We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cheryl Kelley-Henderson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cheryl below.
Alright, Cheryl thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
I was initially training to run/walk to help better my own health and wellness as I battled with several health related challenges. After sharing my story on social media and completing multiple races (i.e. 5K, 10K and Half marathons) ladies in my community and those who followed me on social media began to inquire and ask if they could join me. I honestly didn’t think anyone would join me. But to my surprise, after some encouragement from a friend, I invited some ladies to join me along with my best friend Sondra (who was already a very experienced runner). We got together and planned a training program and identified some local races and 13 ladies came along for the journey. After the final race, I thought that was the end. Little did I know the ladies were hooked and many asked, “Cheryl what are we going to do next season?” I realized quickly that this was not just a one-time venture. Run 4our Life had become a tribe of women committed to building healthy habits and running or walking regularly. The next season 35 ladies joined us and we continued to grow. We competed in local races, we hosted a goal-setting clinic to ensure that all of the ladies knew where they were heading and what specific goal they wanted to achieve. My professional background is in education, so I value being informed and ensuring my Run 4our Life ladies were well-informed and armed with a clear goal as they trained for races, and developed their consistent health and wellness habits. So the lesson I learned was this, Don’t be afraid to live your life out loud. As you do, you never know who is being encouraged and motivated by your example!” Now Run 4our Life has 60 ladies who are committed to building healthy habits and are members of our Run 4our Life community.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a native of Memphis, TN, and was born and raised here in the city. While I was extremely active in dance and Color guard while in High school, I was never an athlete. I was in the arts where I sang and played the piano. When I went to graduate school, I knew education was my focus and I knew I wanted to be a teacher. Running became a hobby for me while I was working in Miami, all of my friends were runners. I started running by using the Jeff Galloway (run/walk intervals). When I moved back to Memphis in 2010, I started a small group with my church and we began running together at Audobon park and trained for a 10K. I realized that I enjoyed running and I also enjoyed running in a community. After sharing my run journey, several ladies in my world noticed and expressed an interest. From me sharing my story on social media, Run 4our Life grew from a small group to a non-profit dedicated in supporting ladies as they build health and wellness habits.
We are a group of ladies that meet weekly for group run/walks. When ladies become a part of Run 4our Life, they not only receive a weekend run group, they are educated on all facets of health and fitness. We offer a Goal Setting workshop we season to help ladies identify an area of focus for the season. This session is informative and interactive as we walk each participant through the process of identifying a SMART goal and breaking that goal down into smaller incremental steps to ensure they are able to reach their goal. During the season, we encourage the ladies to attend all group run/walks and to follow the training program that we design for the seasons. Run 4our Life has a very active Facebook page where we ask ladies to post their workouts as a way to remain accountable to their commitment to themselves and to comment and encourage one another. One of the core values of Run 4our Life is that we encourage and support others on their journey.
Run 4our Life also hosts a mixed cardio workshop that we call Witness the Fitness. This is offered twice a year to jumpstart ladies that may not feel ready to run/walk but find more success in a fitness group class. We do believe in educating our ladies so we host several other clinics throughout the season. Topics include safety while running or walking, healthy eating habits for fuel, and how to dress for the various seasons for outdoor activities. We model for ladies various cross-training workouts so that we are balanced in our fitness.
If you were to ask any lady that is a member of Run 4our Life what they enjoy most about our organization, the one resounding response is they love the community. Currently of the 60 ladies that are connected to Run 4our Life 24 are returners which means they have been a part of Run 4our Life for at least one season. 13 of our returners have been a part of all three seasons.
We specialized in beginning runners and getting them from walking to running. Run 4our Life offers training programs for walkers, those who desire to run (using run/walk intervals), and then those transitioning to running further distances. Many of our runners and walkers were never runners. Many joined with the hope of losing weight and being a part of a group. The end result has been many of our beginners have completed 5Ks, 10Ks, and Half marathons, and 3 runners completed their first full marathons in the fall. We pride ourselves on getting our beginners from walking to running in incremental intervals without injury and well-informed.
We’ve found that by providing a community of ladies that are all aiming at their personal goals and are celebrated along the way have been more successful at meeting, reaching, and sometimes exceeding their goals.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
The story of how I met my co-founder is my favorite. Sondra and I went to the same high school. We connected in the choir and instantly decided we were besties and twinkies! We were in choir together and sang in a local community choir. In addition, we both marched in the band and were on the Color Guard throughout high school.
As life has it, we went to college, she went to nursing school and I went to undergraduate and graduate school out of town. When I moved back to Memphis in 2010 we were both happy to be in the same city and began to run together. Sondra knew my bucket list item to complete a Triathlon. She and some of her friends were training and she encouraged me to train along with them. After completing that triathlon, I knew that I wanted to get back into running again regularly. So we decided to run a half marathon a month for 8 months consecutively. While we took our running “tour” together, there were other ladies watching our journey and then later joined Run 4our Life. I knew that I had a strength of organizational leadership and coupled with Sondra’s extensive background in running and competing in races all over the country we would make a great team.
So, I shared the idea with Sondra and said, I really want you to be apart of helping to lead this group. She instantly said yes and we put our heads and hearts together to begin forming, planning, and strategizing the mission, vision, and values of Run 4our Life. This organization has evolved into a movement.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
My backgroud and training has been primarily focused on leadership and education. I realize that while these skill sets do not directly connect to the work that I do as the executive director of Run 4our Life, many of these skills are transferrable to the work that I do as the ED and coach. While I use my education background to ensure that my ladies are knowledgeable about best practices, experiences, resources to lead to a lifestyle of health and wellness, I also use my leadership skills as a coach to keep everyone motivated and focused on their goals. I feel that my transparency and authenticity about my own journey is essential to the success of Run 4our Life. I model and do all that I ask the ladies to do. I attend all workshops, I show up at the weekend runs, I run alongside the ladies. I also celebrate others (just as I ask each lady to do), Sondra, as the co-founder and coach also models authenticity and transparency on her personal health and wellness journey too. We also coach our ambassadors and empower them to lead by example as well. The most helpful success tool is sharing the journey with our tribe.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/run4our_life?igshid=YmMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/groups/54770794347703/?ref=share&mibextid=unz460
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-kelley-henderson-ph-d-74323b19
Image Credits
Brittany Brooks Casey Chatman Charlise Woodson Cheryl Kelley-Henderson Eula Taliaferro Faye Pulliam Genniece Bennett Gwen Williams Jacqueline Osby Kathalene Taylor-White Kenniece Bennett Krystal O’Neal Linda Kelley-Martin Lindsey Clark Marlencia Walker Sandra Hoof Sherry Lowe Sondra Dockery Tamika Hamer Taureaun Harris Tia Burnett Toneka Cole Toria Brown Wendy Hannah Yoshiko Jackson