Elizabeth Reese,
Jessie McClurg
Co-Owners & Race Directors, Banshee Running
The Basics
Company Name: Banshee Running, LLC
Location: Seattle, WA
Founded: 2019
Full-Time Employees: 2
Products: Trail running events
Social: Instagram, Facebook
Website: www.camelbak.com
Claim to Fame: Give us a few more years and we’ll let you know.
The Culture
Demographics
We are both white, cisgender women.
The best thing about working at Banshee Running is:
Doing what we love and working collaboratively with another woman, in an industry dominated by men and male ethos.
When we’re not working, we’re:
Running, gardening, playing with our dogs, and spending as much time as possible outside!
What we’re reading:
How to be an Anti-Racist, Untamed, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, The Gifts of Imperfection, The Shining, The New Jim Crow, and The Hidden Life of Trees (we share a habit of reading multiple books at once).
What we’re listening to:
Jessie mostly listens to crappy punk music from her teenage years, which she isn’t proud of, so she isn’t going to share any band names here. Elizabeth sums up her current music taste with the Tom Waits quote: “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.” Her current favorites are Boygenius, Camp Cope, Frightened Rabbit CHVRCHES, Lou Barlow, Avett Brothers, The Mountain Goats, and Bayside.
If they made a movie about our workplace, it would be called:
“I Don’t Even Like to Drive That Far”
Inclusion in the outdoors matters because:
Clearly there are barriers to entry when it comes to the outdoors, whether those of us who are privileged see it or not. As allies and womxn with some semblance of power, it is our responsibility and duty to do what we can to identify and disassemble those barriers so that our sport and the outdoor world feels safe and welcome to everyone who want to experience the benefits that we find being in nature.
Five years down the line, it’s our hope that:
We have been able to share our joy of the outdoors with a broad variety of people; we have created a community of people who feel welcome and comfortable in a variety of outdoor situations; we have helped to start a trend in the race directing world where everyone feels compelled to sign this pledge and commit to this mission.