How do you build a movement?
New York's running boom has a problem hiding in plain sight. Across the five boroughs, run clubs and pop-up races are launched almost overnight, often by men who treat the city as their personal racecourse. Their ambition is admirable. Their carelessness is not.
Some organizers chase clicks and views, posting loosely planned runs on social media and relying on their fame to draw crowds. This is why safety is the first casualty. Sometimes hundreds, surge across bike lanes, spill into traffic, and take over narrow sidewalks without any organization, marshals, or medical plans. When an event grows faster than its organizers' sense of responsibility, pedestrians, cyclists, and runners pay the price. And that’s when people have no experience in building community, which is extremely dangerous. We’ve already seen what can happen when organized events make bad decisions:
Exhibit A – Hyrox poop situation, which wasn’t the athlete’s fault, but falls directly on the organizers for not having a plan in place.
Exhibit B – NJ race that proceeded with weather advisories, which called for torrential flash flooding.
We [Harlem Run] made a sound decision when we postponed our event in collaboration with EliteFeats this summer due to High AQI as a result of wildfires in Canada. We could’ve still proceeded, and advised people to wear masks, but that would’ve put people at risk.
Inclusivity fares no better. Many events are built around fast paces, aggressive branding, and a culture of macho one-upmanship. Slower runners, women running alone at night, disabled athletes, and newcomers quickly learn they are guests at someone else's party. Routes are rarely vetted for accessibility, and "all are welcome" is often a slogan rather than a practice.
Then there is the neighborhood itself. Residents wake to amplified music at dawn, blocked stoops, discarded cups, and crowds that treat their streets as scenery. Building community doesn’t take place in one day or at one event. It is a commitment to show up, respect people’s time, honor the spaces you will go through, and responsibility to improve every day. Often times there are community groups [Harlem Run] who have been doing the work for a long time [circa 2013] and are open to collaboration, but are never consulted. Some local celebrity organizes an event and disrupts that trust built with local organizations, community boards, local business and neighbors. They treat them as obstacles as opposed to stakeholders.
Running is supposed to be one of the most democratic sports, requiring only shoes and a sidewalk. But a sidewalk is shared space. Organizers who want to build real community must start by earning it. Otherwise, they aren't building a movement. They're just being a distraction.
