The Human Potential Running Series Podcast · John Lacroix

HPRS Podcast – Episode 59: On Belongingness Theory

·1 hr 36 min·4 clips

John LaCroix says Maslow later admitted his hierarchy of needs was 'incredibly flawed.'

The show opens in a relaxed office mood. John is with Tommy and Storms, and the jokes quickly turn into the kind of wandering conversation this podcast does well, where small details keep pointing back to trail culture. Belonging is the real subject. The episode treats it less like a theory and more like something you can feel in the way runners gather, drift apart, and keep finding new pockets of the scene. John says it is harder to make those connections now because people are going off in so many different directions instead of gathering around one center the way they used to. Hard Rock becomes the clearest case study. The race is described as having its own community, its own yearly rhythm, and its own way of deciding who gets back in and who only gets a glimpse. John walks through the lottery structure and says there is a deliberate amount of gatekeeping built into it, which helps protect the event's identity by keeping familiar people in the mix year after year. A former board member's view comes up too: if the same core keeps returning, the race stays Hard Rock and does not blur into something generic. The other side is easy to see. From the outside, that same structure can look elitist and unfair, especially when the desire to belong is strong and the odds are thin. Western States gets pulled into the same frame, with John noting that many entrants come through the lottery while a smaller share come through automatic, elite, sponsor, or volunteer spots. By the end, the episode lands on a plain but useful idea: big trail events are not only competitions, they are communities, and the systems that protect that community can also leave people waiting at the door.

As heard by us

A clear look at how Hard Rock and Western States shape belonging in trail and ultra running.

Episode 59 of Human Potential Running Series looks at Hard Rock and Western States through the question of who gets to feel at home in trail and ultra running.

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Why you'd press play

If you care how trail and ultra communities form, this one goes straight at the fault lines.

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