In February, Genesis Moreno was scrolling through Instagram, looking at photos of friends, family, influencers and gym trainers when she received a notification: An account called @girlsrunthe915 had just followed her.
The notification piqued Moreno’s interest. She had been in an all-women workout club during her time studying special education at the University of Texas at El Paso and since graduating, she continued to look for similar groups and @girlsrunthe915 seemed exactly what she was looking for, she said.
There were only two posts on the account, which had been created in February: a logo and an Instagram Reel, a video with a caption that said, “Introducing the first 915 all girls run club in El Paso.”
The video featured El Pasoans Arianne Ontiveros and Daniela Carrillo, the run club’s co-founders whose voices played over clips of them running on neighborhood sidewalks, trails and tracks throughout the city. They described the “magic in running with friends,” saying they wanted to bring that feeling to El Paso women runners through a club called Girls Run the 915.
To garner interest in their mission, the pair began following the social media accounts of women throughout the area who they knew personally and that they knew had an interest in running and fitness in general. That included Moreno, whom Carrillo knew from the college workout club that they had both been a part of.
“I was intrigued for sure,” Moreno said. “I was like, ‘What is this about? This looks fun.’”
Women and girls in the walk/run group finish a 5K run hosted by Girls Run the 915, July 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Moreno wasn’t alone in that interest: Within five months, the Girls Run the 915 Instagram account grew to more than 9,000 followers. The group now averages more than 170 girls at its bi-weekly events. Carrillo and Ontiveros have organized more than a dozen events – including a cross-border collaboration with a Ciudad Juárez club for a run in Mexico.
The success of Girls Run the 915 may be due in part to the popularity of its name and Instagram presence.
The group is rooted in community, said the founders, both 23, who previously ran alone before discovering each other on TikTok. That falls in line with a report from the exercise-tracking app Strava, which states that community is “key to motivation” to runners as exercise “provides a crucial connection.”
“(Girls Run the 915) is very specific in its message for introducing women to running and kind of creating a female empowerment environment,” said Gabriela Gallegos, founder of the all-women Mighty Mujer Triathlon El Paso and the running club Run El Paso. “It’s been great to see them organize and use social media to get the word out and reach a younger age segment.”
It’s one of the latest running clubs in the city, many of which lean on social media to promote themselves and expand their reach.
“We’ve had a lot of friends that would text us and be, like, ‘How can we get into running? How do I start?’ And then we would see those friends start to run,” Carrillo said. “And we would think, ‘All these girls, they’re starting to get into running, but they’re running alone. So, why not just all get together?’”
The group has inspired many women such as Moreno to lace up their sneakers.
Daniela Carrillo, left, and Arianne Ontiveros founded the women-only club Girls Run the 915 in February 2024 to create a safe, welcoming space for both experienced runners and beginners. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Moreno had just re-started her fitness journey the month before and was getting bored of the workouts she had been doing at the gym, she said.
“To be honest, I wasn’t going to start running just by myself,” Moreno said.
Running with others motivated her to prepare for something she has only done two other times: run a 5K.
Running for the first time
Her first run with the group, on a sunny Saturday morning in March, was a 3.1-mile trek through the historic Five Points neighborhood in Central El Paso.
Over 100 women gathered in front of artist Paola Martinez’s mural “La serpiente de dos cabezas” as Ontiveros and Carrillo introduced the 11 pacers, women who would lead different subgroups to meet a certain run time goal. The pacers included high school or collegiate athletes who often lead the 8-minute group. Other pacers included Nicole Hipp, an athletic trainer, and her dog, Benning, who led the 12-minute group, while Ontiveros or Carrillo led the walk/run group for first-time runners who were feeling nervous.
“We want the girls to tap into running and hopefully continue with it,” Ontiveros told El Paso Matters in February before the first event. “Hopefully they push themselves to do their first 5K and then maybe their first 10K, maybe even their first half (marathon).”
The walk/run group is what many members highlight when describing what makes Girls Run the 915 different from other El Paso run clubs.
“You don’t have to classify yourself as a runner to be there. You can just go and walk or go and hang out,” Hipp said.
Hipp’s group was where Moreno started.
“I was definitely feeling nervous,” Moreno said. “I went by myself. I did not know anyone and I was, like, ‘I’m really about to do a whole 3-mile run.’”
After a group stretch led by Hipp, Ontiveros and Carrillo began to gather and send off the pacers. The route took the runners along Montana Avenue to Copia Street.
Moreno began to feel challenged, repeating, “I can do this,” in her head. She wanted to test her limits and see what her body could do.
Running up Copia Street, Moreno felt motivated by Hipp’s enthusiastic cheers and encouraging honks from passing cars. But she began struggling to keep the pace.
“I was like, ‘Oh, no, my body can’t do this,’” Moreno said. “I fell back to the run/walk group.”
A group of girls quickly asked if Moreno would like to walk with them. She agreed.
“At the end of the run, there were girls waiting for us, cheering us on,” Moreno said. “I felt really encouraged to finish.”
Afterward, the women gathered at a local coffee shop and bar for cups of water or coffee. Inside, conversations about the route, the difficulty, and the reasons why they enjoyed the club filled the rooms – mostly, that it was only for women.
“There’s not really a lot of people (in El Paso) who run distance who are women,” Ontiveros said.
Runners make their way through Memorial Park during the Girls Run the 915 event on March 3, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Girls Run the 915)
In 2024, only 26% of the 395 runners in the El Paso Marathon identified as female, according to the director’s report. About 51% of El Paso’s more than 677,000 residents are women.
Gallegos said motherhood, work obligations, and other responsibilities may contribute to the reasons why women might not pursue a triathlon and would pursue a half-marathon or 5K instead.
“There’s a higher cost of entry,” Gallegos said. “You have to have a bike, you have to know how to swim and there tends to be more gear involved.”
And not everyone wants to run marathons, said Jim Weddell, a 2021 El Paso Athletic Hall of Famer and El Paso Marathon board member.
“If you’re doing much more than (running two to three miles a week), you’re wanting to compete or achieve a goal or something,” Weddell said. “(People participating in the latest clubs are) doing enough to be healthy and then being able to meet with other people.”
Running a (women-only) run club in El Paso
Aside from running – and running the club – Ontiveros and Carrillo attend school.
Ontiveros, a University of Southern California graduate, plans to attend law school at the University of Miami in August. Meanwhile, Carrillo is pursuing a degree in computer science from the University of Texas at El Paso, and hopes to graduate this fall.
Their work with the club will continue, they said. But, it will take some extra effort.
Girls and young women stretch before a Girls Run the 915 event. (Photo Courtesy of Girls Run the 915)
With the large groups of runners, the club’s founders have to do more than put out calls on social media: They plan and choose routes, obtain permits, connect with businesses and consider safety and liability issues. Runners are required to fill out a liability waiver in case of injuries.
After most runners complete the route, the co-founders and pacers run the route again to ensure that no one is left behind.
Moreno, who has since invited her family members to join the runs, said these safety checks help beginner runners feel welcome. “It’s just really awesome to bring everybody on that journey with me,” she said.
Hipp said that they’re also meant to instill confidence in the group’s runners.
“The most special memory that I have so far is there was an 8-year-old (who) came up to me at the end and said, ‘I just want to thank you. You’re making me, my mommy, feel so confident,’” Hipp said.
The post Girls Run the 915: El Paso all-girl run club rooted in community, connection appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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