Hello all! If you’ve never met me before, my name is Gian-Luca Matsuda (pronounced Jon-LOO-Kuh, yes – all one name). I began running with SFR on May 5th of this year. Happy to be here!

In truth, I have no profound reason for getting into running. I enjoy walks outdoors and running on treadmills, so I figured I would just combine the two (although I quickly found out that running outdoors and running on a treadmill are very different). I also want to be able to run another marathon one day!

I grew up a competitive figure skater. I still ice skate 1-2 times a week in Lynnwood, but these days I mostly artistic roller skate – also mostly in Lynnwood – since it’s more accessible with places to skate, hours, and access to equipment and maintenance shops. As a kid, I would run track just as a simple endurance exercise for my ice skating, not competitively or on a team.

Once I stopped competitively skating, running only became an every-now-and-then sort of a thing, although I ran the Vancouver marathon in 2014, which I hope to be able to do once again next year! I knew that I would never be able to really commit to regularly running unless I had some sort of accountability beyond just wanting to, so joining a group seemed to be a good option. I actually met an SFR member almost a year prior to joining and recalled that he’d told me about a LGBTQ running group, so I looked it up. I liked what I saw, so I just decided to buy a membership and show up the next day!

I’ve had the best time being part of SFR! From day one, I was welcomed and never felt othered or out of place, and I was so excited to jump right in, get to know people, and even help with things where I can, such as being able to volunteer for RWWP! One of the things that I am endeavoring to do this year (and beyond) is to get more involved in queer/trans active groups of all sorts, which was a major driving factor in making the decision to attend my first SFR run, and I’m glad I did! I can’t wait to run with you all some more and meet those of you whom I have yet to meet!

Aside from running and skating, I’m big into reading, rock climbing (mostly top rope but I do some bouldering here and there), hiking/outdoor activities, cooking, random trips, music festivals and film. Social Justice and equity are big drivers in my life and have influenced everything I do, from my career to my friendships.

I’m also a standard issue Plant Gay and Dog Gay.

I currently work as a clinical data researcher for UW Medicine, primarily focusing on ambulatory, supply chain and finance data, with a sprinkling of Fred Hutch/SCCA data ingestion work. I’ve been doing that for over a year and a half, since I’d say…the second-to-last term of grad school, which I finished in June of 2022. I spent the entire pandemic getting a Master’s, which I suppose is a better use of my time than being depressed, trapped at home, feeding a White Claw addiction.

Fun Fact: I am not Italian like my name suggests, although it was my maternal great-grandfather’s name (my mom loved her grandfather), and I believe he was.

Another Fun Fact: If you look at my last name and wonder ‘is that an Asian last name?’, it is. I’m half Japanese, but I look almost completely like my mom. Both of my parents are from Latin America though (a final fun fact I guess).

See you on the routes!

A New Adventure, by Gian-Luca Matsuda