Race fees can be costly. This group makes running more accessible.

The runners arrive just after 8 o’clock on a frosty Saturday morning. They greet each other with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks before retying their shoes, adjusting their hats, and synchronizing GPS signals on their watches.

This is team Stride for Stride, a running collective started by Tom O’Keefe in 2018 with the simple vision of democratizing the starting line at road races. Mr. O’Keefe aims to give everyone the opportunity not just to run, but to race, by purchasing race bibs and raising funds for charity bibs for those who can’t afford them. Stride for Stride currently sponsors close to 400 runners from 26 countries across its Boston, New York, and Miami teams. 

For many on the crew gathered here in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, the team offers more than a path to competition.

“We are family,” says Ramón René Ballesteros Aguirre. He even calls one of his teammates “tío” – Spanish for “uncle.” Mr. Ballesteros had been a casual runner previously, but it wasn’t until he joined Stride for Stride that he started setting competitive goals. Finishing the 2023 Boston Marathon was “the best day” of his life, he says.

Running is often described as a widely accessible sport – if you are able-bodied and have training shoes. It doesn’t necessarily require a team, facilities, or fancy equipment. Racing, however, can be expensive. The entry fee for the upcoming 128th Boston Marathon is $230, if you qualify. The 2023 New York Marathon cost $295 for nonmembers of New York Road Runners. 

“One of the great stories that sports tells is meritocracy,” says Michael Serazio, author of “The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture.” “You can’t actually celebrate the best in sports if there’s not a diversity of opportunity for people to take part in them.”

Barriers to entry at road races first occurred to Mr. O’Keefe at a race on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The mostly white runners he saw lining up didn’t mesh with the number of talented runners of color he personally knew. While many factors likely contributed to this homogeneity, he saw one clear hurdle that he could help to remove: the cost of racing bibs.

“Racing is everything” 

Stride for Stride athlete Eduardo Rodriguez had never run before April 2018. But now, “racing is everything,” he says. Two years after he took up the sport, the restaurant worker, who is originally from Oriental, Mexico, happened to see a TV interview in Spanish between Mr. O’Keefe and Estuardo Calel, the first member of Stride for Stride. Mr. Rodriguez felt as though they were speaking directly to him. So on a whim he signed up to join online. 

He’d never considered racing because of the costs. “Sometimes it’s a struggle to pay the bills,” he says. “I live check to check. And I would definitely not be able to spend money on races.”

The first time he met any of the Stride for Stride team members was at a virtual 10K race during the pandemic. (Virtual races are a way to race either alone or in small groups against others online.) 

“That was my first-ever race,” Mr. Rodriguez says. “I remember finishing the race, I celebrated like I won the Boston Marathon. For me it meant a lot.” 

It’s a feeling Mr. O’Keefe understands. Competing in his first road race changed his life. He began his running career in his 40s. New Balance offered him a charity bib in exchange for promotion of the 2015 Falmouth Road Race on his Twitter account @BostonTweets. The 7-mile race on Cape Cod was like nothing he had ever experienced. Not only did the Falmouth race launch his competitive running career, but it’s also where he got the idea for Stride for Stride.

Building community

Today, Stride for Stride is a 501(c)(3) organization and receives part of its funding from donations, grants, and partnerships with certain races. However, the majority of sponsorship money comes from charity bib fundraising by participants at large-scale races such as the New York City and Boston marathons. Upon acceptance into a race, individual runners choose a charity or organization to raise money for. Mr. O’Keefe says that people raise at least $9,000 per bib at these major races. Those who opted to fundraise for Stride for Stride helped the organization cover $64,000 in racing fees for hundreds of runners across dozens of races in 2023.

The program has grown primarily by word-of-mouth. Mr. O’Keefe says referrals are the organization’s biggest asset – creating a “stronger connection right off the bat,” he says.

Anny Sanchez, originally from Colombia, was recruited by Mr. Rodriguez after the two happened to meet while she was working at a convenience store in Chelsea, a city near Boston. When she spoke with a Monitor reporter over Zoom, she proudly showed all of her race medals on display behind her. Since joining Stride for Stride, she’s finished at least 38 races.

Both Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Sanchez say Stride for Stride offers them a community, one that supports them as they strive to achieve not just their athletic goals, but their personal and professional goals as well. 

“The team is wonderful. When I can hear everyone telling a different story, it’s inspirational ... and makes me feel like I’m strong enough,” Ms. Sanchez says. 

An unexpected relay

Back at the Saturday meet-up in Brookline, Mr. O’Keefe watches his team stretch. He normally runs or bikes with the group, but today he is resting to prepare for an expected kidney transplant. 

Mr. O’Keefe had felt defeated when a family member was rejected as a match the year before. Two days later, Stride for Stride member Jorge Rosales started the process to become his donor. If everything goes as planned, they will line up at the start of the 2024 New York City Marathon side by side, as donor and recipient. This time Mr. O’Keefe will be on the receiving end.