Backwards  & Forward

Runners aren’t ones for looking back. We’re future-oriented by nature and circumstance. But occasionally it’s worth taking a pause - not only to recognize the work that has been done, but also to better orient ourselves for what we have yet to do. As 2018 winds down, we decided to take time to reflect on the year that was, with a few images and anecdotes you might have missed.

FEBRUARY

Our spring season would focus on the roads, so we went west to Phoenix, Arizona in pursuit of warm-weather training on some new terrain. And we found it - with a caveat: the roads on which we could train were incredibly hilly. Sam, Sarah, Lyndsay, Mike, Rafa and Ruben were pushed to their max over three days of work on some challenging rollers.

We called it good training for Boston. They called it insane.

Little did we know that some intense vertical would seem tame by the time we got through with March and April.

MARCH

Since we first heard about The Speed Project - the 341-mile unsanctioned relay race from LA to Las Vegas - we’d been itching to chase the record. We started planning the collection and building our team back in the fall of 2017. But as the race approached, we lost two of our runners to injury, sending us scrambling and forcing our team captain, Jason, to rework his pace projection spreadsheets. 

A week out from TSP we tapped two members of our support crew - Peter Bromka and Rachel Coogan - to run the race instead. For some reason they said yes, and we rolled to the starting line in Santa Monica willfully ignorant of what lay ahead.

TSP proved to be a Tracksmith shoot on steroids. Doing just about anything - let alone running - for 36 hours with zero rest will reveal a person’s true mettle. Along the way, the team coined a new term: “TSP Rules.” What began as a commentary on the way we zig-zagged our RV across the desert, skirting road etiquette and occasionally laws of the land, has come to mean something akin to “race so hard you almost end up in the hospital.”

APRIL

From TSP we had about two weeks to recover before the Boston Marathon. And this year we set ourselves a few unique challenges - like stickering 2,000 bananas for our race packs and ferrying hundreds of runners to and from the Expo on our trolley. But nothing compared to the challenge the runners faced on race day, when Mother Nature decided torrential rain seemed like reasonable racing conditions. With Jason and our creative director Rafa out braving the course, the team hunkered down at the Trackhouse, going wild over Des and Yuki. But as soon as the first soaked runner struggled up the stairs to the lounge, we went into triage mode to support the shivering and exhausted athletes. Those four hours were some of the most intense we’ve witnessed at Tracksmith, and yet we ended the day exhilarated, inspired by the community and the strength of the amateur spirit on display.

JUNE

When we first saw Emily Maye’s images from TSP, we knew we needed to do something different to display them. With so many 2018 teams from New York, exhibiting the images in the city felt like a no-brainer. And 35 hours and 59 minutes felt like the perfect amount of time.

AUGUST

Fall is our favorite season. We live for the opportunity to get back to our New England roots and do some intense training in beautiful locations. This fall, we loaded up the minivan and headed to Waitsfield, VT, home to Heady Topper beer, Mad River tacos and the Warren Falls. Double sessions and hilly long runs earned rewards in the form of Creemees and a dip in the falls.

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER

Our Lofty Goals for fall had us on the road: popping up for the Chicago and New York City marathons. Along the way, we met hundreds of runners who share our commitment to personal excellence, fueling our excitement for the launch of Hare A.C.and reminding us of the incredible global spirit of our sport. And indeed, the standard of the competitive spirit continues to rise - we saw the BQ standards drop and OTQs smashed by hundreds of runners over the course of the fall marathon season.

And we had some fun challenging a rower to a race around the Fordham quad with the team at Rowing Blazers.

DECEMBER

And, while we often talk about achieving certain standards - perhaps a BQ or an OTQ - what we’re really focusing on is the pursuit of personal excellence. These markers are aspirational. Every runner has their own standards, their own ambitions and definitions for greatness. It’s the pursuit that binds us together. It’s the pursuit that makes us runners.

Here's to more chasing in 2019.