LA Running Connoisseur

By: Howie Goldklang
Head Coach + Co-Founder, Silver Lake Track Club

When I co-founded* the Silver Lake Track Club in 2016, its essence was simple and clear. That essence is our WHAT: run, hang with friends old and new, crush a post run beer, put on a semi-annual neighborhood fundraiser race around the iconic Silver Lake Reservoirs. 

It was all powered by a few Instagram posts and too many text threads. The club organically evolved into the epitome of casual athleticism. As the training miles, weekly runs (looking at you, Tuesday 3), and races have racked up over the years, our community has grown significantly. So has an even more profound WHY that traces its roots back 34 years ago to New York.

I was just 12 years old, a tenderfoot in athletics, innocence unburdened by the weight of the world. It was the start of 7th grade spring term, and our gym class was gearing up for a fresh season with new T-shirt and shorts uniforms. My gym teacher asked me to stay a moment after class where he shared the news that our check for $11 had bounced. At that age, the concept was as alien as it was athletic, initially sounding cool. “Bounce” sounded like a sports thing, what did I know? 

When I conveyed the news to my parents, the atmosphere at home swiftly shifted into a night I’m still processing all these years later. But it became the small seed plunged into the proverbial ground of the Silver Lake Track Club. The following gym class revealed an unexpected twist. My gym teacher worked his own brand of magic, conjuring up shorts and a gym shirt. It was the first step in a three-act play of destiny, a quickly-moving series of events that would alter the trajectory of my life. 

Act 1
On that day, our class had to do the classic/dreaded 1-mile race. Ours went around an uneven grass track looping a soccer field. I took my place at the starting line, and then it happened: I surged forward with the lead pack. By the second lap, the pack morphed into a string of contenders, and by the third lap, I found myself in solitary flight, pressing on toward lap four and my very first win. 

Act 2
That race was an absolute thrill and got the attention of the high school track team. It earned me a bus pass and an immediate spot on the JV high school track team. But the real enchantment lay in what transpired next. I practiced for a two weeks and the head coach called me to his office. He kept mispronouncing my name and I was too scared to correct him. I remember shaking as I walked up the sloped hallway toward the dim light of the athletic office. 

Deal With It.

Here I stood, a 12-year-old weighing a mere 98 pounds, poised to tread the same ground as our high school’s finest athletes. In my malleable mind, those gifted shoes bestowed upon me the aura of a bona fide professional athlete. This singular moment solidified my lifelong love of running and run culture, carrying me through high school and into the fiercely competitive world of Division I college athletics as a 400m Hurdler.

From that day on, running became the very lens through which I perceived the world and all these years later the WHY of the Silver Lake Track Club comes into sharp focus. 34 years ago, an angelic athletic fund intervened, covering the cost of my gym uniform, providing that bus pass, and gifting me those cherished running shoes.

Today, our team organizes the Silver Lake Classic race, which raises funds for a multitude of causes, from the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy to LA Saves Track and Girls on The Run youth programs to helping start up the El Rio Middle School XC and Track team. It is at the intersection of these philanthropic endeavors and the profound moments etched in my personal history that our WHY takes root, fully formed.

The SLTC, now a registered 501(c)(3) entity, has assumed a singular mission: provide new running shoes for every marginalized youth runner in Los Angeles. 

In the grand mosaic of this run life, one thing remains consistent over the years: it’s often the smallest moments that illuminate the grandest stories. This is my humble narrative, a story I fervently hope will reverberate far beyond the bounds of our club, inspiring other run clubs and athletic collectives to unearth their own WHY.

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Registration has opened for the Silver Lake Track Club Take the Lake 2-mile Relay and Silver Lake Classic Fall 2023. Find more info here.

*Toby Hemmingway is the other co-founder and his WHAT and WHY about athletic ventures and far beyond can be found at substack.com/@tbhemingway