Hello all! We have great news!

We are excited to announce that we will have our first GTC meeting of 2021!  

Mark your calendar for Monday, May 3rd at Lake Conestee Park’s Gazebo, at 6:00pm (840 Mauldin Rd, Greenville)

After such a challenging year, we feel that now is the time to start the process to getting back together, cautiously.  GTC members and their guests that attend are encouraged to follow COVID-19 safety procedures. Maintaining distance between each other and wearing mask when moving near each other. (Because of the extra cautions we will not have food available for this meeting.)

We are looking forward to hearing from our guest speakers: GTC-ELITE Coach and board member of the national Women’s Running Coaching Collective organization, Laura Caldwell, plus the very talented GTC-ELITE athletes.

Please come out in the fresh air to see the familiar faces you haven’t seen in a while. Bring your families and friends whether they are members or not. We want all to know what Greenville Track Club is all about and how dedicated we are to the wellness of Greenville County and the surrounding areas of Upstate South Carolina.

Can’t wait to see you out there!!!

ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Annie Rodenfels qualified for the upcoming USATF Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR with her impressive 9:46.98 victory in the 3000-meter Steeplechase. On a cloudy and windy Saturday morning, Annie took the lead from the gun on the brand new Beynon track surface at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. Her goal was to run under the 9:50.00 qualifying standard that would provide an automatic-qualifier to be included in the field of top women steeplechasers at the new Hayward Field in Tracktown USA in late June. 

Rodenfels covered the first full lap of the race, which includes 35 wooden hurdles, 7 of which have a water pit, in a brisk 72 seconds and had already put a gap of 30 meters on the remainder of the field. Midway through the race, veteran public address announcer Dave Milner informed those in attendance that Rodenfels was on pace to take the current USA lead in the event. ON Athletics Club's Leah (O'Connor) Falland, a 2-time NCAA DI champion while at Michigan State, has the fastest 2021 USA time of 9:44.73. However, Annie slowed slightly over the next laps before rallying with a 76-second final circuit. Her time was a personal best by over ten seconds and was basically a solo effort as the runner-up's time was 10:57.37. Annie's performance is now the third fastest in the USA during 2021--only behind Falland's time and Hannah Steelman (9:46.35) of NC State. 

Annie is the eighth ASICS GTC-ELITE athlete to qualify for a USATF Olympic Trials and the first to do so on the track. The previous seven were at the marathon distance.  

GTC-ELITE was established in 2012. The program produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles, one qualifier/participant for the 2019 Pan American Games Marathon in. Lima, Peru, three qualifiers/two participants for the 2020 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Atlanta, GA and now one for the 3,000-meter Steeplechase in 2021 at Eugene, OR.  Also, the group set four South Carolina State road race records in 2020 (5K, 15K and Half Marathon).  The post-collegiate, Olympic development program is sponsored by ASICS, the 49-year-old Greenville Track Club, Joy Real Estate (Adopt an Athlete partner), the Borch Foundation, generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Roll Recovery products, FinalSurge (on-line training log), The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, NormaTec Recovery Boots, Cocoa Elite recovery products, Stryd Running, Coach Bob Williams Pace Calculator, the DorsiFlex (stretching device), the MOBO board (balance & mobility), On Pace Wellness (nutrition coaching) and LEVER Running (treadmill body weight support).  The club is a proud and active member of both the Road Runners Club of America and  USATF.​

The Greenville Track Club is excited announce a new event. The Big Kahuna 5K will be conducted on Saturday, April 24, 2021. Location: Hampton Station. Click here to REGISTER. 

Our GTC Newsletter is available at the highlighted (red) link for those who may not have read it. Thanks to our Editor Bill Blask and the other GTC contributors.  March Newsletter.  It is also archived with previous newsletters on this website under the "Newsletter" tab on the menu (click on "More" and then "Newsletter." 

Please visit our Results page for 2021 results. 

The 42nd annual Greenville News Run Downtown 5K is one of the oldest, largest and most-popular 5K runs in the state. The run/walk is presented by The Greenville News and Greenville Track Club. It is also a GTC Corporate Shield event and is a part of the Greenville Track Club running series.
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A lot of thought has gone into planning the 2021 event. Although we're prohibited from holding a one-day event in the usual fashion, we've designed an event that's every bit as fun and interesting as the "real thing".

For more information please visit:
 https://runsignup.com/Race/Info/SC/Greenville/RunDowntown

The Greenville Track Club is pleased to announce the 44th Running of the Green Valley Road Race. We will be following protocols laid out during this cautionary time. At the same time, we have received permission from the South Carolina executive order to hold this in-person. This year's event will be held at Hampton Park Baptist Church, 875 State Park Road, Greenville, SC on February 13, 2021. Due to there being a school and church on site, we ask that all training runs be completed prior to 7:30 am or after 4:00 pm during the week and prior to 8:30 am or after 7:00 pm on Sundays.
For more information, and to register, please go to:
https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/GreenValleyRoadRace

The other day I was thinking about the economic crash of the late 2000s. I had not been active in the Greenville Track Club very long then, and what really made an impression upon me was how the club served as a constant in people’s lives and in the community as a whole during that time. Our running community experienced a lot of stress and disruption in those years, and many people I knew relied more than ever on running to mitigate that stress and keep them focused upon weathering the storm. Many local charities also struggled during that time, and those who received donations from the GTC relied more than ever upon them during those years. There was one agency in particular that was able to stay afloat due in large part to donations from our club. When I saw all that at work, I thought “this is the place where I want to be.”

This club has seen many changes over the past half-century. It has seen trends come and go, seen markets ebb and flow, seen shiny new objects lose their luster. Through it all, it has remained a constant, something that the community can count on. This situation is a little different – OK, a lot different. But one thing that has remained constant is our commitment to the well-being of our community and to being a source of strength and stability during tough times. Like everyone else, we pulled back at first out of concern for the safety of our runners and volunteers; and out of that concern, we have come back slowly and deliberately, placing our responsibility to community above all else. We came up with new ways to do things, followed science and the guidelines of our sport’s governing bodies, and refused to play politics. And by the final months of the year, we were able to host several events with live timing, course certifications, and strict safety protocols. In doing so, we laid a foundation for a strong comeback in 2021.

In the coming year, our club will lead the way in bringing the community out of this pandemic with the events that Greenville has come to know well over past decades. The Run Downtown will be a little different this year, but with our Virtual-Plus format, it will be live-timed on a certified course. At approximately 20 years old, the RDT 5k is one of the younger races on our calendar, although there was a 10k under that moniker before that. Next up is the Green Valley Road Race, also a little different this year but live with safety protocols in place in an alternative setting. The GVRR is over 40 years old, as is the Reedy River Run, which is tentatively scheduled to happen live in April. As the summer approaches, we have the Sunrise Run 8k in Simpsonville, the All-Comers’ Meets, and the Open and Masters’ Meet, all of which are 40+ years old. And who knows: we may have a new event or two mixed in among those stalwart races! Either way, we will continue to be that source of strength and stability that we have been for nearly half a century.

We are more than just another running club. We are more than just another race organizer. We are more than race discounts. We are more than free singlets (don’t you love those orange singlets, though?). We are more than meetings, more than awards, more than donations, more than the sum of our parts. We insist upon being more, as leaders in a community and a city that insist upon being more.

We are the Greenville Track Club, the greatest running club in the Carolinas, 48 years and running, separate but (for now) together.

Happy New Year, and God bless this wonderful community.
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Mike Burchett, GTC president