As many Americans work to amplify Black voices and promote the Black Lives Matter movement in light of tragic events like the shooting of runner Ahmaud Arbery, many runners are looking for ways to take action beyond voicing their support.
Many large running and racing organizations are also thinking similarly, with leadership members examining ways to promote diversity and inclusion in the cities they serve.
While many of these organizations have existing programs in place, they’re finding that community members aren’t aware of them.
Now is the time to not only spotlight the programs, but also zero in on ways to improve these initiatives in this current moment while large-scale racing hasn’t yet returned amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are nine such programs aiming to make a difference in this regard.
Houston Marathon Foundation
The Houston Marathon Foundation’s (HMF) We Run Houston after-school program works with more than a dozen underserved middle and high schools in the greater Houston area to introduce them to running while creating healthy habits and setting goals. Students who sign up for the program gather between 10 to 13 hours a week, as scheduled by the program coaches, to train for the We Run Houston 5K or the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, which are held in January in conjunction with the Chevron Houston Marathon.
Through the program, the students are provided training gear—which many students can’t afford—and nutrition information. Last year, HMF partnered with Brooks Running and received a grant where Brooks provided 200 pairs of running shoes, as well as sports bras, to participating students. The program also supplies students with Gatorade Endurance to use during their training as well, since it’s the on-course nutrition provided during the races.
HMF covers the race entry fee for the students or schools, and it also provides transportation to and from the race events. And as mentioned previously, the students are provided with coaches, who receive stipends so that they can help facilitate the program. The coach then takes care of planning their schedules and is available for support throughout their training.
“We typically don’t solicit for these coaches; they come to us saying they want to be involved in the program,” said Muffy King, the director, marketing, media and brand of the Houston Marathon Committee. “They see that a lot of these kids might not have somewhere to go after school where they feel safe, and they can offer that even if it’s for a few hours a day through this program.”
In 2020, 394 students from the after-school program participated in the races, with 95 running the half marathon and 305 running the 5K. One student who started running through the program in middle school ran the half marathon as a high school senior this year, and was named a winner of the local CITGO Distinguished Scholar Program for her involvement in cross-country and for running the half marathon two of the years that she was in the program.
HMF typically puts out an application to schools and mostly relies on word of mouth to help get more schools to participate, King said. Leading up to the 2020 race, HMF worked with 16 schools, and currently for 2021, it has had 12 schools apply.
But according to King, HMF is limited to the number of schools that it can have in the program due to budgetary constraints; the organization is currently focused on increasing the amount of funding it receives to assist with this. Adult race participants help on this front via its Run for a Reason charity program, where runners can elect to either fundraise for the Houston Marathon Foundation, or to simply make a donation to the Houston Marathon Foundation.
MOVING FORWARD
King also noted that the Houston Marathon Committee is eager to spotlight the races and the city of Houston for the diverse range of runners it draws every year, especially in light of tragic events like the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve begun marketing with Telemundo and increasing advertising in other places like that that are reaching a different target market because we’re recognizing how much [diversity] makes our city what it is,” King said. “Running has been a stereotypical ‘white person sport’ in other areas for so long. The city of Houston itself is what shapes the diversity that our race and running community has, and it’s something that we should be celebrating and incorporating more into everything that we’re doing. We’re looking at it from a perspective where it could be a really wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our city, the diversity it does have and hopefully being the first major event to come back to running [post-COVID-19] for so many people.”
Atlanta Track Club
According to Rich Kenah, the executive director of the Atlanta Track Club (ATC), the organization has long held the belief that running should be a universally accessible sport. To back that up, ATC invested $400,000 in 2018 to refurbish the track used for warm-ups during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and asked the facility owner, the Atlanta Public Schools, that it would be left open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the community to use it.
Kenah noted that Atlanta is commonly referred to as “Running City USA,” and having these facilities regularly available to all of the city’s demographics is key to helping it live up to this name.
“We recognize that access to facilities to run and walk can be a problem for some communities and some neighborhoods,” Kenah said. “We’ve been pleased to see how it has allowed that neighborhood and all of Atlanta, to get access to a world-class track and field facility. It fits with that feeling and that vision of universal accessibility and it also allowed us to invest in the city’s Olympic legacy for the next generation of Atlantans.”
Outside of specific programming, one way the ATC has set itself apart from other big-city running organizations is that in a world of inflated race registration fees, it’s managed to keep its signature events affordable, at $38-$42 for the iconic Peachtree Road Race 10K and $60-$78 and $80-$98 for the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon and Marathon, respectively. (It’s not uncommon for large-scale 5Ks and 10Ks to cost upwards of $50 these days. Some of the country’s most popular marathons have seen sky-high fee increases as well, such as the Chicago and New York City Marathons, which currently cost $205 and $295 for U.S.-based entrants, respectively.)
ATC also has an active partnership with Back on My Feet (an organization that uses running and community to combat homelessness across the U.S.; more information further below), supporting its members through complimentary entries to its events and with donations of technical running footwear and apparel.
“We are a value driven organization—we like to deliver a premium product in our events, but our price points are all about accessibility for everyone across all socioeconomic backgrounds,” Kenah said.
MOVING FORWARD
Over the next several years, Atlanta Track Club plans to inject resources, like support of the high school coaches through continuing education, into the Atlanta Public Schools’ track and field and cross-country programs. Additionally, it will make improvements on the facilities, like new stands for the horizontal jump pits at the main Atlanta Public Schools track and field facility, a pole vault landing pad, and a high-jump pad for specific high schools.
ATC also tracks the racial diversity of their members, Kenah said, and over the last five years, those who self-identify as African American have doubled at Atlanta Track Club.
“It’s important to note that the work being done to promote aerobic fitness in the African American community in Atlanta has really been led by other organizations like Black Girls Run!, Black Men Run, and South Fulton Running Partners, all of which were born here in Atlanta,” he said. Many ATC members also belong to the Atlanta chapters of Black Girls Run! and Black Men Run, and the groups have a visible presence at ATC’s large races.
“Even so, there is still much more to be done there,” Kenah said. “But we’re proud to work closely with them and to provide solutions from an event and a training program perspective so that all feel to welcome in the local running community and into the national running world.”
Chicago Area Runners Association
Since 2016, the Chicago Area Runners Association (CARA) has offered free 5K events in 14 neighborhood parks throughout Chicago’s south, north and west sides about 40 weeks out of the year through its ’Go Run program. According to Greg Hipp, executive director of CARA, the goal is to reach neighborhoods that do not have access to typical organized running and provide an opportunity that’s not only free, but is accessible geographically, at parks that are located near public transit.
“Cost is not the only barrier of entry to get involved in running—one of the challenges in Chicago running is that there are a lot of incredible events, there’s a great running community, but there are certain parts of the city that don’t really have a lot of access to running events and opportunities,” Hipp said. “It’s about just making running more accessible and getting people connected to the neighborhood parks, which is a great place to build community and just encourage active lifestyles through running and volunteerism.”
According to Hipp, 30% of program participants are under 18, and many participate with their entire families.
“People are bringing out a family of four, they can run with their children, they can push the stroller, or they can run with the dog without worrying about four entry fees of $50 each to do an event,” he said. “I’ve also heard from participants who had never exercised or ran before joining, and some who have gone on to run the Chicago Marathon after starting with these 5Ks.”
MOVING FORWARD
CARA currently provides a free beginning running plan through its website and hopes to advance and be more deliberate in its community outreach while building the running community beyond these ongoing weekend runs. After the runs on May 8 to honor Ahmaud Arbery and bring awareness to his killing, Hipp and the rest of the CARA board began discussions about how to provide diversity, equity and inclusion training to its staff and leaders, and potentially to its whole membership within the Chicago running community.
“That kind of hit home to us at CARA, that we need to be more deliberate and take action. One of the key parts of our mission is making running more accessible and if there are people, especially Black men, who can’t run without being racially profiled, running is not safe and accessible to them,” Hipp said. “The running community needs to accept that we need to get to work, but we have to be in this for the long haul. That’s got to be the difference, that we go from these awareness runs, which last for a moment, to something that we commit to for the long-term. And we need to hold ourselves accountable to that.”
Austin Runners Club
The Austin Runners Club (ARC)—which organizes the Daisy 5K, the Decker Challenge Half Marathon, and the Austin Distance Challenge—currently partners with a national organization called Marathon Kids to provide programming through the Austin public school systems to help elementary-age kids create healthier lives through running and fitness.
Students participating in Marathon Kids set a goal to complete the equivalent of four marathons (or just over 100 miles total) during the school year, which they track using a digital lap-tracking tool called Marathon Kids Connect.
Next year, ARC is aiming for the program’s year-end celebration event to be at the Daisy 5K, which is a family-friendly race day hosted and directed by ARC in May. Along with the 5K, there’s a Daisy Kids mile, which is untimed, and the Daisy Dash, which is timed—providing opportunities to get the entire family involved.
ARC typically donates the majority of the Daisy 5K race profits to Marathon Kids every year (in 2019, they donated $13,100); this year, there was no race because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so ARC pivoted and did a matching fundraiser with club members and participants, which ended up raising $23,000.
MOVING FORWARD
A key change the club is working on is changing the location of the Daisy 5K, which was previously held at Camp Mabry, an Air Force base in Austin. Because you have to have identification to be able to enter the base, ARC found that it that it wasn’t necessarily accessible for kids whose parents or grandparents are undocumented immigrants.
“We have some ideas about where it could be moved to, but it’s hard to make any plans right now with the COVID-19 situation,” said Jen Prince, vice president, ARC. “We are also working to allow various sponsors to provide some race entries for kids who are in the schools that wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford them themselves. We don’t want the cost of a race to be a financial barrier for participating, especially when it serves as a celebration for kids in Austin.”
Prince and Brent Stein, president of ARC, noted that recent events, and even the recent Runner’s World article that shared the experiences of minority runners in the Austin area, have sparked a discussion on how the club’s board can work to improve diversity and inclusion both within ARC and the Austin running community as a whole.
“These stories struck me, because the running community I’m familiar with in Austin is fairly white, and I assumed it’s just that way because that’s who chooses to participate, which I now realize is somewhat of a complacent attitude toward it,” Stein said. “We’re realizing now that that’s not the case—it’s because we haven’t done anything to make it more accessible and that’s got to be something that we take action against and try to make change in that space.”
According to Stein, ARC’s board is in the process of assembling a task force to work to combat racism and increase inclusion in the running community. It aims to do this through education and communication for its members, as well as promoting and increasing representation at its events and on its social media platforms.
“The most important piece is that idea of taking action—we can’t just talk or learn about it—we have to actually do something to make change in our community,” Stein said.
“The real marker of our success is going to be reflecting back next year at this time,” Prince added. “We know that we can have all the conversations we want, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t do something.”
Boston Athletic Association
The Boston Athletic Association (BAA), the organization that puts on the Boston Marathon every year, offers primarily free events in its youth and community engagement program held near public transit to make them more accessible to all. One of these free events is the BAA Relay Challenge; usually held the Saturday prior to the Boston Marathon, the event involves approximately 1,000 students from 20 schools. These students prepare and train at their home schools before participating in the 3,000-meter shuttle-style relay on Boylston Street, in the shadow of the Boston Marathon’s iconic finish line. The BAA provides transportation assistance for schools that need it, and does not charge schools any fees to participate.
“These relays are designed to be non-competitive but rather just give these kids an introduction to team running and let them have fun with it,” said Suzanne Walmsley, director of youth and engagement at the BAA.
Since 1997, the BAA has also partnered with the Boston Middle School Cross-Country program; it works with the Boston Parks and Recreation and Boston Public School Athletic Department to provide a completely free championship event for the middle schools.
These students practice and train at their local schools during the year, and then participate in a free cross-country race that includes boys’ and girls’ championship races, as well as a co-ed relay, held at Franklin Park (which played host to the 1992 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships). Boston Public Schools provides transportation and lunches for the kids for these events, which take place during the school day to ensure that all students are able to participate, as holding events on the weekends can pose challenges for many families.
The BAA also works with area organizations to provide free training and entries to races such as the Road to Wellness 5K and a jamboree at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, both in the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston. The latter event allows kids to informally compete with foam javelins and rubber shot puts, utilize the long jump pit, as well as participate in other running, jumping and moving track-inspired games.
MOVING FORWARD
The BAA has also spoken out about its commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion not just within the community, but also at its signature events, especially in light of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, as it noted in an Instagram post on June 18. New to the 2021 race, the organization has committed five Boston Marathon invitational entries to the National Black Marathoners Association to support its mission and work, Walmsley said.
“Being in Boston, we take our responsibility to the community very seriously, and we’re committed to racial and social justice,” she said. “This includes re-focusing work across the organization from being solely focused on mass participation races to directly supporting the Black community through expanded youth and adult community programming.”
New York Road Runners
New York Road Runners (NYRR) has a variety of programs in place with the goal of making running accessible for people of all ages and abilities, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic backgrounds. It currently offers a number of race entries through Race Free, an initiative that provides race fee assistance for each of its weekly races, as well as the TCS New York City Marathon. Eligibility is based on household income; runners accepted into the program will remain in it for one year and are required to reapply on a yearly basis.
In addition to the Race Free program, NYRR offers discounted rates for its annual membership fee, normally $40 a year, to members 17 years or younger, seniors aged 62 or older, college students, Armed Services members and veterans, and teachers in its youth and community programs.
Additionally, the organization’s Rising New York Road Runners program aims to make running accessible to children of all backgrounds through running and fitness activities. The program, which is free, currently serves 250,000 kids and and can be implemented in schools and community centers in New York City and nationwide.
Recently it launched Active at Home, a free virtual platform for kids to continue their physical education from home. Active at Home also serves participants in its youth wheelchair program, who meet virtually every week. Past program mentors have included five-time TCS New York City Marathon champion Tatyana McFadden and Broadway actress Ali Stroker.
NYRR’s Run for the Future program creates opportunities for young female students of diverse backgrounds from the New York City area by providing an inclusive environment and the necessary resources to strengthen each participant’s physical abilities and self-confidence. Interested runners can apply for this free seven-week program, which combines training for a 5K with mentorship, and each student receives a $2,000 college scholarship after completing the program.
NYRR also has an Open Run program; launched in the summer of 2015, this program brings free weekly runs and walks to diverse local neighborhood parks all over New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey by working with community leaders and volunteers. More than 24,000 participants have attended an NYRR Open Run across 20 NYC-area parks.
MOVING FORWARD
According to Trina Singian, director of media and public relations, the organization plans to initiate a community council to discuss how to leverage its platforms to educate and cultivate more inclusive experiences and programming, starting with the Black running community. It plans to host a virtual race to help raise awareness and funding to support non-profit organizations assisting the Black community, as well as introduce a new Rising New York Road Runners virtual youth event designed to inform and inspire kids to unite in support of Black lives by providing physical, educational and social-emotional activities.
“NYRR is committed to setting an example of diversity, equality and inclusion for our sport and our community, and we recognize that we must do more. We are currently working on a comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion plan that encompasses all sectors of our business, including our events, programs, initiatives and workplace,” Singian said. “We must put our position and influence to good work to support, uplift, drive awareness, and build with the Black community and all Black, indigenous, and people of color through running. We will continue to listen, learn, and implement over the days, weeks, and months ahead, sharing our progress.”
A group from Students Run LA at the Holiday Half Marathon in Pomona, California.
Students Run LA
Students Run LA (SRLA) works with more than 3,200 middle and high school students at 185 predominantly Latino public high schools and community programs across the greater Los Angeles area to train alongside their teachers to complete the Los Angeles Marathon in March. The majority of these students attend schools where 80% of students receive free or reduced-cost meals, and the program’s coaches and leaders include teachers, SRLA alumni, and police officers. SRLA covers the entry fees and provides transportation for students participating in local events, including the L.A. Marathon.
In addition to boasting a 99% finish rate among its student marathoners, SRLA’s annual results show that these participants have a 99% high school graduation rate, with 94% going on to college and 75% being first-generation college students.
MOVING FORWARD
One of the program’s alums, Luis Coronel, now 36, ran his first marathon with SRLA in 2004 at the age of 20, and has since completed six others. Three years after that first marathon, he became involved as a coach at Contreras High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Coronel now works as a math teacher at Polytechnic High School, also within LAUSD, in addition to having served as its SRLA primary leader and coach since 2018. Since taking over the program for the school, he has helped it see significant growth, going from eight participating students to 28 for the 2020 LA Marathon.
“My main goal is to inspire LA’s inner-city and underserved youth to lead active lifestyles and pursue healthy goals,” Coronel said. “In addition to providing mentors and coaches, I would also like to see area clubs and organizations make a better effort to welcome and invite people from these underserved groups to participate in these events. Without a program like SRLA, I think far less LA-area teenagers would be out there running.”
Beyond Monumental
Beyond Monumental, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that supports youth health and wellness programs centered around running, has had a focus on Indianapolis Public Schools—which serves a large number of underprivileged students—since the organization’s inception in 2008.
The Monumental Kids Movement is a seven- to nine-week youth health and wellness program, in which students meet with a “motivator” who serves as a coach and mentor twice a week, before or after school. In addition to run training, it also provides nutrition and general wellness education. The program and race entry fee is free to students, and the organization pays a small stipend to the motivators, who are often either physical education or other teachers from the school itself. Students are typically in the third through eighth grade, though everyone from kindergarten to high school students are involved as well.
At the end of the program, students who have had at least 75% attendance during the session graduate by completing a 5K at either one of its two fall big races, the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon 5K or the Indy Half Marathon at Fort Ben 5K. In 2019, there were 55 schools and about 2,500 students that were involved in the program, and of those 2,500, nearly 1,600 graduated from it.
“In many cases, when they come run the 5K, after experiencing and completing the program, it’s their first time downtown and their first time taking a field trip,” said Jed Cornforth, executive director, Beyond Monumental. “We’ve gotten an incredible amount of positive feedback, and we have a core group of students that come back year after year to participate in the program through their schools.”
Cornforth noted that one of the top challenges of deploying such a program is that in some cases, the students’ basic needs—like having access to transportation to or from school early, or the ability to stay late—aren’t being met. It has also built out and launched virtual tools to be able to host virtual races during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Cornforth acknowledged that that poses challenges with regard to accessibility in underserved markets is still an issue because, in some cases, these students don’t have the necessary electronic devices and internet access needed to participate.
“We’re continuing to work through these challenges with Indianapolis Public Schools and through our annual donations, we’ve been directing money toward health and wellness, particularly for the Monumental Kids Movement Running Program,” he said.
MOVING FORWARD
Additionally, with regard to diversity and inclusion, it is reaching out to diverse clubs and identifying how it can help to enable their growth and success, and choosing its event as a destination that would provide meaningful and impactful experiences for them.
“We’re working directly with organizations such as Black Girls Run! to really have an open dialogue and open communication to listen, learn and understand what their critical needs are to facilitate these relationships,” Cornforth said.
Back on My Feet
Back on My Feet is an organization that uses running and community to combat homelessness across the U.S. In addition to helping its members become physically active with regular run training, the organization helps them tackle next challenges in their lives by assisting with a workforce development and training program that gives them the tools and skills they need to get back into sustainable work and stable housing.
Because homelessness and addiction affects people of all ages from any background in any part of the country, Back on My Feet currently operates in 13 cities, with a member base primarily made up of people between their late 20s into their 50s and 60s. Forty percent of its members have some college education, 20% are women, and 67% identify as Black, indigenous or people of color.
MOVING FORWARD
The organization currently operates in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with plans to launch in Fort Lauderdale later this year. In addition to fundraising and competing World Marathon Major events including the Berlin, Chicago and New York City Marathons, its members have achieved over 7,500 jobs and homes through the organization.
“We are currently not running with members due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’ve been in in touch to ensure they feel supported during this difficult time and by offering special specific alumni workshops and meetings to help them say connected and stay on track,” said Katy Sherratt, chief executive officer, Back on My Feet. “We are also committed to healing the social fabrics of the communities where we operate and breaking the stigmas that our members face, including those related to race and other prejudice. As an organization, we are committed to continuing to serve our members, heal communities, and do our part to address systemic racism in our cities.”
Emilia Benton is a Houston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to Runner’s World, she has contributed health, fitness and wellness content to Women’s Health, SELF, Prevention, Healthline, and the Houston Chronicle, among other publications. She is also an 11-time marathoner, a USATF Level 1-certified running coach, and an avid traveler.
