By 
The 2022 New York City Marathon will be special for a lot of reasons for Tommie Runz. Not only will it be the sixth time racing the 26.2-mile distance for the 38-year-old, it will also be the culmination of a social media movement he’s dubbed “The Redemption Tour” as he shoots for a big personal best under 2 hours and 45 minutes.
But the journey to this new milestone time was never linear for the burgeoning running social media personality—both in running and, more importantly, in life.
NYC is the final of three marathons on Tommie’s tour this fall, which included the Erie Marathon in Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, on September 11, at which he wanted to nail down a last-minute qualifying time for the 2023 Boston Marathon (check, in 2:55:01). The Chicago Marathon came next in October, which he ran as a training run in 2:56:27. New York City came into the mix when he was invited to run the marathon on behalf of New Balance.
“I decided [trying three marathons this fall] was a good opportunity to just test my limits again even though I thought I’d maybe found them already,” Tommie, real name Thomas Bailey, told Runner’s World. “So I decided to plan it right, have some fun, and hopefully build some fitness as I went along. Also, New York is supposed to be the hardest course of the three, so I thought ‘why not?’”
Once he had his race schedule nailed down, Tommie began to take the social—he has a growing following on Instagram and hosts the YouTube show “PR Project”—and his local running community in Detroit along for the ride. He and his cohost Aaron Barnett have shared training updates on “PR Project,” and Tommie hosted two group runs, dubbed “The Big Ass Long Run,” where around 80 people showed up to run a six- or 10-mile loop with him. He also sold “Redemption Tour” graphic T-shirts.
“Having so many people turn out for those events and buy the shirts definitely showed me my reach was bigger and different than I thought it was,” he says. “In the end, [creating the shirts] felt right because it felt like us and paid homage to the era of hip-hop Black folks grew up on.”
Tommie, who is based in the Detroit area in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and works full-time in the relocation industry, is no stranger to rising up to a challenge. A recovering alcoholic (see link below), he’s only been running since 2018 after committing to getting sober in 2017, when he leaned on his workplace employee assistance program and began to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
As part of his recovery journey, Tommie initially took up lifting before getting into running. He also committed to becoming vegan and later signed up for his first 5K and then his first half marathon, the 2018 Rock ’n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon. He hired Melissa Johnson-White with Luke Humphrey Running, who coached him to a 3:13:30 at the 2019 Detroit Free Press Marathon and then helped him chip away at his 3:05 Boston qualifier goal, which he smashed with his 2:48:43 PR at the 2021 Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio.
Following a disappointing Boston Marathon in April because of injury, Tommie took time to heal before embarking on the Redemption Tour. He’s still coached by Johnson-White and also enlisted professional marathoner Nell Rojas for strength workouts to help him stay injury-free during the Redemption Tour’s three marathons.
“It’s really redemption for myself, and redemption on training, because I felt like my body broke down in training, and I learned from that breakdown,” he says. “We take our bodies for granted until we are in pain or can’t do something. The training and the miles that get us to the marathon is what I feel like I lost and failed at, and doing the extra things like stretching, foam rolling, etc., is what I want redemption on.”
While Tommie has been sharing his health, fitness, and sobriety journey on social media since the beginning, it’s only been in the last couple of years that he started to focus on building relationships with brands such as UCAN, Tracksmith, Gazelle Sports, and FALKE, in addition to launching his podcast, “The RUN EAT SLEEP Show,” in which he mainly interviews elite athletes about their lifestyles as it relates to the sport. His clothing line, Chip Time Running, is another way Tommie tries to identify himself more as a creator in the space rather than as a true influencer.
“I want to continue to keep growing this thing called ‘Tommie Runz,’ but I’m not actively trying to get more followers; I’m just trying to do stuff that I think is cool,” he says. “As a Black guy who is able to make content, and be out here doing interviews and working with brands, I feel that it’s super important for people like me to continue pushing.”
Tommie says that he is especially invested in working with brands that are actively working toward change when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the running industry and community. He shouted out Gazelle Sports as a key player, as co-owner and cofounder Chris Lampen-Crowell is also a cochair for the Running Industry Diversity Coalition.
“The year 2020 reminded everyone that we could die at any moment because of COVID, but for Black folks and minorities, [in light of the tragic murders of] Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, it reminded us that we could also die at any minute, and not just because of COVID,” he says. “I wanted to do something different so that my Black kids [Erin, 15 and Thomas, 12] could see what I’m doing, something with some sense of ownership or pride.”
Tommie added that his son runs cross-country and track. When he talks to him about what Thomas thinks about when he’s struggling or things are tough, Thomas said, “‘Oh, I think about you, I think about what you would do if you were running.’”
Once in New York City this weekend, Tommie will be coleading a shakeout run with Tracksmith in Brooklyn, as he did in Chicago, in addition to a UCAN-sponsored live discussion with Meb Keflezighi at Fleet Feet in Montclair, New Jersey, before lining up for the big day on Sunday.
With everything he’s got on his plate, having only been immersed in the running scene for four years and having jumped into sobriety with two feet only five years ago, Tommie hasn’t lost sight of how far he’s come in running and in life.
He said he wants to let loose at the NYC Marathon, hoping to add an exclamation point to the end of his Redemption Tour in running and life after he got sober.
“I’m looking forward to the crowds, the chaos, and the energy of the New York City Marathon,” he says. “I want to go nuts because I kind of feel like I purposely held back a bit in both of the other marathons for this race.”
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