The RGV Queer Run Club is sprinting the way toward a new historic milestone this Pride Month by hosting the first-ever Pride race in the Rio Grande Valley on June 27 at the Mission Hike and Bike Trail.
Last year, Mission-based Dani Marrero Hi (they/she) and Brownsville-based Vicente Martinez (he/him) were inspired by seeing other Queer communities host run/walk clubs and decided to start an RGV version last June/Pride Month. The duo held the first meetup at the Mission Bike and Hike Trails and were amazed by the great turnout right away.
“We had no idea what to expect, and we were so surprised when we had close to 50 people show up! We were like, ‘Oh, shit! I don’t think we brought enough water. It was a good problem to have so many folks turn out,” Marrero Hi laughed.
A year later, the run club is ready to host a public race and aims to make this an annual tradition, with ticket profits benefiting local LGBTQ+ organizations. This year’s sales will benefit South Texas Equality Project (STEP), with the club selling 400 tickets, surpassing its goal and selling out.
“STEP has been very supportive of the run club since we started, and we think they do really important work in the community, where so many different organizations, groups, businesses, faith-based groups come together to advocate for the LGBTQ community,” Marrero Hi said. “We knew there wasn’t a better space to provide these funds to.”
Race participants can choose between completing a 5K or a mile at their own pace. All participants who sign up by June 6 will receive a shirt and a medal.
The top three winners of each category (female, nonbinary, male, and 17-and-under teens and kids overall) will be celebrated with an additional medal.
Fitness journeys can be challenging for many folx, including LGBTQ+ community members, and the run club can be an outlet while people navigate the journey, free from any fitness-related toxic ideology or “passing” expectations. For Marrero Hi, who is nonbinary, the club is gender affirming.
“There’s a lot of toxic culture out there about ‘You have to be a certain size, or you have to achieve certain goals, or you have to look a certain way,’” they said. “Queer and trans people, we get so much of that bullshit already. This is not a space for us to keep internalizing that. It’s about ‘Do you feel good? Did you have fun? Did you make some friends?’”
“All are welcome to join the race, whether it’s your first or fiftieth race, or whether you’re coming by yourself or you’re coming with friends; we want to see you there,” Marrero Hi said. After the race, participants can check out local organizations and vendors that will be on site.
“We have such a friendly community,” they said. “There are people from all walks of life who are ready to welcome people who are there for the first time… Yes, we are a run-and-walk club, but it’s also a space to make friends and socialize with people.”
The run club also provides shelter to experience nature. The idea of walking alone on a trail or in a park can be scary for LGBTQ+ people and for feminine folx. As Marrero Hi points out, many women carry pepper spray with them out of fear. With a group, people can feel safer outdoors.
She said, “We sometimes make a joke at the start of every meetup that is like, ‘Hey, take care of each other, take care of yourself, and if someone tries to come at you, remember, there’s a lot of us. Holler, so we can run over and protect each other.’”
It is also important for the club to join together at nature spots like the National Butterfly Center, South Padre Island, and Olmito Nature Park because queerness and nature spaces are so intersected, especially in the RGV. Many RGV nature spots are facing detrimental threats, such as Mission’s National Butterfly Center’s risk from the border wall, and SpaceX has harmed so much of Cameron County, especially Boca Chica Beach.
Marrero Hi describes showing up to these spots as the club is “a sign of resistance.”
“The same people that are putting those spaces at risk of being eliminated or destroyed, tend to be the same people that also don’t want to see queer and trans people thrive,” they said.
For Dani, having the first-ever Pride race in Mission is personally moving.
“Knowing that literally just a few miles from my house, where I grew up, where at some point, I was a young, queer kid wondering, ‘Am I ever gonna come out? Could I ever be myself fully here in Mission?’ It’s so healing and so beautiful, and it’s also full circle for me,” they shared.
