Landover lands 2018 USATF masters indoor nationals, beats N.C.
The 2009 Landover meet left a bad taste, but its logo couldn’t be beat.
About Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
Ken Stone
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18 Responses
Predictions: (1) After the meet is over (in March 2018) we will find that Landover drew either the highest or second-highest total of entrants ever for indoor nationals. The current leader? Landover 2013.
(2) Some of our sprint and middle-distance stars will stay away, as the track is absolutely flat. Yes, a lot of people who do the 200 and 400, or even the 800, mile, or 3000, like to have banking on both turns, but so be it.
(3) The number of spectators will be the largest or second-largest ever at our indoors. Unofficially, I believe that Landover 2013 ranks first.
(4) It will be a well-run meet.
Note that for 2018, one facility with a flat track (Landover) beat out another one with a flat track (Winston-Salem). Now let me go into my memory bank, as I have quite a history with indoor nationals.
My first indoor nationals was 1996 in Greensboro, and that track was banked dramatically. I announced 1997 through 2004 (all the tracks in that time span were banked), then missed 2005 (banked track in Nampa, Idaho). I then announced 2006-2008 (all banked).
I announced all the indoors from 2009 through 2015,
and in three of those seven years the track was flat. The message here: It’s a new world, and as with the outdoor situation, we have to get used to it.
Congratulations to the Landover organizers.
I must have been hallucinating at about 2:45 AM when I wrote this, and even after I got up this morning I could not remember where the 2012 indoors was. Yes, thanks to Robert Thomas and Latashia Key it was in Bloomington, Indiana, and it was a flat track.
Thus, four of the seven indoors, not three, from 2009 through 2015 had a flat track. Hard to believe that we went from 1995 to 2008 without getting on a track that was not banked (I did not announce in 1995, but the meet that year, which was in Reno, had a banked track).
I think the meet in Landover will be well attended. Do they have a a date for the meet yet?
I agree with Peter Taylor that Landover will draw a lot of entrants, simply because it is on the East Coast, in a major population center well served by highways, airports and other mass transportation, and has plenty of hotel accommodations.
Why are there so few banked indoor tracks built nowadays? Even the JDL track in NC is flat. Is it the cost or the need to use the facility for non-t&f events that require a flat surface?
Landover sounds fine. They seem to be able to put on a good meet and it will be in an area where there are a lot of masters athletes.
JES – I suspect that few banked tracks are being constructed due to the added cost for banking and the need for the facility to have multiple uses. It is possible to construct a track so that the banking can be lowered when not needed but the construction cost would be much higher and maintenance costs are higher.
Pete, with all due respect 2012 Masters Indoor Nationals at Indiana University was on a banked Mondo track. You’re a walking track encyclopedia so we’ll forgive you for this one.
Thank you, Paul. I must have been delusional twice. You are absolutely right; Bloomington was and still is BANKED.
You might be interested in the release from Potomac Valley Track Club, the group handling the 2018 Landover event.
http://www.pvtc.org
The number one reason that I heard from the delegates was that it is easier and cheaper to fly into Regan (DCA), Baltimore (BWI) or Dulles (IAD). Number two reason was the Potomac Valley LOC was extremely experienced in hosting Master’s Meets. Two very good bids from two very good facilities.
Bill, the big meet in Albuquerque will be on the first weekend in March. I assume that one or more representatives from meet management made a presentation at the annual meeting in Houston, or did they not?
Entries are coming in quickly, with 27 men and 6 women already in the fold for our indoor nationals. Specifically, did the representatives talk about how they would make it a better meet for both athletes and spectators in terms of keeping them informed and perhaps even entertained? How about trainers and massage therapists?
Also, did the Albuquerque representatives say anything about a need for officials, volunteers, etc.? Or did they not say anything at all? Of course, if they weren’t there they couldn’t say anything (I have no idea whether they made a formal presentation or even attended).
Ken: Thanks for posting the info. Good to know the national indoor location for 2018. Now if we only had dates. Sigh.
Nothing posted on the USATF website for locations or dates for national indoors or outdoors for either 2017 or 2018.
http://www.usatfmasters.org/cal_bigmeets.htm
http://www.usatf.org/Events—Calendar/National-Championships.aspx?year=2017
Are open/elite T&F athletes also kept in the dark about their national championship locations and dates for 2017/2018 on these webpages. Yup. At least we’re in good mushroom company.
Dates for 2018 are March 16-18. The meet hotel will be the same as in 2013 (Greenbelt Marriott) with a guaranteed rate for that weekend of $112/room/night(up from $104 in 2013 – not bad for the DC area at all). There will be other hotels as well, some at the same rate, some cheaper. If people have other specific questions, happy to answer them (assuming I know the answers 27 months before the event).
Pete, no one from Albuquerque addressed the MTF Committee in Houston, so no answers to the questions you posed. Grand Rapids was there and talked to us about the outdoor meet.
I had hoped to take a crack at the M65 Indoor American Pent record in 2018. Now I can’t. Why? Well, my 65th birthday is twelve days after the start of the Landover indoor meet. You can’t set a M65 record when you are 64 years 353 days old. Major bummer.
David, it’s not even 2016 and you can’t book reservations for 2017 or 2018 at this time. Give your heart a chance to heal and take a chill pill. There were no bidders for 2018 outdoor. 2017 is in Louisiana. The meets are usually July. You need to get ready for the decathlon 2016 which is in your backyard. Looking forward to seeing you and Doug go head to head.
David, sorry, but since your birthday evidently is March 28th there was never the remotest possibility of the 2018 indoor meet being late enough for you to be in M65 – that would have put it either March 30 – April 1, which is both Easter weekend and the beginning of Passover that year (yes, we check those dates when looking at scheduling) and into April (which will never happen in any case for the indoor meet).
Jerry: Thanks, yes, I’m aware of the Easter/Passover conflicts with schedulingk the indoor meets. Plus the fact that we are fortunate to have at the most one or two bidders for these events, which means limited date slots. And the 2003 and 2008 National indoors in Boston did start on March 28, my 50th and 55th birthdays. Other masters athletes have similar problems with outdoor world and national meets, although these vary considerably by date from year to year.
It does raise the question of whether Masters T&F would be willing to accommodate a rule change that accounts for participating in your age group as of the date of the event, not the start of the meet. The indoor and outdoor pents in the past were held as separate stand alone events (like the deca). Then they were stuck on the day prior to the start of the indoor and outdoor national meets. Then other regular events began crowding into Pent day.
So if you are not entered in the Pent, but your age-group changing birthday occurs on day 3 or 4 of the national meet, you could be, say 59, on the start of the meet (Pent day) but 60 on the last day of the meet for your one single event, the Triple Jump. Is is fair to triple jump with the M55-59 age group when you are 60? Or should you be allowed to jump with your actual M60 age group?
The one glitch is when prelims/semis are run on the day when you are in a lower age group and the finals are run on a following day when you move up to the next age group. Probably, you are stuck with staying with the group in the event you started with.
But it does seem unfair to attend a multi-day meet and do a single event on the last day based on your age at the start of the meet.
The fact is I broke 3 records on banked tracks.One by .3 of a second and the other 2 by 1 second. Needless to say on a flat track I would have broken no records. I will pray for the next meet to be held at Reggie Lewis in Boston(banked track).
More importantly I would like to know, when I run at Nationals, that the time I run is the fastest I could possibly run and that could only happen indoors on a banked track.
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