Running Los Angeles with Gordon Clark
What does the the running community of Los Angeles have to be proud of? Trail races. That’s what man about town, Gordon Clark says. But he thinks L.A. needs to get serious, and fast.
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Is this a scene report? Maybe. It’s more an extended thought on how a city’s running culture comes to be. A relationship between humans and the place in which they exist. A rumination on what’s been happening with runners in Los Angeles, what is yet to come, and how we might get there.
Today, I speak about L.A. running culture with ultramarathoner and luminary of the the city’s running scene, Gordon Clark. The irony of an Arizonan (him) and an Englishman (me) being the know-it-alls about what is been going on in this sprawling American metropolis is not lost on me.
A Phoenix native via Colorado and New York, Gordon has called L.A. home for almost a decade. He seems settled. A former Koreatown Run Club captain, Gordon also boasts a laundry list of running brands that he has been an ambassador and community builder for.
He peppers our meandering 90-minute conversation with quotes from favorite sportspeople, and cites authors and books with aplomb. We talk about not living in San Francisco and about Chuck Klosterman’s sardonic tone. Our chatter skits around, discussing boxing and basketball - two of Gordon’s other activities of choice - but, ultimately, it always comes back to running and Los Angeles.
For instance, over the past five years, Gordon has transitioned from road running to trail running. He has opinions on it.
“I do think trails are the future, and I think this is where L.A. could stake a flag and find its real traction in being an enjoyable place to be. We have one of the most expansive networks of trails and mountains in the country.”
“California is the home state of the most prestigious trail run. Western States is the Boston Marathon equivalent of trails - a hundred-year-old race.”
“Let's get passionate about our home court.”
“Everyone’s talking about getting diversity on the trail. I live in South Central L.A. I can leave my door and get 14 miles with 1,800 feet of vert [elevation] in Kenneth Hahn. It’s right there.”
Ah, diversity in long-distance running. It’s a problem, and it’s been highlighted widely, but where there is will to solve it, there is surely a way.
“Nike is a damn jogging company, man. Black people don't jog. You ain't gonna catch no black person running 26 miles for no damn reason. Man, the cops probably pull you over thinking you done stole something.”
Chris Tucker’s character Howard White from the movie Air (2023)
Whether the kind of systemic inequity that so many Angelenos suffer can be solved with desire alone is not even up for debate - it’ll take generations to redress the balance of resources alone.
Regardless, Gordon considers himself as something of an elder statesman of the Los Angeles running community and has that desire to improve things in spades.
“I'm such a hard-liner when it comes to making L.A. better. Stop waiting for a brand. Stop saying, ‘If only we had a fraction of the coaches out in Boulder or Flagstaff.’ Just shut up and do it.”
