Spokane was laid-back, friendly host to masters nationals
This was my 11th masters outdoor nationals since 1995, and I haven’t been to one with more helpful, friendly, kind, cheerful and courteous meet management, led by Marla Emde of the Spokane Sports Commission and USATF’s Jim Flanik of the Games Committee. Other nationals featured some truly officious officials, who liked to throw their weight around. Not here.
In the runs, jumps and throws, the officials went about their jobs with confidence and modesty. When I misplaced my competition number (for a day), the folks in the clerk’s tent simply wrote my number on the back of another. Nobody hassled me when I sat on the track taking hundreds of pictures as sprinters rushed by me (after finishing) in lanes 4 and 5.
Of course, all was not perfection. The meet ran late the first few days. Pentathletes on the hot Thursday opening day waited and waited under the bright sun for their events to begin. The clerk’s tent was overwhelmed with some scrambled heats, running the M50 prelims in a sprint race before the M55s one day, for example. And the awards ceremonies on Sunday were Grand Central Station as athletes clamored to get their medals and ribbons and get to the airport on time.
And the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place ribbons at Spokane featured the black bear logo from Orono 2007.
Yet many American and world records were set, Peter Taylor called a thousand races with usual mix of excitement and hype, and USATF media maven Tom Surber — who turned 50 over the weekend — churned out press releases for posting on the USATF Web site, including this Day 4 account.
My wife, Chis, and I took some SPECTACULAR action shots at the meet, including series of falls at the finish line. Those will be posted in time.
And me? I ran post-ACL PRs in the 100 and 200 — and got some training tips from Rob Duncanson for coming back stronger and faster next year. Rob knows something about strength. He ran the 1500, 400 hurdles and relays n the final day — after a bunch of other events in the preceding three.
Now my vacation continues for another week. So blogging may be sporadic.
Stay tuned for some great coverage.
20 Responses
Agree on the officials- they did an excellent job and along with Peter Taylor’s announcing were the highlights of the meet for me.
Thanks to the Spokane Organizing Committee for a wonderful meet. The organizers were friendly and efficient, the officiating was excellent, the weather was perfect, and the facilities were superb.
I thought the meet management personnel and the officials were top-notch. And of course we are spoiled with Pete Taylor’s excellent announcing.
Great meet. I was willing to boycott Masters Nationals after the fiasco in Charlotte a few years ago. This meet was well run and the officiating was great.
My only complaint was that the times of the events were not posted sooner. When you are coming from out of town and booking hotel rooms, that is a big concern.
I had a blast!…a few bumps in the road for the officials and the tireless volunteers, but hey, it all worked out in the long run
Peter brought his “A” game!
Ken was literally splitting the lanes at the finish line taking countless action and post race photos that many of will cherrish the rest of our lives.
The weather was great, the hotels were close to the venue and the folks from Spokane extended their welcome every place we walked visited.
I agree that Marla Emde, our meet director, was and is a warm and gracious person and a terrific host. In fact, tonight I will e-mail her to thank her for all that she did. I will e-mail her by going to the Web site for Spokane Regional Sports Commission or by going through “athletes’ information” for our meet at usatf.org.
Of course, I have two things in mind: (1) expressing my thanks, and (2) thinking about the possibility that Spokane will host this meet again in 2012. I will tell Marla a couple of things I liked about the meet but nothing I did not like.
PS. I appreciate the comments about my announcing. I was pretty decent.
This was a fantastic experience in every way! It was so great to meet so many fun,cool,talented and helpful athletes. What a privledge. It was a thrill to see my fellow Arizonans do so well in so many events! I want to tell Joy I’ll bring my scissors next time and we can do some hair!
Peter-
I know you’re being modest but you were a heckuva lot better than “pretty decent.”
Let me put it this way, at every other meet this summer, I was one of only 2 or 3 competitors in the steeple and heard my name between zero and 3 times. You announced my name along with every other competitor around me’s name every lap and where we stood in the race and we had 16 competitors.
You were on top of it every time and were a total professional. Best announcing I’ve heard and that includes the Olympic Trials.
Yes – Spokane was a great meet. Officials were terrific. I am looking forward to seeing all the photos.
Anyone know the dates or other info on Clermont 2009?
Last I saw dates were still tentative and there is still a lot of concern from us distance runners about running in the heat and hoping for events at night.
At the Spokane meet I heard that opening day of the 2009 outdoor masters nationals will be July 9. Don’t quote me on that, but that is what I heard from an AUTHORITATIVE source. Remember, Mellow Johnny, we are waiting for a report from Mary Harada on the facility (she is attending the multinational meet that begins two weeks from Thursday at Clermont).
PS: Thanks for comments on my announcing. I guess I did pretty well after all.
Great meet, indeed. It was worth paying all that money to travel from east coast as I ingnored my doctor’s order not to even work out. (Well, I sort of listened. I only did one event.) And Pete, your announcing was definitely a gold medal performance (as always). I have no idea how you keep your calm and announce multiple events so beautifully in that chaotic environment. I’ve always admired you but I now have a whole new respect for you after witnessing a bit of a backstage drama. (I hope I didn’t distract you on Saturday.) Hope everybody got home safely.
I took 22 years away from running and this was my first track meet in 26 years:) I was a bit concerned about the negative energy I remembered from earlier days-the egos and such. What a difference! People were soooo nice. I hadn’t racewalked in decades and was a little (or a lot) spotty on my technique. I not only recieved some great coaching from everyone but perhaps more importantly encouragement and friendship! I’m now checking into this whole thing more and am considering even a world meet in the future. Thanks Spokane-great announcing and great people overall 🙂
Very inspirational.
Kimmy Nakatake (see post no. 12, above), your high jump of 1.65 meters (5 feet, 4.96 inches) was one of the highlights of the meet. As I said to you in the airport, for you to jump over your own head (you are 5 feet, 4 inches tall) was just fabulous. How often does that happen?
We had a pretty exciting meet, and as I look back I think it was all worthwhile. On Saturday we had quite a crowd for the 100-meter finals, and with so many field events going on the place was hopping (the crowd made plenty of noise). On the other side of the coin, many of the longer races did not draw enough spectators (some drew very few indeed).
There are two main challenges to drawing enough spectators: (1) The meet is so long (about 30 hours)that one has to pick and choose what one will watch; virtually no one is there the entire time. I, as the primary announcer, was there for everything and probably announced about 185 races. I also did a bit of high jump, pole vault, long jump, and discus. We also had a “roving” field event announcer, but because of technical problems he did little roving (he did announce many of the lists of competitors in the throws and jumps).
(2) When a meet is not at a host university we can have problems with keeping our spectator total up. Last year we were at Univ of Maine, the year before at Univ of NC-Charlotte, both of which housed hundreds of athletes. This year we were at Spokane Falls Comm College, which hosted none. Next year the situation will be worse, as the meet will be at the National Training Center in Clermont (Florida), which has no dormitories for athletes.
Speaking of Clermont:
along with no dorms, no shade, no concessions, not many hotels in the immediate area..just some off-hand early thoughts when planning to make another road trip next summer..
I’d love to watch more of the meet, but at both Charlotte and Orono (wasn’t at Spokane) the heat and sun sent me packing so I really had to pick and choose as Peter says. Anywhere there’s a summer meet in the US (just about) the potential for severe heat in the summer is a reality–let alone Florida. Shade for competitors AND spectators ought to be provided. The effort made in Charlotte to put canopies in the stands was appreciated and necessary. I think, subjectively, more folks watched that meet than Orono where you had to go under the stands and out of view for shade. Here’s an unsolicited vote for evening events.
Photos are up on the USATF Web site. I especially like the middle photo on row 4 of “men’s running,” which shows Bill Collins surging to the front in the early stages of the 100 dash (M55). Notice the substantial crowd of spectators (apparently many sat near the start) giving the event their complete attention. The crowd looks psyched!!
As my first experience ever of a national level meet, Spokane was wonderful. The volunteers, officials, athletes and supporters were all inspirational in their own ways. I heard a rumor from an official that “since Florida did not want the 09 nationals, they may be moved to Spokane.” Does anyone have any more info on this rumor?
And congratulations to you, Daphne, for running 14.23 and 29.09 at age 48 (into the wind on both occasions, no less). Joy Upshaw-Margerum won both of your races, with Liz Palmer second in the 100 and Jai Black second in the 200. That’s called fast company.
Have heard nothing about a switch to Spokane in 2009. Will follow this story. The reason for my posting, however, is the following: I believe I butchered your name. I went with Daphne “Sloose” both times you ran. On reconsideration I would have guessed Daphne “Slize” (rhymes with Mize). Please come back up and tell me what is correct so that I can announce you the right way the next time.
Peter Taylor (your announcer)
Peter,
you sure are good with the details. Impressive. It was an honor to run with(behind) such company in my sprints. Kim Ross from Canada was also up there, (I think the current Canadian Champ).
Yes, you are correct: the usual US version is : Sluys as in buys – or “he buys new track shoes”. Your initial version of “sloose” is roughly closer to the original Nederlands.
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