The Los Angeles Daily News isn’t the only paper to give masters some recognition. A week earlier, the Corvallis (Oregon) daily did something similar. The Corvallis piece notes how record-holding masters vaulter John Altendorf schmoozes local coaches for facilities: “The secret to his success? It’s about the relationship with the local high school coaching staffs, in particular Crescent Valley, that makes use of Altendorf’s knowledge and permits him to use the pole vault pit to practice.” Good points. The bigger focus is how masters make their way without clubs.

Here’s the Corvallis story:

Mastering their sport
Many track and field athletes in Benton County prepare on their own
By Aaron Yost
Gazette-Times reporter
There is a certain camaraderie that comes of shared experiences.
An esprit de corps that emerges in a group setting where success is an expectation under any circumstances.
High school and college athletes find it as members of a team. After leaving those academic-related settings behind, finding a similar situation can be a challenge.
It also separates the true self starters from those who need a little nudge.
For a handful of masters level track and field athletes in Benton County, being self-starters is usually the way to get things done.
“A lot of our people are independent fliers,” said Bob Rice, a 60-year-old pentathlete and javelin thrower from Corvallis. “They’re in individual events like pole vault and they get into that sort of mode to participate on their own.”
The long hours involved in preparing for all-comers meets, state, regional and national competitions typically pass without others being aware of the work being put in.
“A lot of people don’t even know others exist until they go to the meets,” Rice said.
It is at the meets that the athletes, all at least 30 years old and a surprising number who are twice that age taking part, most often find the camaraderie.
Knowing the other athletes in one’s events brings about that sense of esprit de corps. When you see the same faces week after week, at events, it’s possible to form long-standing relationships with other competitors.
Taking that approach hasn’t hurt the local masters athletes.
John Altendorf is the reigning indoor and outdoor pole vault champion, David Taylor won the 3,000 steeple chase and Rice was third in the javelin at the United States Track and Field Outdoor Championships last summer.
Altendorf won the indoor title in the vault just more than two weeks ago.
The secret to his success? It’s about the relationship with the local high school coaching staffs, in particular Crescent Valley, that makes use of Altendorf’s knowledge and permits him to use the pole vault pit to practice.
Rice and others get their workouts done on the track or with field implements that require less specific equipment.
They could travel to either Eugene or Portland to workout with other masters athletes, but they prefer to stay closer to home and maximize the time available to them.
There are clubs in both Eugene and Portland with masters level groups, but there isn’t one in Corvallis.
“There’s no question that the camaraderie that a club can provide — it’s an incentive to have anyone to work out with,” Altendorf said.
He finds an element of that in working with the athletes at Crescent Valley as a volunteer assistant coach under Dave Gable.
Altendorf has also discovered a kinship with his fellow masters athletes at the meets he attends. He has become familiar with them and they with he, and discovered the esprit de corps that comes with their experiences in competition.
It doesn’t take a club to enhance the workout regimen.
“We’re all pretty distinctive in what we do,” Rice said. “There are very few competitors that are in the same (events) with me, so what’s the value of having a club? How is it going to help us that much?”