Rocksteady Running - Diversity, Inclusion and Equality

Diversity, Inclusion and Equality

Rocksteady Running welcomes everyone to our events and into the broader trail running community. You are welcome and valued regardless of your race, gender, sexual identity, orientation, or preference, religious, spiritual, or political beliefs, socioeconomic status, age, how quickly or slowly you run. We love and respect all beings. We ask all of our participants to be kind, compassionate and open minded, and to help lift up their fellow runners.

Significantly, we believe that we have a unique responsibility to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ individuals, who are underrepresented in trail running, feel welcome and safe. We believe that a more diverse and inclusive trail running community is a better trail running community. We aim to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to share in the transformative and life-affirming experiences that trail and ultra running and racing provides.

OUR COMMITMENT:
Rocksteady Running is committed to identifying and enacting policies that create welcoming, inclusive and safe spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ runners, volunteers, and spectators. We will take responsibility and make amends for the times we have failed to live up to these ideals. We will listen to and take seriously the concerns of our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community members.

MAKING AMENDS:
There have been times in the past where our words and actions have been harmful to underrepresented populations. For this we are truly sorry. We will take responsibility, make amends, ask for forgiveness and work at building trust. Past shortcomings fall squarely on the shoulders of Rocksteady Running leadership.

For many years the Superior Spring Trail Race had a white volunteer who dressed in a hybrid of Civil War and Native American (like) regalia and greeted runners at the turnaround of the 50KM race. While his actions were not encouraged or sanctioned by the event, they were also not discouraged or corrected. In 2017 the event was graciously confronted by an Indigenous participant about this individual. His presence had created confusion and caused hurt among Indigenous participants. While we eventually took action by asking this volunteer to no longer attend the event dressed in this way, we did not do so proactively, or quickly enough, and we never addressed the situation publicly. We were wrong in not doing so. Not only did our Indigenous participants deserve action, but they also deserved a formal public apology. We are sorry for the hurt and confusion that we caused. Furthermore, the running community at large could have benefited from greater transparency and from seeing our organization model appropriate behavior, setting the expectation that we intend for our events to be a safe and welcoming place for Indigenous participants.

In 2019 we shared a piece of artwork (created by others) that depicted Native Americans. The motivation for sharing the piece was that it prominently depicted an iconic part of the Superior racecourse. We did not recognize the significance of some of the imagery – imagery that was hurtful and racist. Ignorance is not an excuse, we recognize that it is our responsibility to be educated and to own our actions. The Indigenous participant who confronted us about the issue with our volunteer a couple of years prior, contacted us about this artwork and we took it down, but again, we did not take accountability at the time and we should have. We were careless, we were wrong for sharing the piece and we are sorry for the hurt that this caused. Again, we missed an opportunity to be a supportive ally, lead and model appropriate behavior for the community.

The Afton Trail Run has used as its logo different imagery of birds of prey over the years; eagles, vultures and hawks. For a couple editions of the race, we used a Thunderbird as the focal point of the race artwork. The thunderbird is a legendary creature in certain Indigenous peoples’ history and culture. While meant to show reverence for the Indigenous people of our state, it was not our place to use this Native symbol and we have discontinued its use.

After the 2019 edition of the Superior Spring Trail race, our race recap was written specifically to highlight the modest amount of, yet beautiful diversity, that does exist at our events. This writeup included references to the diversity of participants as it related to their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc. and was generally intended to pay homage to the awesome, vibrant and unique individuals that make up an RSR race. This was a clumsy attempt to signal “all are welcome here”. A better way of writing this article, while still highlighting the wonderful individuals that make up our events, would have been to more heavily focus on the “similarities” that exist among us as trail runners. We are sorry to those we offended or made feel uncomfortable with this article.

When Rocksteady Running participants, volunteers, crew, family, friends or spectators have concerns, we will listen. We will model behavior that aligns with our values. We will foster a safe and welcoming environment for all.

ENACTING POLICIES:
Rocksteady Running makes financial donations to organizations in many sectors including community and civic groups, religious organizations, trail systems and associations, state parks and more. We have in the past, and will continue in the future, to support organizations and causes that benefit underrepresented populations. Past beneficiaries have included the NAACP, ACLU, Lake Street Council, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s ‘Spirit Run’.

For over a decade we have used a Minneapolis based minority owned business to produce our race t-shirts and a portion of our retail apparel and we will continue to do so in the future. We will continue to look for opportunities to contract with other minority owned businesses.

We feel that it is important to acknowledge that the places we run were inhabited by Indigenous populations prior to colonialism. These lands were often taken through unfair, deceptive, and broken treaties, coercion and force. These lands remain places of cultural and spiritual significance to Indigenous people. It is important to recognize this traumatic history and honor our Indigenous participants’ connection to these lands.

In addition to the policies outlined above, we will continue to look for new ways to remove barriers and welcome underrepresented populations to our events and the broader trail running community.

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For anyone that is facing economic hardship:
We will continue to ensure that economic factors are not a barrier to participation in our events and will formalize and more clearly articulate on our registration pages our longstanding policy of providing entry fee assistance for runners who are in need.

In continued alignment with a primary objective of the event, we will continue to keep registration fees for our Endless Summer Trail Run Series extremely low. These low fees are explicitly intended to keep the races accessible to as many as possible, so that economic factors are not a barrier to participation. The entry fee for each individual series race is $25. We provide a full-fledged race experience including a giveaway, a chip-timed race, tons of experienced and friendly volunteers and refreshments after.

Store Policies

Sometimes our online store is open and sometimes it is closed.
In the busy weeks leading up to and after the larger races that we host, we close down the online store as needed in order to focus on the upcoming race. There are also times in the late Fall, Winter and early Spring where the store will be closed as we shift our focus to other seasonal priorities. Open and close dates will not necessarily be published so the best thing to do is to check back from time to time.

Shipping within the continental United States is always free.
A small shipping and handling fee is built right into each product in the online store to make ordering as simple and straight-forward as possible. We apply a $10 flat-rate shipping fee to orders from Hawaii, Alaska and Canada.

Please allow up to two weeks to receive your item(s) and sorry, we do not offer expedited shipping.
We are not a big company, we don’t have employees, we design, sell and ship all of our own stuff and keep our focus on the quality of our products and interactions. At the same time we are busy planning and executing the races that we direct. As a result, we on average only ship out one day per week.

Returns and Exchanges.
We accept returns and exchanges of unused / unworn items within 30 days of purchase but you pay for all shipping after the initial purchase (shipping back to us and the shipping associated with exchanges.) There will be periods where we cannot process returns or exchanges due to being away at the races that we direct OR seasonally as we focus on other priorities but we will be happy to get you taken care of as time allows.