Fitness influencer Renee Noe ignited a new passion for running during the COVID-19 pandemic when everything in the world seemed bleak.
“I oddly became obsessed with the challenge,” the 22-year-old founder of Noe Bad Vibes told Female Athlete News.
Noe Bad Vibes is an all-women’s running club. It began with 20 participates and is now seeing the likes of 300 to 350 females showing up to run. The club was created to connect females from all walks of life in an inclusive, safe environment, where athletic ability isn’t the main priority.
Renee operates the club’s private Instagram account, where she publishes runs, trails, times, and locations across the United States. She personally approves requests to join.
Just like the pandemic got her started running, the threat of TikTok going away jump started her into action to meet like-minded females in-person.
“I’m a regular girl,” Renee said, which isn’t entirely true.
She graduated from high school a semester early so she could pursue her dream of becoming a model. She moved from her home state of Utah to California in her late teens determined to find her own destiny.
Photo: Renee Noe, submitted
“The initial move was scary because I had $350 in my bank account,” Renee said. “I had never had a job before. My parents were very academically focused. They said you don’t need a job in high school, just work on your academics. I never had a job before; and I graduated high school early to make this dream happen. I was honestly pushed by, kind of, people around me telling me like, you can’t do this.”
She became a Wilhelmina model. And, just as her opportunities started to increase, the pandemic shut everything down.
“Modeling was full-time and then the pandemic hit in 2020; I had just turned 19,” she said.
Renee returned to Utah to ride out the unknown with her family. Her husband, then boyfriend, Conner Noe was also in Utah. They had been friends for about two years prior to the pandemic.
“We never stopped hanging out,” Renee said.
Conner was training for a race. And, Renee enjoyed her time connecting with people on social media. She said she never would have imagined that the first trail run she ever ran with Conner would galvanize a new twist in her life.
“It was my escape because I was not athletic growing up,” Renee said. “I was the least athletic person, like the last person picked in any gym class. But, my husband is really athletic. He played football in college. And, he is always trying something new and challenging himself. And, during the pandemic, he was training for an ultramarathon, which is 100 miles. And, I was just kind of like, ‘I can’t even go a quarter of a mile.’ But, I’ll walk with you. I’ll ride with you. It just naturally kind of got me interested. And, I was bored and running is free and you could go outside. I just naturally kind of fell into it.”
In Renee fashion, she of course, recorded her first moments of what eventually became a healthy addiction to running.
“I felt like I had never been challenged like that before,” she said. “It’s hard, running is really hard. And, you have to keep doing it every day. It just became a cool challenge and something that was an escape, during that time.”
As she shared her running journeys, her social media and in-person community grew. The combination of running and connectedness to like-minded females staved off negative thoughts. She credits running with “saving her life.”
And, by saving her life, she means taking control of her “mental health.”
“I never had depression,” she said. “And, I’m very fortunate to say that. But, I have felt depressed and have felt anxious. Those feelings are normal and valid. I know that running, has like, saved a lot of tears and heartache and hardship, through the mental clarity that comes from running.”
Yet, she still struggles to call herself an athlete. She has competed in marathons and up next is the Orange County half-marathon.
“I still have imposter syndrome,” she said.
Renee said she built up so much confidence prior to the pandemic that she had to do something about it. That’s how her burgeoning social media brand began to flourish.
“TikTok wasn’t a stream of income,” she said. “I started posting four times a day in 2020. There have been three times I haven’t. In my head, it’s like, I post four times a day or nothing. There was so much frustration of going from, ‘oh, I’m making it,’ and then trying to go into something else.”
Sharing her life on social media has its ups and its downs. She’s fine with people expressing their opinions about her, whether they are outdated or there’s some truth. She holds herself to a new standard that is about running the race of life.
“These are my girls,” she said about the females who show up to run with Noe Bad Vibes. “These are my people. It’s all good energy…I didn’t have any sisters. I have a little brother and we’re eight years apart. I felt like I was an only child for a very long time. I always wanted an older sister. I hope that I give off that vibe. It makes my day, when someone comes up to me and says, ‘you got me into running.’ That means so much to me. So, I would hope that I would be looked at like a big sister.”
Photo: Renee Noe leads a Noe Bad Vibes running group.
Running helped chart a new course for her life’s path. She’s branding herself with new ventures, bright colors, lots of positive reflection, but there are hard days.
“I am very spiritual, and some people might not be, and that’s totally fine,” she said. “I feel like anything I can’t do alone; I take it up with the Lord. Go into nature, touch some grass, pray, and put my phone down. (The answer is) not online and it’s not found on social media. If I want to be able to spread that joy, that means I also need to be able to find it. That’s my relationship – in nature with God.”
Last year, she said she had a personal struggle that affected her run. She said she was “crying her eyes out, just angry, and sad.” And, while she finds that to be therapeutic, she added that she doesn’t like to use running as a default to handling negative situations.
“I think people sometimes relate fitness with something bad – I had a hard day or I broke up with my boyfriend,” Renee said. “They go through something hard and then they run. I don’t want running – in my head – to be a negative thing.”
That also could be the psychology major in her. She is getting her bachelor’s degree in psychology in May. She said she’s considering studying sports medicine later in life.
But, in the meantime, she’s in no hurry to rush through life. She enjoys following influencers in fashion, food, and health, specifically neuroscientists, as well as motivational speakers and entrepreneurs.
And, that journey all began with a pandemic, a man, a running date, and social media.
“I post my faith content, my modeling life, things about my husband, and it all just kind of like became this big circle of things I love,” Renee said. “And, things I want to share, just really sharing my life. And, I feel like most people would relate to it.”
Visit Renee’s website to learn more about her Noe Bad Vibes all-women running club.
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