Runner’s World has partnered with Puma to answer the question: What is a runner’s world? To find out, we had the TrailblazHERs Run Co. show us what their hometown and their mission are all about.
There’s no denying Boston’s rich history as America’s quintessential running town. But if Boston is for runners, who, exactly, are those runners? Despite having shed more than 100 pounds through hundreds of hours running her city’s streets, at the end of one particularly hot run in the summer of 2017 healthcare analyst Elizabeth “Liz” Rock was sure the answer was: Not me.
Though she had seen countless other women running in sports bras in the months before that run, Rock never took her shirt off that day—even when she felt like she might pass out from the heat. She finished her run feeling overly self-conscious and simultaneously disappointed in herself for feeling that way. She was most upset that she had convinced herself she’d never be a real runner because she had allowed herself to believe she didn’t look like one.
Rock knew there must be other women like her who felt inferior because they didn’t see themselves reflected in their city’s running narrative. So she contacted one of them—a friend and stylist named Frances Ramirez who was also in the midst of her own weight loss journey—and together, they decided to do something about it. They would stage a run designed to empower women to defy and redefine the image of a fit, healthy, strong Boston runner. Or, as Rock says: “We’re giving the middle finger to mainstream messaging of how a runner should look.”
And that is how 200 women came to shed their tops and take over the streets of Boston in the first Bra Run in July 2017. The successful event turned into a second, third, and fourth running in each of the next three summers. Rock and Ramirez tapped a third friend, elementary school teacher Abeo Powder, to officially launch a new run crew in July 2020. The crew would empower, unite, and amplify women of all races, backgrounds, and abilities, from all over Boston, who sought not to follow in their city’s running footsteps, but to forge their own unique, bold paths.
These are the TrailblazHERs. And this is their runners’ world.
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Rock never forgot the well of despair in her gut after that summer run. Not because she couldn’t finish—she did—but because she allowed herself to succumb to the narrative that said she was not, and would never be, a real runner. That’s why the mission of TrailblazHERS isn’t about running fast or far. It’s about authenticity.
“It’s more than running. It’s a holistic approach to health: mental, physical, and spiritual,” Rock says. (Their signature monthly group run is called Self Care Sunday.) “We create space where women can be authentic and feel good about themselves. Because when we uplift and unite each other, we’re unstoppable.”
To make the runs feel inclusive and encourage authenticity, Rock, Ramirez, and Powder are intentional about choosing routes that authentically represent Boston—not just the parts that line the Charles River.
“If you’re not from here, you may be misled about what Boston really is,” Rock says. “The Boston Marathon doesn’t really run through the city it represents. It touches on it, for maybe a half-mile. We try to show a diverse Boston. The real Boston.”
That Boston includes inner-city neighborhoods in Randolph, Everett, Dorchester, Chelsea, and Franklin Park, where you’ll find communities of color and people of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.
Powder, a former high school sprinter, knows running isn’t always visible or accessible to people in those neighborhoods. But she also knows that while Boston’s story of athletic excellence is built largely on its legendary marathon, the true heartbeat of the city is its strong communities. “Back Bay and Fenway Park are iconic,” she says. “But there is so much magic in these other neighborhoods that make up Boston.”
To celebrate and tap into that magic, Powder chose for her fourth marathon (last year’s virtual edition) a classic TrailblazHERs route through communities of color in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. Powder’s marathon painted a living picture of her crew’s mission: to unite the women of Boston—all of Boston—to authentically and unapologetically occupy their space in the city’s running story.
“Prior to TrailblazHERs, we didn’t really see groups dedicated just for women, especially women of color, to do what we’re doing,” she says. “We’re absolutely filling a need, and Puma is supporting our mission.”
Having a global brand like Puma behind them gives the TrailblazHERs validation and a bigger platform, Rock says.
“That means the work we’re doing is worthy of visibility,” she says. “This relationship will help mold the future of our group by bridging a genuine gap between community and corporation.”
A critical part of that work is providing a validated safe space for women runners—a need that has been amplified in the wake of increased violence against Black and AAPI communities. “We want to make noise about violence against communities of color,” Powder says. “We’re bringing awareness to what’s happening and following that up with actionable steps. We’re here and we’re running for this reason.”
Ramirez, the crew’s other cofounder and resident photographer, sees the power of running as a force for change. While she and Rock established the Bra Run to offer a safe space for women to actualize their full, authentic selves, Ramirez now recognizes that the TrailblazHERs provide some of Boston’s most vulnerable runners with much-needed safety in numbers.
“Women get heckled, harassed. And the amount of violence toward People of Color and the AAPI community is very scary,” Ramirez admits. “It can be scary to run in a neighborhood by yourself. But it hits differently when you’re with a bunch of other girls who are there to shine.”
Ramirez often thinks back on the beginnings of the TrailblazHERs, the Bra Run, and her own running origins. Like Rock, Ramirez started running as a way to manage her weight and health, inspired by her father who had always encouraged physical activity throughout her youth. But as time went on and the crew’s mission grew, running became about so much more. “Running now is therapy,” she says. “Even if I have a shitty run, I feel better than I did before.”
One of Ramirez’s favorite TrailBlazHERs routes—one she says allows them to truly shine as women of color—is the Malden River Loop. The run passes through Everett, Malden, and Medford, and is dedicated to Malden High School track star Louise Stokes.
Born in 1913, Stokes, nicknamed “The Malden Meteor,” dominated New England high school track and field and, in 1932, became one of the first Black women to qualify for an Olympic team (along with another high schooler out of Chicago named Tidye Pickett). Stokes and Pickett faced discrimination on account of their gender (women had only just been allowed to compete in track and field events at the Olympics in 1928) as well as their race.
Despite finishing fourth in the 100-meters at the trials and thus earning a spot on the 4x100 relay, Stokes, who was just 18 at the time, was harassed by and segregated from her teammates, and was ultimately replaced in the relay by a white athlete (as was Pickett).
Stokes again made the 400-meter relay team in 1936 in Berlin, and again was passed over. She never got to compete. Ramirez and her crew honor Stokes’ courage and trailblazing spirit with their miles.
“Our routes have intention and purpose,” Ramirez. “It makes me feel good when we take up space. There isn’t a lot of space for women and women of color like Louise Stokes. She’s an untold story,” Ramirez says.
As long as the TrailblazHERs are running, Rock, Ramirez, and Powder will be there to make sure every Louise Stokes gets the chance to have their story told.
