Andy Wacker is a man on a mission when it comes to his goal to elevate trail running.
Wacker has experience on the running course himself, as he competed on the University of Colorado’s track and field and cross country teams. He got into the trail running scene based on a recommendation from a friend, and now, he’s locked in to the sport.
Wacker created The Trail Team, an independently owned organization that sponsors six sub-ultra trail runners with the goal of developing, mentoring and supporting the professional trail runners to continue to elevate the sport. The organization has been intact for a little over a year, and has sponsored some of the best talent in the sport, such as Lauren Gregory, Sarah Carter and Alex Lawson.
Wacker, who competes as a sub-ultra trail runner himself, was a guest on the Lactic Acid Podcast, which will soon be released. Here’s a bit of the conversation that Dom and Andy had.
Dom: You started The Trail Team, which is an organization aimed at helping post collegiates – pretty much it’s a developmental program, helping them become great trail runners. Tell me what was it that brought about the passion of starting this and what have you seen in just its totality when it comes to growth, when it comes to exposure. Is this project doing what you had hoped it would, or is it on its way to doing it?
Andy: I think as I developed as a pro runner over the last eight years, I was thinking, how can I make sure other people are a little bit less lost than myself, a little bit less lost than this conversation I had with Joe Gray last year, and like how can they find that pathway, um, because it’s not clear. You got to create that pipeline. You got to show, share that vision with the other NCAA runners and say this is a thing, you should do it.
Dom: So why do you love it so much? You just kind of explained, you know, you just got into it, but there’s a passion there. There’s love there. What is it about the art of trail running that you love so much?
Andy: One of the reasons why I love it is that the tactics are crazy. The courses are all different and I think it really makes it interesting for each individual athlete to kind of show off their skill set at different places, different times.
Dom: Why do you think that trail running does not get the respect that it deserves? It’s just, mind boggling that it doesn’t get the respect that it deserves. So why do you think that is and how can it be fixed?
Andy: Yeah, I think it’s two things. I think they’re both really fixable. One is the media. And I think we’re just not at the level -maybe even 10 years ago, technology had trouble filming these things because they’re out in the woods. There, you have to have drones, you have to have helicopters.
And I think the other part is trail races are inherently smaller in size. If you think of something like the New York City marathon, people love that because they can participate in it. They can relate to the elites running it because they’re like, Hey, I did the same thing, I know how hard that is. So I think as more people participate in trail running, they’re going to have more connection to that sport. So media and just participation, and I think both those things are changing dramatically like this year.
Dom: Let’s talk about your squad, this amazing squad. First of all, one thing I’m curious about what went into the format of it. So is it six new athletes each year, or is it just six athletes added to the roster?
Andy: We started about a year ago, and the idea is to get six athletes every single calendar year and to really help those people. And they’re basically saying like, how can we take someone who’s like a good NCAA steeplechaser NCAA 10 care, um, and introduce them to the world of trail and make them the next Grayson Murphy, like that’s what I would love to see.
And so it’s not a coincidence that you have these people finding trails, but we’re helping them, guiding them with mentorship, getting them the skills they need so they can jump on the scene and compete at a world stage against every other country.
Dom: What excites you the most about this year’s squad?
Andy: I think every year is different. I think it’s exciting because we’re so new as an organization. We’re just going into our second year, so we’re only 14,15 months old. And just knowing that we have the capacity to do more and help people in a more organized way, I’m just excited about our growth. The possibilities are starting to pop up and you’re like, wow, we can really do something.
