{"id":158322,"date":"2026-02-17T12:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158322\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:47:11","slug":"black-girls-run-tampa-hosting-national-meet-up-at-gasparilla-distance-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158322\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Girls Run! Tampa hosting national meet-up at Gasparilla Distance Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Gasparilla Distance Classic will be the national meet-up for the<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/BlackGirlsRUNTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Black Girls RUN! Tampa <\/a>(BGR!) club.<\/p>\n<p>Sisters, friends and community.<\/p>\n<p>Those are the foundations of BGR!, a national running club that encourages African-American women to prioritize healthy living by pounding the pavement.<\/p>\n<p>The BGR! Tampa Bay chapter has more than 4,000 members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worked Monday through Friday, just tired,\u201d Ijeoma Nwahiri said. \u201cI\u2019ll get on Facebook and see that someone from in the morning or late at night has already done however-many-miles. I\u2019m like, \u2018If they can do it, I can do it, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are no requirements. Simply sign up online to find a meet-up, show up, and start moving!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommunity is one of the biggest things. Just knowing when you are coming out that you\u2019re not by yourself. You\u2019ve got your tribe there,\u201d coach Tia Pettygrue said. \u201cNo matter what your pace is, there is somebody who can be there for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>BGR!\u2019s mission is to combat the risks of chronic health diseases that health experts say affect Black women at a higher rate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfrican-American women have really been hit hard with heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes,\u201d Pettygrue said. \u201cA lot of these things can be prevented with lifestyle changes. One of the lifestyle changes is movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a plus-sized woman, a lot of people have a stigmatism that we are not fit, not healthy,\u201d Deneice Page said. \u201cBut that\u2019s a myth. Now that I\u2019ve been with Black Girls Run, it has shown me that my body is capable of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group has grown into a close circle where runners of all speeds and backgrounds move together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll be with you every step of the way,\u201d Nwahiri said. \u201cNo sister, no woman, no girl left behind. I absolutely love that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 400 women from BGR! chapters across the country will be in Tampa Bay this weekend to run The Gasparilla Distance Classic.<\/p>\n<p>Share Your Story with Kyle Burger<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/KyleBurger.png\"\/><br \/>For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.<br \/>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ANNETTE.GUTIERREZ.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Largo family loses home in morning fire, forced to start over<\/p>\n<p>Mother and her nonverbal son with autism 20 escape safely as the home is condemned; community steps in to help with housing and recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Largo family loses home in morning fire, forced to start over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Gasparilla Distance Classic will be the national meet-up for the Black Girls RUN! Tampa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,11150,75875,66723,75876,7228,135,9659,137,136,208,9661],"class_list":["post-158322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-abc-action-news","tag-abc-action-news-sports","tag-black-girls-run","tag-gasparilla-distance-classic","tag-meet-up","tag-run","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-sports","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts","tag-wfts-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}