Final, hourly schedules are posted for Winston-Salem nationals
And just in time. The hourly sked for North Carolina masters nationals is posted here. It was five years ago when USATF masters national Chairman Gary Snyder pledged on his short-lived blog that final skeds would be posted at least 14 days ahead of the meet. He wrote in January 2009: “The committee also voted to approve a standard time line for the indoor and outdoor USA Championships meets. This provide for the posting of schedules on a consistent basis to aid travel and lodging arrangements. 6 Months prior to first day of competition — Entries open with day of event schedule; 26 Days prior to first day of competition — Entries Close; 19 Days prior to first day of competition — Late entries close; 14 Days prior to first day of competition — Detail Schedule Available.” The North Carolina sked shows distance races in the morning, but no midday breaks. Many races and events will thus be contested in the sweltering heat (if that’s our fate). According to one extended forecast, highs in the low 90s are expected on opening day, July 17. But it cools after that. We’ll see.
Two weeks out from nationals, here’s the weather outlook for Winston-Salem.
21 Responses
Thanks for posting this, Ken. As I’ve said before, I will be at the meet for all 4 days, and thus this is valuable information.
I see some challenges for both officials and competitors. For example, on Thursday the track events begin at 7:30 AM with a 10,000 run for 20 women (plus any foreigners). On Friday, the track events start at 7:30 AM with a 10,000 run for 29 men (plus foreigners).
Personally, I don’t like 7:30 starts. If you need to be at the track at 6:45 I don’t see any way you can get up after 5:10 AM (at least, I couldn’t). Finding a place to have breakfast may be just one of your problems. But that’s me — I love to start later, but then again, I’m not running.
I would love to hear from actual competitors about the final schedule. For example, M55 sprinters (100 dash) have trials, semifinals, and finals. Would you rather just run hard in your preliminary and have them take the 4 winners plus the 4 others with the best times rather than having to run twice before getting to the final?
Great. Looks like I miss my event.
Not many of us enjoy racing at 7:30 or 8 a.m., especially those of us from western time zones whose bodies will be even more groggy at 8 a.m. eastern time! But kudos to the committee for their hard work. Can’t wait to compete!
This new schedule seems to favor field events. It is horrible for distance people because they is really no off day and many people have to race back to back days 10,000 then come back the next day with the 5,000m. In my opinion they should have left the schedule the way it had been for the last couple of years. This years schedule is not an improvement. I know they are trying, but the feedback from the athletes I have heard from is they do not like the schedule
Agree with Mark – some puzzling decisions…
VERY nice article on Pete in this month’s NMN! Congrats Pete and thank you for your service!!
Sigh! Our National Masters Championship event schedule finally appears AFTER the close of entry deadline. Sorry, no way to plan, so no entry from me.
Thank you for your kind words, Doug (post no. 6). I looked at the pole vault and pentathlon but did not see your name anywhere; are you physically out of commission?
Regardless, I know you will be following the meet from afar. Per AccuWeather, here are the latest predictions (4 PM EDT, July 4) for the four days of the meet:
July 17 73 to 96
July 18 74 to 97
July 19 73 to 97
July 20 73 to 88
I expect the actual temperatures to be somewhat lower when the meet rolls around. At my age I don’t like to take a lot of punishment from heat and humidity; perhaps I should say that I am “hoping” for lower temperatures.
The meet schedule is terrible. Why can’t the committee split the schedule to run a evening schedule to avoid the extreme heat of day. I don’t get it.
I will not be at the National Masters track meet again this year for reasons that have nothing to do with the schedule – but as a distance runner – it is pretty terrible. Had I been able to compete last year I would not have gone as the schedule for the distance races was terrible, this year’s schedule is a different. Does it occur to whomever schedules that some distance runners want to run the 10k and the 5k – but they are scheduled on consecutive days. I had no complaint about the schedule until last year when it seemed to be completely changed.
Is there a hope that a survey of competitors might be used for feedback or is this just – well – like it or lump it – and if you really dislike the schedule – stay home? It is one thing to shake things up and see how it flies but if you do not ask those competing how it worked for them – then it is just changing stuff for the simple pleasure of annoying folks.
What I find unacceptable is on Friday that Mens 30-59 10,000 takes place, then mens 45, 30-44 1500m occurs then a 3,000m steeplechase occurs all by 1pm. To have 3 distance on the same day to choose from is unacceptable and it better not happen again. That is BS! They should move the 10k 30-59 to Saturday for the Mens 60-69 10K to Friday. You can’t have some age groups get screwed like that. It would have left me effective for 2 races and 1 where I’m screwed. I definitely picked the right year to not go. The schedule needs to be revisited.
The posted schedule is in error.
ALL 10k events are on THURSDAY July 17th at 7:30 AM.
Gary Snyder
National Chair
USATF Masters T&F
Thanks, Gary. Let us know when corrected sked is up.
Then the sked needs to be corrected right away so things don’t get confusing in future years.
Thanks, Gary (no. 12), for getting on this. I took a look at the Thursday schedule, and I do believe that moving all the 10,000s to Thursday is going to put some pressure on the remainder of the schedule for that day.
One good example is the M60, M65 5000 run, which is going off at 10:00 on Thursday morning. With several of these men running a 10,000 earlier in the day, it’s going to be a very tough double. I assume that the M60-69 5000 will be pushed back a couple of hours to allow some time for recovery.
I will be following this issue quite closely.
Note: A lot of the 800 finals will be run on Thursday, but it now looks like they will have much later start times than shown at present.
If memory serves me correct (probably not a good thing for a 60 yr. old to depended on), the whole idea was to have all distance races early in the morning. Apparently none of the committee members consider the steeplechase to be a distance event – believe me it is just as physically challenging as a 5,000 or 10,000 meter run. I think we are “playing with fire” having senior adults running a steeplechase in the afternoon when conditions most likely to be around 90 degrees with high humidity levels. When I found out the order in which the events would be run, I estimated correctly when the steeple would be run and opted not to participate. I was considering a double of the steeple on Friday and the 10,000 on Saturday – would not have been happy to find out the 10,000 is now being run on Thursday. As masters competitors we deserve better. I think it is next to impossible to run all the distance races in the early morning, so the only way this can be resolved is to have a split schedule with all races 1500 meters and beyond either be run in the early morning or under the lights in the evening.
M45 & M55 sprinters have Prelims and Semis in the 100M & 200M. This could mean a Saturday 100M Final followed by a 200M Prelim and then a 200M Semi. 🙂
Gary Snyder posted on the 10K story:
That’s the correct schedule – sorry for any confusion.
After one hour runners left competing will be moved to the outer lanes and hand timed. The 8:30 event should start on time.
Gary Snyder
National Chair
USATF Masters T&F
If this schedule continues to be a problem next year and beyond, this will start making it hard to justify traveling to Nationals much longer. Lets get the schedule right. At least get it to where no set of age groupers have 3 distance events scheduled in the same day to pick from. Also, it’s time to have night races Thursday and Friday, and I don’t want excuses about the refs. The meet is for the athletes, yet it isn’t being treated that way.
I’m definitely in favor of having the longer distance track events ( 5000m and up) in the evening. As an ‘older’ master runner with exercise induced asthma, I’ve avoided competing in the past two outdoor track & field meets. But I met so many awesome people
at the last two indoor championships and I miss the camaraderie.
Regarding the weather, we’re all in the same boat. Sorta like, ‘misery loves company!’
I have not looked at the schedule and I am not competing, but the smart thing to do is learn from Charlotte In 2006. What a disaster, and the fire chief had to stop the meet due to the extreme weather, and of course the throwers had to suck it up and only get 4 throws. Since that disaster of a meet thrower entries have gone way down. I remember having 30 throwers in the men’s 50 to 54 discus. This year there is 5 or 6. Before that meet I attended every year. Since then I went to Maine because I have family there, and two on the west coast. I am still bitter over the money I spent to go out there
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