When there is an opportunity for Courtney Phillips-Manning to share knowledge, especially knowledge that will benefit her community, she seizes – or creates – it. That led her to co-found Chicago’s GumboFit run club, and to launch a podcast, The Runner’s Club, with Ian Gonzalez.
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As a professional model, Courtney thought of exercise as a way to sculpt her body for her job. Growing up in Minnesota, she loved to cross-country ski, or to play softball or volleyball, but as an adult, she lost that love of moving her body. As she approached 30 though, she decided that she wanted to get back into sports. “Running seemed to be the easiest thing for me, the most approachable thing, where I didn’t really need to buy anything to get started. So one late spring day in Chicago, I’m like, ‘I’m going to run a mile a day for a month. Just try. It was just my own little challenge to myself.
“I would trot myself on over to the lake and get my little mile in. And it was great. And I would post on Instagram and it was cute. And then before I knew it, I was getting introduced to different brands. And then the brands were inviting me out. And then Nike was like, ‘You like to run? Come join us for this thing.’”
Nike was hosting pop-up races at the time, and it was there that she met the people who would initially form the GumboFit run club. On the one hand, she says, “I had a large group of folks that were helping me learn about running, taking me under their wing.” She also had relationships with the people at Gumbo Media, the company that she and her husband ran. “All of these creatives, I’m like, they’re really, really dope, but how are they feeling health-wise? How can I do something to get them to move? Then I’m like, ‘Okay, GumboFit.’ That’s where the name came from. I didn’t even think about it that much and then it stuck and I was like, ‘Shoot, why did I pick that name?’ And so it is what it is.”
The same year that the club was formed, GumboFit got bibs for the Chicago Marathon. “It went from zero to a hundred, really fast. Instagram people heard about us. All of a sudden, the group just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And before I knew it, I was leading this group of people. And luckily I had my crew, my main crew of folks that had done this before, but I also was learning. I’m one of those people where, if I get put in a situation, I’m going to soak in all the information that I possibly can to be the best that I can for my community.
“Folks need shoes. People need clothes. People want bibs. They want access to this world of fitness that they have not had access to, or they’re just learning about. How can I be the ‘between’ person and make it easy for folks and actually make it an accessible sport? Because running is not just about putting shoes on and putting clothes on. There’s so many other aspects to it. So that became my whole driving mission for several years. And then it kind of hit its peak, and I went through some stuff, and then I saw more run clubs popping up, and I was like, ‘I think my work is done here.’
Courtney saw part of her work as opening doors for others, enabling them to get certified as trainers, to start their own run clubs, to become community leaders themselves. “As a leader, you should be able to identify the talents around you and allow people to shine. I’ve said this to my crew many times, that there’s new people now joining the club. And maybe this other person in the group that wants to be a leader, who wants their voice heard, could say it in a way that really pulls people in, that I simply can’t do. I think you have to give space and understand that no one is overshadowing you. I really lead with my passion. And if I ever get to a place where I feel like I’m getting burnt out a little bit, that’s my sign of, ‘How can I evolve this or make space for other people to push it forward?’”
One way that Courtney was able to benefit GumboFit’s runners was through the relationships she forged with brands, especially Nike. She studied finance in school, worked at Target Corp., and then ran Gumbo Media with her husband, so she understood corporate community building from both sides. “It’s a delicate dance. Every run club leader is looking for something different to provide to their community. Some people are looking for money. Some people are specifically just looking for clothing. Some people are looking to be featured on different things or get bibs and things like that.
“There was a golden era in Chicago where everybody was getting bibs, and the clothes, and the features, and the things, and it was just great. Now you have a few other brands on the scene doing some really great work, and then you have some of these brands that used to do some things and they’re kind of turning the tap off. You can be mad or you can just realize it is what it is. Within that relationship though, when the tap is turned on and they’re offering you things, you don’t have to agree right away to everything. You can sit with what they’re offering and also say, ‘Hey, what else can I ask for that’s going to fill the gaps of need in my community?’
“That also takes an effort to listen to your community members every week, and it’s not always verbally communicated. For me, sometimes it was simply looking around and seeing the state in which people’s clothes are, or looking around and realizing the same people every year were running the same races and then there’s other people who haven’t even tried to add themselves to the lottery or even consider themselves someone that can run a race. And it’s like, okay, well, how can I help push them a little bit, if they’re receptive to it.
“I don’t mean to go down a rabbit hole with it, but I think it’s just about practice. You don’t have to ask for a ton at once. You don’t have to be super demanding or forceful. I think it’s about creating a good relationship, that’s really the basis of everything. Because at the end of the day, there’s people behind the brand. And so, be nice, be a kind person, and be real, and ask for things that you actually want and be okay with negotiating and be okay if they say no. Just look at it as a long conversation.”
Conversation is at the heart of Courtney’s current outreach to runners, The Runner’s Club, the podcast she co-hosts with Ian Gonzalez. “He and I are really great friends and we’re also very, very different, which I think is part of the appeal of our conversations on our podcast. It’s just conversations on life, but with running and fitness intertwined in it, and every now and then you’ll get a product review. We’ll talk about news in running, which is always really entertaining. And then our usual updates on where we are personally in our fitness, and community updates.”
Courtney’s own running is currently on hold, as her first child is due soon, but she can’t wait to be able to share running updates again. “I’m so excited to get back into running and training for something. Even though when I’m training for something, I feel like life sucks a lot of the time, you know? But now, with being pregnant, I’m so excited to push my body so much more than I ever have before because I was at like 70 % and thought that I was dying, when I could probably go another 10, maybe 15%. Yeah, I really thought that I was doing the most in this sport and I was maybe putting my little pinky toe into it. It was barely my full potential and now, with my new relationship with my body, I’m like, f*** it, I don’t care. I’m gonna wear the short shorts. I’m gonna do that. I’m a mom; I’m a mother. It’s fine. I’m gonna be out here with my running stroller.”
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