NEAR EARTH — As a photographer I’m really drawn to the story of Good Vibes Track Club. The first time we met, you and some guys were preparing bottles for the team racing the LA Marathon the next day.

COZA ESPINOZA — I think what makes us, GVTC, different is we just wanna see our runners win, period. From the tough training sessions, to the coaching, I feel when we connect and create a bond with runners we tend to build a strong and hungry group that all want to reach a goal… from them accomplishing their first mile non stop , completing a marathon or finally getting that big PR in a race.  

NE — I remember coming out for a track session and there was a mom who had her a baby sleeping in a stroller on the side doing a workout on the track, a group of fast runners doing intervals and everyone in between. It might sound chaotic but everything just fell into place and it felt like a group session. 

COZA — Of course, we’ve had mothers like you said, and other community members just show up or sometimes have their children run with us. Most of the time they don’t have a race in mind or anything planned they just want to show up for the workout. We are performance based so all the workouts have a specific meaning behind them, so to watch the growth of some runners during their marathon prep is amazing to witness. I like to call it organized chaos because it only takes a couple of sessions and everyone just seems to sync. Once runners catch their groove and find a group to run, these tough sessions seem to flow.

NE — During your, you call it "seasons", when it’s time to do the long runs, there’s this group dynamic where you have guys putting up tables and doing water support. Whenever there’s a race, there’s a GVTC cheer zone. Does this take a lot of organizing behind the scenes?

COZA — Honestly, it does, but it’s worth it. You’ll often hear us say… “We all we need” and it can’t be more true. Some of the founders and captains are really good at organizing volunteers and spreading out responsibilities for our water stations and cheer zones. As you know from hanging out at the cheer zones yourself… they’re always crazy but in a good way. I think everyone would agree, there is nothing better or more gratifying then having family, friends, and teammates cheer for you during a race.