Lifelong path runner Ian Golden has constructed a life round his ardour for working, and serving to others do the identical.
Golden is the proprietor of the Finger Lakes Operating Firm retailer in upstate New York, the race developer behind the U.S. Northeast’s Pink Newt Racing, a run coach, and the founding father of the Trails Collective media website serving the U.S. East Coast.
Now greater than 20 years into his running-based profession, Golden displays on this article on his lifelong relationship with working, centering one’s objective round one’s ardour, and greater than 20 years of working small path working companies designed to attach individuals with working.
Ian Golden racing the Daring Coast Bash, one in every of his favourite path races. All images courtesy of Ian Golden.
A Ardour for Operating Develops Early
Raised in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, Golden was a aggressive swimmer from age six to 16, after which transitioned to highschool cross nation and observe. In observe, he targeted on the three,200-meter distance and loved 300-meter hurdles. “Often, although I used to be scrawny and never aggressive, I threw discus, as a result of it was enjoyable,” he mentioned.
All through highschool, the cross-country workforce wove trails into their exercises, being primarily based in a rural area. “We’d go to French Creek State Park on weekends, and whether or not it’s singletrack or rail trails, I at all times knew trails to be a part of the working expertise — particularly longer runs,” mentioned Golden.
Probably the most vital a part of his early working years, although, was the neighborhood.
“I fondly keep in mind the workforce angle: The neighborhood, friendships, and friendships of households have been what was most impactful. I used to be a good athlete and, competitively talking, that enforced confidence,” mentioned Golden, who ventured to Ithaca Faculty in New York as a collegiate athlete in cross nation, and finally for a grasp’s diploma in occupational remedy.
“Our coach was actually good about doing point-to-point path runs and weaving in plenty of trails, which was significant for me. I beloved these elements and that allowed me to actually get to know Ithaca intimately, and to have extra affinity and connection to the place and to return to Ithaca later in life,” he mentioned.
His freshman 12 months of school, Golden joined the ski workforce to combine up the routine. As a sophomore, he added indoor observe — which he seen as a low-key coaching window — and out of doors observe, competing within the steeplechase.
All through the faculty years, he earned a number of nationwide qualifiers in cross nation and steeplechase in observe, completed with two NCAA Division III All-American honors, and was later inducted into the Ithaca Faculty Athletic Corridor of Fame.
Whereas learning, Golden moved everywhere in the U.S. and oversees for his medical research — together with New Mexico, Washington, and California. Towards the shut of his grasp’s diploma research, he traveled to Scotland for his final medical rotation in psychological well being, then labored at a particular schooling college in Hawaii.
Whereas on the island, he grew to become a volunteer assistant coach on the College of Hawaii, and he additionally labored part-time in a working retailer for enjoyable and to be part of the neighborhood.
That is all to say that, by his early 20s, Golden’s ardour for working had already infused a number of facets of his skilled and private life.
Stepping Into Ultrarunning
His first expertise with ultrarunning was throughout the HURT 100 Mile, which ran a mile from the place he lived in Hawaii. He jumped in midway via to tempo Luis Escobar, an ultrarunning neighborhood legend identified for his very good images. “I type of knew what that entailed — however not likely,” recalled Golden of the eye-opening expertise.
After ending his grasp’s diploma in 2000, Golden moved to Bend, Oregon, and commenced working towards occupational remedy.
“Occupational remedy appeared like a secure, sensible profession observe that may have a great variety of choices. There are numerous medical settings, alternatives, and variability, which sounded interesting, and was a safe potential for locating a job anyplace you wished,” mentioned Golden, who across the identical time began dabbling in path races.
However in 2005, Golden switched instructions. He was residing in Bend, and have become mates with Teague Hatfield, the proprietor of FootZone, a working shoe retailer. “I appreciated what he’d grown, I assumed he had a great factor going with the neighborhood, and I noticed it was a viable career,” recalled Golden.
“It was an thrilling time when the game was a bit youthful. Jeff Browning had only recently moved to Bend, and he and I might run every now and then. Sean Meissner was race directing. It was a very nice neighborhood and a great time to see it develop. These relationships grew to become impactful,” mentioned Golden.
He had a life-changing realization that summer season whereas on a backpacking journey with Sherry, his now spouse: He wished his life to be extra intertwined with working.
Golden together with his spouse, Sherry, and their daughter, Maren, on the Whiteface Mountain Races VK.
Turning a Operating Ardour Right into a Profession
By September 2005, he offered his home in Oregon and moved again east to Ithaca in a loaded automobile. He proposed to Sherry, and she or he moved out east, too.
In 2006, Golden based Finger Lakes Operating Firm, a retail retailer in addition to a hub for schooling about working mechanics, harm consciousness, and neighborhood.
Golden mirrored, “I made a decision I wished to really feel ardour. I wished to make a profession out of one thing I genuinely take pleasure in and that’s all you possibly can actually ask for — is to take pleasure in what you do. The occupational therapist profession checked the packing containers of geography, stability, and safety, however I didn’t really feel competent or passionate.”
He went on, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized it’s a studying incapacity I’ve at all times had — I needed to work actually onerous to retain data that my coworkers might, from anatomy to physiology, and what I felt would make an efficient, inspiring, and relatable practitioner. That’s additionally why I stepped out and tried to vary.”
His experiences with path racing have been incrementally increasing throughout this identical time interval. In 2003, Golden registered for his first path race, a local people 50k in Hawaii.
He later began the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile, in Virginia, and made it 82 miles earlier than dropping, then returning to offer the 100-mile distance a profitable go in 2016, on the Wasatch Entrance 100 Mile in Utah.
“I generally tend for the wheels to fall off late in a race. I used to be fast sufficient the place I went out hotter than I ought to have, and I used to be pretty aggressive. I’d be lifeless to the world within the last miles. Whether or not it was 10 miles or 100 miles, I used to be equally patterned,” he mentioned.
Golden fist-bumps race director, David Horton, on the end of the Hellgate 100k.
So far, Golden estimates he’s completed round 35 ultramarathons, with the bulk as 50ks, a number of 50 milers, and a few 100 milers.
One in every of his favourite occasions he’s raced is the Escarpment Path Run across the Catskill Mountains in New York, one of many oldest races within the nation.
“It’s an superior, basic, U.S. Japanese technical race and a cool expertise. Should you’re racing and hammering, you’re actually throwing your self off boulders into blind footing. There are tight turns with large cliffs. There’s plenty of kicking of roots and rocks all through, and a number of the route flows however different sections are technical,” recalled Golden.
“I don’t know if I wish to return as a result of it’s too dangerous for me to race it onerous, however it’s one in every of my favorites,” he added.
One other favourite race is the 30-mile Daring Coast Bash in coastal Maine, which “was completely lovely alongside a bay with dense moss-covered bushes and floor, with waves crashing towards the shore,” he mentioned.
His personal love of path racing developed right into a need to assist join extra individuals with trails via racing. Golden began directing path races in 2008, and his firm is now referred to as Pink Newt Racing.
Ian Golden on race director obligation with daughter, Nora, on the 2018 Gorges Ithaca Half Marathon.
His entrepreneurship continued to bud. In 2013, he based Confluence Operating Firm, one other retailer, in Binghamton, New York, which he later offered to the supervisor. By 2014, Golden co-founded the Run On Hudson Valley storefront, in Croton-On-Hudson, New York, which has since closed, in 2019.
Additionally in 2019, he based the Trails Collective, a regional media hub that gives weekly rundowns of the U.S. Northeast path working neighborhood; publishes function articles and kit opinions; and connects readers with the Finger Lakes Operating Firm for e-commerce.
Connecting Extra Folks With Operating By way of Teaching
In 2023, Golden continued to dive head-on into run teaching. After being an assistant coach for Ithaca Faculty for a few years, he transitioned to teaching cross nation and observe at Ithaca Excessive College, the place two of his daughters at the moment run. His oldest, Maren, is 15 years outdated, and his center daughter, Nora, is 13 years outdated. The youngest, Camryn, is 5 years outdated. Their household additionally has a greyhound canine, Lucy.
“I’ve three daughters and the older two are competing and I didn’t wish to miss seeing them compete, as I’d be off at Ithaca Faculty. This was a means to have the ability to see them compete and coach on the identical time,” mentioned Golden, who’s the pinnacle coach for the boys’ cross-country workforce, head of the indoor observe program, and the space coach for the out of doors observe workforce.
The previous couple of years, Golden has flipped from feeling aggressive for races to specializing in his experiences in locations. He’s had plenty of accidents, together with a latest ankle roll that sidelined him for the Beaverhead 100k, which his household nonetheless loved as a trip in Montana, though the misplaced entry payment was onerous to abdomen.
“I preserve injuring myself or tearing connective tissue via working or climbing or within the context of teaching,” he shared. “If I can get a number of months in of being unhurt and having fun with runs, I’m depraved grateful for that.”
Golden racing the 2023 Hartshorne Masters Mile at age 45.
General, all through the years, a very powerful a part of path working and ultrarunning for Golden has been the individuals. “I’ve performed occasions, however it wasn’t with a spotlight. I by no means stored a log and I’m not on Strava. Possibly there are medals or outdated shirts sitting round. I don’t preserve an inventory of something. Largely, path working has been concerning the relationships.”
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