Dear El Paso Trail and Ultra Community,

A few months ago, I learned that Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT) was “downsizing” and reorganizing their series of races. Since 2015, they have hosted The Franklin Mountains Trail Runs at Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso. I successfully finished the event’s 50k in 2017 and had an amazing time running around the mountains that make up the southern tip of North America’s Rocky Mountain chain. When I heard that TROT would not be returning to El Paso to host this event, I knew that a unique opportunity for The Human Potential Running Series (HPRS) existed.

That opportunity was to take over the reins of an amazing adventure that fits well into the portfolio of the various other events we host in Colorado and Arkansas. Enjoying my time on the trails of Franklin Mountains State Park, and vividly remembering the many people that had become a part of the fabric of this event, made it an easy “sell” for me to reach out to TROT and try to secure The Franklin Mountains Trail Runs as an HPRS event, and carry its torch into the future.

At the beginning of 2021, I was involved in a partnership that purchased three established races in Southern California. I was grateful for that opportunity, but I didn’t really know much about the races I purchased or the community that supported them. As I got to work on those events, it became ever evident to me that none of those events, or their community, was a good match for the HPRS portfolio of events. The community we’ve built around HPRS, is very similar to the community that has been built around TROT, but not too similar with the community built around those events in SoCal.

It’s never easy to take over the reins of someone else’s creation. What I mean is, it’s one thing to start from scratch, creating an experience that is uniquely your own. The many months that it takes in planning and scheming to get a trail running event off the ground; as a race director you get to know every intimate detail associated with bringing your event to life. It’s an entirely different thing to take over someone else’s creation and try to make sense of it all. To take over what someone else built, and the intricacies that countless runners have become accustomed to, and to forge ahead without much disruption. It’s even more challenging to only give yourself three months to get the next edition of a race, that someone else created, up and off the ground.

When I took over the races in SoCal, I’ll be honest in telling everyone that it wasn’t the best welcome we’ve ever received. Some runners were aggressive and offensive in email communications upon learning that HPRS doesn’t have a podium or age group awards. Some were mean, and downright racist, in addressing our Gender Identity policies. It became obvious to us at HPRS that who we are, what we’re about, and how we do it… just wasn’t a good fit in SoCal and welcomed we were not. The answer was to transfer complete ownership of those events over to my partner and walk away. He knew the community, they knew him, and he’d have way better luck at serving the community better, by forging ahead without HPRS.

We created our own race from scratch in Arkansas called The Razorback Running Revival, held annually in November since 2019. I can honestly say that we haven’t been welcomed in Arkansas either. We’re seen as “outsiders” and many of the local runners stereotype us as a “corporation just looking to make money on the coat tails of other’s hard work.” I get it. As humans we often fear the unknown, and those we don’t know. It’s hard to offer trust and support when we have our own preconceived notions about people and entities. We often search to validate our confirmation biases because it’s easier to find what we’re looking for, instead of facing our fears head on and accepting instead what we find and learn along the way. Afterall, the only day of the entire year that American’s seem to check if what they read online is true or not, is April Fool’s Day. The rest of the year, it’s on the internet so it must be true.

HPRS is Colorado’s largest series of trail and ultramarathon running events. We also host two satellite events, one each in Arkansas and now Texas. Through the thirteen in person events we’ll host in 2022, we will have worked with: One city water authority, two national forests in two states and four of their USFS ranger districts, six state parks in three states, three county governments, one town municipality, and a handful of HOAs, private land owners, etc. It’s a monumental task to bring it all together.

In all of my years directing races, events that now total over 65 in number, I have never experienced what we experienced in El Paso Texas in March 2022.

HPRS would like the publicly thank the runners who joined us in El Paso for our picking up the torch of The Franklin Mountains Trail Runs. It ended up being our best attended first time event that we’ve ever hosted. We know that there were challenges for you all. The event had just been held in November 2021. We don’t use Ultrasignup for registration but RunSignup instead. It had been previously announced that The Franklin Mountains Trail Runs were done, never to return. Once word got out that we picked up the torch and were running with it, for you and with you, you all showed us love, grace and humility.

You were respectful in your email communications. You were welcoming and appreciative of our willingness to work with you and for you. You offered us the space to be who we are, without insisting upon any expectation that we be who you demand we be, or to conform to the norms you’re used to. It was obvious to us that many of you read the runner’s manual and watched the pre-race meeting. You met us where we’re at, while we tried to meet you where you’re at, and together we showed the state park just how important the resource is to us all by limiting our impact on it, and the others who wish to utilize it.

Team RWB El Paso chapter worked with us to make sure we had ample volunteers, to bring us more runners, and to give us some of the most up to date information of the event that existed. They afforded us the opportunity to learn about the event, what seemed to work well in the past and what things they thought we could improve upon. They offered this support without being disrespectful to the previous owners/directors in any way, while also affording us an opportunity to be who we are and show them who we are.

The same can be said for The Borderland Mountain Bike Association, who gave us great beta about the eastern side of the mountain range, who saved us countless man hours via volunteer course marking by tackling large segments of trails via bike. They provided us their own supplies in operating their aid station, their personal expertise in race event management, and offered more information about potential changes for future iterations of the event. They did all of this with collaboration in mind, the opportunity to help us provided us with an opportunity to help them financially. We cannot thank Team RWB El Paso and BMBA enough. THANK YOU.

We also must thank the local El Paso Lululemon store for thinking of us when engaging in their outreach program. Store managers reached out to us asking if they could support us in any way. They send eight store employees out to the race site to assist us in welcoming you to the finish line and celebrating your day. No for-profit entity has ever reached out to us, in our history, to offer support of one of our events knowing full well that the event benefits the entire city they serve.

 There is a culture in and around El Paso that is second to none in the United States. It would have been easier for you and your community to treat us like so many others, including here in our own state of Colorado, have. You could have been aggressive; you could have told us that you didn’t want us. You could have rested your laurels on preconceived notions and confirmation bias. You could have ignored us and made us work so much harder for it. Instead, you opened your doors and welcome us home. You asked where you could help. You helped more and for longer than you promised. The city of El Paso and the runners of the area, showed us a vibrant, welcoming, and loving community that many of us in the rest of the country would die for.

THANK YOU EL PASO. Thank you for the welcome. Thank you for working with us and allowing us to support each other. Thank you for showing us that the true spirit of community in trail and ultrarunning is still out there, that it’s much closer to home than many of us think and feel. Thank you for not treating us like outsiders, or like we don’t belong. Thank you for showing us who you are and what you value, what you’re about, and for acknowledging that at the end of the day, while it is just running, rising tides raise all ships and if we work together and practice humility, we all can accomplish great things along the way. Thank you for being you. Thank you for allowing us to serve you. Thank you for letting us be who we are. We look forward to the many editions of this great adventure together.

Now if I could only get some of these Colorado towns to open their coffee shops earlier…

With humble sincerity,

John Lacroix

RD of HPRS