Running has really helped my relationship with myself. It's been a really good way to teach me how to look after myself, which I wasn't particularly good at before.

It’s helped me focus on what my body can do, rather than everything that it's not. It makes me look out for myself in other aspects of my life -- I need to be able to sleep and eat well, or else I'm not going to get to run.

I live in a quiet rural place, and it's difficult to find LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people. For a while, I felt like I was the only trans person running about on the trails.

I was lonely and wanted queer friends who ran. I knew I couldn't be the only one that's feeling this way. I knew that LGBT people, particularly trans and nonbinary people as a population, struggle a lot with physical and mental health. We're not great at looking after ourselves for lots of reasons.

So I set up Queer Runnings, a virtual running club. In rural areas, you can't really do an in-person run club because there's not enough people. A lot of Queer Running members are people who live in rural areas, who need the queer community and don't have it otherwise.

Finding a community that I didn't have before, has certainly made me less alone. There are people I can trust and people I like. Before, I felt like I just didn't like people. What I realise now is that I was just hanging out with the wrong people.

When I was younger, I didn't know anyone who was trans. It would have been nice for something like Queer Runnings to exist because just finding other people is enough.

A lot of the time, I think about how I probably wouldn't have ended up in the mess that I did if I had that support.

Through Queer Runnings, I hopefully get to help other people access the positive experiences running has brought for me.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]