Ashley Davies is a lifelong runner who's building community her own way. In 2017, she co-founded Club Seattle Run Division with the intention to make the club as inclusive as possible, focusing on community rather than performance. CSRD's motto is All Faces, All Paces. The club encourages people of any background and fitness level to come run with them and make some friends along the way.
Ashley Davies is a lifelong runner who's building community her own way. In 2017, she co-founded Club Seattle Run Division with the intention to make the club as inclusive as possible, focusing on community rather than performance. CSRD's motto is All Faces, All Paces. The club encourages people of any background and fitness level to come run with them and make some friends along the way.
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Shelby Stanger: As an adult, it can sometimes be hard to find community. We don't make friends in school or at summer camp anymore, and today more of us work from home than ever before. There are still ways to meet new people, but putting yourself out there can feel vulnerable.
Ashley Davies is a lifelong runner who's building community her own way. Ashley ran competitively in high school and college, and she especially loved practicing with a team. Now as an adult, Ashley's figured out how to make running social and fun again. In 2017, she co-founded Club Seattle Run Division. Ashley and her co-founders intentionally made the club as inclusive as possible, focusing on community rather than performance. Their motto is All Faces, All Paces. The club encourages people of any background and fitness level to come run with them and maybe even make some friends along the way. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Publication.
Ashley Davies, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Ashley Davies: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Shelby Stanger: Thought we'd just get right into running. How did you find running?
Ashley Davies: I found running in middle school. My first experience running was running on my own. It was the most accessible thing that I could do at the time to be able to get outside and move my body. It wasn't just like a fun, enjoyable type of thing. It was a very rigid, structured, I'm going out for this amount of time to burn this amount of calories, which translated into a really powerful and more healthy outlet, I'd say, today.
Shelby Stanger: I appreciate you being so honest and transparent right out of the gate. How did your relationship with running change? How did you work that out?
Ashley Davies: I went from using running as a vehicle to just really tightly control my expenditure, as I was also really closely monitoring my input, monitoring what I was eating. Then, when it came to high school, I was like, "Well, I know how to run. Let me participate in the cross country team." I'll tell you, one of the things that was most appealing was that it was the only team that didn't have cuts. I didn't want to face something where I may face rejection.
So joined the cross country team, and there it really became a means of learning how to be part of a team. It went from this very individual activity to now I need to contribute to something. That was really a big piece of my focus, like, "How can I contribute to this team, and how can I make sure that I'm sustaining myself so that I can continue to run well?" You have to have a mindset of monitoring your training and monitoring your eating. That began to help me think more healthfully about how I was running and how I was using running.
I often share with folks my high school experience wasn't awesome. Eating disorders run rampant on cross country teams and track teams, especially at that age. As someone who was already coming in having that sensitivity to it, really had to learn how to navigate the sport knowing that I didn't want to be sucked in to that type of energy. I experienced the same thing in college. You know, as the level and the stakes get higher and higher, the pressure gets higher. The tools that people use to manage it sometimes don't always end up being the best tools. Both my high school and my college experience were ones that really shaped how I felt like I could choose to show up as an adult, not attached to a team. Today, running for me is really just focused on community.
Shelby Stanger: When Ashley graduated from college, her perspective on running started to shift. She realized that the stress of competing had been sapping her joy. With collegiate running behind her, it was time to develop a new relationship with the sport. Ashley was living in New York, and she started experimenting with other types of workouts like HIIT and barre classes. These fitness experiences made Ashley realize that she really missed running, especially running with a team.
Eventually, Ashley moved to Seattle for work. She met a couple of friends through a local running club. But after about a year, the club dissolved, so the three of them decided to start their own club that focused on community and inclusion. Within a year, Ashley and her friends founded the Club Seattle Run Division.
You have a full-time job, and you have this Club Seattle Run Division. What inspired you to start it in 2017?
Ashley Davies: Myself and the two other co-founders, we had met each other through another run community and had enjoyed that experience and just being able to meet new people through that. At the time, I was pretty new to Seattle, had been there for about a year, and running was one of the first things that I tried to plug myself into in the new city. It's just a great way to see a place and a great way to meet people. We just got the idea to start something ourselves with the thought that we could create an environment that reflected exactly what we wanted, because all of us had been part of different run communities throughout the years and had reflected on things that we really loved and things that we didn't care for too much and felt like we had the ability to create something that could be exactly what we wanted it to be.
Shelby Stanger: What was missing that you wanted to have in this run club?
Ashley Davies: I think for us it was really being a place where everyone felt welcome. And people use that really, really loosely. They say running is really accessible. You just need a pair of shoes. You can just step outside the door and running spaces are for everyone. But that's not really the case. In many groups, there is generally a certain pace that people run. While groups may say they're for everyone, someone that shows up and runs a pace outside of what's generally reflected in that group can often feel left out.
I know for me, my first experience with anything is going to dictate what I think about the space. If you have someone come to a run group and they have one experience that isn't positive, they're likely not going to come back, and that's going to be the impression that they have of the space. For us, it was truly thinking about how we could create a space where everyone would feel welcome.
Shelby Stanger: Good for you. So how do you make people feel welcome? Because anything new can be intimidating. When you're a beginner, it's always scary no matter. How did you figure out how to make beginners feel more welcome?
Ashley Davies: When we first started in 2017, we just invited everyone we knew to come run with us. They met at my apartment. We did some stretches in the parking lot. Then, we went out for a jog along the water in Seattle. One thing that we do with our runs, our core run, which is held on a Monday evening, is we stop halfway. Everyone waits for the last person to come through before we all come back. Being able to stop halfway, no one feels like they're left behind. It also tightens the group in the sense that if you didn't stop, the person who was holding it from the back would probably be finished a lot longer from the person at the front. Those were things that we started with from the very beginning.
As leaders, we also just recognize that we have to be flexible in how we show up on a run. The run is not a run for me to just go bang out a fast tempo run or just to do whatever I have scheduled for myself. The run is for us to show up as leaders and be able to support the group in whatever way is needed that particular day, making sure that new people feel welcome, making sure that someone's coming for their first time, that they're chatting it up with them, that they're showing up for that person however they need.
In particular, we take time at the beginning of every run to acknowledge who's ever new. One thing that I've always said is especially as an adult... You mentioned it, Shelby. It's really hard to do something new. Showing up in a new space as an adult, I mean I at least find it really hard and scary. I'm just like, "At this age, I should know what I know, what I don't know. I'm not going to show up in that way." We just start with just acknowledging that and trying to make people feel like they're welcome with us.
Shelby Stanger: I want to join your run club. This sounds so fun. I mean, I think it's really cool to have someone like a welcoming committee greet you when you show up to a new space. I love this motto, All Faces, All Paces.
Ashley Davies: This is the core of who we are. The all faces means a few things. One, we welcome any runner of any color, look, whatever. I've always talked about it two ways. One, from a perspective of however you identify racially, ethnically, you are welcome with us. Then two, I personally have always felt like running sometimes seems like it is for a person in a certain size body and who looks and presents a certain way, and that's what you constantly see images of. Literally, however your face looks, you are welcome with us. Then the paces, meaning whether you are walking, whether you are walk-jogging, whether you are running, running really fast, whatever your pace is, again, you are welcome with us.
Shelby Stanger: With such a welcoming culture, it's no wonder that Club Seattle Run Division has attracted so many runners. On an average run, they have more than 80 people join them. That's more like a run party than a run club. When we come back, Ashley shares some of her favorite stories from the past six years and offers some tips for all the runners out there.
Ashley Davies' favorite place to run is along the water near her home in Seattle. She ran competitively in high school and college, but these days her main priority is to encourage everyone to try running. In 2017, Ashley and her two co-founders started the Club Seattle Run Division. Over the past six years, the group has grown and evolved a lot. They've welcomed hundreds of new runners. They've watched people move away, go through breakups, and start families. For Ashley and her co-founders, it's been a joy to watch as their members have grown personally and as athletes.
Do you have any stories of other members who sort of were beginners and now they're leaders within your group?
Ashley Davies: Yeah. We have a woman who showed up on our first anniversary. She was really hesitant to come. She was like, "Well, it's an anniversary, and I've never been to the run, so it doesn't make sense for me to come to this run." Anytime we have a meetup, anyone can show up. At the time, she was coming to a fitness class that I was teaching, which is how she knew about this group and why she decided to come and join. Didn't see herself as a runner at all and decided to show up and keep plugging away, adding on miles, making so many friends, becoming just such a welcoming, warm presence to others in the group and has completed several marathons now at this point just from her sheer dedication of continuing to just show up and push forward.
Shelby Stanger: That's so cool. I love that story. Any funny stories?
Ashley Davies: One of our really popular routes is a loop around South Lake Union. It's basically a six-mile route, 10K route. But there's this big bridge that during the summer months goes up constantly, so constantly goes up. We'll get caught at the bridge, bridge goes up. One day during the summer, we were out on a run. Bridge goes up. Cars are also stopped. A woman gets out of her car dressed as if she was going to Saturday brunch, and we're all in our running clothes. She says, "What is this? Are you a running group?" One of our runners said that, "We're a running group. We meet at this time at these places. Come run with us." She's like, "Oh, yeah. I'm going to find you. I'm going to come run with you." She gets back in her car.
Then, it must've been a whole year later before we saw her. When she introduced herself as new to the group, I told the group this story. But I just think it's so funny that this woman got out of her car during the bridge going up to ask us who we were and how she could find us and run with us.
Shelby Stanger: That is totally something I would do, jump out of my car to ask a group of strangers what they're doing. I've run with a lot of clubs over the years, and I love that they give you a place to meet people without having to pay for a drink or stand around awkwardly. You just talk to whoever is running at your pace.
Apart from creating Club Seattle Run Division, Ashley is also a certified fitness instructor and movement coach. She's partnered with brands like Allbirds and Nike to host events and teach online classes. With her own fitness expertise, Ashley is intentional about doing what she can to avoid injury and to stay as healthy as possible.
Moving your body is a big part of your life. It's something that obviously is important to you because you're also a movement coach. I'm curious how you got into that. What is a movement coach?
Ashley Davies: I use the word movement just because I feel like so many other words have certain connotations to them. Even the term workout has a connotation to it. The term fitness has a connotation to it. Movement I just feel like is just such a welcoming term. I think most people can agree that moving is good and it doesn't force people into a certain box of how they move their body and where they move their body. You can move your body in a lot of different ways in a lot of different spaces, and it can look like a lot of different things.
As I mentioned, I've been running for over two decades. I also have complemented running with different forms of movement. For me, it's mostly been strength training. I think as I got older, really started to enjoy the power and the confidence that came from strength training and wanted to be able to share that with other people and started teaching studio classes.
Shelby Stanger: What are some things that runners can do and movements we can do to incorporate to avoid injury and to keep running with joy, which means not getting injured?
Ashley Davies: Yeah, right? That is really it, running with joy. I mean, for some runners, running isn't even possible when they're injured. Then you add the joy part to it once you are running. But for me, and this was also the way I thought about my classes, classes have often been seen as a space where people are trying all these flashy things. For me, it's really about basic fundamental movements and me showing up with really high energy and good music to make that a really awesome experience, but not having flashy exercises or movements or things that could potentially be dangerous or don't complement running.
I always looked at my classes as a runner-built class. I would never teach something that I wouldn't be willing to do for my own training myself. That's, again, basic movements, your squats, your lunges, your deadlifts. We also need our arms to be able to power our running. My coach in high school used to say, "You keep pumping your arms. And if your legs are really done, they won't move, but you keep moving them. Keep moving your arms because you'll be able to add power to your legs." Thinking about pushups, curls, things to just strengthen... Your chest presses. Things to strengthen your upper body as well so you can carry yourself and hold yourself up while you're running.
Shelby Stanger: Advice for following your wild ideas?
Ashley Davies: First, would just say yes. You can't say yes to everything. But if you get too much in your head and are not willing to say yes and maybe do something that seems uncomfortable, or do something you don't think you're ready for, or do something you don't think you're good enough for, you miss out on so many opportunities. Just say yes. There are things I've said yes to that maybe in retrospect afterwards I'm like, "No. I could have probably said no." But I learned something from every experience and interaction that I've had, so say yes.
Then, find good people to help support your wild ideas because they're out there. Maybe they share the wild idea that you share. It's always great to have someone with you along the way, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to encourage you, someone to reel you back, someone to help walk alongside you in a wild idea.
Shelby Stanger: If you want to get into running or you just want to try something different from your usual route, see if there's a local run club in your area. And if you're in Seattle, check out Club Seattle Run Division. It's an incredibly supportive and encouraging community for everyone. As they say, All Faces, All Paces.
If you want to learn more about Ashley, check out her Instagram @dreambig_davies. There you'll find links to the Club Seattle Run Division, Ashley's work as a movement coach, and more. That's dreambig_ D-A-V-I-E-S.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. And our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, rate it, and take time to write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.