About This Movement
What Does "Political" Mean?
the process by which groups of people decide who gets what, when, and how.
The running industry decides your money, your access, your body.
Entry fees price out poor runners. Safety policies ignore women's concerns. Inclusion is marketing, not structural change.
When we organize together to seize that power back, we make running political.
We audit races. We demand accountability. We build collective power to change the industry.
Who We Are
Our Story
We met at Renegade in Oakland. Two runners from different backgrounds. One shared conclusion: the running industry is broken, and it takes all of us to fix it.
We came together because we believe in three things:
Pricing
The Problem: Marathon entry fees now exceed what a full-time minimum wage worker earns in a week. Race organizations hide their financials. Profit margins matter more than who gets to run.
Our Demand: Cap entry fees at 10 hours of local minimum wage labor. Publish annual revenue, charity distributions, and overhead. No more hiding how much runners' money actually reaches nonprofits.
Why: We built this sport. We deserve to know where our money goes and whether we can afford to participate.
People
The Problem: The running industry was designed by and for a narrow version of the runner: thin, able-bodied, fast. Nonbinary runners don't exist in official categories. Para athletes get crumbs while able-bodied runners get prizes. Slower runners are invisible.
Our Demand: Nonbinary divisions. Para athlete prize parity with able-bodied athletes. Reasonable time limits (not 6 hours to finish). Prize distribution proportional to participation, not just speed.
Why: Running belongs to all bodies. A marathoner who runs in 6 hours showed as much courage as one who ran in 3. The industry's silence on who belongs is a choice—we're forcing a different one.
Protection
The Problem: Race organizations profit from our bodies while taking zero responsibility for them. Get pregnant? Lose your entry fee. Get injured month-before? Lose your entry fee. Get harassed at a race? There's no policy, no accountability, no recourse. Staff aren't background-checked. Your safety is not their problem—their profit is.
Our Demand: Pregnancy deferrals with full refunds, no time limit. Medical deferrals with full refunds. Mandatory harassment reporting systems with real consequences. Background checks on all staff. Race liability for athlete safety, not just athlete liability for "participation at own risk."
Why: Races should never force you to choose between your health and your dreams. Every athlete deserves to know the organization won't profit from their injury.
The only way to fix it was through community. By coming together collectively. By refusing to accept the way things are and building power together to change them.
That's what Running Is Political is about.