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| SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2023
One Man’s Mission to Make Running
Everyone’s Sport
Above: Martinus Evans, founder of the Slow AF Run Club, a virtual community with more than 10,000 members worldwide, at Domino Park in Brooklyn, May 31, 2023. Evans, who has graced the cover of Runner’s World, posed nude for Men’s Health and appeared in an Adidas ad, is releasing his first book, “Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run.” (PHOTO COURTESY OF DESIREE RIOS / THE NEW YORK TIMES)
On a recent Sundaymorning jog through Prospect Park, Martinus Evans was received like a conquering champion.
36, raced, he wore a shirt emblazoned with the man’s phrase “SLOW AF” and a cartoon of a smiling turtle. When he shared photos of his new racing uniform on Instagram, followers asked for shirts of their own. By early 2019, a By Danielle Friedman running club was born. The New York Times Evans, who lives in Brooklyn and is now a certified running Every few minutes, a passcoach, is helping lead a global ing runner would smile and movement to make the sport nod, congratulating him as feel safe and welcoming for they sped by. But the runners weren’t ap- anyone who wants to run, plauding him for winning any whatever their size, pace, races. You might even say they fitness level or skin color. He said his driving message is were celebrating him for his simple. “I want everyone to track record of finishing last. Evans is the founder of Slow know that they can run in the AF Run Club, a virtual combody they have right now.” munity for back-of-the-pack‘Mr. Evans, you’re fat’ ers with more than 10,000 Growing up on the east members worldwide. At 300 pounds, he is a beloved figure side of Detroit, the son of among runners who have felt two auto-factory workers, Evans, who is Black, didn’t left out of the sport. He has know anyone who ran for fun. graced the cover of Runner’s World, posed nude for Men’s Most people he knew thought of recreational running as a Health and appeared in an white person’s activity. Adidas ad. His Instagram account, @300poundsanAs a boy, he was mocked for drunning, has about 62,000 his size — he was known in the neighborhood as “Marty followers. And this month, he’s releasing his first book, the fat kid,” he said. When he “Slow AF Run Club: The Ulti- tried out for a youth football team, the coach made him mate Guide for Anyone Who wear a garbage bag on the Wants to Run.” The idea for the club was field to “sweat out the fat,” he born at about mile 16 of the said. He didn’t lose weight; he just felt ashamed. 2018 New York City MaraBut after making his high thon, just after the grueling Queensboro Bridge into Man- school’s football team, he hattan. Evans was cruising began to develop confidence along when he noticed a man in his physical abilities. He gesturing from the sidelines. attended Lane College in He took out his AirPods. Tennessee on a football schol“You’re slow, buddy,” the arship, before transferring to Central Michigan University, man shouted, adding an expletive to indicate just how where he majored in exercise slow. “Go home.” Evans tried science. “I was like, maybe to ignore him, and turned his I’ll finally learn how to work out and lose this weight,” he attention back to the course, said. “And then I can finally be which he eventually finished in just over eight hours, or six accepted.” In 2012, Evans and his hours behind the winner. But as the bystander repeated his then-girlfriend (now wife) moved to Connecticut, where taunt, Evans got angrier — then inspired. she had gotten into graduate school. He took a job selling The next time Evans, now
suits at Men’s Wearhouse while he figured out his next move. The job, which required him to dress men of all ages and body types, would provide an unlikely path to becoming a fitness influencer. After months on the storeroom floor wearing stiff dress shoes, he began to feel an ache in his hip. The pain brought him to an orthopedic surgeon, who, he writes in his
gry and still in pain (another physician later diagnosed him with hip bursitis) and drove directly to a running store to buy a pair of trainers, determined to prove the doctor wrong. For extra motivation, Evans started a blog he called 300 Pounds and Running, where he began to chart both his running progress and weight loss. After a few months, he was surprised to
Eventually he ran a 5K, then a half-marathon. Finally, in the fall of 2013, Evans flew home to run the Detroit Free Press Marathon and deliver on his vow in the doctor’s office. When he crossed the finish line, he wept. He has since gotten a master’s degree in public health research and another in digital media and design. He said running offers him a sense of self-determination, confidence and purpose. And although it initially helped him lose about 90 pounds, dropping him below 300 for a time, he realized that running to lose weight took away from that satisfaction. “I wasn’t 90 pounds happier,” he said. He decided to stop counting calories and run just for fun. He remembered that what made him a successful salesperson at Men’s Wearhouse was the ability to help customers feel good just as they were. He suspected other runners could benefit from focusing on the joy of the sport over weight loss. On his blog, he leaned into his persona as a 300-pound runner.
Evans advises that, before even slipping on shoes, they should focus on retraining their brains to adopt the mindset that they can run, despite what a thin-obsessed, speed-focused culture might say. In his book, he encourages them to neutralize their inner critic by naming it — his is called Otis, which he imagines like an “ignorant, drunk uncle.” Finally, he tells runners to move forward however they can, even if it requires what he calls “delusional self-belief.” On a practical level, he recommends that people run 70% to 80% of the time at what he calls “sexy pace” — “the pace you’d go if you were running in slow motion on a beach,” Baywatch style — or what most other coaches call a conversational speed. Starting out, he suggests running for 15 seconds and then walking for 90 seconds. Then, over 12 weeks or so, progress to five minutes of running and one minute of walking. “Starting gradual is great,” said Anne Brady, a professor of kinesiology at the University of North Carolina-Greens‘Delusional self-belief ’ boro. “It’s all about consistency. So, you have to start at Historically, the sport of something that you’re able to running has made many sustain in a short bout.” She people in big bodies feel like also advised that larger people they have to lose weight to carefully select supportive, belong — to be considered comfortable footwear to rereal runners, said Samantha White, an assistant professor duce impact on their joints. Above: Martinus Evans, founder of the Slow AF Run Club. More than a decade after of sport studies at Manhattan(PHOTOS COURTESY OF DESIREE RIOS / THE NEW YORK TIMES) he took up running, with ville College. By “amplifying runners who aren’t focused on eight marathons to his name, book, took one look at him discover strangers were read- time, but rather on communi- Evans is still 300 pounds. and told him: “Mr. Evans, ing and cheering him on. ty,” she said, Evans is creating He’s healthy by all of the usual you’re fat. You have two opHe found that he enjoyed metrics, although he doesn’t a space “where recreational tions: Lose weight or die.” running, despite the passers- runners, especially Black measure his well-being — or Evans remembered holdby who would occasionally recreational runners, can find success as a runner — in numing back tears while, “with a hurl insults at him. More than a place.” bers. He runs simply to be half-cocked smile,” defiantly once, Evans said he has also able to continue running, for As such, the first rule of telling the doctor, “I’m going been stopped and questioned Slow AF Run Club, which ex- himself and for others. The to run a marathon.” He said by police while jogging. When ists primarily on an app by the longer he shows up and runs the doctor laughed and told he felt defeated, he’d glance slow AF, he said, the easier it same name, is that members him running a marathon at a tattoo on his right wrist becomes for other runners to can’t talk about their weight would also kill him. that reads “No struggle, no do the same. or weight loss. He left the appointment an- progress.” When counseling runners,