[00:00:00] Kim: [00:00:00] Closing out the wrong crew series is a black girls do run the UK.

[00:00:14] Okay. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Run Wave Podcast. I am your host Kim. If this is your first time tuning in and welcome to the family. If you are a return listener, welcome back. I truly appreciate you tuning into the show week after week, if you haven’t already done. So be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app so that you are notified each and every time I upload.

[00:00:42] A new episode, you can also go to The Run Wave.com. They will be a little flyaway box that will pop up. You can enter in your email address and I will send you an email each and every time I upload an episode as well. And I promise you, I will not send you spam. Closing out the run [00:01:00] crews series. I am talking to the ladies of black girls do run.

[00:01:05] The UK, they are, of course, in the United Kingdom, London base. And they are a group of black women who have come together for health and fitness. And it’s just to provide a running outlet or black woman who would like to run in the city of London. I chatted with the founder Tasha and we’ll see. So group member, Annie, and they gave me a little insight into why they created the group, how they keep the group going during this pandemic and their plans for the group moving forward.

[00:01:37] Let’s see what they had to say. Welcome to the shell Pasha and Annie of black girls do run UK. Welcome ladies.

[00:01:53] Tasha: [00:01:53] Yeah. 

[00:01:53] Kim: [00:01:53] Good. 

[00:01:57] Tasha: [00:01:57] Yeah, we’ve got, we’ve got good for in London [00:02:00] in London is pretty much temperamental by as good today. It’s been good this week, actually. 

[00:02:04] Kim: [00:02:04] I know I watch my London bloggers and they’re, they’re always complaining about the weather. Like one day it’s frigid, when they had snowing one day, it’s beautiful.

[00:02:13] They like, they don’t know what, what the weather is from day to day, but I’m glad you guys have a beautiful day today. It looks great.

[00:02:23] Tell me a little bit about yourselves. I’ll start with Tasha. Where are you originally from 

[00:02:29] Tasha: [00:02:29] Tasha? Born in London. My parents are from Jamaica. Um, have been running for 22 years. I’ve got two children, a girl, age 13 and a son age 10. And I work in a hospital and I managed a private practice of a Pharmac surgeon.

[00:02:50] Huh? 

[00:02:51] Kim: [00:02:51] Interesting. Andy, what about you? Yes, I’m Annie. 

[00:02:56] Annie: [00:02:56] I’ve been wanting since school days. Um, [00:03:00] so around. Uh, so around 11, 12 in like County trials, but consistently for the last two years. And that’s been encouraged primarily by Tasha, I would say, um, what I do for live in, I work as project manager in digital, um, Analytics and data science.

[00:03:22] So anything to have artificial intelligence, machine learning. That’s pretty much what I do. Um, I have one child, uh, he’s 22 years old. Uh he’s in university.

[00:03:36] Kim: [00:03:36] Yeah. I’ll see this video later, but she looks 25 years old. So she has it. You have a 22. Mm. 

[00:03:44] Annie: [00:03:44] Uh, not quite 

[00:03:45] Kim: [00:03:45] double it, but yeah. Wow. That would be about, well, you look amazing, girl. Let me see you look amazing. Okay. Black don’t crack. And you’re a prime example of this. Thank you. [00:04:00] Are you originally from London as well?

[00:04:03] Uh, 

[00:04:03] Annie: [00:04:03] yes. Um, so born and raised in London. Um, my parents are from the Caribbean, so Jamaica, so Natasha, um, my mother’s family also has roots in Cuba. So. 

[00:04:16] Kim: [00:04:16] But there, it seems like every, um, black person that I speak with from London, UK area, their background is either Caribbean or African background. Is that like, like how many, like in America where like African-American, what would you call like a British person that’s born in the UK?

[00:04:43] Tasha: [00:04:43] Yeah, we don’t call ourselves African British. 

[00:04:48] Kim: [00:04:48] Like I told myself black, I don’t like the term African-American I’m just black, but what, what do, what terms do you use there? Let’s say the same. 

[00:04:59] Tasha: [00:04:59] Yeah. [00:05:00] So you have a black Caribbean then in which country or black African, and which country like Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone.

[00:05:11] Kim: [00:05:11] So are there a lot of like just black, British, 

[00:05:17] Tasha: [00:05:17] not many yet

[00:05:23] you don’t meet like there’s one in or there’s one in our group. Patching, Sasha. Her parents are born in England, but that’s quite unusual. 

[00:05:36] Kim: [00:05:36] What part, what part? Cause I know like London is the main city, but most people, not, most people, a lot of people don’t live in London. So where are you guys based? 

[00:05:49] Tasha: [00:05:49] So when I’m in Northwest London, which is near you, must’ve heard it, you probably had a Webley stadium.

[00:06:00] [00:06:00] Kim: [00:06:00] So you’re in London proper almost. Yeah, 

[00:06:05] Tasha: [00:06:05] not considered like central London. It’s still the aspects of London, but it’s not, it’s not far away from central London, quite intimidating to central London, 

[00:06:17] Kim: [00:06:17] but you’re not in the 

[00:06:17] Tasha: [00:06:17] countryside. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not the countryside. What about you? Annie?

[00:06:27] Kim: [00:06:27] I’m 

[00:06:27] Annie: [00:06:27] in South London. So I’m not far from a place that most people do know. Good works. So

[00:06:37] that’s yeah, I’m not that far. Okay. I’ll come on as well. Let’s say it’s about 

[00:06:42] Kim: [00:06:42] less than 10 miles. Okay, so that’s not bad at 

[00:06:45] Tasha: [00:06:45] all.

[00:06:50] Yeah. Well, we’ll probably get to the central London about four miles. 

[00:06:56] Kim: [00:06:56] So it seems for runs and miles is [00:07:00] far like we would have to get on the bus at the transom when I’m running 10 miles.

[00:07:09] Okay. And, uh, you must be one of them. Speed runners. If you’re going to run 10 miles in London. No, no, 

[00:07:18] Annie: [00:07:18] I think I’ve started to enjoy longer distances because we’ve had so many restricts.

[00:07:36] Kim: [00:07:36] Black girls do run the UK. Kasha. Why did you want to start a running group that was catered to black women? 

[00:07:47] Tasha: [00:07:47] Well, I’ve been running when I started it two years ago, but 20 years, but I always loved one, always loved racing. Whenever I went to race, those always like, [00:08:00] I literally count how many black people were at the races.

[00:08:04] And I still 

[00:08:05] Kim: [00:08:05] do that today, men

[00:08:10] Tasha: [00:08:10] still it, and there was never many black women. Like I’ve got this photo of me. I don’t know. It’s an old photo, but it’s in a race and it looks like I’m being chased by a hundred white women.

[00:08:28] Kim: [00:08:28] Okay. So, 

[00:08:29] Tasha: [00:08:29] um, there was, yeah, there was never many black women and an officer 20 years. I’ve just fought. Do you know what I’ve been running for 20 years? I’ve loved it. They understand why more black women don’t do it. But in the magazines and the media, you don’t see buddy Newman when we went to live with good at elite level, because we have life, the amazing sprinters from the USA and the Caribbean.

[00:08:54] And we have the amazing long distance. One is from East Africa, but they didn’t see many [00:09:00] like normal women who are juggling work, job family, managing a home running. So. I decided to try and do Suffolk about it. And initially started with just wanting to, um, increase imagery of normal black women in like, not one that’s particularly fast or was gonna win the race or anything like that, but just.

[00:09:26] Regular black women running for her health, physical health, mental health, and just to lead a healthy lifestyle. That’s literally how it started. Yeah. 

[00:09:39] Kim: [00:09:39] So your name is similar to BGR, which is black girls run in the United States. Did you take it, did you know about that group when you started 

[00:09:48] Tasha: [00:09:48] so good? I knew about them for some years before, and I always thought it was amazing.

[00:09:52] I always fought. Wow. Why can’t we have something like that here. So I would say it’s pretty much inspired by [00:10:00] November. Obviously it didn’t want to have exactly the same name as them, but love their names. Cause literally it says what it is. There’s no mistake in what it’s about, who it stands for, what its goals are.

[00:10:15] So because we were in the UK and because. Probably not in London is always this kind of narrative of like, Oh, well, black people don’t do this. And black people, we don’t swear. We don’t ski. We don’t, there’s just all these things that we don’t do. That’s why I came up with black girls do one UK. Because even when I was telling my friend, I’m going to start this Instagram page for black girls to run your case, you went, well, we don’t, we don’t want, there’s always this thing that we don’t, there are certain foods that we just don’t do, but.

[00:10:48] It’s not a black or white thing. It’s a people thing. I don’t understand why we can’t do it. So yeah, that’s where it starts to be about. I will follow black [00:11:00] girls. Do you want. Before Instagram even existed actually, when it was just Facebook and always for Oh, wow. Imagine, look, who is, that will be running together.

[00:11:10] How amazing is that? I can’t even find one black woman so that I would say that they are very much like

[00:11:21] to start the group. 

[00:11:23] Kim: [00:11:23] That’s only in the UK. That’s the story everywhere. Like black people, like I

[00:11:33] Tasha: [00:11:33] wish I could say I did. 

[00:11:38] Kim: [00:11:38] Well, we are the minority in those sports. So like you said, you know, when we go to, when I still go to races, I count how many black people, period, not even women, black people are there because it’s still not a lot of us out there. So it’s great that you started, um, a group for women, you know, where you’re located, but you said [00:12:00] you were running for 20 years.

[00:12:02] Yeah. Were you long distance running, like doing races and things like that? 

[00:12:07] Tasha: [00:12:07] So I did my first race in 1919 nine. I think a five kilometer race. I’ve always thought everyone always starts with a 5k race. Adam, I did the London marathon in 2001. So I’ve always watched you tomorrow for what was a charter or to see on Sunday morning on the TV.

[00:12:30] And I always say I’m good to do that one day. And I did in 2001. 

[00:12:38] Kim: [00:12:38] So you’re a seasoned runner, cause I’ve really talked to people that have been like big races in 99. 

[00:12:46] Tasha: [00:12:46] So it’s really funny. So I it’s roughly 2001 and Annie came down to the race actually to meet me afterwards.

[00:12:56] Come full circle. 

[00:12:58] Kim: [00:12:58] Yeah. So [00:13:00] Annie, what role do you play within the group? We’ve 

[00:13:04] Annie: [00:13:04] been in the group. Um, I simply just enjoy one in, I think it’s, it’s truly inspired by tasks after seriously, as I mentioned earlier, like it first started at school when you’re taking part of County level and I did everything I’m very active.

[00:13:23] So I did everything from heptathlon to deck tap lawn. So of course the stream and primarily did winter. Um, so like hundred me to four by 100 meter relay all of those types of races actually hated long distance, to be honest, like 800 meters, two months. Yeah. It was a someplace. This, and what I realized is, you know, from being part of black girls do on UK is, is preparation.

[00:13:52] It’s school doesn’t necessarily prepare you unless you. I’ll go into the next level, especially [00:14:00] in UK school, won’t prepare you for that. So you have to find it from outside. I think from being part of the group, it’s been a lot more, you know, the guidance, the tastic age is unbelievable. The tips that she provides.

[00:14:14] Really do health 

[00:14:15] Kim: [00:14:15] interventions rolling her eyes, but we’re going to give you a Pat on the back. She wants, I’ve 

[00:14:22] Annie: [00:14:22] known her long enough to just ignore it by taking a notice of it. It’s just, she’s so encouraging and it could be the smallest thing. Um, for instance, today I did Jeff Ben never heard of it. But she told us about it in a Tuesday TIFF, and I thought, Oh, okay, let me give it a try.

[00:14:42] Let me see what this is all about. And it was fantastic by the way, opposed to, 

[00:14:50] Kim: [00:14:50] um, Oh 

[00:14:52] Tasha: [00:14:52] yeah. Cool. Jeff is a man called Jeff Gallaway. Divides that to [00:15:00] make it kind of more comfortable for people to like, do half-marathons marathons. You do like. 

[00:15:07] Kim: [00:15:07] What did you call it? 

[00:15:10] Tasha: [00:15:10] Jeff thing.

[00:15:19] Kim: [00:15:19] Wait, I thought you were talking about something running in the water or something. So here we call it the Galloway. We call it the Galloway method or the run-walk. 

[00:15:28] Tasha: [00:15:28] Okay. Yeah. Jeff Galloway. Yeah.

[00:15:34] Kim: [00:15:34] Why is that 

[00:15:36] Annie: [00:15:36] on the Google? Definitely. Can I Google it? Just to double 

[00:15:39] Kim: [00:15:39] check? It’s called Jaffin on Google. Yes. Did you see that? Oh, Wikipedia. Did they change it on Wikipedia? 

[00:15:46] Annie: [00:15:46] It was all goose. I actually Googled it today because I did just under 10 miles today. And it was under that. 

[00:15:53] Kim: [00:15:53] Yeah. I’m going to tell everybody you guys call it Jeff now.

[00:16:01] [00:16:00] Oh my God. You know what? I met Jeff Galloway.

[00:16:08] I met him a couple of times because he, um, I don’t know if he lives in, but he has a running store. A few of them in that area called, uh, festivities. And he’s always there after, you know, you’re a big race at the Greek God, and he’s always there. He, he is such a nice man. Like he’ll stand around and take pictures forever.

[00:16:32] He’s he’s just a doll, but Jeff Finn, next time I see it on the sites and shit, they renamed your method, the Jeff and

[00:16:45] he is, so how long have you two actually known each other? 

[00:16:50] Tasha: [00:16:50] Oh

[00:16:55] a long time. Over 20 years. Yeah. [00:17:00] Over 20 

[00:17:01] Annie: [00:17:01] years. So 

[00:17:03] Tasha: [00:17:03] definitely before I did the London marathon once. Yeah. 97. Maybe that would 

[00:17:17] Kim: [00:17:17] make sense. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. Well, what was the marathon like in 99? Like, did you have to, how did you get in? 

[00:17:30] Tasha: [00:17:30] So I did it in two files. The one, how did I get it? It was still as hard as it is to get it now was hard where I didn’t get it.

[00:17:38] And I did it for a charity. In the end. And, um, how was it? Oh gosh, it was when life thought that it would take the free and a half hours to run it. Not because I’m farther because I didn’t think it was possible to run for longer than that. Right. So, um, four [00:18:00] hours, 56 minutes and 51 seconds. And I cried at 18 miles and.

[00:18:11] It was horrible, but it was probably one of the patients I’ve ever done actually, but it’s, it’s tough. And then like in 2001, we didn’t have Strava. Like wanting club. We didn’t have smart phones. I think Garmin was out, but Garmin was like, it took up your whole waste, please. You’re expensive. So then I just ran for time.

[00:18:41] It wasn’t distance because it was really difficult to measure distance. Like I used to try with the, um, We used to, I think we still have it, but no, we have this book called a to Z, which gives you, like literally tells you all the streets in London feed kind of look at that and figure out, okay, let me get the rule lower [00:19:00] measure, like how, what the difference were Mies and try and figure it out that way.

[00:19:04] But there was this kind of no way of knowing how far you’d run. So that’s why it would take three and a half hours. I think I trained up to. Free hours in the fall. Oh my gosh. I’ve been out like most of the day. Surely like it’s not going to take much longer. 

[00:19:21] Kim: [00:19:21] Do they measure the London marathon and miles?

[00:19:26] Yes.

[00:19:30] Tasha: [00:19:30] We’re kind of, we’re kind of, we’re kind of between like some people do miles. Some people do kilometers. I 

[00:19:35] Kim: [00:19:35] do mine kilometers.

[00:19:41] Tasha: [00:19:41] Definitely the ones, the ones on the menu, the ones in Europe on the main land will be in kilometers. The UK will probably be between the switch between the two

[00:19:57] kilometers go faster the miles, 

[00:20:01] [00:20:00] Kim: [00:20:01] but then you have to run more kilometers. 

[00:20:04] Tasha: [00:20:04] Yeah, that’s true. Yeah.

[00:20:08] Kim: [00:20:08] What would you say is the mission of black girls do run UK. 

[00:20:16] Tasha: [00:20:16] Ooh, get more black women running. Embrace it, enjoy it. And leave in healthier, happy lives. 

[00:20:30] Kim: [00:20:30] And that is good enough.

[00:20:36] Has the pandemic affected your group runs? Because I know London has been in and out of lockdowns this entire time and y’all have been like locked down. Like everything is closed, go nowhere. Like, how has that affected your group? 

[00:20:53] Tasha: [00:20:53] So you haven’t been able to do group runs. I think the last one we’d done was, [00:21:00] was last year.

[00:21:03] I don’t remember what it was now. December, maybe October. No, December was, that was my birthday. Yeah. I don’t actually, it was definitely either September or October. We did the last one. December, we did a one for my birthday because there was really not much else we could do. And then literally four fair to my bathroom locked down and we was told we’re going into lockdown again.

[00:21:34] So when we just been doing lots of, kind of virtual stuff, like we have a WhatsApp group, so we all just like post their ones and. It’s brilliant. We post a Vons and we all like say yay. And, um, we do a virtual marathon. Okay. Virtual relay marathon. So we’re all split out. The muzzle hats kind of make it an ultra marathon because so many people took [00:22:00] part.

[00:22:00] So we usually do about five miles and we give people the option that if they can’t one, five miles in one day, they could split it into two or three, but they’ve just got to do it within the week. So we’ve got, you’ve got a week to do these five miles, so that’s really good. It gets people out this month.

[00:22:20] We didn’t do the, um, Relay Marfa. We did a step challenge. So the idea was to hit 10,000 steps or more a day I’ve been doing quite poorly on it. Actually didn’t realize I didn’t walk so much anymore. 

[00:22:39] Kim: [00:22:39] It’s hard. It’s hard. 

[00:22:43] Tasha: [00:22:43] Especially when you’re at home a lot. When you were at home a lot, it was E before, before pre pandemic in the olden days, I now call them.

[00:22:52] It was, it was much easier now. Not going around so much. It’s a lot harder. 

[00:22:59] Kim: [00:22:59] Listen. I remember [00:23:00] how people do 10,000 steps because I’ve run five or six miles. And I still won’t hit 10,000 steps. A lot of stepping around like kudos to anyone who can do 10,000 steps a day. Cause I’ve tried and I fail miserably every time he tried to do it.

[00:23:18] Tasha: [00:23:18] Let me see how many I’ve done today.

[00:23:25] Which is unusual. I’ve got 11,000 today, 

[00:23:29] Kim: [00:23:29] but

[00:23:33] Tasha: [00:23:33] yeah, no, I didn’t actually name of the watch. Tell me a few weeks ago that I don’t do much on Fridays. It is so true. That is what is what should be

[00:23:47] on Fridays, but no, I’ve done. Yeah, but I’ve walked, I’ve walked a lot today. Okay. I forgot what it’s about. Fremont

[00:23:59] Fridays. I [00:24:00] struggled to hit it usually. 

[00:24:02] Kim: [00:24:02] Yeah. So pre pandemic, how often did you guys meet? Once a month? 

[00:24:11] Tasha: [00:24:11] Once a month 

[00:24:14] Kim: [00:24:14] in. Yeah, 

[00:24:15] Tasha: [00:24:15] once a month, cause we are all in different parts of London, you say, so we’re forced to me once a week, isn’t really feasible. So we try to meet in different central London parks or travel them.

[00:24:30] There’s a few of us that live near to each other. We want, we probably want to give up. Once or twice a week, it’s difficult. Sometimes you’ve got different commitments, work commitments, children, husbands, all different things going on. But once we did once a month, 

[00:24:50] Kim: [00:24:50] where at, in London, do you meet up when you meet up?

[00:24:59] Tasha: [00:24:59] We [00:25:00] went to different parks. So we have done Regent’s park. That’s one of the famous world parks, Hyde park and Victoria Park. And then we did Hyde park again. And then w then we locked down. 

[00:25:17] Kim: [00:25:17] Yeah. So about how many members do you have at this point?

[00:25:27] Annie: [00:25:27] On WhatsApp and Instagram, couldn’t say 

[00:25:34] Kim: [00:25:34] Boo-Man on Instagram. I was looking at your, your press and everything like that. Like you can just have made a splash in these two years on the running scene. Kudos to 

[00:25:43] Tasha: [00:25:43] you. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. 

[00:25:47] Kim: [00:25:47] Yeah, we have. When you created the group, did you find that there weren’t running groups in your area or there weren’t black running groups?

[00:25:57] In your area. 

[00:25:59] Tasha: [00:25:59] So [00:26:00] my area there’s always been, there’s been like a running group for, Oh gosh, over 50 years who Queens park Harriers. And I did attend once. Um, It’s really strange. They were really nice, really welcoming, but I didn’t feel like I belonged there, so I didn’t stay long. And plus they were like a proper wedding where they did all these track sessions and they wanted me to do or come to all these different events and different colors work.

[00:26:35] And at a time when I couldn’t come, I was working weekends. Like couldn’t come on the weekends, I just stopped going. And then we have. Somewhat. Cool. Have you heard of good gym? No, I haven’t so good gym is this organization that they’ve different areas all about the country and they run, but they’ll [00:27:00] run like to somebody’s Goddard and dig a hole for them if they need it, order one to get someone’s prescription from the pharmacy.

[00:27:09] So they’re running, but they’re doing good at the same time, a good gym in my area, but you’ll just see them. That could be like loads of them, but just. If you need a job too, and you cannot stand still, but they’ll run back. So their thing is that they’re running, but they’re doing good and giving back to the community while they’re running them.

[00:27:28] And what else is there in the area? We have another group. Yeah, we have. Do you have one over there? 

[00:27:40] Kim: [00:27:40] No. I see you guys like a data sponsors app, right?

[00:27:47] Tasha: [00:27:47] Sure if they do 

[00:27:49] Kim: [00:27:49] well, a lot of the, um, those runs and they give out everyone has on the same Adidas shirt that those will park run now. No, 

[00:27:58] Tasha: [00:27:58] no. That’s I did that. 

[00:28:00] [00:28:00] Kim: [00:28:00] Yeah. Okay. 

[00:28:02] Tasha: [00:28:02] This one is this amazing, like one that’s the necessity was the necessity in winter before the pandemic. It’s a free. Weekly five kilometer run.

[00:28:14] And every time you do it, you get a tote. You get a time email too. You don’t get a medal it’s free. And there were lots of parks all over the unit. Well, they were kind of worldwide actually. So I’ve got one there. What I found about poplins is I kind of ran the poplin and I’ve volunteered as a marshal there.

[00:28:33] And I live in one of the bar, none that is made up into different borrowers. And I live in one of the most diverse borrowers in London. I’d like to count one hand how many black people would attend. Wow. Yeah. So this call

[00:28:54] Kim: [00:28:54] button is your, you live in one of the more diverse boroughs and they’re like [00:29:00] no black people at the run. Yeah. Count on 

[00:29:03] Tasha: [00:29:03] one hand volunteers and I’ve seen, I’ve seen the first one out and I’ve seen the last water black. I’ve literally seen everybody pass them in slow. You can count on one hand how many one is there.

[00:29:17] So I’m trying to think of everyone in groups. We have a double for wanting them in our local parts to encourage. Women in our local community to one, but it’s not less. That’s probably about it in my local area. I don’t know for you, Annie. And you’ve got immense paid wrong for not too far from you. It’s South London.

[00:29:40] Annie: [00:29:40] Yeah, I think similarly, um, we’ve got like learning cups that have been there for years. There’s one called crystal palace learning club, which has been there probably as long as. How he is over 50 years, LA um, not much representation of, um, black women. There are one or two. [00:30:00] Um, it has things like track sessions also.

[00:30:02] So it’s kind of a similar format, but I think for me, they were very welcoming, very inclusive. Um, It was quite that they had like different levels of learning. So they had ones for faster learners, ones for slow honors ones, for people that were new to one end. So it was quite, um, welcoming in that sense, I guess it’s just like anything, if you don’t see people that look like you, sometimes you don’t always feel part of it because yeah.