Tierra Libre Run
Access should not be inherited.
Tierra Libre Run builds access infrastructure for trail running. We fund and prepare underrepresented runners and coaches, partner with races and brands, and create practical pathways from interest to prepared starts to long-term leadership in the sport.
Inclusion has to become infrastructure.
Trail running becomes more open when support is specific enough to use: funding, preparation, relationships, coaching knowledge, race access, storytelling, and long-term development that helps underrepresented communities enter the sport and keep building inside it.
Visibility matters, but visibility alone is not a pathway. Runners and coaches need the knowledge, resources, relationships, and support systems that make participation repeatable and leadership possible.
Tierra Libre Run exists to make that pathway more public, more practical, and more durable for communities that have been underrepresented in trail running.
Knowledge
Trail running asks people to learn terrain, safety, gear, race formats, training, pacing, fueling, and logistics. That knowledge should be easier to reach.
Cost
Entry fees are one part of access. Transportation, shoes, nutrition, lodging, coaching, time, and safety confidence all affect whether a runner can show up prepared.
Continuity
A first start should connect to repeat participation, mentorship, coaching, storytelling, race leadership, and a lasting place in the sport.
Trail running is growing. Its access systems need to grow with it.
Trail running is still young enough that its future is not fixed. It is growing through races, brands, media, coaching, creators, tourism, sponsorship, community events, and professional opportunity.
Growth is strongest when new runners can become repeat runners, repeat runners can become mentors, mentors can become coaches, and more people can participate in the decisions that shape the sport. Tierra Libre Run builds toward that kind of continuity.
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Access should be structured, not inherited.
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Participation is only the first threshold.
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Leadership should reflect more of the sport.
A pathway from interest to prepared start to lasting leadership.
Tierra Libre Run supports underrepresented communities in trail running through direct funding, preparation, partnerships, storytelling, and long-term development. The funds connect resources to concrete needs and give partners a clear way to invest in people building a stronger future for trail running.
Move resources
We direct support toward concrete barriers, from race entries and gear to travel help, coach education, mentor support, and race-week needs.
Prepare people
We help runners and coaches understand the sport, train with context, choose the right races, navigate logistics, and arrive with enough confidence to use the opportunity in front of them.
Build partnerships
Races, brands, donors, and community partners do not have to invent an access system alone. They can put concrete resources into a pathway that already has a point of view.
Tell the truth
Storytelling is part of accountability. It should show what support changed, what barriers remain, and what the sport can learn from the people moving through it.
Develop leadership
Participation should have a next step. Runners need routes into mentorship, coaching, race production, storytelling, and leadership across the sport.
Support first. Leadership over time.
Ownership does not only mean owning a company or directing a race. It means having the knowledge, confidence, relationships, resources, and credibility to influence the direction of the sport.
That future will not happen by accident. It has to be built through repeated support, trusted programs, strong partnerships, honest storytelling, and a clear commitment to moving people from participation into long-term influence.
Trail Athlete Fund
A supported start, beyond the bib.
The Trail Athlete Fund helps underrepresented runners enter trail racing with practical support tied to the real cost of showing up. Entry fees matter, but so do gear, travel, training knowledge, race logistics, and having people around you who know what the sport asks.
ExploreTrail Coaching Fund
Knowledge that stays in the community.
The Trail Coaching Fund supports underrepresented coaches with certification, mentorship, and real coaching practice. Coaching turns one opportunity into shared knowledge, safer preparation, and a stronger path for the next runners coming in.
ExploreTrail Race Directing Program
The people who build races shape access.
The Trail Race Directing Program is being developed to help underrepresented people learn how trail and ultra events are built, produced, and led. Race leadership matters because it decides who the sport is designed around.
PreviewTrail Futures Summit
A room for the people changing the sport.
The Trail Futures Summit is being developed as a gathering for athletes, coaches, race directors, partners, and community leaders who are working on the future of trail running in practical terms.
PreviewA prepared start is the real unit of support.
A bib can get someone on a registration list. A prepared start helps someone understand the race, train for the terrain, solve the logistics, arrive with support, and leave with a next step.
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Interest becomes a real plan
A runner gets help understanding which race fits, what the distance means, what the course asks, and what support would make the start line realistic.
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Funding meets preparation
Money moves with context. The support can cover a race cost, but it is paired with mentorship, coaching insight, logistics, and the expectation that the runner should arrive prepared.
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Race day is not the finish
The goal is continuity: enough confidence, connection, and practical knowledge for a runner to come back, go farther, mentor someone else, or move into leadership.
The work is practical enough to measure.
Behind every number is a runner or coach who had to navigate a real barrier. The next version of this work is to keep making those barriers visible, fund the support that matters, and report what actually happens after the start line.
Stories, updates, and evidence from the work.
The story of this work should come from the athletes, coaches, race partners, and communities living it. Field notes keep that record in public.
February 18, 2026
How We Select Athletes for the BIPOC Athlete Fund
Learn exactly how the BIPOC Athlete Fund works, who can apply, what we look for in applications, and what happens after you apply.
Read
September 10, 2025
Mentorship at Tierra Libre
Trail running hasn’t always made space for us—but Tierra Libre Run mentorship changes that. By connecting experienced runners with newcomers, we create a community where athletes feel seen, heard, and supported from match to race day.
ReadPartners fund practical support people can use.
We work with races, brands, donors, and community partners who want to put real resources behind people entering and developing in trail running. The strongest partnerships are clear: resources move toward defined needs, and Tierra Libre Run makes that support thoughtful, accountable, and connected to a larger vision for the sport.
- Fund prepared starts with clear budgets and outcomes.
- Contribute race entries, gear, travel support, coaching, or race-week resources.
- Help build a repeatable path from application to start line to next race.
- Support proof that can be reported back to runners, donors, races, and the sport.
The future we want
A future with more ways in, and more people shaping what comes next.
We want more underrepresented runners prepared for the races they want to take on. We want more coaching knowledge inside the communities that have been left out of the sport. We want more people with the confidence, resources, and relationships to stay in trail running long enough to shape it.
Tierra Libre Run is building the support, knowledge, partnerships, and long-term foundation that help underrepresented communities enter trail running, stay in it, and shape what it becomes.