Under Armour Diversity Series: Anita Cardinal is changing the face of ultrarunning

Under Armour has teamed up with Canadian Running to produce the Under Armour Diversity Series—an exclusive feature content series designed to highlight and promote individuals and organizations who have demonstrated a commitment to grow the sport of running, support those who are underrepresented and help others. The series features stories and podcasts highlighting these extraordinary Canadians who are making a difference in their communities and on the national running scene.

Anita Cardinal does it all: the lawyer and ultrarunner somehow manages to direct an annual Orange Shirt Run/Walk, as well as a new ultra—the Medicine Run—in Edmonton, while showing up at races around Canada with an ever-growing group, Indigenous Runner. She’s also proudly Nêhiyaw (Cree), a member of Woodland Cree First Nation situated on Treaty 8 Territory, and she serves as in-house counsel for the Nation and a sole practitioner representing children in care. “Good busy” is how she describes most of her days, and that feels like an extreme understatement. Canadian Running caught up with her to learn more about what brings her the most joy on the run, and to find out how she’s been able to introduce the sport to so many people while also helping shape the way race directors think about the land we run on and the needs of different communities.

In 2025 alone, Cardinal started the year racing with Indigenous Runners in Vancouver before heading to the Calgary Marathon, where the group had a tent at the finish line. From there, she went to the Yukon to race the Raven 50, where she not only ran, but also spoke to the Nation in Whitehorse. Next up were two ultras: Sinister 7 and the Canadian Death Race, where Indigenous Runner had relay teams in each. Then, it was time to come home to direct the Medicine Run, her first time race-directing an ultra, and one that included many ties to the Indigenous community. A few weeks later, she finished out the season by hosting more than 700 runners and walkers for her fifth annual Orange Shirt Day Run/Walk in Edmonton and supporting the second annual Sister Run in Saskatoon, led by fellow Indigenous Runner Alethea Greyeyes.

“It was just the most beautiful day! We always get blessed with such beautiful days when we have the run, even if it was raining or freezing the day before,” she says of the event. “The Creator sees fit to bless us. It’s more than just a run–we have a round dance, and bring many other Indigenous organizations onsite, because we truly want people to learn and grow together. One partner was the Walter Dale Museum, an ally who brought a vision of mine to life.

“I wanted to have our own witness board, much inspired by the Witness Blanket, where people could write down how you can continue to bear witness, not just once, but every day. We know that truth comes before reconciliation, and we need to keep this conversation going, keep the education part of this day going. So we also had these great big boards along the route about the history of residential schools and how each of us can practise RunConciliAction.”

The unfortunate reality is that people are still quick to dismiss the horrors perpetrated in these residential schools as ancient history. “Sometimes we hear comments like, ‘Oh, this all happened hundreds of years ago,'” she says. “But the last residential school closed in 1996, when my oldest son was just two. I myself am the granddaughter of residential school survivors, daughter of day school and forced sterilization survivors.”

For Cardinal, there’s a push-pull between pointing out (and breaking) barriers while also trying to help herself and others recognize limiting beliefs. “I love to be able to inspire people and help them be inspired by themselves,” she says. “I think, as we get older, we get used to putting limits on ourselves, and we don’t even realize it. But when we start testing those old beliefs and push past them, that’s powerful. At the same time, Indigenous Runner is about breaking down those more structural societal barriers that absolutely exist, and in the process help each other to recognize that health and healing go hand in hand, and are integral to our success.”

The societal barriers she’s talking about are both economic (the cost of most ultra races soars into the $300+ range, making them inaccessible to many) and optic. Cardinal says it’s rare to see Indigenous runners on start lines. With Indigenous Runner, she aims to tackle both issues, by helping defray race expenses and by providing visibility. She races in a ribbon running skirt, and at races with the group, she tries to have a prominently placed team tent, so other Indigenous runners can feel seen and supported–and perhaps a spectator may feel inspired to sign up next time. (“It’s a great hub for other Indigenous runners to see that they can have a community here,” she says. “Recently, a woman commented that her daughter saw one of our runners wearing the ribbon skirt, and it made her so emotional, because it was the first time she had seen that kind of representation.”)

“Running is a place of healing for me, and it always has been,” she says. And despite the fact that she’s toed the line at some of the biggest ultras in North America, she never lets the competition get in the way of why she really runs. “Running is healing, running is sacred, and running is a ceremony,” she says. “For Indigenous people, we’ve been running since time immemorial on this land. We ran for sport. We ran for communication. We ran for hunting. We ran the land, and still do, because we belong to it. All of these things we still carry within us. And that’s why I love ultrarunning so much, because I am my most complete and my best self when I run on Turtle Island.”

As part of the Under Armour Diversity Series, Under Armour Canada has made a $5,000 product donation for Cardinal to continue her mission and help others get into running.