Within the 2023 adidas industrial “The Ridiculous Run,” a younger girl steps right into a darkish city road to begin an evening run. She opens her telephone to see her location, after which joins a bunch of different ladies flanked by bikes, automobiles, and even a uniformed guardian on a horse.
This may occasionally look ridiculously pointless, the industrial tells us, however it’s no much less absurd than the 92% of girls who really feel unsafe after they run. That statistic, which comes from a broadly shared adidas survey of 9,000 runners throughout 9 nations, is greater than only a quantity for Dena Lewis, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur and ultrarunner.
Lewis skilled her first assault in 2010 whereas jogging a mile from her dwelling. The identical man confirmed up at her home 3 days later. Shaken by what had occurred to her, she stopped working for a yr.
“The world felt scarier,” she informed GearJunkie. “I keep in mind placing on my footwear and pondering, ‘I’d actually pay somebody to run with me proper now’.”
And that’s precisely the service Lewis is now providing by way of Operating Mate, an app she says is “like Uber for runners.” With a rising group of on-call working companions vetted by background checks, Lewis has primarily turned the premise of adidas’ industrial right into a attainable resolution for anybody seeking to keep protected whereas working.
The app continues to be new, launching in seven main U.S. cities in 2024, together with Austin, Boston, Tampa, Atlanta, Salt Lake Metropolis, Denver, and Charleston, S.C.
App customers should pay about $25 per run, and it’s at the moment hottest amongst ladies vacationers who need some further safety whereas working in one other metropolis, Lewis stated. However she’d love for the service to finally be free for any girl who desires it.
“It’s my mission to maintain folks protected,” Lewis stated. “I don’t ever need a girl to need to undergo what I went by way of.”
Operating Mate: How It Works
In the event you’ve ever used an app from the gig financial system, be it Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart, then you definitely’ll probably grasp Operating Mate fairly shortly.
When you’ve downloaded the free app, a easy interface begins the background test course of. It’s a compulsory step for each runners and the “working mates” who receives a commission to point out up. You’ll additionally have to make a profile, which permits runners and companions to view a couple of key particulars, like working tempo and age.
It’s attainable to request a run on brief discover, which comes with a 15-minute threshold for assembly a accomplice. However a lot of the app’s runs are scheduled forward of time, in line with Lewis. Customers can set their desired run location and see the accessible “mates” for that space. Run instances can differ however don’t often final greater than an hour.
Whereas a majority of these requesting a accomplice are ladies (70%), the opposite 30% of customers are males, although they could have completely different causes, in line with Lewis.
“The boys who’re signed up as runners simply need a working buddy. It’s not about security,” Lewis stated. “The boys who’ve signed up as mates are sometimes involved about somebody of their household, like a mom or a sister … I like the truth that we’ve got so many males signed up on our platform.”
‘We Take It for Granted’
CT White “isn’t the quickest,” he stated, however he loves the neighborhood that he’s discovered amongst runners in St. Petersburg, Fla. In only a yr, he went from a sluggish walker to an everyday runner to a member of the Pinellas Operating Membership’s government board.
He realized that working has helped so many individuals “discover themselves,” together with himself, and he thinks everybody deserves that chance.
“Defending entry to being outdoors is crucial to our psychological well being,” he informed GearJunkie this week. “I see this app and I feel, ‘Sure, I would like my folks to really feel that manner’.”
As Lewis works to develop Operating Mate’s presence, she’s constructing partnerships with grassroots working teams just like the Pinellas Operating Membership and native leaders like White.
The app is already accessible in close by Tampa, and White says he desires to assist construct the community of “mates” essential to make it viable in St. Petersburg as nicely. He associated a narrative about his finest good friend in Tampa, a lady runner who has informed him tales of males following her on bikes or sending on-line messages about discovering her after seeing Strava posts.
“As males, we take it without any consideration. We don’t have to consider going working at night time alone,” stated White, a self-described 6-foot-5 large. “A few of these ladies are shook for days from this stuff. I’ve seen it. It will possibly appear innocent, however it’s not.”
The numbers bear that out.
A 2021 RunRepeat.com survey of three,774 folks discovered that just about 46% of girls runners have skilled harassment. Girls runners are additionally 3 times as prone to endure that harassment than males, in line with the identical information. Of the 38% of girls who reported harassment within the adidas survey, half stated they’d been adopted or acquired sexist feedback.
“What sort of world do I wish to go away for my nieces?” White stated. “If we’ve got the power to permit ladies to really feel protected the way in which we really feel protected, we’ve got an obligation to do this.”
A ‘Candy Spot’ Amongst Vacationers
Operating mates like White, who receives a commission about $10-15 a run by way of the app, are 60% males and 40% ladies. There’s additionally a reasonably equal pool of each runners and potential companions. Of the 1,664 present customers, about 55% are mates and 45% are runners in search of a accomplice.
Up to now, the app has discovered a “candy spot” amongst ladies vacationers, Lewis stated. Whereas Lewis doesn’t anticipate most ladies to make use of the app greater than three to 5 instances a month, extra frequent customers are often feminine vacationers accustomed to working 3-5 miles outdoor a number of instances per week.
“That’s usually when ladies wish to use a service like this,” she stated. “In the event that they’re going to pay a price for a gymnasium shut by, they’d most likely quite be outdoors anyhow.”
However security isn’t the one cause to make use of Operating Mate. Many ladies bow out of working golf equipment as a result of they don’t really feel snug, Lewis stated, and like a “transactional course of” for locating companions.
Whatever the cause ladies use it, Lewis hopes to develop the app’s availability to extra cities. She’s additionally spearheading the Runner Security Summit, an ongoing collection of occasions that educate ladies on self-defense.
In the end, she’d prefer to make sufficient company partnerships to maintain paying “mates,” whereas making Operating Mate fully free to customers. Given how receptive the neighborhood has been thus far, Lewis feels optimistic, she stated.
“I simply was not anticipating to have the overwhelming response that we get and proceed to get,” Lewis stated. “Girls are saying thanks for giving us a voice.”
