IDEA
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness
SRR aims to provide a healthy, safe, and inclusive environment for all members to enjoy the lifetime benefits of running. It also is an ally for all runners and organizations working toward building inclusive and diverse running communities.
This website contains up to date information about events organized by the SRR IDEA committee and events taking place in the Boston area. It also contains tons of information on organizations and media working towards building inclusive and diverse running communities.
If you are interested in joining the IDEA committee, please drop a line to inclusion@srr.org. The committee is new, evolving, and growing.
Upcoming SRR IDEA Event:
Upcoming IDEA Discussion, Sunday 2/25 3-5pm
We are happy to introduce our next IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness) discussion topic. Previous discussions have centered on gender equality in sports. A suggestion came in to explore the work of Dr. Stacy Sims, exercise physiologist/sports nutritionist and author of the books "ROAR" and “Next Level”. She has directed research programs focusing on female athlete health and performance for women, and has been named one of the top 50 visionaries of the running industry. For this next discussion, we'll focus on "Next Level" which is specifically focused on sports performance in women through menopause and beyond, an area where many gaps currently exist in research. As always, you do not have to read ahead to participate. You could even catch this podcast episode of Hit Play, Not Pause or the TEDx Talk "Women are Not Small Men".
These discussions are an opportunity for our club members to come together informally, listen, and share unique perspectives and experiences on various topics that impact the running community.
Sunday 2/25 3-5pm at the Lavender Room, Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA
Please sign up here: IDEA Discussion - Next Level 2/25'
Upcoming events in the Boston Area
Recommended Runs / Races in the Boston Area
•PIONEERS (26.True Marathon, Anniversary Run, Dear Summer Tour)
Past Events from SRR IDEA
SRR Pride and Juneteenth Night at the Bur Run
SRR Pride at Road of Rainbows
PIONEERS RunCrew Dear Summer tour
We held a discussion on the work of Martinus Evans, author of "Slow AF Run Club". The No Expectations group joined Marathon Sports in late July '23 for his book signing and run club there. It was an honor to meet him. Martinus Evans is the Slow AF Run Club founder, coach, and author. He's the founder of the Slow AF Run Club, an online community of over 10,000 runners worldwide built to inspire, educate, and celebrate the "back of the pack". He's the host of 2 podcasts: 300 Pounds and Running and The Long Run with Martinus and Latoya. He was recently featured a NY Times Article: "One Man's Mission to Make Running Everyone's Sport", and has published his book "The Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run".
We held a discussion to discuss gender inequality in sports, featuring
We held a discussion for members to reflect, process, and discuss the Mile 21 Cheer Zone incident and impact on the running community.
SRR statement in response to Boston Marathon Mile 21 incident
Running While Black: a Conversation Around Race with Alison Désir, a guest on the Keeping Track podcast. This podcast series focuses on women in sport and explores race and running. Désir has now released a powerful memoir by the same title.
We were joined by special guest Elizabeth Emery, the host of Hear Her Sports, to discuss the coverage of women's sports in mainstream sports media, as well as the quality and type of coverage women typically receive. The regularly quoted statistic is that women’s sports receive 4% of coverage in mainstream sports media (and most of that is dominated by basketball and soccer). We talked about what this statistic is specifically referring to, what the future could look like, and why quality coverage matters.
Podcast: Episode 71: Cheryl Cooky Looking into 4% Sports Media Coverage
Podcast: Interview: Dr. Cheryl Cooky on the Study of Televised Women’s Sports
We discussed why the list of US-born Black female runners who have broken 3 hours in the marathon is so short and what we as a running community can do to support Black distance runners. To learn about this topic, we listened to Running Realized: The List, a podcast episode by Knox Robinson and Tina Muir that explores this issue.
Podcast: The List
Alison Désir has become a leader in the running community through her work at Harlem Run, Run 4 all Women, the Running Industry Diversity Coalition, the Meaning through Movement tour, and a number of other organizations and initiatives. We discussed her interview on the Burn It All Down podcast, in which she spoke on the Ahmaud Arbery murder (1:46-26:00 in this episode).
Podcast: Episode 187: The Best of Burn It All Down 2020, Part 2
We used a Runner's World webinar about LGBTQ+ experiences in running as a springboard to open the conversation about ways, as individuals and a club, to make running more inviting and welcoming to people in the LGBTQ+ community. This webinar challenges runners to think about the variety of ways that running clubs make people feel excluded (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.), urging us to be more proactively inclusive (e.g., trans-friendly race policies),
Webinar: Running Proud: A Live Discussion About the Experiences of LGBTQ+ Runners
Gwen Berry is a U.S. hammer thrower who won gold at the 2019 Pan Am Games. At the end of the medal ceremony, she raised her fist in an act of protest echoing Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games. She subsequently received a 12-month probation and lost sponsorships. We discussed how her story has renewed dialogue about the relationship between sports and social justice. Is it fair to ask athletes—especially athletes of color—to be apolitical in competition and on the podium?
Podcast: Episode 20 Gwen Berry on Podium Protests
Article: I Used the Podium to Protest. The Olympic Committee Punished Me
Recommended for watching, listening or reading
People and organizations promoting an inclusive running community in Boston and beyond:
Boston Running Collaborative through the Boston Athletic Association
Jake Fedorowski - Guide to Non-Binary Inclusion in Running and Non-Binary Racing Database
Books:
Running While Black by Allison Mariella Desir
Up To Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes by Christine Yu
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World by Lauren Fleshman
Suggested Readings:
This is Not The End (Tracksmith Blog on Juneteenth)
Controversy on Mile 21 of Boston Marathon (Fig City News)
Personal experiences and perceptions captured in 11 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Runners Speak Out About Running and Race.
Raising Voices of BIPOC Women Runners: A compilation posted on the Himalaya app by SRR Cherie Turner.
Fast Women: newsletter by Alison Wade points towards resources on diversity and highlights lesser known women in the sport telling their stories.
9 podcast Episodes on Race and Running: Pop Sugar shares a curated list of podcast episodes from a variety of sources, all of which explore the intersection of race and running.
Diversify Your Feed: The website Runner Beans offers an extensive list of Black runners to follow on Instagram and running-related podcasts by BIPOC runners.
Speak Up, Speak Out: A Wish for US Running from a Black Marathoner: Reflections from Courtney Dredden Carter (Oiselle) on how to create change in distance running culture.
Blog interview with Diverse We Run: Carolyn Su, at the instagram account @DiverseWeRun discusses other ways to showcase runners such as runners with disabilities, ultra runners of color, those running to combat violence against Native American Women and more.
What Does an Inclusive Running Community Look Like?: Perspectives from high-school grads from Students Run Philly Style (a free, nonprofit mentoring program).
Allyship resources in How to be an Ally to the Black Running Community include running and run-adjacent groups to follow
Podcast Suggestions:
WBUR Recap of the Mile 21 Incident at Boston Marathon
This podcast series features interviews with Courtney Carter, Oiselle's Advisor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Navajo runner Dinée Dorame.
The Keeping Track podcast by runners Alysia Montano, Molly Huddle, and Roisin McGettigan shares lesser known stories of women in running and track and field, including research on representation on running magazine covers and an interview with Gwen Berry, who was put on probation for protesting racial inequality at the 2019 Pan Am Games.
This episode of the Running on Om podcast features Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Daniel, a Sioux runner who is an advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
In his second appearance on the Rich Roll podcast, Knox Robinson, shares his thoughts and experience as the founding coach of the Black Roses running club in New York City.
Podcasts with Black Hosts:
Other Running Podcasts:
The Long Run, Run Your Mouth, More Than Running, I'll Have Another, Clean Sport, Citius Mag, The Shakeout, and The Morning Shakeout.
SRR’s own Cherie Turner's Women's Running Stories!