Change is happening, it is always happening—as Octavia E. Butler says, “the only lasting truth is change.” Yet, some folks try desperately to keep things the same, uphold the status quo, and stay deep in their dissonance. Take a look around. What are we trying so desperately to hold onto? With record-breaking heatwaves, biodiversity decreasing daily, the cost of living being unattainable for so many—and just the phrase, “cost of living,” who the fuck made that up and why the fuck have we all accepted that to meet our basic needs we must do so to the detriment of every living thing on earth. Some days (many days) I wake up and wonder, how am I expected to exist in this world we have created?

So what does this have to do with running, right? EVERYTHING. Because we can use running as a lens to understand the world and our interconnectedness to everyone and everything. Or we can continue to let running and running culture become commodities under capitalism. Brands selling a lifestyle, selling us on the idea of where we should be running, what distance and speed we should be running, and who we should be doing it with. We should want all the gear, all the medals, the race shirts, and photos. We deserve it. We are entitled to it. But let’s pause and consider for a moment, why are we being told what we should value and who is giving us that message? I have to admit here, I have a very binary way of thinking, which I am working on. However, I absolutely think we don’t need any of those things—yet I also know we do need joy, and those things bring joy to folks (this is me working on my binary thinking). AND what joy can we find when we think about our interconnectedness? Is it possible the value of deepening our connections could be a way out of harmful, oppressive systems, and the foundation of a liberated world? Liberation in that people are free to run when and where they want without fearing for their safety because of their gender identity. Liberation in knowing we are free from racism and zionism and we don’t have to welcome everyone into our spaces if they are not down for collective self-determination. Liberation in that we respect ourselves, each other, and the land we run on and understand when we allow environmental degradation to continue, we allow degradation of ourselves.

The practice of running connects us. Runners know this. Sometimes, when you’re running with your friends, community, crew—you can feel it. The rhythm of breaths and strides sync together, creating a shared experience that can nourish friendships and build communities. And so using running as a lens to understand the world and interconnectedness, we should ask ourselves, “Who do we want to run with?” In the literal sense of course, but metaphorically speaking, who do we want to run with as we create a running culture that reflects an environmental culture and societal culture of attention and awareness, of interdependence and reciprocity. Runners and running has to be more than what our dominant culture of white supremacy wants it to be and we all have a responsibility to collectively make that happen. There has to be more than medals, PRs, shoes, and the accumulation of stuff. Again, as Octavia says, “there is no end to what a living world will demand of you.” Earth is demanding much of us right now and we have to heed her call. The big question is how?

The first thing to understand is there is no one way. There are and will be many ways we as runners can change running culture to have a reverberating effect on other aspects of our lives. For me, reading, listening, and learning about environmentalism and its interconnectedness to politics, gender, race, etc. as well as being in spaces where others have different lived experiences from me have helped me to begin to shape what I think of as ways to be. Inspired by conversations with my friend (while running, of course) who jokes about “putting on our tin hats” but also very much understands when I share that I feel as if I live in a completely different reality than those who think the Democrats are going to save us from fascism, or that the political system is set in stone, or that things are just the way they are and always have been and will continue to be. I laugh when my friend tells me her theory on the people you need in your life—a few of these people on her list include a lawyer, a sailor, and a chef—but I also understand that knowing our skills and strengths and sharing them with the people we want to create change with can build stronger communities because of our interdependence. We can’t create change alone. If there is one theme that I am seeing in Octavia’s Parable series, adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braining Sweetgrass, the environmental educators cohort I participated in last year, the Marxism 101 course I am currently taking, and most recently, the incredibly inspiring film, EARTH SEED: A People’s Journey of Radical Hospitality, it is we need each other. What a fucking concept, right? But it is important to be reminded of this when our culture is one of individualism and commodifying our need for connection.

Bringing this back to running, I ask us again to consider, who do we want to run with? What is the purpose of running if not to connect, move forward, struggle, adapt, and find joy amidst it all? My hope is these conversations and images will be a call to runners to consider within their practice of running how to incorporate a practice of radical hospitality, to borrow a term from People’s Kitchen Collective. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s call to action at the end of Braiding Sweetgrass is, “Whatever our gift, we are called to give it and to dance for the renewal of the world. In return for the privilege of breath.” Consider if we were to share our gifts, and to run for the renewal of the world and for the privilege of breath.

Who do We Want to Run With?

Existing in a State of Awe