On Saturday, May 31, at 2 p.m., the Marin Mile hosted its second annual race at the Archie Williams track. The event featured 25 heats with runners at varying speeds competing in a mile race around the track. The five-hour event drew in runners from around the county and beyond.
The Marin Mile hosted its first meet in 2024, and organizers chose the track because one of the Marin Mile’s co-founders, Brody Barkan, graduated from Archie Williams in 2015. Barkan works with co-founder Shai Goodman and a large team of volunteers to put on this annual event.
The Marin Mile event aims to be inclusive to all runners, and Goodman acknowledges its flexible, open nature for anyone interested in participating.
“The Marin Mile is all about our ethos; it’s just a mile, meaning [it’s] a race for anybody. So whether it’s your first time running or you’ve been racing track your whole life, you can find a place here,” Goodman said.
The Marin Mile event draws large numbers of spectators, especially for the “elite” heats. Many of the racers in these heats are local high school students, but there were also racers on the older side. This year, the “elite” heats took place later in the day, which improved spectator numbers as the weather had been extremely hot, peaking at 90 degrees, earlier that afternoon.
“I’m here watching my son, Justice Hundley, and also supporting all the locals as well,” said spectator Joel Hundley.
This year was Hundley’s first year attending the Marin Mile, having heard about it through the grapevine.
As the day went on, the heats got faster and faster until their culmination at heat 25. Runner Chris Olley posted the fastest time of the day at 4:07.59, just shy of the sub-four-minute mile time the founders had hoped for this year.
Summer Solomon, a visiting participant, competed in heat 10 after deciding to attend this year for the first time.
“[I] wanted to support the community and have a good time,” Solomon said.
Instead of being a hypercompetitive event, the Marin Mile prioritizes inclusivity and community. While this year’s Marin Mile has come to a close, Goodman encourages runners curious about participating next year to consider doing so, regardless of skill.
“We have people who are 89 [years old] running, we have four-year-olds running, we have people who run 4:15 miles, and we have people who run 14-minute miles. So this is really a race where anybody can be successful,” Goodman said. “We really just want to foster inclusion and diversity and [uplift] everybody.”
Next year, the Marin Mile is set to return to the Archie Williams track. Although a date has not been announced yet, many runners look forward to next year’s event.
