Nat ponders a quiet Pride month

June 5, 2021June 5, 2021 natalieh (she/her)

Recommended Soundtrack: A little Alexis from Schitt’s Creek

It’s June! It’s glorious weather! We are still in lockdown in London, Ontario, Canada. Gaaahhhh. Boring.

What is a queer, fit, feminist to do? No marches. No dancing. Perhaps socially distanced Pride run?

It’s likely a very quiet, close to home Pride season for me. I love that some of my favourite fitness companies are doing some great fundraising for Pride organizations.

This from The Under Belly (aka Jessamyn Stanley) newsletter:

HEY BELLIES,
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

Take up space and celebrate!!
The impact of the LGBTQ+ community is immeasurable around the world:
inspiring every being to be their whole self and show all their colors.
Let’s celebrate love and bloom with pride together, in-person or virtually,
at a time when it’s needed most.For us, pride means so many things.
It means being, embracing and loving your authentic self fearlessly and
to the fullest. It means giving, showing and celebrating love in all forms.
It means understanding and supporting. It means embracing the journey.
All of which speaks to our values and who we are (hell yeah!).

Pride also means giving back and making a
positive impact in your community/communities.

In that spirit, The Underbelly is teaming up with Gender Spectrum (@gender_spectrum), a non-profit organization working to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens. We love the important work that Gender Spectrum is doing and the positive impact being made (check out these “Gender Stories” to smile, fill your heart up, and even have a good cry!). Stay tuned to our IG page (@theunderbellyyoga) for more details on how we plan to give back with Gender Spectrum”

That kind of “pink dollar” marketing can be tricky if your fitness business isn’t 24/7 2SLGBT+ positive and inclusive. This lands solid and I love this about the Under Belly!

My favourite leggings manufacturer, Point Seven Five, donates a portion of proceeds from their Pride leggings to Canadian not for profits. Another reason to love them!

From their Facebook post:

“Thanks to everyone that has purchased leggings from the Pride Collection. I was able to donate $500 to Rainbow Railroad last night!
I plan to open the shop at the end of the month, I’ll post when it’s open so you can grab your own pair.

Next one will be going to Ten Oaks Project !
Have a charity in mind? Let me know.”

Other times I see Pride related content/items from a vendor and it feels like a cash grab. Or worse, pink washing over a company that is not walking the talk of diversity and inclusion.

Have you seen some great examples of businesses walking the walk for Pride month?

Pride riding again! #Zwift

February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 Sam B

The Pride Rides are back on Zwift and the schedule is here.

I think the Pride rides and the Swarm were the two groups that got me into Zwift group rides, instead of riding solo, last winter. There’s a lot of conversation on Discord and friendly text chat too.

Here’s the event description: “Join us for a fun ride to celebrate diversity and the LGBTQI+ community. All are welcome in our rainbow-colored open ride and conversation! This is a community-led ride in support of the LGBTQI+ Zwift Community, PRiDE OUT, and in celebration of LGBT History Month in the UK. All are welcome no matter where you ride!

The rides are led and swept by our LGBTQI+ Zwift Community members. Ride leads will keep to 1.2-2 w/kg but may have some optional fun activities planned, especially optional sprints are quite the thing in our group. Regrouping after is key to ensure the group remains a lovely big blob. First-time group riders are welcomed, the Sweep will make sure you do not drop behind.

Chats in this group may involve LGBTQI+ topics so come with an open heart and open mind. Unkind or intolerant comments will be reported per Zwift policies.

We welcome you all on Discord during the ride: https://discord.gg/q2vPJY2

The LGBTQI+ Community on Zwift supports @prideoutuk’s #LGBTHistoryRide. Post and tag your Zwift ride pictures to social media with #LGBTHistoryRide to show your support.

Feel free to join us on Facebook in our new community group!”

See you there!

Also, there are unofficial Pride On playlists on Spotify. See here.

We had a few hundred people out this Sunday morning. See you there!

fitness

Fit is a Feminist Issue Bloggers Running with Pride 2017

June 28, 2017June 28, 2017 Sam B6 Comments

Sam: I love the Toronto Pride Run. (See my past post Walking and Running with Pride!)

It’s one of my favorite athletic events. There are runners of every stripe and speed, kids, runners in costumes, walkers, and so many people cheering the runners on. Such a great atmosphere. This year I registered early but once again ended up with knee issues that meant I couldn’t really train for the event. Other than my holiday running streak there hasn’t been much running for me this year. Instead I was going to regular knee physio. Thankfully Sarah ran with me and helped keep me running at a reasonable pace. We set out to run 5 and walk 1 but a couple of times we ran extra minutes to make it uphills or to the water station. I was so slow–my slowest, happiest 5 km ever– but I was running. I was smiling. And in the end nothing hurt. What a happy day!

View Photo: http://www.zoomphoto.ca/viewphoto/19983-110-28861852/1/

Sarah: Like Sam, I haven’t run much this year. I kept putting off registering for the Pride and Remembrance Run, telling myself I would once I’d been out for a jog or two. Of course, life happened in its usual way, and I hardly ran at all. I wasn’t until last week that I made a snap decision to register. What convinced me? After all, it’s a wide open course held on city streets so it’s not like I couldn’t have snuck in and run with Sam without having a bib number. I was happy, though, to hand over the la$t-minute registration fee knowing it would be going to support several great causes. Over the past 21 years, the Pride and Remembrance Association has raised over $1.3 million for local charities that support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) community. This year’s beneficiaries include the Transitional Housing Program at Fife House, the Day Health and Wellness Program at Casey House; both are outstanding resources for people living with HIV/AIDS. Funds also went to support the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity’s Gay-Straight Alliance Forums.I also got to enjoy the fabulous costumes of the other participants, a beautiful slow run under perfect conditions, and a free brownie at the end. What’s not to love?

View this post on Instagram

Off to run! Trying for personal best. #priderun

A post shared by Fit is a Feminist Issue (@fitisafeministissue) on Jun 24, 2017 at 6:26am PDT

Susan: I had intended this to be my fastest recorded 5k ever. It was not. Not at all, not even a little bit.

My first mistake was going too fast in the first kilometer. A good clip for me is 6:30 per km. I was going at about 5:40. My next mistake was getting in behind the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne. Say what you want about hydro rates, that woman can run. She is closer to my mom’s age than mine so I thought, “I’ll just try to keep up with her and that will be a good pace”. Wrong. I realized that my heart rate was dangerously high and I was feeling very bad around the 3km mark. I slowed down but it was too late, I was toast. I walked for about a km then picked up running near the end. My average pace was 7:10 when all was said and done. Usually that would indicate a leisurely run. In this case it indicated feeling like death was imminent followed by emergency walking and being grumpy.

But hey! It was Pride and it was fun so that’s something.

(See Running with Pride for Susan’s 2014 post about this event.)

View this post on Instagram

Sam, Sarah, and Susan post pride run selfie. #pride #prideandrembrancerun

A post shared by Fit is a Feminist Issue (@fitisafeministissue) on Jun 24, 2017 at 9:22am PDT

Stephanie:

The Toronto Pride and Remembrance Run is one that I do every year, regardless of what my other training goals are. It’s a bit of a tradition with several of my former classmates from the Astronomy Department at U of T – we’ve been running in the race for six years now. I haven’t been training hard since the 50k in May, but I have been running 2-3 times a week. I definitely haven’t been running “fast” for the better part of a year. So my goal was to run hard, but still have fun, and see what I could do. I set off and my pace of about 5:15 per km felt pretty sustainable. I was happy with that. I used to be able to race a 5k in or a bit under 25 minutes, but that was when I was specifically training for speed. There were times when I wanted to stop (mostly the slight uphill parts in the sun), but each time, I thought “this isn’t nearly as far as you ran in May.” Knowing the discomfort wouldn’t last long worked to keep me going and I finished in 26:37. As an added bonus, the super supportive and very fun Run to Beer crew was handing out cans from Great Lakes Brewery to teammates just before crossing the finish line. In all it was a good run with great friends in a happy and positive environment. Love it!