The MDRA Annual Party is a great time to reconnect with friends you haven’t seen since the marathon! It is also a great place to win gift certificates, race entries, and other running related stuff. Not to mention the free pizza and ice cream! All in all a great event, especially since I won $20 to Marathon Sports, and some friends gave me their race entries to some local 5k’s. Here is a slideshow from the day taken by Wayne Kryduba.
State of the Club address by President, Kirk Walztoni:
Volunteer of the Year Award this year went to Rob Lundquist. Rob is an all around great guy who continues to provide invaluable service to MDRA and the running community.
MN Elite Athlete Development Program. From Twin Cities in Motion (pdf):
MEADP is a collaboration of Grandma’s Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, Inc., Austin-Jarrow Sports and the Minnesota Distance Running Association, and is designed to assist elite Minnesota distance runners who have completed their academic running careers in reaching their full athletic potential. In 2009, MEADP will provide
grants, in amounts up to $2,000 per recipient, to promising Minnesota elite distance runners, to
assist them in reaching their full athletic potential.
Masters road racing star and long-time MDRA officer Gloria Jansen will be presented with the Lanin Award for Distinguished Service. The award is MDRA’s most prestigious honor, given for years of service and contribution to the sport.
The award is named for the founder of MDRA, Pat Lanin.
It is still 3 months away but it is never to early to plan for race weekend. For 11,000 runners the Twin Cities Marathon will be the culmination of many miles of pavement (and dirt) pounded throughout the summer.
The 26.2 mile race begins at 8am on Sunday, October 4th. Earlier that morning at 7:05am 6,500 runners will take the “shortcut to the capitol” by running the TC 10 Mile. Registration for this “shortcut” is via a lottery system that is currently open. Registration for the 10 Mile lottery goes from Monday, July 6 to Wednesday July 15 at 10pm. 1,000 lucky runners of May’s TC 1 Mile event (including me) won a guarenteed entry into the 10 Mile. I obviously chose not to use it. This is the 11th annual 10 mile race and is again the USA 10 Mile Championship event.
New this year to race weekend is a 10k event. Held on Saturday, October 3 at 7:30am this will be an out and back along the last 3 miles of the marathon course (starting and finishing at the marathon finish area). It appears that there is no limit to the number of 10k participants and offers race day entry. This also is the first event of the 2009 race weekend.
The TC 5k is on Saturday as well starting at 9am. It is an out and back course along the last 1.5 miles of the marathon course, finishing at the marathon finish. It too appears to have no limit to race entries and offers race morning entry. Both the 10k and 5k events will be run on USATF certified courses and are chip timed.
Other family friendly events are scheduled throughout the day on Saturday. All events offer pre- and race day registration. They include:
Diana Pierce Family Mile which starts at 10m and is an out and back course finishing on the marathon finish line.
Half Mile which starts at 10:30 am and is an out and back course finishing at the marathon finish line.
Diaper Dash starts at 11am. Participants crawl from an inner circle to an outer circle, it seems obvious this is for the littlest of “runners” in the family. It doesn’t sound like this one finishes on the marathon finish line but does take place in the same area.
Harry & Shelly’s Mascot Invitational starts at 11:15am and is a race amongst your favorite mascots. I’m not sure which ones will be there, but I’m sure Brutus the Buckeye won’t be. Harry and Shelly are the TCM mascots (in case you were wondering).
Toddler Trot starts at 11:30 and is a 50 yard dash on the capital lawn.
Race fees start at $7 for the Toddler Trot and Diaper Dash and go up to $100 for the now closed marathon.
Last year I was quite happy to visit the Expo, pickup my number and chip, walk quickly through, purchase a shirt, and head home – less time on the feet the better! Some of my non-runner friends have taken their kids to the family events and had a blast.
If you’ll be here for marathon weekend, what event are you doing? Me – I’ll be knocking out the 26.2.
April 25th Get in Gear 10k – Minneapolis USATF Minnesota 10k Championship Last year’s review I ran a 41:30 which is 2 seconds off my PR in terrible conditions.
May 25th Brian Kraft Memorial 5k – Minneapolis USATF Minnesota 5k Championship I missed this one last year to watch my sister graduate from high school.
June 20th Grandma’s Marathon – Duluth USATF Minnesota Marathon Championship This is a new one back on the circuit this year. I’m still looking for a spring marathon…
July 25th Lumberjack Days 10 Mile – Stillwater This is another one being added back to the schedule.
August 2nd Hennepin Lake Classic 5k – Minneapolis Last year’s review of the 10k. The Team Circuit requires a certain number do the 10k, the 5k, and also some doing the double! I ran a 41:59.
August 9th MDRA 15k – Edina USATF Minnesota 15k Championship Last year’s review This is my first road 15K and I ran a 1:03:24.
September 13th City of Lakes 25k – Minneapolis USATF Minnesota 25k Championship Last year’s review I ran a 1:48:40 for my first time at this distance.
I recognize at least two races are missing from the schedule which is good! Last year I ran the 5000m championship on the track and that wasn’t very exciting. The Earth Day Half Marathon was also on last year’s circuit. It was the weekend before Boston last year and I imagine that is why it got left out of the schedule this year. It is a little odd that there isn’t a half-marathon on the schedule at all though.
Here is an interview with USATF Minnesota Long Distance Running Competition Chairman Ed Whetham from Down the Backstretch about the 2009 circuit.
In case you missed it, the USATF is now permitting runners to wear headphones again. Yes the USATF recently changed the rules again for its sanctioned and insured events (official release).
The sudden change of course throws a curveball to the many races that disqualified runners for wearing headphones. I’ve heard at least one story of a streaker whose streak was officially broken because they were DQ’ed after completing a race wearing headphones. Will they continue enforcing the ban as is their right? Should they reinstated runners who were DQ’ed after reviewing marathon pictures? I doubt they will reinstate runners but should they continue enforcing their previous bans?
The USATF has decided to leave the decision about headphones up to the individual race directors, except in the case of USATF Championship races, where those competing for awards can’t wear portable audio devices.
I personally am not a fan of wearing headphones while racing and have had an occasional problem when trying to pass someone who was wearing them. It is one thing to train with headphones, but to me racing is a more pure component of running and it is easier to enjoy the event and surroundings without them.
This quote from The Final Sprint sums it up well:
“The difficulty in enforcement was part of the reasoning,” said USATF Rules Committee chairman John Blackburn through a news release. “However, several good-sized races have demonstrated that they were able to enforce the rule. There were strong opinions on all sides of this discussion, both understanding the issues related to athlete safety, race organization, difficulty of enforcement. This resolution appeared to be the best position for USATF overall.”
Many race organizers thought the genesis of the ban was due to safety concerns; runners may be listening to music which is so loud that they cannot respond to instructions should an emergency arise. Indeed, the issue had been couched that way by many who supported the ban, who also argued that plugged-in runners were discourteous to their fellow athletes, running in their own world and blocking race courses.
While the rule modification will certainly provide race organizers with much-needed breathing room, it will do little to quell the debate amongst runners themselves. Many serious recreational runners don’t want to line up next to headphone wearers, afraid that their competitive efforts may be impeded. The new language of the rule may prompt some event organizers to offer headphone-free starting corrals to mollify those concerns.
What is your opinion on wearing headphones during a race?
At the recent USATF Annual Convention the race organization was awarded championships in 6 different events, including a first ever 1 mile championship.
USA Road Mile Championships (Men & Women): 2009 – 2012
USA Women’s Marathon Championship: 2009
USA Men’s 10 Mile Championship: 2009
USA Men’s Marathon Championship: 2010
USA Women’s 10 Mile Championship: 2010
USA Masters Marathon Championships (Men & Women): 09-15
This is great news both for the organization but also for the Twin Cities in general and our strong running communtiy. This will continue to bring in high quality competitors, sponsorship dollars, and a lot of added fun to the events.
You can read the official press release from Twin Cities Marathon here (pdf)
The Rocky’s Run 5k & 8k brought back a lot of college memories for me. I’ve done a lot of trail races since college, but this is the first “cross country” race. So many things about it were similar to a cross country meet.
Location - a golf course, we ran on a few golf courses throughout my career, most notably the Notre Dame Invitational.
Format – this event was a 5k and 8k. The women’s USATF race was the 5k and the men’s was the 8k – just like in college. NCAA men run a 10k championship race, my alma mater was NAIA so we stayed at the 8k all year.
Weather – this was like an early season race, warm and sunny! My first collegiate 8k was at Purdue on an extremely hot morning.
Team – This was part of the USATF Team XC series. We cheered for our female teammates (and Kirk who ran the double so he could score in the Grand Prix) and they cheered for us. All of the other factors heightened the team feeling.
Ok, but what about the race? This was my hardest workout since Twin Cities so I pretty much had no expectations going into it. When you have no expectations you can come out happy! I ran a 34:40 which is just at 7 minute pace and we actually cut off a little piece of the course. How does a golf cart mislead the race leaders?? I finished 44/87, just missing the top 50%. But I was a 1:20 faster than the average!
The course was fairly hilly, nothing major but lots of little ups and downs that wear on you over 5 miles. The course had a lot of turns and made numerous loops (see picture). Since this was my first year here I had no idea where in the world we would be going next, except for seeing the string of people ahead of me, occasionally.
I think I may have been a little dehyrdated. The sunny conditions took some out of me. The nicest thing though was how short the race felt compared to the marathon. And the rest of the day I wasn’t sore or tired. What a nice feeling. It did help that I had an hour to lounge around after the race talking with Nathan and Mike, while we waited for AAA to retrieve Nathan’s car keys for him!
When I became CEO of USA Track & Field on July 17, I had several concrete plans for my first several weeks on the job. One is that I would be a sponge, listening to anybody and everybody in the sport in order to learn as much as I can about it. Another was to start a blog.
Writing a blog is relatively easy, but naming it is more difficult. About one week into the job, it hit me: Shin Splints. They are a slight irritant. They don’t kill you, but they make you sit down and think about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Both are things to which all blogs should aspire. So aspire I shall.
I haven’t read all of his posts yet, but this is a great step forward in transparency for the organization. This is just one of many improvements that appear to be on the horizon. My biggest complaint is that there is no RSS feed for the blog. This means that you have to actually go to the website to see if he’s updated at all – which is more than a slight irritant.
Hopefully, this new addition will be good for the sport. If nothing else it will be an insight into the CEO of running.
What do you think?
Updated 9/21/2009 They still don’t have an RSS link, though somehow I get an e-mail from their marketing department about new blog posts. I think they need a website overhaul that includes a blogging platform.
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