BY: Callie Cadorniga
Published 3 hours ago
TikTok user Ruwi (@mo0nriverandme0) decided to join a London marathon club and go on a run for the first time. However, she got more when she bargained for when she showed up to meet the group and found that it was full of gay and queer men.
Reportedly, the club she’d accidentally signed up for is run by a group called GAYNS, an online fitness community that focuses on the physical and mental health of gay and queer people. According to their About section on Instagram, their mission is to “improve gay and queer people’s relationship to health, fitness, and connection to the community.”
In particular, Ruwi joined the weekly “Roadrunner” queer run club, which welcomes runners of all levels. As a beginner, Ruwi was excited to jump into running for the first time. She just had no idea with whom she’d be running!
In her TikTok, which has over 1.7 million views as of this writing, she’d only discovered that her new run club was for gay men once she arrived at their meeting place.
“I literally just found out that the event was for gay men,” she admitted in her video. She proceeded to stretch and run with them as best she could, but shortly discovered her limits from there.
“I ran for five seconds,” she says later in the video. “This running thing is not for me. I’m just gonna run at my own pace. These people were professionals!”
As far as her signup mishap goes, she and the gay men she ran with all took it in stride. In her video description, she stated, “I kept looking for my group until I clocked that I signed up for something I clearly didn’t know about. They were so lovely and welcoming, though, I just didn’t really fit in.”
She was reportedly even featured in the group’s Instagram story during the event, with the official members welcoming her with open arms. A member of GAYNS who goes by “Running Yves” on TikTok commented on her video, asking, “We were wondering what happened to you! Glad you joined us. Sorry if it was uncomfortable.”
Ruwi replied, “It was my first time running a marathon so it was all out of my comfort zone, also didn’t expect to be the only girl so that also kinda threw me off but you guys didn’t make me uncomfortable at all. In fact, you were so welcoming, so thank you.”
Other folks on TikTok were all too amused by the snafu. One person commented, “They still let you join? That’s so nice.”
Another said, “Probably the safest group to run with, though.”
She later posted another video after her first post went viral. Here, she revealed that the experience inspired her to try and start her own running club.
Do you think you would have noticed whether or not you were signing up for a gay running club? Comment below!
