Race Director Hub

In 2022, Born to Adapt became the first ever adaptive athlete-specific trail event. It was created by Race Director and professional athlete Zachary Friedley to increase inclusion, and expand opportunities for adaptive athletes in the trail running community. In 2023, the race expanded to include 2 new distance options giving runners longer goals to work toward. They also created a first-of-its-kind, sliding scale registration pricing structure to reduce financial barriers to participation.

Watch the Born to Adapt Documentary presented by Zachary and Go Sleeves.

Beginning in 2022 the Rut is reserved 40 spots for historically marginalized groups including adaptive; Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC); and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, and more (LGBTQIA2S+) athletes. Additionally the event and its partners are making scholarships available for those athletes who cannot afford the cost of entry. Read the featured story by irunfar.

This leader in environmental stewardship has demonstrated how events can successfully create and support a sense of belonging while also maintaining the highest environmental stewardship practices. Go Beyond created the Trail Mix Fund (a separate non-profit organization) to provide free entries to historically under-served and under-represented communities and to those who cannot afford to race.

This event demonstrates how ultra-distance events can include and create a sense of belonging for adaptive athletes. The event has developed policies and openly shares those policies with other events for the purpose of expanding competitive opportunities for adaptive athletes.  All proceeds from this event support Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sport.

Photographer: Erik Peterson

In 2022, this event provided free entry, support, and coaching by leading ultra-distances coaches to 12 Indigenous Runners from the Apsáalooke Tribe and other Tribes from across the country. While being innovative in inclusivity and belonging, the race also demonstrates the leadership in community coordination and relationship building, as the course traverses through the ancestral lands of the Apsáalooke people, nine private working ranches, and National Forest. Read the featured story from Trail Runner Magazine.

The Run for Salmon demonstrates how an event can educate and organize community action around ecology in need of protection. Check out the Run for Salmon 9 Mini Lessons available on their website for an example of how event organizers can connect education materials to an event course.

Go Beyond Races exhibit great environmental stewardship at the events they organize. Choosing the products and supplies that have the least environmental impact is where Go Beyond begins. Here are some additional examples of interesting resources they have found, and valuable practices they put into place. Go Beyond:

• Uses only plastic dishes are reused at each event’s aid stations.
• Recycles plastic bags from ice and bread into Trex decking.
• Collects runners Tyvek bibs and recycle them through Dupont.
• Encourages participants to save their used gel packages at home and bring them to the races where they are collected (along with those used at the race) and recycled through Terracycle.
• Labels garbage cans at the start/finish area so participants can put their waste into the proper container. Go Beyond then hand-sorts all the waste to recycle or compost everything possible. This ensures they are sending the smallest amount of waste possible to the landfill.
• Encourages and incentives carpooling for runners and volunteers by providing an online tool to coordinate ride-sharing and providing rewards.

In 2022, XTERRA partnered with the City of Avon, CO to prohibit single-use plastic at all events associated with their USA Championship, including the event festival. The event also distributed “virtual swag bags” including creative digital marketing material from sponsors and beneficiaries of the event in place of the traditional bag of flyers and marketing material.

Photo Credit: Miwok Visual Race Report, by Karrie Gaylord

The Miwok 100K is an environmental stewardship leader displaying best practices in recycling, composting and waste minimization. The event was one of the original cupless races, Terracycle is used to recycle nutrition waste, and leftover food is donated to a local shelter.

To address the problem of human waste in the forest, there is a porta-potty at each Aid Station, and MaskIt disposal pouches are provided at each aid station.

Check out the American Trail Running Association article Trail Running Race Sustainability Guidelines and the Case Study above for more examples of how Tia incorporates environmental stewardship into the Miwok 100K.