Expanding Access to the Outdoors with Alison Mariella Désir

0:02Wild Ideas Worth Living:Over a decade ago, in November of 2013, Alison Mariella Désir was putting up flyers around her neighborhood. She was advertising a new community run club. I really had this sense that the way that running saved my life, it could save other people's life. And it wasn't really until, I want to say like four to six months that I got my first person who came.

0:30Wild Ideas Worth Living:Allison lived in Harlem at the time, and even though it took a while for anyone to show up, she was determined to share her sport with other black and brown runners. Her tenacity paid off. That run club would eventually become an integral part of Allison's life and career as a writer, activist, and TV host. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.

1:01Wild Ideas Worth Living:Today, Allison is a multidisciplinary runner and thought leader in the outdoor industry. She's the author of the book Running While Black, and she hosts the award-winning PBS show Out and Back. Over the last 13 years, Allison has had wild idea after wild idea, and they all come back to the same themes, building community and empowering others to chase their own outdoor adventures.

1:28Wild Ideas Worth Living:Alison Mariella Desir, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. It is a joy to have you on. Finally, we've been trying to do this for a few years now, I feel like. Yes, thank you so much. Long time coming. So let's go back. You've made a lot of impact in the outdoor industry. And I'm just curious, like, where did it start? Were you always outdoorsy as a kid? I mean, how did you even get into the outdoors? Yeah, you know, Well, I would say that growing up, I didn't have a concept of the outdoors. I thought about the outdoors as going outside. Right. And this is something that often we talk about in the black community that like the outdoors is sort of this like commodified kind of space.

2:08And going outside is like just going outside. So I actually spent a lot of time outside. I was always bike riding. I used to climb trees, which now that I have a seven year old, if I ever see him in a tree, I will be very scared. I was always climbing trees. I was running. So in essence, I grew up as an outdoors kid, but I didn't really think of it in that way. I would say it wasn't until really 10 or 15 years ago that I started to think about the outdoors as a space for adventure in a more intentional way. So how did you get into running then? Yeah, so I grew up running. I was a track and field athlete.

2:47So I ran the 100, the 400, 400 hurdles. I did high jump. And I remember in high school, I forget why, but there was a challenge when I was a junior to run 10 miles. And I thought 10 miles was the most outrageous thing in the world.

3:04Wild Ideas Worth Living:It's so far when you're a kid. So far, especially when you're used to running like one lap around the track. But my best friend and I, we did it. And I couldn't walk for a week afterwards. words. So I ran 10 miles and then I wouldn't turn to distance running again until 2012. And I returned to distance running after being very, very depressed. I was at home during this time in my life because I couldn't find a job. I was in a relationship that was super unhealthy. My father was very sick with Lewy body dementia. And so I spent most of my time just scrolling on social media. And I happened to see a friend of mine who was training for a marathon.

3:43And what was unique is that he was like a six foot black guy, 200 pounds. And I had never seen a regular degular black guy train for a marathon, right? Like I knew that East Africans, of course, were winning marathons, but a regular recreational athlete, that struck me as strange. So I followed his journey. And then when I realized that he could do it, I decided to do it the very next year. And training for this marathon literally gave me life. Like all of a sudden, I had a reason to leave my apartment. I had a training plan. I had concrete things to do with my life. And every week I could see progress, which I think is just like the most beautiful thing about any endurance sport is that you try your hardest and you get results.

4:28And it's like super helpful, not just for your physicality, but also for your mental health.

4:36Wild Ideas Worth Living:Allison signed up for her first marathon through an organization called Team in Training, which helps runners prepare for race day with professional coaching and structured group runs. Along the way, participants also raise money for cancer research. The support made a big difference for Allison. And after 16 weeks of training, she successfully completed the Rock and Roll San Diego Marathon. You did the marathon. How was it? Yes, I ran the marathon. I ran it, I think, in like four hours and 31 minutes, which I was super excited. happy for. I raised over$5 ,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

5:12And that is what launched me into building community because I loved my experience. But what I noticed is that I was one of very few Black people, Black women there. And I knew that more people like me could benefit from the sport.

5:29Wild Ideas Worth Living:That experience planted a seed for Allison. At the time, she was living in Harlem, working on a master's degree and hungry to share her sport with the local community. that's when she started building Harlem Run. So I started in November of 2013. And every Monday night I was showing up and I was posting on Instagram, which was like barely a thing then. I was handing out flyers in the neighborhood. And it wasn't really until, I want to say like four to six months that I got my first person who came. And there's actually this video that timeout, you would show up for four to six months and no one else showed up.

6:09Yes, I showed up every week and some weeks I would leave crying. I would call my mom. But I really had this sense that the way that running saved my life, it could save other people's life, right? Because I was learning so much through the process. If you ask me now, would I show up for four to six months by myself? The answer is no. But back then, it felt essential to me.

6:35Wild Ideas Worth Living:i'm really curious about that's that's impressive like that's a wild idea yeah where you didn't give up six months i can see someone showing up three weeks maybe but usually people give up like even in podcasts people give up after the third show they're like it's too hard yeah so you showed up every single week i would show up every single week i like i convinced two of my friends three of my friends to do a photo shoot with me and these photos are like the most embarrassing photos This is before I knew like you could run and somebody could take a picture while you're moving. So all of the pictures are staged.

7:07These were the photos that I was using to like advertise the run. But it really was. Yeah, it was me all by myself. There was this guy. So next door, there was like a barbershop and me and this guy, Henry, would talk every week and then he'd see me go home. OK, so what happened when someone finally showed up? I lost it. I mean, internally, I lost it. I try to see really cool on the outside. But this person, Krista, you could tell that she didn't realize it was just going to be the two of us.

7:41Wild Ideas Worth Living:I tried to play it cool like, oh, yeah, it's just us this time. But it was really nice. Like I was there's this clip that I saw on YouTube of it's an old clip, but it's of this guy dancing and he like looks really weird. He's dancing, like doing all these strange moves and he's by himself. And there are all these people watching him. And then one person wanders over and starts dancing with him. And before you know it, everybody that was watching him on the hill is dancing and doing these like weirdo moves with him. And that to me. So when Krista showed up, I was like, OK, like this is momentum.

8:14Right. Because I know I was like the weirdo by myself. Now there's two of us. It's not so weird. And of course, after that, I want to say like six months after that, there were over 100 people running with us.

8:26Wild Ideas Worth Living:100 people? Yeah, 150 people showing up, all ages, sizes, races in Harlem.

8:37Wild Ideas Worth Living:For the next several years, Allison focused on Harlem Run. She built the group around a few central tenants. First, if you show up once, you're automatically a member of the club. Second, all paces are welcome. These rules helped Allison create a culture that has stood the test of time, even after she and her husband left New York.

9:01Wild Ideas Worth Living:So how come you moved to Seattle? That's a good question. So we were living in the Bronx at the start of the pandemic. And if you had asked me if I'd ever leave New York, let alone go to Seattle, I would have said definitely not. But we weren't seeing any of our friends, right? because we were at one point New York was like you know the center of of the pandemic and it was actually it was it was it was terrible I know it was terrible for everybody but um we lived really close to Randall's Island and they had started using Randall's Island as a morgue essentially so we would go out for walks and there were like refrigerated containers because the morgues had been overrun.

9:44So it was just we weren't seeing our friends. It was a very difficult time for everybody. And we started imagining what life could look like somewhere else where we could get outdoors more easily. And my husband found a job. And so we just like we were like, now is the time, right? We can't see our friends. Nobody's going to miss us on a physical level. We're Zooming our friends. So we decided to move. And it really just like, you know, Harlem Run was that wild idea. A second big wild idea was that we could create a new life in Seattle.

10:19Wild Ideas Worth Living:That's amazing. Is Harlem Run Club still around today? Yeah, it's still around. So I now obviously live in Seattle, but there's an amazing leadership team that is still leading Harlem Run. Every week there are new people. And what I knew was really important, despite not having any real community building skills, I knew that a culture will form whether you're intentional about it or not, right? Like, if you don't talk about your values, well, whatever people interpret your values are will become the values of the space. So I was really, really intentional about making sure that it was a space where people could show up as their authentic selves, where it wasn't about how fast you were, it was about improvement, if you wanted of that or it was about making friends.

11:02And so the leadership team, you know, people come and go over the years, but they really hold tight to the values of Harlem Run and it continues to thrive.

11:12Wild Ideas Worth Living:This is really cool. I was on your website for a while and you have like a guide you can download on building, I want to say it's inclusive community. Yeah, exactly. And it was really beautiful. I went and read it and it was like, you know, some of the things that stuck out to me, it was like, be vulnerable yourself. And then introduce yourself, make sure no one runs alone, have all paces available. And I was like, these are really simple things. But they go a long way. Absolutely. So I'm now, I'm also a therapist. So I was learning through that, just the power of vulnerability. And believe it or not, most people feel awkward and uncomfortable when they come to group scenarios, right?

11:55Like you may be thinking, I'm the only one in the world who feels this way. But everybody's feeling a little bit unsure. And so if you take that step to introduce yourself, which is why at Harlem Run every week starts with like, turn to the person to your left and introduce yourself. It just it breaks the ice. You laugh because it's a little bit awkward. You might find something in common. And then when you go out to run, you know, at least one other person, right? That other person will look out for you. It really just creates a space for you to show up as human beings, acknowledging each other.

12:28Wild Ideas Worth Living:Tell me how creating this Run Club changed your life and creating community changed your life. And also, what about with Harlem Run Club? Like any stories people met and got married or? Yeah, well, first of all, I didn't say this, but I met my husband through Harlem Run. So way back at the beginning, I was like looking through hashtags on Instagram and somebody was using the hashtag We Run Harlem. That somebody is now my husband, Amir. But he was leading a run club every last Sunday out of his church, just like 10 blocks away. And so we met. And yeah, the rest is history. But we're not the only ones.

13:12Actually, tonight, two people are having their baby shower. One woman is on the leadership team of Harlem Run. And the person that she's having a baby with, she met through Harlem Run. Like this, this is just, it's created new life. People have gotten divorces. People have lost a lot of weight if that's what they wanted to do. People have, you know, changed careers completely, right? Like realize what I want to do is be in the running and outdoor industries. It's, it's awesome.

13:43Wild Ideas Worth Living:I love what you're saying because I think there's so much power in the fact that you had a vision, something wasn't there. Instead of complaining about it, you went and built it and you made it happen. But you also just were like, I want to do it. It wasn't like you were thinking, it was just pure joy. You're motivated by joy and necessity and a love to bring other people with you. And in doing that, you got so wealthy. yes and and maybe not like not just money but like the important things in life that are wealthy like a husband a kid friends a fulfilling job brand partnerships seat at the table totally making seats for others at the table and I think that's like that's what's so powerful about wild ideas but your story is so I just still can't believe you showed up for six months with no one and then it led to like this great career and movements and raising money for other people.

14:43Wild Ideas Worth Living:Like that's, that's the sauce, like helping other people. Yeah.

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15:38Wild Ideas Worth Living:That's rei.com slash MasterCard dash podcast. Terms apply.

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17:53Wild Ideas Worth Living:Runner and activist Allison Mariella Desir had spent years building a run club in Harlem when she decided to move from New York to Seattle. While she was leaving behind a vibrant community, she knew that her work in the sport was far from over. At the time, Allison was writing a book called Running While Black, a project that was influenced by the murder of Black runner Ahmaud Arbery in February of 2020. As the Black Lives Matter movement grew, the outdoor industry was forced to finally have some hard conversations around racial justice, and Allison quickly became an active voice in the space.

18:30Wild Ideas Worth Living:Her speaking and organizing work opened the door for her to host a new show with PBS.

18:39Wild Ideas Worth Living:Tell me about your PBS job, how you got it, and what you do. Yes. So I am the host of Out and Back with Alison Mariella Desir on Cascade PBS. And I got this job because I, during the pandemic, I was on a virtual panel with Myrna Valerio, who, shout out to Myrna, love her. There was a film made about her that was supposed to be following her journey tackling this big race. I forget the name of the race. But along the way, anti-black and anti-fat comments, so many of them came up that the nature of the film changed. And it went from just celebrating her and showing this journey to showing how not only is she training for this race and taking on this epic adventure, she is also dealing with anti-Black racism and anti-fatness.

19:32So the producer of that film is Sarah Menzies. So I moved to Seattle in January of 2021. In April of 2021, Sarah Menzies emailed me and asked me if I ever wanted to host my own TV show because she was now had this role at Cascade PBS building original shows and thought that I could be a good host. Now, little did she know, I grew up wanting to be on The Real World. Like I actually auditioned. That's amazing. I auditioned for the show, but I realized that the audition, it was like the only people they cast were ridiculous people. Like you had to have a lot of drama. Exactly. And so that wasn't me.

20:10So when she asked me this, I was like, are you kidding me? Like literally my whole life. So I started thinking about what the premise of my show would be. And what it is, is it's I am meeting with BIPOC in the outdoors and telling the story of the way that they're reclaiming space in the outdoors. Like we're often we often see imagery and storytelling that prioritizes and centers white people. But in truth, black and brown people have been in the outdoors since time immemorial. And many of the sports, many of the activities that people engage in in the outdoors were built by black and indigenous people.