THE TRACK CLUB

Crew Collab

THE TRACK CLUB

Footnote N°09

Every runner is familiar with Boulder, CO. They have seen the pictures and ad campaigns on endless, manicured dirt. They know the folklore of Magnolia Road. They have witnessed the CU Buffaloes compete for national titles. And they have watched pros from the area find success at the Olympic Games. The atmosphere makes us runners want to wake up and grind; to find the best version of ourselves through the sport that surrounds us.

Photography: Christian Brecheis, Text: Brian Schroy

While Boulder is a great place to train, it is also a tough nut to crack. There are lots of training groups that focus strictly on performance. There are many other groups that focus more on the social aspect of running, but lack structure in terms of weekly workouts and supported long runs. The scene can feel murky and difficult to navigate.

At The Track Club, we are setting out to combine all elements of running into one place. We are a team designed for training hard, making friends and meeting other groups through our community.

We have created a space for everyday runners that are committed to training at the highest level, with most members balancing running with their full-time jobs. This might require early morning training sessions, sneaking in doubles between meetings and getting in bed before 10pm, but we are all making these sacrifices together, which makes the journey worth it.

We are a group of about 30 individuals chasing big goals and fast time. We had a handful of members at the US Olympic Trials this year, or just seconds off from the time standards. We have others just trying to make the most of their time in the sport. No matter what the reason is, every member shows up to put in the collective work.

What makes The Track Club special is the group itself. It is made up of individuals from all walks of life that have an undying commitment to training and a love for running.

The Track Club was formed by a group of friends looking to maximize our potential in the sport. We started running together during Covid as an escape from the chaos. We went to practice to run hard, but we were also each other's social outlet during a period of time with serious restrictions.

Running outdoors was deemed safe, so we spent a lot of time doing it. As Boulder started to loosen its restrictions, we decided we wanted to create a way for people from other local groups to come together and share miles at a conversational pace. While our workouts stayed exclusive to our group, our easy runs became open to the community. Regardless of training schedules, Wednesday remains a recovery day for most runners, so we used that as the day to bring runners together. Through those recovery runs we formed Soft Hour, a weekly community run with a goal of running “soft” for one hour.

A limited edition crew collab of our Distance Running Sock is available only directly through The Track Club.

TTC consists of three pillars that make up our club. There is our high performance team, which originated The Track Club. There is a newly formed community team that is open to all runners looking to dial in their fitness. Then there is our Soft Hour community run, that allows individuals from other clubs to meet up and share recovery miles.

This ecosystem has allowed our team to grow naturally, over time. Soft Hour has introduced us to great local talent along the way, using the recovery run to get to know prospective athletes. It has also helped us form our community team that is open to anyone looking for a little structure in their running.

As the team continues to grow, we hope to bring running to everyone who shares our passion for the sport. It doesn’t matter which pillar you gravitate towards, the goal is to have a group for everyone in the Boulder community. Soft Hour has become one of the biggest group runs in the area. Our community team also builds week after week, introducing new members to structured workouts on the track and on the roads. We are thankful for the connections we have made along the way. We look forward to sharing our journey and hope that other groups can bring this methodology to their training as well.

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