to make this world a better place.

BGR! Is currently on its first national “Preserve the Sexy” tour until June 8, 2013. The tour stops in Richmond, Atlanta, Mississippi and South Carolina. Interested candidates can register at www.blackgirlsrun.com.

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