I was raised as a boy, with the societal expectations of, "You're going to be tough, you're going to play sports."

My family is back in the state of Minnesota, which is a very hockey-centric place, so I was put into hockey right away, along with soccer and baseball. I played all the teams sports, and none of them ever seem to really click.

I always felt different, and didn't really feel welcome or included. I eventually found art and theater, and that was where I ended up putting a lot of my energy and time into for a while.

As I came into my adult life, I started to do more individual activities like biking and running and started to really fall in love with them. These were activities I could do on my own, without worrying about other people accepting me or welcoming me into a team or into a community.

It wasn't until I then moved to Seattle, when I joined the Seattle Front Runners, which is an LGBTQI+ running club here, that I found that it is possible to run with a group that will affirm you, that will support you, that will encourage you to be the best version of you -- the best runner, the best person.

In a way, my journey with running has really been a reclaiming of my place in sport, and my place in these very binary systems, and these binary worlds.

When I was younger, I didn't necessarily have the language to understand that I am nonbinary, and I always felt like I was being pushed out of those spaces.

Now, I am taking that space back by encouraging and helping the running industry as a whole, to carve out space for people who exist outside of the gender binary.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]