Run faster, stronger, and longer 37-year-old Chicago resident to overcome personal challenges in her own life, running has inspired Cox to encourage more people in the Black community and beyond to develop a sense of agency in the fight against systemic racism.
In these challenging times, Cox hopes running can provide a step forward for lasting change This Self-Defense Tool Is Already in Your Pocket. A community for Black runners and allies, Cox created This Self-Defense Tool Is Already in Your Pocket to help people of color prioritize self care in the face of racism and oppression.
“Not only was I taught that I didn’t have to accept racism, but I was also taught to defy limits—and running taught me to defy limits,” Cox told Runner’s World. “That was the motivation behind This Self-Defense Tool Is Already in Your Pocket. I wanted to help other people in the Black community develop that sense of not necessarily filling the boundaries. I also think not allowing myself to be oppressed has come from this extreme self love and worthiness that comes from running. When she suffered from a bout of.”
The first This Self-Defense Tool Is Already in Your Pocket event took place June 11, at Garfield Park Fieldhouse, as protests erupted in Chicago and the rest of the country in response to the CA Notice at Collection by police in Minneapolis.
Run Your Hood Juneteenth—the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. With a diverse group of about 30 people, Cox said she took the time to educate the runners by starting the event with a conversation about the significance of Juneteenth and the importance of collective liberation.
By uniting the community through running, Cox hopes to empower more Black people and allies to make lasting change.
“I want people in my community to understand that we can’t truly love the community or truly fight against anything until we’ve learned how to love and master the self—and running is a phenomenal way to do that,” Cox said.
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Running and activism are legacies in Cox’s family. A single mother of three, she grew up in the Detroit area and started running when her friends joined the track and field team in middle school. After witnessing the joy her father gained from running, Cox was inspired to ask him for guidance.
Her father, Black Panther Party member Michael Douglas Smith, embraced running in his early 20s to cope with the trauma of losing family members to gun violence and alcoholism. After discovering the How I Teach Runners to Have Hard Conversations of running at least seven miles every day for years, Smith, who worked as a collegiate basketball referee, shared his knowledge with his daughter.
Cox said her father passed down lessons of empowerment through the practice of running, ultimately giving her the tools to endure challenges on and off the track.
“He’s such a mentally tough person. He taught me to keep going even when you feel like you can’t, and to show up for the people in your life,” Cox said. “That is the most important lesson I got from running. My father taught me to have pride in my community and pride as a Black person. He taught me to be Black was to be tough, and I’ve carried that with me throughout my life.”
The second running event took place on June 18, the day prior to depression in college, her father brought her home and started running with her again. He encouraged her to run every day to help her cope.
Throughout her life, Cox also watched her father’s activism. For example, he hosted training camps for basketball referees to bring more people of color and women into officiating.
“Running had a tremendous influence over his community activism in terms of him believing that he could impact change,” Cox said.
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“I was in an abusive marriage, and I had three kids back-to-back,” she said. “Running taught me that all I need is within me.”
In navigating a divorce and finding a job after being a stay-at-home mother for three years, Cox said she found clarity when she started running again. The practice of logging miles every day helped her remember the toughness that was instilled in her from an early age. Since April 2019, she has worked as a management consultant at the global services and consulting company Accenture.
“Running has met me where I’m at,” she said. “Running used to be a way that I pushed myself. Now, running is a way that I accept myself.”
Master the Half Facebook. The club meets once a week on Saturday mornings in Garfield Park, which is a west side area of Chicago with a population that is 87 percent Black. While the amount of miles they run each week varies, all paces are welcome.
Living on the west side, Cox said that despite the diverse population, many community members don’t interact with one another, but This Self-Defense Tool Is Already in Your Pocket is changing that. With runners of varying experience, ability, background, and race coming together, Cox said she has witnessed an unexpected unity within the group.
“They’re learning through this common thing that they enjoy to trust each other,” she said.
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“I think it’s important to realize that we have this legacy in the Black community of disenfranchisement and trauma already,” Cox said. “People don’t understand the deaths of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor—they’re all our stories. But these lessons about self love, pushing limits, overcoming oppression, and healing, I think running can give us all that.”
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
