For You

A candid conversation with the co-chair of the Running Industry Diversity Coalition Alison Désir is changing running for the better. Her journey as a runner began, like so many do, as a personal challenge. But after completing her first marathon, she wanted to help others achieve the same experience and started a community group, Run Harlem, that continues to thrive today. Désir has been a force in the movement for improved access and racial inclusion in road running, and she currently co-chairs the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC), an organization that is working to “create a more equitable and inclusive running industry where race, religion, gender identity, sexuality, immigration status, socioeconomic status, and ability do not serve as barriers for full enjoyment.” “We are looking at the ways that historically, Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) have been made invisible in this industry, both in the community and in positions of power,” Désir said of RIDC’s work. The group has recently earned non-profit status and a search for an executive director is ongoing. RIDC provides resources and education for events and race directors who want to produce inclusive, safe and welcoming events for all. The running world has long been an overwhelmingly white space, and Désir’s voice is one of many now working to change that. She’s currently writing a book about the experience of BIPOC participants in the sport and revisits the last running boom through their experience. In 2021, she was named Director of Sports Advocacy for Seattle-based women’s running brand Oiselle. In 2022, she received Running USA’s first Award of Excellence for her work in the running space. I was grateful for the chance to sit down with Alison Désir to discuss how race directors can take the first steps to improve their events, building community at Oiselle, and much more. Read on to join the conversation. (Ed. note: Interview questions and responses have been condensed for clarity.) Running USA: You are the Director of Sports Advocacy at Oiselle.  Tell us about what that means and what you're working on? Alison Désir: My role really has three parts to it. There's the internal piece, which is about really looking at employee culture, and what is the language that we're using? What are our values? And how do we create connection and trust internally? The second piece is about the Oiselle Volée. The Volée is a 3500-member, women-only global organization. It's folks from all walks of life who love the brand and love the sport. And so part of my role is really about how we can grow the Volée, either in terms of depth of what we're offering the membership or width (of participation). I believe that the Volée could have 100,000 members. It’s a space for women to connect and talk about clothes, but also talk about life issues and improving the sport. The last piece is about growing Oiselle to everybody. Oiselle is a small but fierce and growing women's brand. Being there, I realized just how unique that is. Everybody at the organization identifies as a woman. There are not many companies that can say the same. And what are the ways that we can get this message across? Our values are to make great products, improve the sport, and really do good. So how can we share this message with more folks? Roughly speaking, that's what I'm here to do. When you're talking about the Volée, how do you become part of this group? AD: The Volée has changed over the past several years. It's now over 10 years old. Initially, it was a brand ambassador group and people applied to represent the brand. But what we've realized over the years is that people were making really strong connections. And it was more than just this outward facing ambassadorship. It was more like a life changing community. The Volée is open to all. Now we have two seasons of openings. We're hoping to move to a model where you can join whenever. It’s $120 for the year, but there are many sponsorship spots available. If a community of women movers and shakers and activists sounds like something you want to be part of, don't worry about the cost. If that's a problem, just please apply. There are sponsored scholarships, so you can join. You've been very personally out in front leading the charge for running to be a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable space. What do you think the running industry needs to continue to do or needs to do that they haven't done to make that happen? AD: It's been really exciting. It's been really exhausting. It's been really frustrating. It's been all those things. I feel very privileged, though, to be in this position of connector and community builder within the industry. Before this, talking to a CEO was not really something I did. And now, It’s “hey Jim, hey Sally.” I recognize my privilege to be in those spaces. I also really honor and respect the folks that are in those (leadership) positions that recognize that it's important, that they have to be on these calls and involved in this work. At the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC), we're right now undergoing a strategic planning process, something I've never done, but it's really helping us hone in on what we're here to do, which is really talk about racial equity from an intersectional lens. We are looking at the ways that historically, Black, Indigenous, people of color have been made invisible in this industry, both in the community and in positions of power. We're doing this strategic planning to really think about what our goals are for next year, what are our goals for five years, 10 years? Thankfully, we've gotten some massive financial contributions. We are now a 501c3. And this money from – well, I can't reveal it just yet. But brands are realizing that this is important. It's important to have an organization that is focused on racial equity, that's focused on education and training, that's focused on providing talent, pipeline and job opportunities and creating new race directors who are people of color. Within a few months, we hope to have an executive director, and we've got some money to do the work that we do. I won't be (RIDC) co-chair forever, I'm realizing I will need to step away, because it's a lot of work. But I feel really good that we are setting up this permanent organization to be a respected and meaningful part of the industry. You have a compelling personal story about why you started running, can you share that? AD: Growing up, I had been a 400 and 4x400 meter runner. And it's so funny because I had these pipe dreams of being an Olympian. And now that I have actual friends who are Olympians, I'm like, I had no freaking idea. There is no chance in hell that I could have achieved that, because you have to want it in a way that I just did not want it. Anyway, so I was a 400, 4x400 meter runner. And then I went to school and life happened. I found myself in 2011/2012, very depressed. I could not find a job, I was in a really bad relationship. My father was very sick with Lewy body dementia. I was at home all the time. It felt like I was watching other people lead their lives. But thankfully, one of those people I saw was a Black guy who was training for a marathon. And this to me, really brings the point home about the importance of representation. Because I saw a Black person running and I was like, ‘this guy doesn't look like a runner.’ He was super average looking. I thought marathoners were skinny white guys. So he drew my attention. And I saw him do something that I thought that people like me didn't do. So I decided I'm going to give this a try. And like so many people can attest to, just the transformation in terms of seeing what was possible for me. Breaking up something really hard into little parts was a perspective that I began to apply outside of my life. So I ran my first marathon. Shout out to the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. And I raised over $5,000, and I decided, I want to build this community for people like me. At that time, and it's changing now, but the conversation around mental health was even more taboo. I wanted to put this front and center about the connection between mental and physical health. And then, of course, me being me, I went back to school and got my master's in counseling psychology. I always feel like I need to be the expert in things. And that's where I started off in building a community that was centered in mental health and really in racial justice, making sure that folks like me were out there running. I know we talked about this a while back, but you started the Harlem Run running movement. So how did you go from your first marathon to building out a community? AD: It was very, very slow. And not glamorous at first. I had been blogging about how amazing the (marathon) experience was. And I felt like, why am I just talking about this? Let me actually create this. So I started in November of 2013. For four months, nobody was showing up. It was just me every Monday. I would post photos of random people's feet so that it looked like there were people. There were a lot of sad calls to my mom at seven o'clock, crying, ‘nobody's showing up!’ But I just kept showing up. People really can become fanatical about running when you've had that first positive experience, and I felt like I needed to share it. And so that just kept me going. I was like, I know that people are going to love this when they show up. So I'm just going to keep showing up. And sure enough, within six months, there was one person and then five people and then a year and a half later, there's 150 people. Now, I live on the West Coast, in Seattle. But Harlem Run is still running and we now have a leadership team. That's a beautiful thing. They've embraced it as their own community, their own movement. I take pride in that it's never been about me. It's been about other people having that experience. Tell us about your book, which I understand will be out this fall? AD: Yes, “Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport that Wasn’t Built for Us” is now available. It tells my personal narrative, but it also tells the running boom story from a different lens and centers the experience of Black and Brown folks in running. I hope that this book opens eyes to the reality of the BIPOC running experience, and also offers tools around what we can do to make this space more inclusive. Where can runners and readers find it for preorder? AD: The best place to preorder is at Penguin Random House. I hope that it's something that everybody buys, and it gets on the New York Times bestseller list. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know you’re busy, but it’s always great to catch up with you.

A few years ago, when Tash Acres was training for a half-marathon, she looked at the cheap medals and t-shirts from past races, saw how they piled up, and thought there had to be a better way. Her family was trying to eliminate waste in their lives and focus on their role in the environment, but she couldn’t find an event that didn’t add to the pile of stuff. Many avid runners have had a similar thought, staring at their stack of race memorabilia sitting in a corner or box. Acres’ original project was to plant trees for every virtual race athletes ran, but “people still want something tangible,” she said. And that’s how the concept of a plant-able medal was born. At first, she just created the biodegradable medals for her own virtual challenges, but today Earth Runs delivers biodegradable medals with seeds embedded in them to other small races in the UK and Ireland, each one hand-made from partners at nonprofit organizations. “I like medals. I’ve had medals in my time, but then I don’t know what to do with them after,” she said. It’s a growing sentiment. With runners spending so much of their time outside, there’s an increasing concern about the impact that time is having on the outdoors. One study found that a marathon runner, on average, emits .7 tons of CO2 equivalent—with that number going past 4 tons if it involves a trans-oceanic flight to the race. While there are entire fields of study devoted to creating sustainable best practices for events, the merchandise, trash, and stuff you hand out is one of the most visible pieces to runners—and one of the most frequently asked about. A longtime industry vendor perspective Leslie Jordan, Inc., a Certified Women’s Business Enterprise out of Portland, Oregon, is among the apparel manufacturers that have made efforts to diversify their products and offer green packing and shipping options. “We offer all our moisture wicking polyester fabrics in a recycled option. Even our blend shirts (triblend, poly/rayon, poly/cotton) can be made with recycled poly material,’ shares Jena Bakkum, sales lead for LJI. “Our shipping boxes are made from recycled materials, with help from the ‘Sourcing for Sustainable Forestry Initiative.’ We discourage all poly bagging of apparel and use bulk folding. For fulfillment we use recycled shredded paper as filler instead of bubble wrap and recycled mailers whenever possible” LJI has found that the most popular items in demand from participants are recycled shirts. But they come at a cost. “Recycled options are more expensive so races may need to increase registration costs to balance the need and request for recycled shirts,” said Bakkum. On the flip side of that equation, races may consider letting athletes opt out of certain swag items, rather than paying more. “he trend we are seeing is making shirts and medals optional ‘for purchase,’ so there is little to no waste in manufacturing and landfill,” Bakkum noted. Sustainable principles and tips for your next race When it comes to considering the environmental impact of your race, the Council for Responsible Sport’s guide to hosting responsible events recommends going through your race and asking: Do we need this thing? Can we have less of this thing? Does it generate trash? Is there a more sustainable option? And how can we integrate sustainability into every aspect—for example, building compost plans into aid stations and eliminating trash in the expo, or making it part of vendor contract agreements? When it comes to sustainability practices, said Aly Criscuolo, sustainability and corporate social responsibility director for the New York Road Runners, there are both behind-the-scenes things like switching to electric generators instead of gas, which can have a large impact but be unknown, and also highly visible things, like eliminating medals or moving to recycled medals, which can give runners a way to buy-in to the overall effort. “We have to do both,” she said. 1. Reduce and reuse “No matter how sustainable you make a produce, it’s not as sustainable as not buying something new,” said Criscuolo. That’s why best practice s first to figure out how you can reduce overall materials. Anything that can be reused is ideal: Don’t put dates on signage or on t-shirts so they can be used in the future. Reusable water bottles, bib magnets instead of pins (if you can reuse them year after year) all helps. Big caveat: If you invest in reusable cups or signage and then just throw it out the next year, that doesn’t do much good. Many big races have also worked through their trash lifecycle to eliminate waste. For example, the Chicago Marathon tested separating plastic water bottles out for recycling, using compostable cups that could be gathered up after the race, and working with a company that could make composite board products from the foil heats sheets given to runners at the finish line. The Council for Responsible Sport also recommends working with local vendors and vendors who already build sustainable practices into their business—partially because if you work with a local vendor who can print additional t-shirts, for example, on demand then you’re less likely to have extras wasted, and partially because local vendors eliminate the need for shipping and transport. 2. Give athletes options You can also give athletes a simple box to check in the registration flow. They can opt out of a medal or t-shirt for a slight discount on their race entry—which could also save you money. Or you can partner with a nonprofit organization to allow them to donate the amount instead. NYRR partners with Mastercard to plant trees for those who opt out of the t-shirt or medal for their Mini 10K and have planted over 800 trees, said Criscuolo. While there are ways to get creative encouraging carpooling and opting for virtual goodie bags, another simple popular option is allowing athletes to buy carbon offsets. The Cherry Blossom 10K in DC used to ask runners to donate the amount of a subway ride if they chose to drive instead of take the train, but then switched to a simple option for any runner to donate $5 to purchase carbon offsets and saw a large increase when they gave athletes that simple choice. There are some things in race management that are avoidable, said Criscuolo, but traveling to the race isn’t. By definition, you want athletes to come to your race. This is where carbon offsets or donations can be useful. 3. Do your research If you’re going to use carbon offsets, then verify that the company is certified, for example by Gold Standard, said Criscuolo. If you’re going to have a company plant trees, then make sure the organization will maintain those plantings, not just stick a tree in the ground and leave, she said. There are many recycled and sustainable material merchandising options, such as sustainable fibers for t-shirts and wood or recycled metals for medals. NYRR uses recycled steel now, and many trail races have success with wood. But the best practice is using as much upcycling as possible—which means taking something that would be trash and putting it to a higher use. For example, some bike races will use old bike parts to make medals or integrate a cup into their medal. Or, you can use programs like Earth Runs or Trees Not Tees. Do the research for what makes sense for your event. All of this can be a little confusing, of course, which is why Criscuolo recommends reaching out to organizations and experts, like the Council for Responsible Sport or the Green Sport Alliance. They’re often happy to help or think through your plans. One of the most common mistakes she sees race directors or event organizers make is to do something quick that they hope is more sustainable, but it actually isn’t, like trying to compost stuff that isn’t compostable or not knowing if recycling is really the best option in their local trash system. “There are lots of resources and people who want to help,” she said. Use them. 4. Communicate with your runners Many race directors are worried that if they eliminate medals or t-shirts, athletes will think they’re being cheap and not sign up. The key, said Criscuolo, is communicating. If you’re going to opt for wood or recycled medals, or run cup-free aid stations, then make sure you’re clear with your runners about why you’re doing it. “Runners still want quality,” said Criscuolo, but if the quality is there and they know why you’re making the change, then studies show they will pick the more sustainable option.