How Girls On The Go became a fast-growing community for women in Liverpool

When three friends decided to set up a running group for beginners in Liverpool last year, they thought they might bring together a handful of women for weekend park runs.

But just four months later, Girls On The Go has more than 22,000 Instagram followers and it’s grown into a community, helping to make the city a less lonely place for women.

The group still meets every Saturday and Sunday in Sefton Park, and they’re building up to a big 5k charity run next month, but a huge response has seen the idea take on a life of its own and become so much more than first planned.

Stephanie Barney, one of the co-founders explains: “Caitlin, who I knew through Liverpool Uni, originally came up with the idea of starting a running group for beginners.

“We wanted it to be quite small when we set it up but then we found that a lot of girls who came to our runs were telling us they found it really difficult to make friends outside of work or uni, and they felt quite lonely.

“We’d both experienced the same thing, but we thought we were alone in feeling like that – so we started doing more regular runs and more classes.

“We’ve both got a background in events so we decided, with our third co-founder Martin, that we should be doing girl-only events and it just blew up from there.”

The three – Steph, Caitlin Lewing and Martin Mach – launched Girls On The Go on social media in September.

“Martin designed our logo, Steph did our Instagram and TikTok and we’ve never looked back,” says Caitlin. “The sheer number of girls who’ve joined us, and their willingness to make new friends or just learn how to be by themselves and be OK with that, has been amazing.”

Girls On The Go began doing weekly classes alongside its running sessions, covering everything from fitness to make-up masterclasses and wine glass painting, as well as arranging social meet-ups.

There’s over a week of events planned for ‘Galentine’s’ including a ball at Alma de Cuba on Thursday February 8 which has sold more than 700 tickets.

Like everything the community does, the focus will be on women supporting other women. There’ll be stalls for women-only and women-run businesses and a photo booth with £1 from each photo going to Liverpool Women’s Foundation. 

Steph says Girls On The Go is now as much about social support as it is about running, making women feel part of something.

“On our Instagram we do share tips and advice so even though a lot of these women will never meet in person we try to be a hub for resources and just encouraging overall feeling good about yourself.

“A lot of our social media videos show how girls have come alone and made friends at our events because they’re a space for them to feel safe and welcome,”

“Obviously the women who follow us share a lot of the same interests or hobbies,” adds Caitlin, “but even by just pressing a like on one of our photos you’re then connecting with 22,000 other girls.

“People do tell us that, especially since Covid, they don’t feel they have the same social connections and they miss that. Even those small conversations like ‘how has your day been?’ can help our mental health but a lot of people have lost that in their everyday lives. Just knowing that 10,000 girls have the same nighttime routine as you do, or that other girls are feeling lonely and that’s OK, can make a real difference.” 

Since it launched, Girls On The Go has been so successful that the three founders have been approached to start similar communities around the country. They launched their first sub-branch in Birmingham last week and that has sold out all of its events already.

On March 2, the original Liverpool running group will do their second charity run – the Santa Dash was the first – getting members together to join in with the Park Run in Princes Park.

Caitlin says for many it will hopefully be a big goal achieved after lots of weekend sessions. 

“When we started Girls On The Go, we wanted to focus on very beginner level because a lot of other beginner run groups start at 5k whereas we wanted to build up to that milestone. Our Saturday Sefton Park runs are always 1.5k and Sundays go up 0.5k every week until you get to 5k. 

“Our charity run will raise money for RASA Merseyside, which supports anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse. It’s a great charity to support, they’ve helped so many women, and in a week we’ve raised over £2,400 – these girls are incredible!”

Find Girls On The Go at Instagram: @girlsonthegolpool 

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