The Racing World Must Strive for Pace Inclusivity

She didn’t get the empowering finish she had hoped for. Valerio runs at what’s considered a slower place, between a 13- and a 17-minute mile. She was the last person to complete the race, which was advantageous along with her—a finish is a finish! Except that the moment she stepped off the mat that marked the race’s end, she heard a loud ripping of tape—the sound of the ending line mat getting pulled up.

“It totally destroyed the moment, having that type of sacred moment interrupted by the sound of the mat being ripped up,” Valerio says. “They couldn’t have waited 10 more seconds?”

Valerio, unfortunately, has experienced this lack of what she calls “pace inclusivity” persistently. Pace inclusivity means considering all running running, regardless of how briskly or slow. And it means designing and staffing races to accommodate all paces. So no insulting, moment-ruining finish line pull-ups, no breaking down of water stations and trail markers before everyone has passed them, no abandoning runners to seek out their very own approach to the finish line.

Valerio says many races even call themselves “pace inclusive,” but still engage in these demoralizing practices. In pre-GPS days, Valerio sometimes needed to meander through the woods, on the lookout for the right path, since signposts were removed and race employee guides pulled from their stations and sent back to base camp.

“They don’t think that something slower than a 10-minute or an 11-minute mile counts as running, so that they’ll leave you,” Valerio says. “I have been left behind so persistently.”

Promoting inclusivity in running is one in all the explanations Valerio has signed up for one in all her most ambitious races ever: the lululemon FURTHER initiative. On March 8, the 2024 International Women’s Day, Valerio and nine other women will begin a six-day ultramarathon. There isn’t any set distance, however the aim is to run so far as possible over the course of those six days.

Other FURTHER participants include world record holder Camille Herron, surgeon-turned-professional ultrarunner Stefanie Flippin, Women of Distance podcast host Devon Yanko, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor Vriko Kwok (a running novice), amongst various runners from across the globe.

The FURTHER initiative also features a research component, through which lululemon and the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific will study the participants, with the aim of publishing research on how female bodies perform in endurance sports—part of a bigger effort to shut the research gap in women’s sports performance science.

“I actually have my personal goal of what number of miles I wanna do, [although] which may change over the course of the following nine months,” Valerio says. “But I also just really need to be a beacon for those folks that must see me. And even for those folks that don’t ever need to see me running, I have to be a beacon for them too.”

“I also just really need to be a beacon for those folks that must see me. And even for those folks that don’t ever need to see me running, I have to be a beacon for them too.” —Mirna Valerio

Valerio is larger bodied, Black, and a mother in her mid-40s. She says that she won’t be what people picture once they think “runner,” but she desires to show that she is what a runner looks like, too. Lululemon helps to bolster this image by working with Valerio to design a running kit for the race that serves Valerio’s specific needs. They asked her what she needed, and the way they may construct something higher, then designed apparel that truly fit. “I’m not pulling it up. I’m not pushing it down,” she says.

This wasn’t at all times the case. “I just take into consideration how often prior to now I needed to wear men’s clothes that did not fit appropriately,” Valerio says. “We weren’t seen as serious athletes, so nobody was making serious athletic clothing for us in our serious pursuits. But now, it’s been phenomenal working with lululemon. I get to be a part of the fit process, the ideation process.”

Valerio faces her share of criticism for not conforming to typical racing standards, whether that is comments on her body or her pace. But the way in which running nourishes her body and soul is what keeps her moving. And he or she hopes she will help others—who might face internal criticism or self-doubt—tap into their inner runner, too.

“It’s really hard to counteract those images and thoughts because that is all we have been showered with,” Valerio says. “We see a really particular image, or an aspirational image, let’s call it, of who runners are, or what pace a runner should run. But everyone knows that that’s just a few type of aspirational ideal that has nothing to do with us. Be your personal aspirational ideal.”