Jake Fedorowski loves to run.
The marathon enthusiast views the sport as their ultimate escape, and the best way to connect with their body and the world around them. But for the first several years of Fedorowski’s adult life, they encountered one big problem whenever they stepped onto the starting line of any road race.
They were constantly misgendered! There were distinct male and female divisions, but nothing for nonbinary people. The continued slights spurred Fedorowski into action.
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Two years ago, they published the guide to nonbinary inclusion in running. The 24-page manual covers every topic from how to normalize the use of pronouns to creating safe environments for all participants.
The San Francisco Marathon was the first major race to adopt the nonbinary guide; and today, five of the six major marathons in the world feature nonbinary divisions.
As executive director of the Queer Running Society–a group dedicated to elevating the queer running experience–Fedorowski knows the impact of their work firsthand. They’ve fostered a strong queer running community from coast-to-coast.
“Doing this kind of work, being the one who’s constantly disrupting the system is exhausting and challenging in every way imaginable. It’s the support that’s behind me, and behind all of us, that continues to fuel me,” they said. “The community provides support, love, protection, and all of the things you need to be an effective advocate.”
With summertime, and outdoor running season, in full swing, Queerty recently caught up with Fedorowski to chat about misconceptions around nonbinary athletes, opting for Judith Butler over pop divas on the course and their cheeky drag persona. Here’s what they had to say…
QUEERTY: When you step up to the starting line as an out nonbinary runner, how do you feel?
JAKE FEDOROWSKI: I feel proud. I’m proud of the work that our community has done to get us to this place. All the advocacy, all of the conversations and sacrifice. All of things that go into building a movement, I’m proud to stand on the starting line and be that physical representation of a nonbinary athlete. There’s also a caveat to it. You feel this responsibility to continue to be that representation and push this movement forward so the next generation doesn’t have to go through this. First it’s pride, then it’s responsibility.
What are the biggest challenges you face?
There are a lot of challenges! You’re fighting a lot of misinformation and hateful rhetoric, things that are hard to change, because it’s this repeated thing in our society. There’s this constant educating and having to sift through these, whatever that is, to get to the core and communicate to people about what we need and are looking for. But what I have found is, most people want to create more inclusive spaces. It’s rare that people don’t. Then it becomes, “How do you do we do that, and what does that look like?”
It’s also challenging to re-define what running is, and who it’s for. A lot of the time, it’s so hyper-competitive and hyper-masculine. It’s always about the top finishers and PRing. But running can be so much more than that, and a lot of us have come to running for those things… and not the PR. It’s re-defining the narrative around running to show it doesn’t have to be about all of those things. When you re-focus the narrative, you get into the weeds of “how do we make that accessible to queer people, BIPOC people or any marginalized community that has historically been pushed away from running?”
What are your biggest successes?
There are some easy numbers: five of the six world majors now have a nonbinary division. You can look at different brands that have brought on nonbinary and queer athletes as part of their ambassador programs. I love to see the queer running statistics. The Atlanta Pride Run earlier this month raised $120,000, which is an enormous amount of money. The New York Pride Run, they’re continuing to sell out with 10,000 participants. It’s just crazy, the people who come together for these events.
I’m really excited by the progress that’s being made in the queer running community. The challenge is getting the larger industry to incorporate those communities.
What’s one misconception about nonbinary runners?
There’s this assumption that we’re slow, and we’re trying to create a division where we can win. And it’s like, “No! We’re trying to create a division where we can participate as our authentic selves.” I get it from race directors all of the time. When I ask them, “Do you have a finishing tape? Do you have lead cyclists? When you’re building your non-binary division, are you creating the same opportunities as you are for the men’s and women’s divisions?,” their response is always, “Well, I just don’t know how we could effectively have a finishing tape later in the race, or have a lead cyclist with the nonbinary frontrunner in the middle of the pack.” And I’m like, “Wait a minute! You’re making an assumption that the nonbinary frontrunner isn’t going to be towards the front. You’re making the assumption these participants are less than, or not as competitive.” I’m like, “Hold on a second!”
What’s been your favorite racing experience?
I always tell people, running for me is all about connection. It’s a connection to my body, it’s a connection to a community, it’s a connection to the land. One of the things that gets me every time is the connection to the community. When I ran the Grandma’s Marathon in Minnesota, it was their inaugural year of having the [nonbinary] division, and I didn’t think there were any other nonbinary athletes. But I brought my flag and was very present and being the representation I needed to be. And as I was coming down the finish street, there was somebody in the crowd yelling, “Come on nonbinary runner!” It shocked me. Then after the race, that person found me on Instagram and reached out to me and said, “Hey, just so you know, I’m a nonbinary person. I ran in the half, but I thought I was going in as the only one. Getting to see you and the flag meant so much to me.”
Even if it’s just one person, realizing the work we’re doing is having an impact and bringing us together and showing we’re not alone. There have been a few moments like that, but that was one of the first ones. I was stunned. Of course, it was at like 26.1 miles! It’s beautiful when those moments of connections happen.
What’s your trick to focusing for all 26.2 miles?
A lot of my training is with people. I’ve been so fortunate to find a wonderful running community here in Seattle. I rarely run alone. That means I don’t typically bring any sort of music with me. If I’m gonna run alone, I’m gonna run with music typically. Now, there have been marathons where I may go with people, but if we’re starting in different waves, I’ll get stuck on my own. Then I’ll bring music.
I’ve been laughing about the most recent situation. It was in Eugene [Oregon], I was listening to music and trying to keep myself pumped up. My music of choice is ballads and drama, singer-songwriter. Not running music. It’s very hard for me to find running music, to the point where I was listening to music during Eugene, and I couldn’t do it anymore, so I turned on a podcast, and started listening to this podcast about gender theory. That’s what got me across the finish line! It was Judith Butler!
I notice your drag persona is “TheyChick.” Who is she?
Growing up, I was always sort of interested in makeup and dresses and long hair. But I never did any of that, because that wasn’t what boys would do, at the time. But now after I’ve found myself, I’ve rediscovered this interest in fashion and modeling and photography and all of the things! And drag! I’m just watching a lot of TikTok videos and tutorials and Drag Race. One day I was like, “I just want to try it.” So I did! I took some videos, took some photos. And I was dreaming up, “OK, if I were a drag queen, what would my name be?” And I landed on “TheyChick.” Growing up, there were two artists who made up my life: Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. The song that has always been one of my anthems is the Chicks’ “Not Ready To Make Nice.” It’s upbeat, it’s all about power. I’ve always thought, “If I’m going to do an inaugural drag performance, it would be to ‘I’m Not Ready To Make Nice.’ And instead of the Chicks, I would incorporate my pronouns and be “TheyChick.” It’s a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!
What’s next for you?
There’s still so much work to do with nonbinary divisions and creating equitable experiences for the participants in those divisions: having award ceremonies, prize money, acknowledgements on social media. But then there’s a flip side. I’ve been thinking about the future of the sport, and how we evolve and make a space where anyone is able to access it and find that connection that I’ve found. I’m working on developing a project in Seattle, which is going to be a new running event. It’s a new marathon in the summer of ’25. It’s basically going to re-define what long distance running means, and who has access to it.There are so many different things I wanted to try and solutions I wanted to implement with races I’ve been working with. But because they’ve been established for so long, it’s been difficult. So I was like, “Why not create something new, and implement those things from the beginning?” Let’s really make it a community-based event. Any person who’s ever been pushed aside in this sport, let’s break down those barriers, and create something new.
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