Margie Brown has been running a lot over the past three years. She’s competed in triathlons, run a half marathon and even founded a run group. So it often surprises people when Brown says she doesn’t actually like running.
“There is no joy in running for me,” says Brown, 52. “I have never had a runners’ high. I have never thought: Oh, I can’t wait to get my running shoes on and go. I don’t like it. If World Triathlon said: ‘We’re taking out the run and we’re going to put in burpees,’ I would be like: Sounds amazing.”
Brown played soccer as a kid, but never enjoyed the running that came with it. She has unpleasant memories of the fitness tests she was required to complete in gym class. In her late 30s, when many of her colleagues took up running, she thought they were crazy — but figured it wasn’t fair to judge without understanding the appeal. She found a learn-to-run plan online and gave it a try. She didn’t like it.
About a decade later, Brown began noticing social media posts about women training for triathlons through Just Tri It, a 12-week program designed for women. As with running, she felt compelled to understand the hype. She took swimming lessons, borrowed a bike from her brother, dug up another learn-to-run plan and signed up for JTI’s 2023 cohort.
From the moment she attended the program’s kickoff session, Brown felt she belonged.
“Everything is high fives and good job, and it’s just really a warm and welcoming and beautiful environment,” she says.
“In my first year, I did breaststroke, I just couldn’t figure out how to do freestyle. And everybody was like: If that’s where you’re at, that’s where you’re at. Nobody said: Oh, you can’t do it so you can’t do a triathlon. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, you just go and there’s people that will support you in whatever you’re doing.”
At the end of the 12-week training block, the JTI cohort participates in a triathlon. Brown says crossing the finish line felt surreal. “I remember coming across the finish line and thinking: I just did a triathlon, what the heck!?”
Brown still didn’t like running, but she loved the challenge of training for events, working towards goals — and, most of all, the community she’s found.
That community rallied around her in 2023, when Brown and some JTI teammates completed a triathlon in Martensville. After the race, she began to feel seriously unwell.
“We were just talking in the parking lot at the end of it and I knew: Something’s not right. I looked at my person and I said: Am I having a stroke?”
She was driven to a Saskatoon hospital, where a CT scan revealed a golf ball-sized mass embedded in the left side of her brain. Doctors told Brown it may have been there for years and only became symptomatic due to the physical exertion and dehydration she experienced that day. Surgery was scheduled.
On the day of the operation, Brown learned later that found some comfort in learning her neurophysiologist was also a JTI alumna. “Over 2,000 women have gone through this program – we’re everywhere,” says Brown.
Months later, when Brown was cleared to resume physical activity, she admitted to a JTI teammate that she was scared to start again. What if she got sick or something happened? Four women from the program committed to running with her.
“We went out once a week. And I could walk for two minutes and run for one. I had just lost all my endurance. And they just ran with me and we did whatever we could so I could build up again,” Brown says. “It’s because of them that I started again.”
Brown now has annual MRIs to ensure the growth hasn’t returned and remains healthy, though she dealt with a knee injury last year. With the support of her community, she ran her first half marathon at the 2025 Queen City Marathon weekend and founded YXE Slow AF Run Club, a welcoming space for runners who may feel intimidated by faster-paced groups. She has also stepped into the role of program director for JTI’s 2026 cohort, hoping to help others find their people — even if they don’t love running.
“We’re never too old to start something, to try something new. With JTI, nobody’s going to let anybody fall. Everyone’s super supportive,” she says. “Anybody who wants to try something, come and try it. Even if you don’t like all three disciplines – which is often the case with triathletes. Running has never excited me, but I try to be a good ambassador for running. And I show people that even if you don’t love it, you can still do it.”
The 2026 JTI program runs from March 30 to June 22. For more information and to register, visit their website.
