Catherine Poletti Enters the Arena

Catherine on LinkedIn:

Nevertheless, we remain human beings, aware of the need to learn every day. Criticism, although sometimes difficult to take, represent opportunities for evolution. We are particularly affected when these criticisms are based on erroneous or non-existent information, because it tarnishes the trust placed by those around us and support us: our employees, volunteers, partners, service providers, the local communities that welcome us, as well as the runners participating or who dream of participating in our events.

You can only apologize for the things you’ve actually done wrong.

She concludes her personal message with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena”:

It is not the critic who is worthy of esteem, nor the one who shows how the strong man stumbled or how the man of action could have done better. All the merit goes to the one who really descends into the arena, whose face is covered with sweat, dust and blood, who fights valiantly, who is mistaken, who fails again and again – because there is no effort without failure – but who does his utmost to progress, who knows great enthusiasms, who devotes himself to a noble cause, who at best will ultimately know the triumph of achievement and who, at worst, if he fails, will have dared boldly, and will know that his place has never been among the cold and timid souls who do not know Neither victory nor failure.

This quote is in the opening of Doug Meyer’s book “The Race that Changed Running: The Inside Story of UTMB” (Which , if you haven’t read it yet and are remotely interested in this UTMB stuff, is a must-ready – and why wouldn’t you be, you’re readying this post).

I believe the various interpretations online of the events that transpired over the last few months and the corresponding fallout have been deeply personal for Catherine, the rest of the Polettis, and others who’ve build this organization from the ground up. Yes, they are a corporation now, and yes, that makes it easier, and more justified in some ways to criticize and complain about their movements, but like any good founder she’s taking this personal. And I for one am loving that at the helm of UTMB, in the eye of the storm of this current situation, and very much in a leadership position in our sport is a woman. A woman with a passion for this sport we call trail running and deep sense of what she wants her business to grow into and reflect to the world.