Black Girls RUN!

We’re not your average running group. We’re a community. Join the Black Girls RUN! Movement to take the first step in changing your life and the lives of thousands of women across the country.

Black girls run? Of course we do. There’s a huge misconception that black women don’t run. In 2009, Black Girls RUN! was created in an effort to tackle the growing obesity epidemic in the African-American community and provide encouragement and resources to both new and veteran runners.The goal of “Black Girls Run” is to encourage and motivate black women to practice a healthy lifestyle. We want to serve as a fitness resource for runners and gym rats alike, as well as provide tips and commentary on staying active and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  But we also want to start a movement to encourage ALL women to get off the couch and get active. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 

• African American women have the highest rates of being overweight or obese compared to other groups in the U.S.
• About four out of five African American women are overweight or obese.
• In 2015, African Americans were 1.4 times as likely to be obese as non- Hispanic whites.
• In 2015, African American women were 60 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women.
• In 2011-2014, African American girls were 50% more likely to be overweight than non-Hispanic white girls.

We can make a lot of excuses as to why these numbers are the way they are, but excuses never solved an epidemic. So, we’re here to make a change, and we hope you are too. There’s a lot to talk about and a lot of calories to burn, so be sure to sign up for automatic alerts and join your local group. 

DISCLAIMER: Okay, so we know “Black Girls Run” implies that this blog is only for…well….black girls. It’s not. We just happen to be a group of women who dig running and hope to change the shape (no pun intended) of the statistics above. So if you’re black, white, purple or pink, we encourage you to follow our blog too. After all, we women have to stick together.

OUR MISSION

Black Girls RUN! wants to encourage African-American women to make fitness and healthy living a priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 80% of African-American women are overweight. BGR! wants to create a movement to lower that percentage and subsequently, lower the number of women with chronic diseases associated with an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle.