What started as a small local project to inspire others to run and keep fit has turned into an international movement.
The group ‘Run Like a Girl’ now has more than 29,000 fans on Facebook and is raising money for various causes with local and virtual runs.
Three women from Langley started the group last year.
“We created a Facebook page where we could inspire people with workouts and recipes,” says one of the founders, Dayna Egyed. “We had no idea it would grow so fast. It’s a dream come true where we can start helping people.”
“We wanted to motivate each other. We never really thought it would turn into this.”
Run Like a Girl is an online community for people to post workout ideas, recipes and support each other. The group also holds a local run and virtual runs for those around the world to raise money for charities.
Started by Courtney Burt, Hailey Van Dyk and Egyed, the women already had a passion for fitness and eating healthy and wanted to share that.
Terrence Sawtell, who has been helping the trio out with their website, says he got involved because he liked the idea of the group being for everyone. “It’s just to improve their well-being,” he says.
Egyed says they now have people emailing them about their personal goals and challenges. Some people have even shared their stories of struggling with illness or cancer.
Those stories inspired the women to help others, including a fundraiser for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings
They are now planning another run, in support of children’s brain cancer research, called “Fight Like a Kid,”, which will take place on March 30, 2014. Registration opens on Jan. 1, 2014.
“Every run that we do is geared towards something,” says Sawtell. “There’s a purpose behind it.”
Egyed says sometimes she still can’t believe what they have achieved so far, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“We’re not here to make money,” she says. “We’ve never been about that.” They now want to raise more money for charity and even organize trips to countries where they have done some runs themselves.
For the three women and their team, Run Like a Girl is a full-time job. “It’s a full-time volunteer job,” laughs Egyed.
Satwell says the key has been turning their idea into a business and learning what goes along with that. “It’s quite a venture to step into, especially if you have no experience,” he says.
For now they have launched an Indiegogo campaign and they are working on growing their community.
“Run Like a Girl is just a movement that anyone can just get behind and get out there and move,” says Egyed.
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