Early Runs - The early runs were very short by today’s standards; they were about 5 or 6 miles long starting from the Santa Monica side and sometimes would end up on the Valley, which required my car or van parked on that side prior to the run, to bring the runners back to Santa Monica. The name "Mountain Goats" came about after one of the early hill runs, when one of the first-timers in the group came back from a hill run and described the group as "a bunch of crazy people that look like a bunch of mountain goats running up on the hills”… and the name "mountain goats" stuck. In those early days, the meeting place used to be the Santa Monica Athletic Club (SMAC), at 7:00 a.m., and then everybody would caravan in their cars to the trail of the week. Later on, when people became familiar with the trailheads, they would call the 'goats hotline' (my home number) to get a recorded phone message for the Saturday run and would then drive directly to the trails.

Races - During those first years in the 80s, the Goats were participating in 10Ks, half and full marathons individually, but most especially in the 50-mile and 54-mile relay races with teams of five runners, captained among others by Glen Strauss - those relay races were fun, competitive and helped bring the group very together. One relay race that has stood the test of time for the Goats has been the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon, which benefits the Child & Family Center at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica. As a club, the Goats started participating in the JSRM in 1984 and have had teams running there every year since, fielding up to 20 teams the last couple of years.

Ultras & Goats Treks - In late 1989, shortly after Craig Chambers joined the goats, he invited me to do the crossing of the Grand Canyon - a trek Craig used to do every year with just a few of his close friends. After going with Craig and completing the "double crossing" through such a great place, I decided to make it a yearly event for the Goats and started organizing it for the group in 1990. In the early 90’s some of us in the Goats got into ultra running and as a result, the Saturday runs started to get longer and steeper for ultra training. The Goats Grad Runs also became longer and more challenging, and we adopted the ‘Dipsea Race’ style where runners are given a 'handicap' to allow them to have an equal chance of winning regardless of speed and ability. Besides the Grand Canyon, other popular running places for the Goats, since the early 90s have been Mount Baldy, Mount Whitney, and lately Kings Canyon, Joshua National Tree, and Death Valley. These annual Goats-organized runs are only open to the runners in the group

Goats Group Makeup - Because we do not advertise or promote our ‘non-profit, non-dues’ Mountain Goats Running Club, new members are usually referrals from within the group, or members of the Spectrum Club. Our group’s make-up from the very beginning has been about half male, half female, with runners of all ages and abilities, with three common goals - getting together to improve our running, lend support to each other and the needy, and enjoy the beauty of the Santa Monica’s. Throughout the last 10 years, and coinciding with Mike Kobrick's completion of his first entire season running with the goats in 1992, there has been an influx of runners from the Hash House Harriers (HHH), which followed Mikey into the Goats group, after Mikey stepped down from serving as the Hashers Grand Master (director and organizer) for many years.

The next 20 years will see the Goats starting a new page under the direction of Glen, Mikey, Carol, and Craig.