“Be accountable for doing the right things. This means ethical execution of the activities that will actually support the goals you have chosen for yourself.” – Sam Silverstein
At the Human Potential Running Series (HPRS) we value personal accountability at the utmost and require all participants to assume their personal responsibilities as an explorer. We understand that this could mean different things to different individuals and this page outlines our expectations of participants in our events.
There is inherent risk in the sport of trail running. HPRS works with land managers to manage the risks to participants and the land based on experience, weather conditions, and trail conditions.
Personal responsibility is integral to the sport of trail running. Each participant needs to manage their own personal risk. This includes knowing the route and preparing for weather, trail conditions, and personal health.
To us, “DNF” means “Did Nothing Fatal.” It takes strength and self-awareness to know when to forge ahead and when to call it a day; learning to make those decisions is part of the HPRS experience.
STEP 1
Take a moment to understand the mission, vision, and ethos of a race and/or organization before attending their event. How do they operate? Are they a small operation, or are they a large corporate one? Do they espouse any beliefs that you feel strongly about? In trail and ultrarunning, there is no true governing body, and industry standards are somewhat arbitrary. Each race series, director, and management company do things differently, and what you experienced at one race should not be your expectation at the next race.
If you identify that a race or company is not for you, you are encouraged to simply move on to another race or organization who is. That said…
HPRS is committed to community, equality, and sustainability.
- We are community-driven and community-focused. We encourage all participants to come back to our events as volunteers – giving back to the village that has supported you on your own adventure with us. It takes the collective to get all comers to the finish line, and we offer running in a space that is supported by the collective.
- We have long been the industry leader towards Diversity, Equity, Equality, Inclusivity and Accessibility. We are an LGBTQIA+ safe space and treat all participants as humans. We do not have a podium, age group awards, nor do we celebrate 1st through 3rd place anything; we instead celebrate all runners as equals. If you require a podium, gender-specific awards, or kudos based on your performance, we encourage you to find a series that more closely aligns with your personal needs – HPRS may not be for you. We encourage you to visit our Anti-Discrimination Page which dives further into this subject.
- We are focused on leaving it better than we found it. We host numerous trail work days each year. Some of our races even require you to pitch in with trail work efforts as a condition of entry. We do not have cups at our races, and you are encouraged to bring your own collapsible cup to use in our aid stations. Part of our mission is to reduce waste and the overall impact we have on the environment.
STEP 2
In addition to understanding the overall mission and vision of the director(s) for the race you decide to run, it’s important to know what’s expected of you before, during, and after a race by reviewing any materials they have provided to you. For HPRS, we ask you to please familiarize yourself with a few important documents through the buttons below.
This serves as a set of guidelines in the HPRS community to help define how we will individually and collectively move forward to meet our goals.
This highlights in greater detail what is expected of you as a participant.
We have also provided a video that discusses the do’s and don’ts of trail and ultrarunning to help you manage expectations as a participant.
STEP 3
Probably the most important part of personal accountability is your responsibility in being able to navigate the course.
We acknowledge that it is our responsibility to reasonably mark each course. Course marking is completed by volunteers who have dedicated their time and effort to do their best in marking the course. It’s not an easy job and is never perfect. HPRS staff does not have the bandwidth to double check each ribbon and every sign prior to the start of a race – otherwise we wouldn’t need volunteers to mark it in the first place! Not only can we not double check the course marking of our volunteers, we also cannot monitor every mile of a course to ensure no course vandalism has taken place. It happens more often than you realize; a hunter takes ribbons down to protest the ongoing event, or a well-intentioned but mistaken hiker take down ribbons to remove “litter” they think someone left behind.
For every runner who thinks a course was “the worst marked ever,” there is another runner who feels it was “the best marked ever.” It’s always going to be subjective, which is why we need you to use the tools we provide to navigate with or without ribbons every quarter mile.
Here are the tools we provide you for personal navigation. Please choose at least ONE to use as a participant in our events:
- Downloadable and printable pdf maps of each course
- GPX files of each course/loop for you to download, then upload to your watch/gps unit
- An online Google map of each course
- Maps in the CalTopo app database for personal use on your phone (even without cell service)
- Maps in the Colorado Trails Explorer (COTrex) app database for personal use on your phone (even without cell service)
- Maps in the GAIA GPS app database for personal use on your phone (even without cell service)
- Certain races/distances we will ask to use your smartphone technologies to live track you during the event, which you can also use for personal navigation free of charge.
- If these don’t work for you, we encourage you to purchase a map of the race area at REI or other outfitter, or obtain one at a local ranger station, that you could transfer the route from one of our maps onto.
If you cannot read or adequately use a map, if you are not equipped to use any of the technology provided, or you don’t know or care to figure it out: trail and ultrarunning may not be for you. Look, we cannot hold your hand and personally show you the way. We cannot have a human at every junction pointing which way to go. A huge amount of responsibility falls on you to remain on course despite our best efforts to prepare the course for you.
IN SUMMARY
As race organizers we accept that our number one job is the management of risks associated with our events. We take our role in risk management seriously. Our race director is an RRCA Certified Race Director and certified in Risk Management for Outdoor Programming through Viristar. Despite our commitment to the management of risk in excess of industry standards, we also acknowledge that we can never guarantee the health and/or safety of participants in our events. For as much risk and liability we assume as the organizer, a great deal of the management of risks and liability is also transferred to the participant.