Every October, the Chicago Marathon fills the city, and every year the story is the same: the elites, the times, the shoes. Nike wanted something closer to the ground. They had two clubs in mind. The Windrunners, an all-women sub-elite racing team started by two Nike employees. And GumboFit, a crew bringing running to Black and Brown communities on the South Side. Ninety seconds each, out before race day.
The marathon is 26.2 miles, but nobody gets to the start line by themselves. Both clubs were proof of that. The Windrunners built a space where women could push each other to get faster. GumboFit built one where people who'd never been invited into running culture could show up and be seen. So the films were about who you run with.
Each film had to land a whole story in ninety seconds: who these people are, why the club exists, what it's doing to them, and where it's headed. That meant the interviews carried everything. For the Windrunners, we sat down with Amanda and Vanessa.
For GumboFit, it was founder Courtney Phillips and Matthew. Then we went out on the runs with them, because you can hear a club's mission in an interview, but you only really feel it running alongside them.
I learned that one personally. I was training for the marathon myself that year, so I figured I'd tag along with the Windrunners for a bit and see how I kept up. I lasted half a block. They were very kind about it. They sent me home with a Windrunners windbreaker, and all three of my daughters have worn it since.
The Windrunners film went up on Nike's YouTube the week of the race. Both clubs kept running long after we wrapped. The Windrunners kept putting Chicago's women on the map. GumboFit grew from a four-month-old club into a community of hundreds, and Nike came back to tell their story again. We got there early.
