What's New at The Trails Collective?
It’s obvious to anyone who has ever heard me speak that the Trails Collective is very important to me. Right now because I am not living in Ithaca and cannot really do too much physically for the store or team I’ve been working on the back end to bring different content and develop our collective further.
Early in the pandemic I started talking to runners from the east coast about what they were up to and how their training has been affected by world events. I did the video series for the Trails Collective but honestly it was also a way to keep in contact with friends in my boredom. When I went back to college, I took a break from the series and pulled back how much I was doing for the Trails Collective. I maintained my support but felt like I could not devote the kind of energy this kind of start-up deserves.
Since winning a golden ticket and finishing up the coursework for my kinesiology degree, I have a renewed vigor to help Ian and his businesses thrive. Until I move in late April, the role I play in the company is sort of grassroots. We are trying a bunch of things out, seeing what we like and what is sustainable and also seeing what benefits our community the most. Ian has done a bang-up job these past few years as a one-man show. It is my mission to help him continue to build the Trails Collective and also maybe give the guy a break.
My part right now is a little bit of everything. I’ll start by explaining my favorite part, my podcast Voices from the Collective. I started this show as a way to highlight and introduce runners in the east coast to the trails collective community. What I had been doing was simply releasing past episodes from the YouTube channel as a podcast. I wanted to make it sound a bit more professional and at least give it the good old Ian Golden quality so I added some music, an intro and outro and Patreon shout outs when applicable. Coincidentally, I have interviewed most of the athletes I then invited to be on the TC Elite team because of the chemistry we had while talking in this space.
Some recent episodes include:
What is the TC Elite team you may ask?
In addition to developing our community as a whole, I wanted to give the collective something to feel rallied behind. I come from team sports where most nights a week the whole community would show up to support the local high school team. This was also before social media and all the other distractions taking up our time today. In a small town there just wasn’t much to do besides go to the game. It was with this in mind that I pitched to Ian the idea of an elite team. I began developing our Trails Collective Elite team, which has been rewarding and fun for me. I love meeting and connecting with others, especially through running. The wonderful athletes I’ve approached to be on this years team have been enthusiastic and professional. The most challenging part was writing up the initial team letter and what kind of squad we wanted to create. Our team is based upon camaraderie before performance yet incentives to do well are in the contract. We also will never hold an athlete to our team if they become sponsored elsewhere and cannot continue with us due to those contractual obligations. Our focus is providing support right now to athletes so they can take opportunities to race and travel where they choose.
To get updates for our team, sign up for our newsletter!
Finally, I am putting considerable effort into written content for the TC website. I have columnists who are going to write monthly. So far I have a beginner/injured runner column, a nutrition column and a parent/runner column. I would love to have more writers to contribute. If you are interested please email me at tcinterviews@trailscollective.com. You can have a monthly column or simply write a one-off community voices column and we would love to share it!
If you like hearing from me and appreciate what we are doing at the Trails Collective, consider supporting us on Patreon. It is only with those financial contributions in which we are able to have an elite team, send members to represents the east coast at races and further develop this wonderful community.