Wow, it’s already November. The evenings are getting dark early and mornings here in Phoenix have started to become (almost) chilly. That means one thing for us here at Aravaipa: we are just wrapping up the Javelina Jundred .
It’s hard to believe that this was my 9th year as Race Director of this amazing event which has grown into the 2nd largest 100 mile foot race in North America. I agreed to take over the race back in 2007 at the ripe age of 22, the same year I graduated college and was embarking on my first “real job” at a local accounting firm. Little would I know how much that small opportunity would come to shift the direction of my life both personally and professionally.
From that one race and nothing more than a dream, Aravaipa Running was born the following year. A passion for trail running and wanting to share that experience with others quickly grew into several running events in Phoenix over the next few years with the help and support of family and friends.
Fast forward to today and Aravaipa Running now operates 28 events annually, has a clothing brand (Run Steep Get High), operates an online YouTube show (Mountain Outpost), and more exciting things coming in the near future. We have grown to incorporate a team of five full time employees and ten part time employees, now have a real office & warehouse and operate events in two states. Our weekly group trail run attracts between 70 and 100 runners as we strive to build up a community of like minded adventurers focused on creating lasting friendships.
Things have and are not always easy, but everything is a labor of love and we do everything with a true passion. I know I absolutely love what I do and we want people on our team that do as well. All of our staff members are active trail runners and are truly embedded in the community of runners we serve, whether that is through events, merchandise, or viewers online.
As with any growing business there are struggles along the way. Some of that has to do with the balance of workload and also having the right number of team members working with us. We work hard. Really, really hard. I don’t log my hours nor does our full time staff but it can easily creep into the 70-80 hour range on a big race week. These insane hours often sacrifice personal time and sleep for the greater good of the events. Although I value hard work, I want to create a sustainable business with happy well rounded team members that have a balanced life. We work hard and play hard.
I brought Hayley Pollack on board 20 months ago as we needed some outside help to move Aravaipa to the next level. I knew when she answered my Tweet for some additional help to mark our Hypnosis Night Run course in 108 degree August heat that she had the right passion and dedication to serve our Aravaipa runners. I’ve been extremely fortunate to find someone who has a similar mentality to mine when it comes to work ethic balanced with knowledge and passion of trail and ultra running. However, it’s more than just a passion to serve it’s a mind for budgets, business growth, employee and customer satisfaction and an unwavering commitment to organization. Hayley will officially be moving into the role of President for Aravaipa Running going forward. What exactly does that mean? She will be focusing on the internal operations of the company as a whole, especially on our growing staff to ensure that they are happy and healthy here at Aravaipa. Hayley has a Master of Science in Strategic Leadership and 10+ years of leadership experience. Positioning her in this role will ensure our team continues to have a positive experience, the back-end logistics of race management have constant oversight and our runners have the best experience possible.
With Hayley acting as President, I will move more into the role of the company CEO. I’m not removing myself from events, but instead will be more focused on the overall vision of the organization, building partnerships and actually having more time to interact with everyone we serve through our events. I love interacting with this amazing community and hope to better serve you as a runner with Hayley and the rest of our staff focused on some of the nitty gritty logistics of the events.
With 28 events per year, we are now at the point where we do need additional help to manage the workload and vision moving ahead. With all that is going on, we really do amazing work with the team we have, but sometimes emails get missed and we don’t get a response back to one of our runners right away. We want that same high quality experience for all of our runners that I first gave when I took over the Javelina Jundred back in 2008. It is not feasible for us to put on the high quality events we want without more dedicated staff and a continually renewed enthusiasm.
Where I’m going with this is that we are officially & actively seeking a new Race Director position for Aravaipa to help better serve our community of runners. This will be a full time staff position that will generally oversee our Desert Runner Trail Series and Insomniac Night Series events throughout the year. This does not mean myself or anyone else at Aravaipa is stepping away from any of our events, but quite the opposite. This new Race Director will help to alleviate the compounded stress of just a couple of us handling the entire logistics of 28 entire events each calendar year. We will all work closely together as a cohesive team to bring new energy to these events. We are not making a quick decision on this and will be thoroughly vetting the right person for this job that has experience with race management and is the right fit for Aravaipa. This will hopefully be someone that will stay with us for years to come as we continue to provide quality trail and ultra running events for our community.
If you know someone who this position might be the right fit for or are interested in applying, you can see the job description linked below. We know this will be an extremely exciting career for the right person and we are excited to offer this opportunity through the amazing community of events and participants that make up the Aravaipa family. Thank you for taking the time to read about the state of our organization and I look forward to seeing you at one of our future events. If you have any questions about this position, trail running in general or Aravaipa, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly.
Sincerely,
Jamil Coury
CEO
Aravaipa Running
To apply click here for all job listings and to download application.