I like to say of nationals: “Every athlete has a story.” I wish to amend that — EVERYONE has a story, esepcially our favorite guest commentator, Peter Taylor, who added to his legend as meet announcer at Charlotte by enduring long days, schedule delays and other circumstances. His recollections of the four-day meet (plus a few travel days) just show you how dedicated you have to be. I’m sure meet officials have their own accounts of overcoming misery. (And I welcome them to post their tales!) Here’s Pete’s:

Charlotte was my 16th nationals (10 of them indoors), and before it began I knew I needed a good performance. I ran into problems in Boston this winter, and thus I wanted Charlotte to “make things right.” As a result, I was very well prepared, although at one point I said there were too many competitors and simply threw up my hands. We had 360 entrants in the 200 dash; Nampa/Boise (2005 indoor nationals) had 593 people in the entire meet. What?
For the first time as an announcer I drove to a nationals. Let’s see, take the scenic route (down Rte 29 from my home in Fairfax to Greensboro, NC, then I-85 to Charlotte), or choose the somewhat longer but faster way (Rte 123 south to I-95, I-95 to I-85 (below Richmond), then on to Charlotte? I opted for the second way and lived to regret it. Despite leaving just about 2 p.m., after 2 hrs I had gone just 44 miles. Eventually broke free of the traffic jam but: “What’s this hurtling through the air toward my car?” Something like a metal ruler, which smashed but did not actually break my front windshield on the passenger’s side. Seemed like a bad omen.
My two fears (keys) for the Charlotte meet were (a) integrating my efforts with the field events announcer (Andy Boyajian) and the awards announcer (Eric Braschwitz) and (b) having to announce from an enclosed press box rather than in the open air. Could anyone even hear what I was saying? How was the crowd reacting? As the meet got closer a bigger fear that I had kept suppressed began to hit me — the first event is at 7 a.m. !! That is way too early for me and influenced my entire performance.
Arrived at my Red Roof Inn about 10 Tuesday night (for $35.99 + tax it’s like staying for free) and headed over to the neighboring Waffle House (I passed on the grits). Doubt I did much studying.
Got to the stadium about 11:45 am on Wednesday. I’ll tell you, Ken, the heat just stood me up; it was absolutely brutal. I think Wednesday was the worst day of all (last day without competition). Talked to McDuffrie Allen of California (M45); I mentioned that Saladin Allah is a former body builder and noted how tough he was to beat on the track. Did not reveal to Mr. Allen my status as announcer. Enjoyed talking to Rebecca Mitchell (W50) of Oregon and told her I had announced her at Boston. Probably talked with many others.
Eventually checked in at Witherspoon Hall and soon Wilford Scott (M75) of Texas, Bill “Hurricane” Carter (M80) of Oklahoma, and I set off in my car for dining hall. Ended up getting lost, found it only after about 35 minutes of searching.
I had realized at some point that my announcing schedule would be backbreaking at best, but I consoled myself with the knowledge that although the number of races would be huge, most of them would be short. I had real concerns about whether I could last and did it the only way I know how — four 1-day meets that happened to occur in succession; announcing a 4-day meet was too daunting a prospect.
On Thursday morning I got up between 4 and 5 a.m. and eventually made my way over to cafeteria (opened at 5:30). Got to track about 6:25 or so. Pretty much everything went out the window for this meet, my sensitivity to how my voice sounded, the need to enunciate, everything. For one thing, the press box was noisy as could be, for another the air conditioning was verstunkene — is that a word? I needed ice packs under my shirt, a steady intake of fluids, etc. Jerry Wojcik (NMN) told me about 12:20 pm that the meet was going to be shut down, and I thought he was joking. Whoops, there it is !!!
Tried to announce at night but had trouble seeing all the numbers. One guy, I think it was Randy Sturgeon of California, I described as “winning in complete anonymity.” I’m told he turned, pointed to his shirt, and said something at the finish, but I still don’t know what his number was.
Was it Thursday night that Julie Hayden, that wonderful W45 middle distance runner from Ashburn, Virginia, took pains to see that I did not go from heat exhaustion to heat stroke? I was talking rather quickly, perhaps even seemed to babble, but she saw to it that I didn’t go south on everyone.
Got up between 4 and 5 on Friday morning and went at it again. As noted, everything simply went out the window as far as good-quality announcing. I hardly thought about how I sounded, minimized introductions because of time considerations, etc. Did a truncated session on Friday evening (it was ended by lightning).
Arose between 4 and 5 on Saturday morning and prepared to go a full day (which I did).
On Saturday evening I was able to find the athletes’ banquet but could not find the one for officials, ended up going to Subway for a tuna hoagie and chips.
On Sunday morning I got up extremely early again and was able to finish things off in reasonable style (my voice was shot, however). Again, the dominant theme for this meet was fatigue; they never did get the air conditioning fixed in the press box (although we did have some cooling …well… a little bit). I was so tired on one night that I saw Mary Woo (W40) of Vacaville, California, in the public room of Witherspoon and could not tell her her name. I forgot Mary Woo !!! I think I got the Vacaville right, however (after she told me her name). I was that exhausted (when I’m tired my memory is the first thing to go).
Even though I did not have a great meet as far as announcing, I was still able to do good work toward four of my objectives. I want to show that (a) we have great meets, (b) some of our talent is unreal, (c) our meets are worth watching even though you may know none of the competitors, (d) our meets have a structure and are well organized: this is what will happen, and this is what will happen after that.
I go back a long way in masters — shortly after the First World War concluded I made my debut as a masters runner (M30) at Widener University. I took the lead at the start of the 600 and never looked back, winning in 1:31.8 on that tight indoor track. Turned out to be not only my first race but my last winning effort, eventually turned to announcing. Biggest difference from then to now is in the women. Does anyone remember Anna Mapps of the Manhattan Flight Kings? I believe she was the ONLY woman in some of our championships. Vive la difference.
By the way, people think I am the masters announcer because I know a lot of the competitors; it’s actually become the other way around: I know a lot of the competitors because I am usually (not always) chosen to be the announcer. I believe that anyone who will compete at a high level deserves some recognition. Easiest ones to introduce are people like Bill Collins (M55) and Nadine O’Connor (W60) or Phil Raschker (W55).
Hard ones are people like Robert Zahn (M50 hurdles) and Fred Johnston (M60 hurdles); they’ve done a lot of good things but it’s hard to remember exactly what. And now Lester Mount (M60) has come along to sweep the two hurdle races, will have to sharpen up on him. And I still can’t pronounce Getulio Echeandia’s (M40) last name, although I do have him coming out of St. John’s and, of course, acknowledge him as a silver medalist in Spain.
Race of the meet? Probably the M45 800, won by Saladin Allah in 2:00.13, with Kevin Paulk second in 2:00.23. McDuffrie Allen was next in 2:00.55, followed by Jeff Lindsay (2:02.08) and Eric Parker (2:02.60). Which brings up Ed Gonera’s excellent point. Will people like Mr. Parker (who came to Charlotte from Wisconsin, I believe) be discouraged at running 2:02.60 and being almost an “also ran”?
If he told the people in the Cheese State that he ran 2:02.60 in the nationals and they knew running they might ask him whether he won by more than 100 meters (would not believe he could be fifth). As Ed Gonera indicates, we do need to encourage these outstanding runners who do not break into the medaling group.