Making Track Cool Again
There are eyes from around the world on how Erin Groll has been hyping up track nights in South Africa. It feels like now is the perfect time.
Track has been having a moment.
Big events like the Olympics and European Championships have always been there, but in terms of the amateur runner, it’s largely about marathons, cross-country, run club, or trails. Track doesn’t really fit into the everyday equation. It’s an effort.
Alexis Ohanian’s Athlos and Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track have been cooked up to both increase visibility and accessibility, with the overall goal of making athletes running round and around a 400m track more of a spectator sport. However, neither is the grassroots events we maybe need them to be to make track seem like less of an effort. Enter Community Track Club.
I talk to Erin Groll about her and Michael Obery’s brainchild, a free monthly community track night event in Cape Town, South Africa that increases accessibility to tracks for run crews across the region.
It all started two years ago when Erin, inspired by a friend visiting from Berlin Track Club, approached Mike and suggested a one-off event open to all runners, no experience required, led by a coach to help local runners learn about drills, strides, and “stuff you would never have unless you’re a pro.”
“We have this incredible track that sits smack bang in the center of Cape Town, and no one uses it. It’s incredibly difficult to get access, and when you do get access, it’s always empty. Plus there’s the intimidation factor of being the ‘right type of person’ to access the track.”
The accessibility of tracks is a bone of contention beyond South Africa, though. Here in Los Angeles, the tracks are usually attached to high schools and colleges so grown-ass adults traipsing through educational premises obviously isn’t ideal for child safety. It takes serious organization (read: meetings and form signing) for run clubs to use the facilities.
In the UK, tracks are often part of local authority community centers but have a relatively high cost attached to them. Quite simply, if fewer people can afford to use them, they’re less accessible.
There are others putting on local events for their track community, of course.
Track East in London and Interval in Edinburgh both make a point of bringing a weekly track night to more people, but – again – it takes organization. It takes a lot of time and brainspace to cut through both red tape and the perception of who can run on a track, and it’s all for their community. That’s what Erin and Michael are doing with Community Track Club.
In terms of annual, celebratory events that feel more like one-offs, The Night of the 10000 PBs was created by Highgate Harriers and features live DJs and entertainment more suited to the circus, and Tracksmith hold their Twilight 5000 series every year, which travels the tracks of the world allowing people to be in a competitive track environment again. Both events make for a real spectacle, and the aim is to encourage both athletes and spectators.
It’s as a spectator that the idea was further crystallized for Erin. A few editions of Community Track Club had passed at this point, but attending the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in the summer of 2023 was a moment of clarity.
“It was my first major stadium experience with real athletes. We don’t have that much sport [in South Africa]. We have rugby and cricket, but we don’t really get athletics.”
As such, Erin was worried that nobody would care about her event, but 167 runners turned up to that first Community Track Club in January 2023, and they haven’t stopped. Now a monthly occurrence, the workout continues to be announced at the track (no previews – trusting the coach is part of the fun), the lanes are ordered by pace so everybody has a place, and they bring in elite athletes like George Mills, Tadesse Abraham, and local 400m star Zakithi Nene so that local amateur athletes can really connect with the sport.
“The best thing about George Mills is that yes he’s an amazing personality, but he’s also a 5k runner. It’s so equatable. We know what a 5k feels like. It puts these things into perspective. That appreciation between us and athletics as a whole and how cool it is as a sport as you start understanding it more.”
Erin has a deep understanding and long-standing love for the sport. Growing up in Durban, as a kid she sat on the pavement clapping and cheering for runners in the Comrades Marathon – the local 90km road race – like every other kid did, but it was the Olympics that really grabbed her.
“I f*cking love athletics, and I always have.”
Erin tells me about being “obsessed” with watching the sprinters in particular, and how glamorous they were. It was the hair, the nails, the peacocking.
“I love a bit of glam, and them bringing it into a highly-competitive sports space was so exciting.”
She ran in high school, and continued to love the sport, but when her friends started wearing eyeliner and smoking cigarettes, she joined them. It was a different kind of glam, and when that lifestyle was coupled with her photography degree Erin started photographing music festivals, but she ultimately found that combination unsustainable.
“I was young and thought that I was also a rock star. I totally lost myself in it, and luckily I got out of it. I know a lot of people who didn’t.”
Erin had pretty bad drug and alcohol problems by the end of those five years of living it up, ending up in treatment centers multiple times. By the time she decided that life wasn’t for her, Erin had already started running. She soon saw the same parallels that I saw from when I was a music journalist.
“I was so obsessed with catching a moment with these musicians, but when I shifted to running, I saw there’s also all of those moments here.”
While laughing at how much healthier a person she is now, Erin says hers isn’t a unique story – especially in the running community. She talks about how many people she knows that have come through addiction and found running, but the way she’s come through successfully is inspiring to me, and will be to others.
Through her passion, Erin has found herself in the world of running photography through crews, races, and brand work, including her current project of working with the On Athletics Club – the Swiss powerhouse’s training group for middle distance elite athletes. Erin is about to go on her third training camp with the group. Erin is firmly in the scene that she’s pumping up.
“I’m such a nerd, and sitting in the elite athlete space… it’s fascinating if you’re into this. I want to know what they’re doing. I want to know what the training looks like. It’s amazing.”
It’s fun to say that nerds (geeks) will inherit the Earth, but I see it more and more as time goes on. It’s the ones who care deeply enough to create beautiful things for others that are going to be sitting on the top of the pile. They deserve it.
“I love running, but I love runners more, and that’s why I keep plugging myself into these communities because these are the most fascinating people. All runners – not just the athletes I work with.”
With a successful European tour of Community Track Club with On last summer, I’m betting on Erin Groll plugging herself into more and more of those communities with more and more fascinating people. She’s one of them, after all.
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Raz x
As someone who’s favorite runs and memories come from Wednesday night track workouts at KRC @ LACC, this makes me much more appreciative that I have a track to run on every week and a workout to look forward to