The Active Joe
All Paces Invited and Supported (including Back-of-the-Pack Runners, Walkers, and Hikers)
Here at The Active Joe, it is important to me to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all athletes, free from unfair discrimination and where you can feel that you are celebrated for being yourself. Details about the 8 Driving Principles that drive how The Active Joe operates are available here...
The Active Joe's entire brand is focused around the "average joes" out there getting active. The Active Joe is owned by a woman who she herself walked her first half marathon and, even when she started running and moving to longer distances, was always in the back of the pack. We need to preserve those spaces that celebrate getting active beyond elite or competitive athletics.
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Read on and we highlight which of our 8 Driving Principles are fulfilled by each of these items:
Inclusivity and a Welcoming Environment
Our marketing and social media always showcases a variety of body types and apparent speeds.
We emphasize routinely our generous cutoff times as a selling point for why people should attend our events.
The majority of items given to race participants is focused more on signing up (like the race shirt) or on finishing generally (like finisher items).
Equity - Providing Finishing Opportunities for the Back-of-the-Pack
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We celebrate all speeds and provide general cutoff times for our events. As an example: New Years Double has a time limit of 7 hours for both the marathon and the half marathon!
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The Active Joe's trail races offer only incremental cutoffs with no final cutoff because if you complete the full distance, we want to consider you a finisher!
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Monkey Butt Mayhem is a hill repeat challenge format that emphasizes competing against yourself to get the most hill repeats. Back of the pack participants are just as much part of the action with this format as the fastest athletes are!
"Joe"-Focused: Focused on the Average Individual who wants to be Active
We do not believe in using entry fees to pay for offering prize money to a very limited number of fast athletes.
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Our awards for podium and age group winners are nice but not super expensive - we would rather put more money into an item everyone will get to enjoy like the finisher medal or finisher belt buckle.
We do not offer comp (free) entries to elite athletes as they would typically be subsidized by other runners' entry fees.
I'm Available To Listen!
If anyone has any questions or ideas, please contact me at Libby@TheActiveJoe.com