Running club creates community for queer women and nonbinary folks in San Diego
Through LEZ Run SD, founder Brittany Page fosters a healthy bonding experience through weekly runs and walks.
Written by Brittany Cruz-Fejeran, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
“Happy Thursday, everyone!” Brittany Page announced to the people at Little Bird Brewing, patting everyone she passed on the back as she walked around.
She then walked into a room to the left of the bar and grabbed a white, plastic box with the words LEZ Run spray-painted in black on the lid.
Every Thursday at 6 p.m. Page hosts LEZ Run SD, a running club providing a space for queer women and nonbinary people to find community. The club welcomes runners and walkers of all skill levels who can choose to participate in either a weekly mile-long walk or three-mile run.
It started in 2023 as a way for Page to hold herself and her best friends — Nicole Morrow and Melissa Romero — accountable to running every week. But when they created a social media account to invite more people, it quickly grew into a consistent group of 40-50 runners and walkers all looking for a space centering queer women.
On May 22, Page sat at the brewery’s outdoor space and propped up the box’s lid to indicate LEZ Run was getting started. The day was running a bit behind schedule, but she still took the time to write name tags for everyone participating.
Creating a community through LEZ Run was important to Page because she wanted to create a healthy space where queer women can connect with one another.
Before the group started, Morrow said the only space she could go to find a sense of belonging was Gossip Grill — a bar for queer women — , but it revolved around drinking.
“Let's make a queer space where we're not always blackout drunk and we can pull other people that might be feeling the same way,” she said.
Morrow said that’s why she now looks forward to Thursdays.
“I was really worried about being lonely, and this has fully taken that out of the picture because knowing at least on Thursdays I get to see people that I love and I know they love me,” she said.
Many friendships and relationships have formed through LEZ Run since it first launched.
Page met her fiancée Jessie Allen through the club. Since they’ve been together, Allen has been deemed the First Lady of LEZ Run, with Page being the mayor, participants said.
Allen admired Page for starting the club.
“She makes people feel really welcome,” Allen said. “It’s a consistent thing that people can come to every week and so I think it’s made a big difference and I love that about her.”
Allen coordinates almost all of LEZ Run’s charitable events, and as First Lady, she hopes to do more to give back to the community in the future.
Page said what she’s most proud of is that LEZ Runs have popped up in other states from runners who moved out of San Diego. Both the LEZ RUN DEN in Denver and Out There Run Club in Chicago founders came from LEZ Run SD.
Before the group started their route on May 22, Page gathered everyone for prerunning announcements, discussing plans for participating in the San Diego Pride 5K, who’s leading the next week while she's gone and, most importantly, saying goodbye to a long time LEZ Runner, Sylvia Aguilar.
Aguilar is a part of other running groups — most of which are male-dominated — but she said going to LEZ Run feels like coming home.
“It’s hard to find that comfort with your identity and with your sexual orientation sometimes when you’re surrounded by people that don’t identify with you,” she said.
Aguilar moved to San Bruno, a city south of San Francisco because her partner found a job opportunity there. She said so far she hasn’t found anything like LEZ Run yet, so she’s thinking of starting her own.
“We're always at our strongest when we're with community,” she said. “I think we feel the most amount of love when we're within our communities.”
