Archive for October, 2005

Beware the Ides of March? Just a WMA world meet

March 15 kicks off the five-day 2006 World Masters Indoor Championships in Linz, Austria, and information is filtering out on how Americans can sign up. First, visit the new USATF page on the meet. The U.S. entry form is posted here. But Phil Raschker — a native of neighboring Germany — shares something called a […]

October 31, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Hometown paper finally gives big push to ‘RATC’

‘RATC’ is the masters track documentary “Racing Against the Clock,” which after a limited theatrical distribution is now out on DVD. And the Boston Globe is the hometown paper of the filmmaker. Finally, the Globe is giving this movie some pop. In a Sports section DVD review, Susan Bickelhaupt recounts the history of the film […]

October 30, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

All-star masters teams days may be numbered in cross country

All-star masters club teams — involving distance runners from widely varied areas of the country — have been common in recent years, especially at the national masters cross country championships. For example, M40 winner Brian Pope of Mississippi ran for SoCal Track Club at the 2004 club event in Portland, Oregon. So Masters LDR Chairman […]

October 29, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  5 Comments

USATF proposal shakes up decathlon event order (for women)

The decathlon’s 10 events have been set in stone for nearly a century, with the order of events committed to a million memories: 100, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 on Day 1, then 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500 on Day 2. But come 2006, you may have to reboot […]

October 28, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Anyone run against Rod Milburn out there?

If Rod Milburn were still alive, he’d be 55. He wasn’t into masters track, but some of his contemporaries are. And a few may still be fully engaged in the hurdling wars. Reason I ask about your contact with him is that he’s the subject of research by a 39-year-old track coach and newspaper columnist […]

October 27, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

British ranker shows the way to a grass-roots ranking system

M50 stud (when he’s not hobbled) Dave Ortman of Seattle has renewed his call for a grass-roots network of event rankers — people who would comb the available printed and Web resources to compile seasonal lists of the world’s best age-group performances in the various events. He makes this call, of course, because World Masters […]

October 26, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Russ Acea’s 1991 master’s thesis on masters still holds

In December 1991, a 39-year-old Montana State graduate student named Russell Jacquet LaMar Acea submitted a master’s thesis titled “A Profile of the Masters Track & Field Athlete.” It was reprinted in National Masters News in the early 1990s, and then pretty much forgotten. In 2003. Russ shared some old 5 1/4-inch floppy disks containing […]

October 25, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

What the fish can teach us landlubbers

If you ever get depressed at the backward state of masters track, push the forward button to USA Masters Swimming. These folks have their shinola together. Of course, they have demographic advantage, since masters swimming starts at age 25 (or 19, depending on the source). But they still go into their 90s, and their rules […]

October 24, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Master plan for USATF Masters? Check back in four years

Poor Trigger. I’m about to beat him again. The Masters section of the USATF Web site is a snooze, a shame and sickly out of date, especially in comparison to the USATF Youth Athletics area. And even if a dead horse has to be abused, I’ll ride this hobby horse until someone takes notice and […]

October 23, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Aging is hot, hot, hot! Media gaga over geezers

In case you haven’t noticed, old is in. Geriatric studies and articles on aging are flooding the technical journals and news racks. Latest evidence of this trend is the new issue of National Geographic. The November 2005 issue has a cover story on “the secrets of longevity.”

October 22, 2005   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed