‘I feel like it’s definitely something Manchester needs’
Fitness instructor Jamie Ayshford has set up a new running club in Manchester(Image: Jamie Ayshford)
A new running club aims to help bring members of the LGBTQ+ community together through fitness, good tunes and ‘silly fun’.
Fitness instructor Jamie Ayshford, who works at Ryde Studios in the city centre, will host his first ever Slay With J club session this weekend, which is aimed for the ‘girls, gays, theys and allies’ to have a fun exercise session without any judgement.
Jamie, originally from Chester, said the idea for the Stride & Slay club came about having moved to Manchester and struggled to make friends with other gay men. Often feeling lonely within his community, he saw a way of combining his love for fitness and wanting to find connection through the event.
“Through my work as a fitness instructor, I’ve seen the power that group exercise can have on bringing people together,” Jamie, 26, explains to the Manchester Evening News. “I know a lot of people in the city can feel lonely, and maybe this running club can maybe go a little way in helping tackle some of that.”
Jamie said his own experiences of being sober and trying to fit in within the LGBTQ+ community outside of clubbing and drinking have also paved a way for what Slay With J has become.
Jamie said he hopes the running club will bring members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies together through exercise(Image: Jamie Ayshford)
Since announcing Stride & Slay, Jamie said he has already had more than 100 people join the club’s WhatsApp group with around 40 people signed up to take part in the first event on Saturday (April 19).
The 6k ‘fun route’ will conclude with a little social get-together at The Pollen Club, on Blackfriars Street in Deansgate, which will feature music in the garden area and a chance for people to connect and get to know each other.
Speaking about the response to the club, Jamie said: “I was ambitious about it, but I wasn’t expecting it to go this mad straight away. I feel like it’s definitely something Manchester needs, just like a fun, social, sober, gay space that isn’t on Canal Street.
“It’s not a running-first club, it’s more of a social and fun-first club. My priority isn’t to help people get personal bests or train people up for their next event, it’s to build up a community to raise queer visibility and hopefully help make some friendships in the process too.”
Jamie next to a digital billboard in town promoting his running club
Jamie, who had studied at drama school in London before moving back home in 2020, said he has seen for himself how exercise has helped me come out of his shell and he hopes to replicate that with the club.
“When I was in the closet, loneliness was a lot for me to deal with,” he explained. “Exercise was always just a great way of breaking the ice and I can genuinely say it changed and saved my life because it made me more confident and connected me with people who I am more comfortable to be around.
“I don’t drink and I don’t really go out partying, I’ve never been to the Gay Village. I’ve realised there are a few people like me that are perhaps not always wanting to go out at night and this club is a new chance for people to connect besides drinking.”
Jamie has worked out a 6k ‘fun run’ featuring music and an afternoon day party with good vibes(Image: Jamie Ayshford)
Jamie also hopes that, should the club be successful, that it will expand beyond running clubs and also feature the likes of watch parties and sessions of HYROX – an indoor fitness competition that combines 8km of running alongside eight functional workout stations.
“There is a lot of potential for the future,” he explains. “But I want to just see if there is a community here for what I’m offering yet. I think there will be but I’m just trying to take it slowly and see where it goes.”
And he says he intends to get just as much out of his Stride & Slay running club as all the other attendees too. “Hopefully this can be a new way for me to meet people outside of work too,” he adds. “I am hoping to get a lot from it.”
You can follow Slay with J on Instagram here, which includes details on how to sign up to the club. Free tickets can be secured here.