Aidan Ryan

Road to Atlanta Track Club Elite

After a solid high school career that included an 8th-place finish in the 2-mile at the 2017 New Balance Outdoor Nationals, Aidan headed to Williams College for its academics as much as for its running program. There, he majored in physics and excelled on the track, going into the NCAA record books with two national indoor titles and a pair of Division III records. He went on to compete for the University of Washington as a graduate student, and in 2023 became one of eight Huskies to famously run sub-4 for the mile in the same indoor meet. Throughout his college years, Aidan would occasionally train with New York-based Empire Elite when he was home on breaks, so he was on Tommy Nohilly's radar screen; when the coach moved to Atlanta Track Club Elite, Aidan got a call.

Inauspicious Debut

With a father who is a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and a mother who is director of career development at Columbia Journalism School, Aidan's family leans much more toward academics than sports. But "like most professionals in New York," says Aidan, his father was a jogger. "He would come home with fresh bagels, so that was an immediate positive-reinforcement association with running." One day around third grade, Aidan asked if he could come along "probably because I just wanted to do something with my dad," and they headed to the path around the reservoir in Central Park. Aidan began to tire and sent his father ahead to finish the lap before walking back to meet him, but it took longer than the boy anticipated and he ended up scared, thinking he was lost. "So," recalls Aidan, "I remember crying on the first run I ever went on."

Looking Up

When Aidan got to middle school, he joined the cross country team captained by his older sister - then repeated that in high school. "We had a fantastic coach starting in 6th grade and we got lucky that when we switched schools, so did she. She was my coach from 6th grade until I was a senior in high school. It was perfect for falling in love with the sport."

Finding His Running Path

"As a kid, I always wanted to be like my dad. He's a scientist, and until very recently I thought I was going to be a scientist, too. Growing up, it was by far my favorite subject. And I really loved talking about science, with my friends but with my dad especially." But during the COVID-19 year, Aidan stepped away from Williams for a year to train unattached in the running mecca of Boulder, Colorado, and discovered that despite taking a lab job at the University of Colorado with an eye on eventually getting his Ph.D there, it was the running that really excited him. While working on a thesis after returning to Williams for his senior year, he found that his heart wasn't sufficiently in it. At Washington, he pursued a master's degree in Intercollegiate Athletics Leadership, and when the year was over sat in coach Andy Powell's office trying to figure out what to do next. "Andy said, 'wow, it's too bad you don't want to move back to New York, because the only coach I feel good about sending you to is probably Tommy Nohilly."

Getting the Call

Aidan was on the first day of a cross-country drive to a new training situation in the East when he got the call from Eric Heintz, director of performance programming at Atlanta Track Club. Was he interested in joining the newly hired Nohilly? By the time he'd reached Colorado, he'd made up his mind - and after a few weeks visiting his family in New York, Aidan headed to Atlanta. In addition to the coach, he said, "I like that the Club is a non-profit, and that it's mission-based. I like that they want to make the community better. All of the goals of the organization are very noble. It's taking this thing that I love and trying to share it, use it as a great force for good. How could I not love those things? … The dream scenario is that we run well and any fans in Atlanta will be cheering for us and hopefully will have met us at some point. Being able to identify with a city and with so many runners I think is really great."

How He Knows He's Ready to Race

"I firmly believe you don't have to feel ready to race. The calendar dictates a lot of what we do. When the day comes, no matter how you feel you just get on the line and do it. If you're healthy and you're not in pain when you run, you're ready to race."

Now We're Cooking

Aidan loves to cook. "By now you can probably guess: my dad is a good cook," he says of both his culinary interest and bond with his father. "I have this great photo when I was like 2 or 3, feeding pasta into a machine. I always loved going to the farmers market, then sitting in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon watching him cook. Now, I love having a Sunday to cook. I love the sometimes-tedious, long meals where you stay in the kitchen all day."

A Future Marathoner?

"I think the marathon is beautiful," Aidan says. "It captures a large part of the ethos of running. It's so simple: you just keep going and don't stop, seemingly forever." As a child, watching the TCS New York City Marathon was a big, communal day of going to a friend's house for brunch and TV watching before heading out to the course, maybe with signs to encourage the runners and orange slices to refresh them. He says it's on his bucket list.

Why He Loves Running

"I'm convinced that there's something very biological about it, that it's a very human thing to do. Running is beautiful because it has as much meaning as you want to put into it. It's hard enough that it's fulfilling when you achieve goals but it's also tangible enough that you can feel you're improving over a reasonable time span. I'm excited to be a professional runner, to keep expanding my scope of what the world of running is."