Fifty hours until Charlotte masters nationals
A little over two days from now, 1,400-plus athletes will gather for that annual reunion of tribes we call the USATF Masters National Outdoor Championships. Our host will be Charlotte, North Carolina. Many will win medals. More will revive friendships and make new ones. And some will set records. Watching all this, and talking at the same time, will be meet announcer Pete Taylor, who does his best amid brutally long days and often harsh weather. Still, his enthusiasm never wanes. And his excitement is palpable in one of his recent notes to me.
Pete writes:
“One of the most interesting events to me will be the M45 200 dash. There are 53 competitors; let us presume that 8 will scratch. That means three heats of 8 and three heats of 7 to make a field of 45 contenders.
“As I read it, the 6 winners plus the 2 others with the fastest times will go directly to the final (no semifinals).
“The list is staggering: ranked no. 11, 12, and 13 are James Chinn (2005 world champ in 400), Marty Krulee (many-time national masters champ, multiple Swedish champ, Penn Relays gold medalist in 2005), and Mark Kibort (2001 M40 200 champ at Baton Rouge, as I recall). Wow!
“If the seeding is correct, not one of these speedsters will make the final, but I bet at least two of them will. In short, Charlotte will show unprecedented depth in the sprints.”
Me again:
If time allowed, I could identify a dozen such events with dramatic storylines. In fact, every athlete has a story to tell at nationals. We are all walking comedies and tragedies. And as I try to tell sportswriters covering the masters for the first time: We all have ISSUES. Discover the issue, and there’s your story.
Even those (like myself) who haven’t a prayer of winning a medal in an individual event can always hope to join a relay. My wife, Chris — who jokes that she “runs against the will of God” –was able to pull some W80 and W75 runners from our region on to a couple relays at Decatur in 2004 and went home with some hardware.
So hope is alive.
Godpeed to y’all traveling to Charlotte.
Let’s have some fun.
2 Responses
Hey – you can always put together an “ad hoc” team and hope that the age group of your youngest runner is not loaded with talent and get a medal. I doubt that there will be a whole lot of 4 x800 relay teams – at the end of a long meet held in considerable heat – enthusiasm for running two more laps on the track may waiver, so get your self a 4 x800 relay team together. The age group is determined by the youngest member of the team – get out the white-out and start changing that birth certificate!
just kidding – for those of you who are humor challenged!
We should all go out of our way to thank the many volunteers who make this competition possible. I am grateful for every competition I enter. None would be possible without the hard work of scores of hard-working volunteers.
Be understanding when things go wrong. Win or lose, we still get a few more days in the sun. Buy an official a beer.
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