S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. Today we are focusing our show on wellness. We'll tell you about a running club providing an inclusive space to get moving. This is Midday Edition , connecting our communities through conversation. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. A running club by and for women of color has taken off in south San Diego. More than 500 people have run with Santa mujeres since it began in 2020. Kpbs reporter Katie Hyson joined them on a Saturday run through Barrio Logan to see the impact. Take a listen.
S2: We didn't see black and brown people in the running spaces.
S3: Virginia Camacho and her friend Priscilla Rojas were looking for a running club accessible to everyone all colors , shapes and sizes free.
S2: And we wanted a place that we know that our family and our friends would feel comfortable coming to.
S3: When they didn't find it , they created it. Rojas says Santa mujeres offers not just comfort but safety.
S4: Every woman in our run club has experienced something like either being honked at , harassed , followed like all of us. So I think having this community has made it safer for us.
S3: She says the representation has changed the course of many who tell her , I wouldn't.
S4: Have started running if I didn't see someone that looked like me had the same energy as me , including.
S3: Elspeth Ruiz.
S5: I came in , I introduced myself as my name is Elsbeth and I'm not a runner and I've been coming ever since.
S3: This past year. Ruiz says she ran 24 races.
S5: Now I have a wall full of medals. I look like a pro , but I'm not.
S3: Santa mujeres is eyeing a new finish line nonprofit status.
S1: Now we're joined by founders of Santa mujeres Running Club. Priscila Rojas , welcome to you. Hi.
S2: Hi.
S1: And Virginia Camacho , welcome to you. Hi. Hello.
S2: Hello.
S1: I'm so glad to have you both here. Before we talk more about the club , I want to talk about your background in running. How did you first get into it ? Virginia , I'll start with you.
S2: I actually started running to kind of lose some weight. I had gained a lot of weight after my mom passed when I was younger , and I kind of held on to that weight for a little while and , um , just kind of coming from the family and the community that I come from , kind of holding on to extra weight is pretty normal. Uh , so I didn't really think that there was anything wrong with it , and there isn't. But when my sister and I decided to make some life changes , the first thing that I went to was running. Because it is a form of exercise that you type , you tend to think can be free or really cheap , something that you kind of think that maybe if you just have sneakers , you should be able to do it. And so I started walking with the intention of eventually running and running and walking was my way to get my activity when I did not have a gym membership yet , and when I was still kind of figuring out how to move and how to run and and move my body. Right.
S1: Right. And just really incorporating that into your life.
S6: I really enjoyed hiking , but I really took on running when I went to do my first half marathon. I just kind of had it in my head that I could do this. I heard about this thing called the Triple Crown series. So it's three half marathons and San Diego County in one year. And somebody just kind of put that idea in my head , and I just went off and tried to go for my first half marathon. And that was 2017. Um , in 2018 , I ran my first half marathon.
S1: Well , congratulations to you both for starting something new and sticking with it. Virginia.
S2: So Priscilla had once she finished those , uh , she , she had found that half marathon series that she went for. She came to me. And at the time , we didn't have any other friends that were running , so we only had each other. And she came to me and she said , hey , uh , I'm doing this thing , running all these half marathons. And it's been really fun , and you should do it with me , and we should do it together. And , um , I did it. I we did it. We we went through a whole year of running. We did three half marathons together in a year. And that really sparked the idea for us. Um , as soon as we were done with that first race , we were we were just like , we know we need to have friends out here. We knew we needed to get more people involved , and we wanted to create a space where we could have friends joining us.
S1: Yeah , and the club's name is Santa mujeres. Priscilla. It's it's really meant to be a club by and for women , right ? Yes.
S6: Um , that was our initial idea when we first were thinking about , um , creating Santa Muitas. I know the word Santa translates to like something saintly or holy. Um , but it's more like we think women are sacred. It just came off that basis of creating the safe space for women. Yeah. So that's where our name came from.
S1: That's great. Priscilla , what are some of the. Barriers that women face when it comes to running.
S6: Um , I spoke a little bit on the interview about being safe. Um , I think every woman has been followed , harassed during a run. Um , you hear news about women being killed , you know , on going off for a run. Most recently in Atlanta , a college student. Um , so this is not something new. You hear it all the time. You hear it in conversations within our community. Um , so it was super important to create this space. Um , now we can reach out to a member and get together. Not even on our run club meetings , but reach out to someone and have someone to run with. So we're not running alone.
S2: Just to kind of add to barriers , I think another barrier is something like child care. Something like , you know , we all have busy lives and we go to work every day and we come home. And the last thing we think about doing is getting some exercise or activity for ourselves , especially if we have like children or animals or obligations that take our time. So when we say that we have all ages in the run club , we mean it because , uh , we welcome babies , we have toddlers , we have kids , we have teenagers , we've got mothers , husbands , brothers , grandmothers. We have all ages. We've got runners into their 60s. We've even had mothers bringing their strollers and all their kids. We've got whole families , um , mom , dad and all the kids and dogs sometimes. So we're really proud of that. It's it's definitely a space where someone can anybody can come and find a friend , be that a child or a teenager or an adult. We've got we've got everyone.
S1: That's great. And so you touched on this and as we just heard , the running club has really helped make the community feel safer for many of the women. How does it do that ? Virginia.
S2: Well , I know that I personally have been , uh , I've been attacked on on runs , I've been lunged at , I've been swung at. And so to have a group with you when you're running , that's more eyes around you , that's more awareness. Um , you know , we're really good about running without music. We're really. We're we're such a great group of friends to that. We're out there , we're having fun , we're being loud. And so we've got all these eyes to kind of keep each other safe. We don't let anybody run alone. We don't leave anybody behind. And that's really important to us , because that's when you start to feel unsafe when you're alone. And so we don't ever want anybody to feel like they're by themselves out there. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. There's always strength in numbers. Priscilla , do you have anything to add to that ? Yeah.
S7:
S6: Um , so our model for our run club is our leadership comes from the back of the pack. So when Virginia mentioned we don't leave anybody behind , we definitely don't leave anybody. We start running together. And then depending on the pace , we make sure that we stay with the last runner , last walker. So there's nobody at the end feeling alone. Um , this also helps with intimidation. You know , sometimes you think , oh , I'm going to be the slowest , I'm going to get lost or anything. But in our model , we make sure that we stay with the last winner so they get to know their course and they feel safe throughout the whole run.
S1:
S6: Uh , we meet at 6 p.m. in Balboa Park. We start running by 615. We have A5K and a one mile. Uh , Virginia and I lead , uh , both , and we start running together. We have a route that starts together , then it splits off to a distance , and then we make sure that we keep moving along with the route again. Uh , Virginia and I in the back of the pack. So we have walkers , runners , and she mentioned , um , mothers coming in with their strollers. We talk to everyone and make sure that they know the route. We have a signing system that shares their route with them. We try to inform our runners as much as we can at the beginning of the run as well. Um , and then as soon as everybody is done , we just hang out by the carousel and our social. We talk about our day , we talk about our run , we share our wins. We like to celebrate everybody's personal best at Run club. So we always like to talk about that at the end. Just a really friendly and , I don't know , happy scene at the end of the run. Definitely.
S2: Definitely. And we wait. We all wait and gather and wait for the last person to come in. And so even though , you know , you might be in the back of the pack , once you get back , you've got people that are there waiting for you , clapping for you because you did it. Yeah.
S8: Yeah.
S1: And there's hundreds of people running weekly , huh ? Sometimes.
S2: Yeah.
S8: Oh that's great.
S1: You know , many running spaces are predominantly white , but Santa Maria has really provides a safe space for women of color. Why is that representation ? And community important. Priscilla , I'll start with you on that one.
S6: I think it's really important to be the representation of what we want to see out there. It took us to create this space because we didn't see it out there , so we wanted to create it ourselves. Um , we had an intuition that if we started , people will show up. I'm living in San Diego. You think that there'll be more diversity , you know , out there and the representation of other run clubs , but it didn't exist. We really tried to look and we couldn't find it. So I think that's why , although we started out as a run club for women , it's become inclusive because it was a community that was needed. Like , we were so surprised how many people were interested in participating in our run club.
S1: Yeah , and speaking of being inclusive , I heard you also do unity runs. Tell me more about what's in a unity run.
S2: So we love to connect with other run groups. There's one groups like Black Men Run and Black Girls Run. First of all , we want them to run with us , and we know that the best way to get them to run with us is to run with them. So we like to insert ourselves into these spaces as well. We run with other run clubs. We run with run clubs all over town , and it's important for us to show our members that you can be in these other groups too , that it's okay. You can run with this group on Monday , you can run with us on Wednesday and Thursday. And , um , and it's a great way for our members to make friends with other people from other run groups that are different from them.
S1:
S6: Yeah , I think everybody thinks it's a white male , you know , um , or a very slim person out there that could only be considered a runner. I mean , I even had a difficulty calling myself a runner , even though I've been running for a couple of years , I don't think I was empowered until creating something. Whereas when you see yourself as a leader and you're inspiring other people. So I think we're breaking that stereotype and we're empowering these women no matter what pace , what shape , size that we can call ourselves runners. So we're breaking that idea of what a runner looks like. Um , I always tell our crew that we are the change that's being seen out there , and that's why we want to empower other women to be leaders in the running community.
S2: And running hasn't always. It didn't come easy to myself or to Priscilla. We are not these , like , naturally athletic women. We we had to work really hard at this , but we know that anything's possible with that discipline and the commitment. And one thing I think that is so special about our space is that we really wanted a space that , uh , people that look like us and like our family to us , friends and , um , just people in our community that are not used to being active. We wanted a way to introduce them to running so that they would want to come back. And so I think that one of the best things that we started was the one mile , because it gets your foot in the water and it , you know , you don't have to go fast. You can just spend 20 minutes on that on that route. It doesn't matter , you know , if you're walking or jogging , but like just getting their toes in the water for that one mile , it just it gets them so happy when they're able to accomplish that. And then it gets people motivated to make the jump onto the five K. And so I'm really proud of us for for getting people excited about movement. Because so many times in our community there is no movement. And we just think like , you know , running isn't for us or working out isn't for us , but we absolutely deserve to take up the space. And , you know , these parks are here for us and we're blessed to be able to run in them. And so it's really important to us. And it's been such a joy that we've been able to bring people outside to get moving. Yeah.
S8: Yeah.
S1: You know , when you start you feel like you're not fast enough to to run and everybody starts at a different place. So that's it's really great to have a space that's inclusive of folks , no matter where they are on their running journey.
S7:
S6: It has empowered them to be mentors. They have the knowledge , they share it with others and we have people who had stopped running and then they heard about us and they're like , wait , who are these ladies ? What are they doing ? They're making it look fun again , because sometimes you can lose the fun of running. You know , the joy of running in the competitiveness. Again , we talk about pace a lot. Like too fast I you know , I'm older all that stuff. But on the contrary , like these seasoned runners are sharing their knowledge with us and experiences and have found. There joy again with running. At least on my side. That's how I see it.
S2: It's been very motivating , and I think because we've been so active in the also , just like in the racing community , because we run a ton of races , that I think it's been really motivating for others , and we've encouraged a lot of people to sign up for races and run distances that they haven't. Sometimes they haven't tried to run these distances in before. And so it's something new for them. And or sometimes it's something that they're coming back to , like Priscilla said.
S1:
S2: You know , have fun. And honestly , don't worry about your pace. Like , you know , we're actually supposed to run much slower than we do , which is crazy. And sometimes that sounds counterintuitive , but , um , yeah , have fun. It should be about having fun. And , uh , being able to make running last for you. Um , for me , I always want to be able to come back to running no matter what is going on in my life. And so I always know that I can come back to it. And so I just like to have fun with it. Yeah.
S1: I mean , running seems to be such a mental game. I mean , it's almost a meditative experience or so that's what I hear. Um , so describe to me , like what that runner's high is like and how to get there.
S6: I think it's just the feeling. It's like exhilarating. It's a feeling of accomplishment , joy , happiness. How do you get it ? I think it's just taking the step , you know , when you conquer your first little fear and nothing happened , and then you're like , okay , this feels really good. Um , so it's just showing up and it's a step forward , and then you start jogging , then you start running. You're going to hit those points of like , wow , I've never felt this feeling before. And that's how I would describe it. Um , right now , um , we're doing climb for the Crown challenge , running up hills across San Diego and all of us are doing a really hard run. But we hit that natural high of , like , exhilarating feeling accomplishment of running a route we would never do before. But here we are together , taking on a hard challenge. And we have the saying , um , todos puede con SMC , which is everything is possible with SMC and it's really true. I think our community is testament of trying things and doing things that weren't possible or we thought weren't possible for myself , and I'm sure other members feel the same way.
S8: Well , I.
S1: Know running is probably has really transformed your physical health , but is there like a moment where you felt like a run really changed your life or transformed you ? Um , personally ? Yeah.
S6: I mean , every PR is transformative because I never myself , you know , I never I'm not the fastest runner out there , but to push myself to pieces , I mean , this is personal just for me. I think running your pace should be personal or the competitiveness because it comes within. I don't compete with anybody else. So just recently I did a marathon under six hours. I've been chasing this goal for three years and it finally happened at the Chicago Marathon. I did a five hours and 45 minutes. I look at my pace for that marathon 26.2 miles. Never in my wildest dream that I think I would ever be running a 12 minute pace for a marathon. Like I couldn't imagine that. So I think that was transformative to know what my body is possible. And that's why I always say to show up as who you are , no matter what size or shape , because you're only there to to do something for yourself and to show what's possible for yourself. And I never thought that I would do that.
S1:
S6: Um , Run Club is free , so it's just taking that initiative to show up , and then we'll welcome you , and then you'll get hooked. You'll know how much fun we have.
S9: And we.
S2: Are always. We are always on the hunt for , uh , new female leadership within our group. You know , we have really committed ourselves to the group. Um , and sometimes we need time for ourselves also. Or sometimes we have races or obligations and things. Um , and so one of the things that have been really cool that we've done is we've , we've encouraged other ladies to lead in our space. And that's been really rewarding also to see women own that leadership and motivate each other and motivate other people.
S8: Well , I know.
S1: That the both of you are out and about and on the run as we speak. I've been speaking with Priscila Rojas and Virginia Camacho. They're the founders of the Santa mujeres Running Club. Priscilla and Virginia. Thanks again.
S2: So much. Thank you so much for having us.
S7: Yes , thank you so much.
