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East Regional Championships at 2009 Indoor Nationals Site on February 23, 2008

The USATF Sportsplex Eastern Regional Masters Track and Field Championships will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in suburban Washington. The Sportsplex will also be the site of the 2009 USATF National Masters Indoor Championships. Field events will begin at 8 am, with the Weight Throw, followed by the Superweight. Track events begin at 10 am.

All throwing implements will be provided (including indoor 44# and 56# superweights), though athletes may also bring their own implements. 27” hurdles are available.

For a downloadable entry form go to http://www.pgsportsandlearn.com/track.html. On-line registration is available at http://www.coacho.com/meet/entry/md_princegeorges

The Sportsplex is adjacent to FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins, just off the Capital Beltway (I-495). The closest major airport is the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) which is served by most major carriers (American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, US Airways). BWI is also a major hub for Southwest Airlines and has extensive service from Air Tran, another budget airline.

Two hotels with shuttle service (prearrangement necessary on arrival) are within 5 minute drive of the Sportsplex and are holding rooms for athletes who will be competing in the meet (you must mention the Sportsplex Eastern Regional Masters Championships when making your reservation):

Radisson (301-773-0700; rate $109 + tax) – cutoff date for reservations is January 23, 2008.
Holiday Inn Express (301-636-6090; rate $129 + tax) – cutoff date for reservations is February 9, 2008.

Two other nearby hotels are also available:

Hampton Inn (301-499-4600, ext. 7706, Kenneth Mincey; rate $129 + tax)
Motel Six (301-499-0802; rates: single $57.99, double $63.99, triple $66.99 all + tax)

Jerry;

The link to the downloadable form doesn't seem to work. Is there a detailed event schedule available? All I could find was a vague schedule on the Sports Complex site that showed field events at 8am and running events at 10am. I'm not going to take the time, effort, and expense to fly to Landover without knowing if I can reasonably compete in the events I'd like to without them all being held at the same time. The NJ Association meet is on the same weekend and they have a detailed schedule of events which would allow me to compete in the LJ, SP, HJ, and either 60m or 60MHH without any conflicts. Would love to try the meet at Landover, but don't have enough information to make a decision.

Here is a new link:

http://www.pgsportsandlearn.com/track.html

To get the other information, please email the meet director, Tony Reid, at tony.reid@pgparks.com

The pdf file for the meet program does not give Ken the information he wants as to the time various events are scheduled. I understand his concern - who wants to spend the time and money to go to a meet only to discover that desired events are scheduled in such a way that they conflict or are running back to back- for example - the 800 is immediately followed by the 1500m. Or worse - I turn up at 9 am to warm up for my event only to discover that it will not run until 2 pm and I have a flight home at 3 pm.
With no clue when events will run it would require two nights in a hotel just to make sure I could make my events.
Personally I will stay home and run the NE Open meet at Harvard on Sunday the 24th. They have a few masters events -and in my case - no matter where I run - I will have no age group competitors.
I certainly hope that the schedule for the National Masters Indoor Championship for 2009 will be more specific than - Fri-Sun - and a list of events. But - based upon the lack of specificity of the program for the Eastern Regional - I wonder.

Perhaps I should clarify. The folks running the meet in February are hamstrung in getting out certain information because they are answerable to the government bureaucracy that owns their facility. They are doing their best to answer every email and phone message that comes in and this year have added credit card payment options and on-line registration. I posted the information I did in order to help get the word out:

1. I suggested contacting the meet director to get the time schedule for the meet. Field events will start at 8 am, running events at 10. The meet will be over by about 4 pm (I don't think it's ever run later than that), so no need to worry about having to spend two nights if you can get a flight at 6 or later. It's about 45 minutes from the Sportsplex to BWI Airport.

2. At virtually every meet I've ever attended (including both the National Championships and WMA meets) if you are in both field events and running events you are prone to having time conflicts -- it depends on what events you are entering.

3. At present (10 weeks before the meet) there is no schedule information on the website for the 2008 Indoor Nationals; for the outdoor meet until a week or so before the event they only tell you which events will be on which day. Doing it any other way for a national championships ties the hands of those running the meet if they are even slightly off in their estimate of how many athletes will enter a particular event. They need the flexibility to make adjustments to accommodate everyone who enters and that's not possible if you put out a schedule that can't be changed too far ahead of the meet.

4. The 2008 USATF Sportsplex Eastern Regional Masters Championships this year are being run by the meet managers at the Prince George's Sportsplex, which is managed by the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. The USATF National Masters Indoor Championships in 2009 are being held at the Sportsplex with meet management in the hands of the Potomac Valley Track Club. The USATF Masters Games Committee has the final say in the schedule for that meet. Both groups know what they are doing. The Sportsplex staff runs multiple meets every year including All Comers meets each winter that are very masters friendly and they are all major players in the USATF Potomac Valley Association (committee chairs,etc). PVTC is one of the major clubs in the east and is also very masters friendly.

The USATF Masters Indoor Championship schedule is now posted on the USATF/New England website:
http://www.usatfne.org/masters/boston2008/index.html

As Jerry suggests about the need to be flexible with entries that exceed expectations, there is a disclaimer at the top of the schedule indicating that some starting times may shift slightly dependent upon entries; but that the Meet will not run ahead of schedule.

With regards to the throwing event schedule, the starting times were developed based upon historical numbers of entries in the various men's and women's age groups over the past 10 years. Special focus was given to the 2006 and 2007 entry numbers as well as competitors moving up into the next age group; etc.
Last year the throwing events ran on schedule for all three days, so I am hopeful that we can duplicate that performance.

- Ed Daniels, Throws Liaison

Run Fast: I was originally planning on going to the NEUSATF meet at Harvard on the 24th. I spoke with one of the NEUSATF directors recently and he informed me that there will probably not be any masters events at the meet this year. The National USATF Championship meet is the same weekend at RLC and they need to supply officials for that meet, leaving them short for the New England meet. That's why I was looking at either Landover or New Jersey.

Based on the above comments from Jerry, I'm going to head to NJ. The NJ schedule has been published for months, and does allow me to enter the events of the indoor pentathlon, without having potential conflicts.

I'm also leary of masters events run by non masters. I've found that meets like that, coupled with not having a defined event schedule, are a recipe for a less than desired experience.

First I would like to thank Ken for his help with getting my steps in the long jump at Dartmouth and then suggest looking at the Indoor meet in Gainesville, Fl. on Feb 2 at the O'Connell Center. The website is at Gainesvillesportscommission.com. This is a top notch facility but I realize it is a long haul from where you guys live. I always search all the airlines email specials etc and travelocity to get deals when I come to NY or the Northeast from here in florida. You could fly into Jacksonville or Orlando and rent a car, ...cheap lodging is available in Gainesville and nearby. They do have an airport but not very big. Would love to see some of you snowbirds come down south for our first Indoor meet! I am driving up from Sarasota so you could also come to Tampa or Sarasota and catch a ride to/from with me and then enjoy the beaches and all the Bay area has to offer.

Thanks for all the responses - and Ken I understand what you are saying about the NE Open. Since I am a runner and not a field event person- and I will be running the mile- I just get behind all the masters folks - mostly guys - and do my thing - unfortunately a little slower than probably everyone else. Or I may be able to run with the non-seeded women milers. However I will keep in mind what you said about the shortage of officials and check with Steve Vaitones to see if my participation will be a problem.
If it is - then maybe I will go to the Eastern Regional.
I still think it should be possible for the meet director to publish ahead of time an order of events - if not the time. That way one can tell if one needs to turn up early to get ready or if a return flight needs to be scheduled late in the day. Certainly the order of events will be decided in advance of the meet - and not after everyone turns up that morning.

Runfast: I'm sure you'll be able to run in one of the open heats of the mile at the NE meet. I would have run either the masters 60m and/or the 200m if they were offered. In my age group (55-59) there are usually at least 5-6 competitors, so you can at least run in a heat with people your own age and ability.

Meets like the NJ championship and the NE outdoor masters publish the event schedule months in advance. The 2008 indoor NJ meet has had their schedule available since early December. Based on the schedule I can compete in my 3 field events without any conflicts, and can also run either the 60m or 60H.

Jimmy: that was some long jump debut by you at Dartmouth. Your distance would have placed you in the top 4 at last year's indoor nationals. With a little work you'll go even farther. I hope you enter the LJ in Boston this year. It was a pleasure to meet you last week, and compete with you in the 60 and LJ.

I'd love to head down to FL for the meet, but I have a business trip scheduled for the last week of January, ending on Feb. 2. Hopefully I'll see you in Boston. I'l be in the pentathlon on Friday, but will come back to watch the other events on the weekend.

Events are listed on the flyer for the Eastern Regional in the order in which they will be run. First event on the track is at 10 am:

3000m Racewalk
60mH (heats, if necessary)
60m (heats, if necessary)
3000m
400m
Mile
200m
800m
60mH Final
60m Final
4x200
4x400

Field Events start at 8am with LJ, HJ, PV and WT; TJ will follow LJ; SW will follow WT; SP is at noon.