#diversity--inclusion

#diversity--inclusion

When you picture Santa Claus, a white, bearded, overweight and jolly man who dashes around delivering gifts to children during the Christmas season probably comes to mind. Yet, not everyone who dons the red suit fits this stereotype. That's what Bethany Cockburn, Borbala Csillag and I learned when we teamed up to study professional Santas. For our study, we looked into how these professional Santas were able to "be" Santa, even if they didn't fully fit the image.

While it's easy to see that trail running and ultrarunning struggle with a lack of diversity, understanding how to address the issue has proven difficult in many sectors of the running space. Recently, the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC) released a guide, " Opening the Path to Trail Running: A Toolkit for Runners, Retailers, and Communities," designed to provide discrete and actionable steps that the running community can take to improve diversity in the sport. The RIDC is a non-profit that has been working to improve racial diversity, equity, and inclusion in running since 2020.