To anyone else, it may have looked like an unusual gathering: several dozen people in athletic wear, surrounding a bright blue shipping container in Bronzeville.
To Ian Gonzalez, though, it was a testament to three years of hard work. A community built from the ground up. The crowd had come on a cool Sunday morning to celebrate Gonzalez’s business — Last Lap Cornerstore — before its temporary closure in April 2023.
“It was the saddest joy I’ve ever felt,” Gonzalez said. “For the community to come out and say they see me and show the love, that was beautiful.”
The 34-year-old decided that Last Lap, a South Side Black-owned running store in Boxville, had outgrown its portable home. Now, Gonzalez hopes to raise $200,000 to open a brick-and-mortar shop in Hyde Park, bolstering a vibrant running culture there.
“My main focus is to give new runners, especially Black and brown runners, the opportunity to try the sport out, to enjoy the sport, to find themselves in this sport,” Gonzalez said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there’s been a surge of new and expanding diverse running clubs in Chicago. Still, less than 5% of running companies are owned by people of color nationwide, according to the Running Industry Diversity Coalition. Indeed, Last Lap may be the only Black-owned running store on the South Side, according to Build Bronzeville, a community organization that leads the Boxville initiative.
“(The running) industry, which is predominantly white, can be extremely hard to break into,” said Sandria Washington, the director of engagements and partnerships at Build Bronzeville. “I think what he’s shown is that there’s a community and there’s a space for runners of color.”
Boxville, a cluster of small businesses located in shipping containers in Bronzeville, seeks to uplift minority entrepreneurs who otherwise may not have a clear path to business ownership, Washington said.
Gonzalez, of Woodlawn, founded Last Lap in 2021. He used all of his savings to open, about $8,000, much of it from stimulus and unemployment checks.
Gonzalez’s 2 ½ years in business were far from easy. He often struggled to afford rent, to buy groceries or pay his phone bill. But it was worth it, Gonzalez said, to cultivate an inclusive South Side running community.
“These runners had a glass ceiling,” he said. “So many of us had to leave our community to get the basic necessities needed for running.”
Eight years ago, Gonzalez hadn’t considered himself an entrepreneur — or a runner. He had shuffled through various odd jobs, eventually working at a Nike store in Bucktown. Suddenly, he was surrounded by runners.
Running seemed like a foreign concept to Gonzalez. He had not been an athlete growing up, and rarely saw people partaking in the sport in his own neighborhood. But when he saw his co-workers running marathons, he laced up his own shoes.
“I just, like, got bit by the bug,” Gonzalez said. “I saw regular people training for this for this crazy amount of distance, and I was like, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.'”
It began with 1 mile, then 5, then his routes crept into the double digits. He signed up for the 2018 Chicago Marathon soon after.
“It’s addictive,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t know I could push myself like that. Every week, I surpassed a new limitation I set for myself.”
He ran the city’s marathon in about five hours — not that timing mattered. What mattered was the cheering crowds lining the street. The exhilarating rush as he sprinted across the finish line.
“I’ve been different ever since that day,” Gonzalez said. “The things that seemed impossible before seem so possible now.”
Gonzalez eventually left Nike, but he couldn’t shake his love of running. He started gathering with friends in Douglas to run on weekends. When increasingly more people joined, he found himself leading a running club. He dubbed the group 7onSundays.
Longtime Chicago Lawn resident Beto Cespedes had never heard of running clubs on the South Side. When a friend connected him to 7onSundays in 2021, he couldn’t stay away.
“You just get to know a lot of beautiful human beings in that group,” said Cespedes, who is originally from Mexico. “The camaraderie is amazing.”
Gonzalez is emblematic of the club’s culture, Cespedes added. He’s welcoming and approachable, encouraging people of all backgrounds and paces to join.
“He’s a really great coach,” Cespedes said. “He just wants to support us.”
But for Gonzalez, something was still missing. The subtle exclusion of runners on the South Side remained so pronounced, he said. There were always running groups and races in the northern parts of the city. Rarely, however, were there events in his community. And, at the time, the closest athletic apparel store was Dick’s Sporting Goods, which offered little specialty running gear.
Gonzalez said he came up with the idea for Last Lap in just a day. It seemed like a clear solution to the divide.
“I started to think, ‘What do I want my life to look like?'” Gonzalez said. “I just took it one day at a time and was like, ‘How do I start?'”
Last Lap, along with 7onSundays, quickly became South Side fixtures, Washington said.
“You don’t always see images of people of color running down our main streets,” Washington said. “Just seeing this group of Black and brown women and men running, all different ages, body types, that’s really powerful.”
It hasn’t been easy since Gonzalez closed the store. He’s struggled to find work while juggling business promotion, fundraising and property tours.
Earlier this month, Gonzalez was featured in a Brooks Running documentary series highlighting minority-owned running stores. The company helped him launch a GoFundMe to kick-start a fundraising campaign. The $200,000 accounts for Last Lap’s new storefront, product, two employees and a modest salary for Gonzalez, he said.
There’s no timeline yet for reopening. It’s all dependent on when Gonzalez can afford a new space. But he’s hopeful that he can continue the mission he started in Boxville three years ago.
“I love this community, and I love creating space for runners of all different backgrounds,” Gonzalez said. “My relationship with running has now changed in the sense that it allows me to be a servant to my community.”
