Don’t Feel Like a Runner? Join the Slow AF Club.

Martinus Evans, who goes by @300poundsandrunning on Instagram, didn’t feel at home in the running community. Now, he's on the cover of magazines, has published a book, and is still running—at his own pace.

If he’s being honest, Martinus Evans thinks running is boring.

That’s not what you’d expect to hear from a running-club founder who’s on a mission to inspire a million people to take up the sport. But Evans knows that if he wants more people to lace up their trainers, he needs to lean on more than just the sport’s health benefits or competitive side. He has to convey the joy of it. “In the simplest terms, we’re all just running in a parade,” he says of road races. It should be a celebration.

Evans, a 37-year-old Brooklyn resident, knows that the running world isn’t always the most welcoming place. He’s been heckled at races. He’s participated in events where aid stations and finish lines were broken down before back-of-the-pack runners made it through. Evans says that runners with larger bodies, slow runners, and others who don’t fit the traditional athletic mold can feel like it’s their fault they’re not faster. “The system makes it seem like we’re the problem and we’re alone,” he says.

Evans first picked up running 11 years ago, after his doctor told him that he needed to “lose weight or die.” He decided to run a marathon. For 18 months, he trained and documented his progress on his blog, 300 Pounds and Running. He finished his first marathon—the Detroit Free Press—but the elation he experienced quickly dissipated. Later, sitting in an ice bath at home, he felt empty.

That familiar case of post-marathon blues led Evans to rethink his reasons for running. Objective measures like weight loss or pace didn’t resonate for him. He enjoyed talking to strangers during races and cheering on and supporting other runners. “That was the fun part. That’s what I enjoyed more than the need to get stronger, better, or faster,” he says.

In 2019, Evans founded the Slow AF Run Club. What began as an online gathering place for people who wanted to run races together grew into a global community of more than 18,000 runners of all fitness levels, body sizes, and backgrounds. Evans is a certified coach, but his approach is far from usual.

“My goal is to meet people where they are and not necessarily give them black-and-white instructions,” he says. Evans adjusts his runners’ training—from mileage to intervals—to fit their individual lifestyles and commitment levels instead of expecting everyone to adopt a one-size-fits-all plan. (In the early 2010s, Evans worked as a Men’s Wearhouse sales associate, which helped shape his approach: he learned to fit customers based on the body they had, not the size they thought they were or wanted to be. It made them feel good.)

Evans rejects the idea that you have to run a certain pace or look a certain way to be a runner. “One of the things I learned early on is that we’re all just following rules that someone else made up. It’s up to us to figure out if we’re going to go along with those rules or not,” he says.

In June, Evans published Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run, to share his philosophy. The book is dedicated to “anybody who has felt they are too fat, too slow, too old, or too (fill in the blank) to become a runner.” Evans says that he “hated writing,” but members of his club urged him on.

Now Evans has his sights set on pushing the wider running industry: He posed nude for Men’s Health and appeared on the cover of Runner’s World. He works with race directors to create more equitable experiences for participants. He created Slow AF merchandise, with sizes up to 5X. “Runners are blamed for being fat, but when they go to the store to get clothes, there’s nothing that fits them,” he says. He’s considering expanding the line into a sportswear brand. He’s also launching a nonprofit to help others start their own Slow AF Run Club chapters, and to provide resources to help “more individuals participate in and understand what running is about,” particularly in low-income neighborhoods and marginalized communities.

“This is my baby, and now it’s getting so big that it’s no longer mine,” he says. “It’s for the people.”

posted Saturday December 9th
by Outside Online