Brendan Aylward’s vision as executive director of AdaptX is simple: make life and fitness as inclusive and joyful as possible for those with disabilities.
An organization that provides support and advocates for inclusion in sports the disabled, including a gym located in Lancaster, AdaptX has long held a Unified 5K — open to runners, walkers, those with adaptive running blades and in wheelchairs alike — in Lancaster, slowly expanding over its seven iterations. This year will be no different.
The Lancaster race — to be held on May 30 — will be one of nine put on by Aylward’s group. A Unified 5K in Hyannis took place late last month, with others coming soon in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (May 17); Cumberland, Rhode Island (June 6); Salt Lake City (June 6); Brunswick, Maine (June 13); the Twin Cities in Minnesota (June 14); Dexter, Michigan (Aug. 30); and Gulu, Uganda (Aug. 1).
After successfully debuting a handful of runs across the country last year, the expansion continues, with other dates still to be released.
“We’re in our eighth year in Lancaster and we had seven events last year, but there’s always pros and cons with scaling it up. This year, we should end up with about a dozen Unified 5Ks with some new communities coming in,” said Aylward, a Stow native and graduate of Nashoba Regional. “We view the race almost as a marketing vehicle to move into new communities and bring what we’re trying to accomplish to new places.”
What Aylward and his crew bring is education and resources. In addition to providing adaptive fitness education to gyms in each location, the organization fundraises and provides grants for things like sports wheelchairs and running blades.
While Aylward admits that runners had no shortage of races to take part in across the country, the Unified 5K stresses inclusion for those who may not want to partake in others due to a disability.
“There are so many races that it can be kind of a slow build in a new community, but we tend to get good diversity in terms of the adaptive athletes who participate,” he said. “It takes a little bit to catch on with traditional participants, so there’s a focus on driving up those numbers. But the concept is good and it’s well received by people who advocate for inclusion.
“It’s more about getting the community as a whole involved.”
Along with the expansion of the event calendar comes an increased workload. Aylward has added a full-time employee focused solely on the Unified 5Ks and is cautious not to get too ambitious with added dates.
“We’re trying to do this responsibly. If we take on too many communities, they might not get the attention and everything we can provide, so we try to get the right local partners for each race,” Aylward said. “If someone reaches out and is interested in hosting, we’ll take a look at where they’re located and what they’re hoping to accomplish and see if it’s something we can help with.”
He points to the inaugural race in Brunswick as an example.
“That’s in partnership with an organization called the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center, which applied for our grant program last year. They wanted to by adaptive bicycles for the Brunswick public schools to run a biking program for people with disabilities,” Aylward said. “We were doing more individual grants, so I told them we could organize a Unified 5K to fundraise for their program.
“It’s just another direction for us, looking at our race as a vehicle for adaptive sports organizations to fundraise for things that are aligned with our mission.”
It’s safe to say there’s a lot on Aylward’s plate. And he’ll gladly take on the challenges that come with balancing it all in the name of inclusion.
“I’m lucky that the gym basically runs itself at this point and I’ve got a lot of great people helping and supporting this mission,” he said. “We’re trying to make things like this as inclusive as possible.”
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