The idea for an LGBT fitness club that has run and run
Originally printed in The Herald
SEVEN years and two months ago, on a not-terribly-warm August evening, six friends went for a run, leaving from the Arc sports complex at Glasgow Caledonian University, along the canal bank and back again. It was a trial run, aimed at whipping up interest in a new running group. A week later, the first proper run took place.
Seven years and two months on, Glasgow FrontRunners has more than 140 members - the youngest is 21 and the oldest is in his early sixties. Like other groups in the global Frontrunners network, it has strong links to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The Glasgow group stages Sunday-morning and Thursday-night runs, and offers training for runners at every level and for full- and half-marathons. It has 24 Jog Scotland-accredited leaders, and it has a “friendly” rivalry with the FrontRunners at the other end of the M8 in Edinburgh. “The social aspect of the club is brilliant too, I have to say,” muses Dr Jason Bohan, the club president.
The idea for Frontrunners is an American one. In 1974 Jack Baker and Gardner Pond, two runners in San Francisco, launched a ‘learn to jog’ class, each run taking in scenic parts of their city, San Francisco. The idea took hold and the club grew and grew. The name of Front Runners was added in 1978: it was inspired by the title of Patricia Nell Warren’s groundbreaking 1974 gay novel, about the love between an athletics coach and his protégé.
The first ‘other’ Front Runners group was born in New York in 1980, and ever since the movement has been expanding overseas. In addition to 47 clubs scattered across North America there is the same number abroad: Ottawa Frontrunners, Front Runners de Paris, The Pink Panthers (Tel Aviv), Gothenburg Frontrunners, Frontrunners Milano.
The Glasgow club owes its inception to Kevin Boyle, Gordon Munro and Simon Young. En route to a holiday in Spain, Munro and Young met some Manchester Frontrunners and fell in love with the idea where you could get fit while socialising with like-minded people. Boyle, independently, had reached pretty much the same conclusion after chatting to New York Frontrunners in Berlin.
“I think we now have a stronger sense of our identity as a club than was the case at first,” says Dr Bohan, 47, a senior lecturer in psychology at Glasgow University. He has been a member for five years and president for the last two. He came across the club when doing a Google search for a running club. “We strongly believe in building community. We exist primarily to support the LGBT community with health and fitness.
“We support runners of all ages and ability,” he adds. “We have Couch to 5K programmes for people new to running and we support and encourage members who want to improve their running. There are programmes for long-distance runs, marathons and for people who just want to improve their speed over shorter distances.” One member, Adrian Heron, took up running in 2013 to help him cope with depression and has since spoken candidly about the beneficial personal impact of running. He has also raised several thousand pounds for charities.
“We’ve tried to raise our profile so that we don’t just exist as a ghetto,” Dr Bohan says. “We want to be part of the wider running community.” The club’s biggest event is OUTrun, a timed, five-mile run around Kelvingrove Park and the Kelvin Walkway. It is open to all - as, indeed, is the club itself.
Dr Bohan said there are a number of LGBT sports clubs in Glasgow but Glasgow FrontRunners is the biggest in Scotland. There was certainly, he acknowledges, a need for the Glasgow club. “Part of the difficulty for LGBT people is that if you wanted to make new friends, if you wanted to socialise, a lot of the focus in the LGBT world might be on pubs and clubs. Having a group where the primary focus is on health and fitness was unique, and it has been embraced by a lot of people.”
Many moves have been made over the years to integrate LGBT people into the wider sports community. Two years ago the Equality Network launched, at Hampden, the Scottish LGBT Charter, which sets out to “take visible steps to remove” the barriers between LGBT people and sports participation. Signatories to the charter include everyone from Sportscotland, the SFA, Scottish Athletics, Scottish Squash, and Scotland Rugby League. Football clubs, including Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and St Johnstone - have signed up too.
“This is an issue which needs to be addressed and tackled and therefore we are delighted to sign up to the charter and promote the very important message that sport is for all,” Celtic captain Scott Brown declared in August. Edinburgh squash player Elaine Inglis said in the summer that the Charter was “a good thing - anything that can make young people coming into a sport feel more comfortable has to be a positive.”
Sustained efforts are also being made to build up the European brand of Frontrunners, one that is less American-focused and to develop clubs across the Continent. “We’re entering events across Europe and we’re running with people from Paris and Munich,” says Dr Bohan. Just two weekends ago there was a key event in Budapest, a Running Festival that attracted substantial numbers of international runners, drawn to events ranging from a marathon relay to a 10k.
There’s no mistaking the importance that FrontRunners attach to the notion of inclusiveness. The club’s Trans Captain is Dr Charlotte McCarroll, a research associate at Glasgow University’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences. In a blog on the group’s website Dr McCarroll, winner of a 2016 Herald Society Award for her work supporting a greater understanding of transgender issues on campus, writes about the benefit of joining Frontrunners, after making a success of her run in the Glasgow Women’s 10k. “LGBTI+ groups,” she writes, “have a ’T’ but often trans people feel excluded. Frontrunners does not exclude and I have felt welcome … No-one has ever queried my presence. I just belong with everyone else.”
“It’s an opportunity to get out and exercise with friendly people,” Dr McCarroll says now. “There’s a nice atmosphere, with a lot of support and encouragement to improve yourself.” As a Jog Leader she “tries to encourage the runners I’m leading and try to push them a bit further than they might otherwise consider on their own.”
She adds: “I’ve been working at trying to get some greater inclusion across the LGBT spectrum, to get more trans-specific awareness. We don’t have many yet but I think it’s making it more appealing so that people can join and feel that they would be welcome when do they come along.”
“It’s about finding a safe space, I think,” adds Dr Bohan. “It’s well documented that there’s lots of homophobia and transphobia within sport. There is still that problem, but a lot of the other [non-LGBT] running groups we meet do try to combat that it. Scottish Athletics has a very good equality policy. In the running community there’s a lot of acceptance. Having a specific club which tries to ensure there’s a safe and welcome environment for everyone is something that people value.
“Frontrunners has really helped me in so many ways, including in terms of my health and fitness. I would have never run a marathon or even a half-marathon if it hadn’t been for the club. It has been important for me to be part of that social group, with such strong friendships. It’s also been important in terms of my self-identity. I’ve always been confident in my gay identity but actually being part of such a positive and welcoming group really strengthens that. It helps me understand other people, and how we can help them. It has made me more confident when it comes to doing that.”
He laughs. “It takes up a huge amount of time but it is really worth it. Any of the committee members, jog leaders or coaches will tell you the same. They all do a huge amount of voluntary work but they do it because it means a huge amount to them personally. They also know how much it means to other people.”