Creator of Milwaukee run group F.E.A.R. talks community, inspiration in new ASICS campaign

Having a sound body and a sound mind are central to a person’s overall health and wellness. It’s the concept behind global running brand, ASICS, and the focus of their latest campaign – Live Uplifted. This year, ASICS told the stories of five runners from across the country, who use movement to create healthier lifestyles for themselves and for others.

Milwaukee’s own Tenia Fisher is featured in this campaign, as creator of her running group F.E.A.R. – Forget Everything and Run.

“So before FEAR, I was super lost,” Fisher said. “I was a collegiate athlete. I was at the height of my career, but then I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t quite there to be a professional runner. I could have kept training, but then that cost money and I still had to work. So I didn’t know what to do.”

Fisher was coaching, and loved her students, but still felt something was missing.

“That’s your identity. That’s who you are like, ‘Oh, Tenia is a runner.’ That’s who you were for so long. And then now it’s done. In college they hype you up like you’re a pretty big deal and then you’re just down to: ‘Who are you? I don’t know. Who are you?’ So FEAR has helped me get my spark and realize what I’m put here to do. I’m put here to help motivate people, inspire people and to spread this love for running for people and create a community.

HYFIN sat down with Fisher to talk about being an ASICS ambassador and F.E.A.R. – how the group is inspiring others and helping make Milwaukee a safer, more inclusive city for all runners. In between, you’ll also hear from Colleen Connolly, brand & marketing operations people manager at ASICS and clips from the campaign video.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

“In the city, you don’t see a lot of people of color running anyway,” Fisher said. “So it is misconstrued that people of color don’t run or people of color don’t care about their health. And that is what myself and F.E.A.R. try to do to change that narrative. And running has always been a white sport, and it still is, but I’m trying to do my little part here to trying to change that. And then I think healthy can be how you feel as your best self. F.E.A.R. has built confidence by just being encouraging and safe. Everybody that joins is all in the same boat. So don’t get it twisted just because of my story, and you hear I’m this collegiate athlete, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is there to encourage each other and our one goal is to make each other feel safe and to make it to the end.”

          

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW3R-oFRJ0c

ASICS launched its first sound mind, sound body campaign in February 2020. For the Live Uplifted campaign, ASICS switched its focus from athletes to everyday people. Of the other four runners, one is a judge, two are U.S. Marines (one retired), and another has a story similar to Tenia – creating an inner-city run group to connect people and create change.

“It started mostly with our athletes and really just honing in to what makes them tick, how their mind and body need to be in alignment to really succeed,” Connolly said. “Sound mind, sound body is more than just the individual. It’s really the community around them and how do we uplift others. So we worked with our agency, United Entertainment Group, to kick off this campaign and the goal was to find individuals in the region that are living this mentality every single day. The thing about Tenia, and why we continue to pursue that partnership, is she’s so much more than just a leader in running. Her full-time career, she’s a first grade teacher. So at the forefront, she’s affecting our future there and being a leader influencing them every single day in the classroom.”

“When I think about the future of F.E.A.R., I would really like for us to be the model for what Milwaukee can be,” Fisher said in the ASICS video. “We can no longer be labeled as the city that is the most segregated in the nation. We are all moving to help push Milwaukee forward. Just one stride at a time.”

“They put the right five people together,” she told HYFIN. “I think they knew what they were doing. Everybody is just doing their own thing for what their passion is. So whether it’s a run club, whether it’s for veterans, whether it’s for homeless people ware living on Skid Row, whether it’s somebody that is disabled, we all are doing this. Our passion is running. We found a way to make it a purpose to how we can create change.

To learn more about F.E.A.R., click here.

To learn more about Live Uplifted campaign, click here.