Runner’s World UK – September 2019

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and kit, the club met twice a week to run a few miles before

the school day started.

When the club took to the streets – almost entirely outside

the white L – their joy was infectious, people thanked them

for running, a man even f lagged down the group and handed

them the cash in his pocket because of how impressed he was.

Others outside the community noticed, too. The group was

supported by Under Armour, which provided members with

running gear and entry into the Baltimore Running Festival.

However, despite the exposure and success, the programme

didn’t return for the 2018-2019 school year. The original grant

expired and public funding was a no-go in a school district

where classroom temperatures dipped to near freezing

during a heating crisis last winter.

‘I don’t think that this system is designed to really invest

in everyone,’ says Inte’a DeShields, 38, co-marshal of BRO

and English professor at Morgan State University. ‘And so

the best teacher for us has been to say ‘Kujichagulia’ – [the

African principle of ] self-determination – you gotta create

that shit yourself.’

Olufemi is starting another youth running club in the

city, one that doesn’t have to rely on outside funding. And

even though the PPRC no longer operates within the walls

of Dunbar High School, it continues to run in conjunction

with BRO. The students they’ve built relationships with over

the last three years still come to group runs; support and

community continues. This all falls in line with the Black

Running Organization’s foundational goal to restore and

empower the black community through running.

Positive steps

‘BLACK PEOPLE ARE IN A BAD PLACE RIGHT NOW, been in a bad place

for a while. We come to resurrect the spirit of our people,

and to do that we have to be separate from other folks first,’

says Olufemi.

Lenny Johnson, 33, another BRO member and a teacher in

Baltimore, says, ‘When I’m running past blocks with nothing

but boarded houses and I literally see people decaying on

the streets, it’s like I’m running for someone else. Because

people need to see that. They need to see someone who’s

physically strong, also mentally strong.’

Clapp sees change coming. ‘Right now, running in the city

is fragmented, but with more running groups popping up,

they’re gonna bring more people into it.’ RIOT plans to start

doing more runs throughout the city; possibly a west-to-east

run on North Avenue, through the heart of the unrest – 486

arrests over 15 days – that came following the 2015 death of

a 25-year-old African American named Freddie Gray, who

sustained severe spinal cord injuries while in police custody.

On a larger scale, last year, Under Armour began providing

kit for all student athletes in every Baltimore public school.

And in terms of physical spaces, they have one UA House

in East Baltimore that serves over 100 students daily with

academic enrichment, health and physical fitness education,

as we all as career development. It also serves adults with

career services and entrepreneurial development. And they

are working with the TV sports channel ESPN to fund the

conversion of vacant lots into play spaces for children.

Additionally, the company has organised several ‘all

Baltimore’ runs in the past year, in an attempt to bring

the running groups of the city together. Leading up to

the 2018 Baltimore Running Festival, the company asked

local running crews, including RIOT, to design and host

runs throughout different parts of the city, with free gear

giveaways to attendees. The runs served as a way to show

off parts of the city outside the white L that most runners

never see, and gave exposure to the growing diversity that

exists within the running scene.

While headway is being made, change comes slowly, as

is so often the case in Baltimore. But runners such as Clapp

and Olufemi hope that in time, the L will lose its edges, and

the butterf ly wings will fold into themselves.

‘There’s gonna be more people joining, more people picking

up as they see more and more black runners,’ says Clapp.

In late September last year, on the first break from what

seemed like months of humidity, Clapp showed up with RIOT

to lead one of Under Armour’s runs in northern Baltimore.

It was a Sunday recovery run that started in Belvedere

Square, outside the typical running zones in the L. It drew

around 30 people, mostly black. Aside from the group, there

were no other runners on the route. But there were 30 where

there were none before, being seen and etching new lines

on the heatmap.

Strava’s heatmap of

recorded runs highlights

the L shape of Baltimore’s

north-south spine of wealth

and the Inner Harbor

BELOW: RIOT Squad

members run along Key

Highway toward Baltimore’s

Inner Harbor

RUNNING TO UNITE

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