Running While Black

What are we really fighting for?

Alison Mariella Désir — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:39:12 GMT

I’ve been writing this piece in my head for a few weeks now. I’ve decided to finally get it out - and so its coming out imperfectly (as always) but hopefully more fully baked than when it first started percolating.

(For all of my subscribers, I’m also trying to be really mindful about writing only when I have something meaningful to say (which I hope will be at least twice a month lol). I listened to a clip of an author recently talk about the way that platforms like substack create a pressure to produce, produce, produce - and that’s not really how creativity works; that’s how extractive capitalism works.)

Trail running is having a major moment right now. Brands are exploiting every opportunity to capitalize on it that they can. White women are thriving and breaking records. And Black people are more and more being used as tokens and proof that things aren’t quite so bad in the trail running industry even though we have limited access to resources, opportunity, and hardly any power within it at all.

Trail Running Culture is not worth preserving

Alison Mariella Désir — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:32:05 GMT

The start of a trail race Harlem Run members participated in back in 2018 (I believe). The only Black people on site race weekend were the people from our group and another that Under Armour brought as part of our partnership.

White people have a tendency to see their culture as neutral, harmless, the default, mostly well meaning and worthy of preserving. Never mind the fact that white culture is violent and rooted in oppression; never mind that white culture positions whiteness at the center and the rest of us all have had to learn to live within that reality because of structural racism. White people will still look at their culture and history and see it maybe as slightly flawed, with a need for some few small adjustments. But overall, great.

And that simply isn’t true.

Trail running culture is rooted in white supremacy…and a healthy amount of delusion.

Here for the Women of Color

Alison Mariella Désir — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:25:08 GMT

Ya’ll. I can’t. If one more person or trail running/ultra running news outlet treats white women as the universal standard, default, or benchmark for all women, I’m going to fucking scream.

The people asked for it! Shirt available for sale here: https://www.bonfire.com/here-for-the-women-of-color/

A little about me

Alison Mariella Désir — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:41:17 GMT

Hi everyone!

I imagine many of you are here because you know of me/my work, but some of you might have subscribed without having much context so I’m happy to share a bit more here as well as what you can expect from my substack. If you’d like a deep dive on me, I recommend buying my book (click here).

I’ve been an endurance athlete since 2012 when I found running as a lifeline for the depression, desperation and suicidal ideation I was experiencing. I hadn’t realized that “regular” Black people ran marathons - up until that point, the only Black marathon runners I knew of were East Africans. Running that first marathon changed everything for me and set me out on a path I never could have imagined.

My entry into trail running came a few years after that first marathon. I had honestly never heard of trail running. I had believed that running a marathon was the most difficult thing you could do - then I heard about running an ironman and I thought that must be the most difficult thing you could do - then I learned about trail running and ultra running and my mind exploded.

I wasn't planning to have a substack...

Alison Mariella Désir — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:02:56 GMT

I wasn’t planning to have a substack. Firstly, for practical reasons. I currently write once a month for the Earthmovers Substack AND I have a biweekly newsletter that accompanies my Cascade PBS show Out and Back. On top of that, I don’t always have something to write about which is something I really like about myself. I don’t just write to write. I personally don’t believe I need to make writing a daily habit. Maybe that means I’m not really a writer but for me, it means that I write when I feel deeply moved to say something. And there is generally no set schedule for that. So finding myself here potentially committing to yet another writing schedule is daunting at best. But I am feeling that deep pull in my stomach - the same one that led me to write an article for Outside Magazine in 2020 that went viral and led to the publication of my book, Running While Black.

I also learned recently that substack is a terrible platform. Much like meta, the platform is known for hosting and making money from deplorable human begins. So what am I even doing here? But one of the things that I’m continuing to contend with is the ways that I am (we all are) complicit with white supremacy and capitalism simply by virtue of living in this world. It is a tough pill to swallow and shows up in my life more ways than I’d like.

But here we are.

I don’t really know where to begin in talking about Trail Running so I’m going to pick any old place and dive in. Thanks for bearing with me.

Recently, I was listening to to a conversation between Marc Lamont Hill and Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw about the 250th birthday of the United States that illuminated so many of the problematic beliefs that inform not just the way many understand the United States but also trail running. The full video is available here:

As I heard Dr. Crenshaw talking, it dawned on me that everything that she said about the United States could be said of trail running. In fact, if you simply replaced the United States with “trail running,” most (if not all) of the sentences would still hold meaning. See what I mean next: