Phil Byrne, chair of the USATF Masters Track & Field Nominating Committee, notes that quadrennial elections will be held at the December annual meeting, with one opening that needs filling: secretary. Phil writes: “We, in the Masters Division, will also be holding our elections for officers and other positions (active athlete representative, WMA delegates and alternates, etc.)  at the USATF Annual Meeting in Daytona Beach, Fla.  The meeting dates are November 28 thru December 2. … We will be electing four officers – Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer – and the Nominating Committee is seeking candidates for each of these positions.  The other positions to be filled do not involve the Nominating Committee, but are filled with an election of candidates who run for these positions from the floor.” Anyone challenging Chairman Gary Snyder or the others?

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First place went to a 30-year-old. Second was an 18-year-old. Then came as 30-year-old. And then WHAT?????? — 51-year-old Pete Magill. Pete was scary fast at the Los Angeles Halloween Half-Marathon on Sunday, running 13.1 miles in 1 hour, 10 minutes and 19 seconds. That’s only 5 1/2 minutes behind the winner. And in the women’s race, 42-year-old Joanna Zieger was fifth in 1:18:22. The race was won by 36-year-old Mary Akor in 1:14:19, upsetting 39-year-old Olympian Deena Kastor. And yes, I don’t generally blog about roadies. But look who was on the winner’s stand next to Pete: My old Kansas pal Jim Ryun. Used to run a mean mile.

I hate the way this is worded: “An income tax officer from Palghar division in Thane district has been selected to represent the country in the 17th Asia Masters Athletics Championships to be held in Taipei, China, from November 2 to 7. Snehal Rajput will participate in the 80 metres hurdles and 400 metres hurdles event in the 40-year-old category.” Selected to represent? Does the Times of India not realize anyone can compete, and not have to be “selected” for WMA meets? I’m hoping this is just crazy-stupid editing. The story goes on: “The championships provide a chance for athletes aged 35 to 95 to demonstrate their energy on the tracks. Over 18 Asian countries and around 1500 athletes will participate in various games. Over 300 athletes from various parts of India will take part in the games.” Stay tuned while I sort this out. I hope this doesn’t hint India still has rival organizing bodies.

My wife beat me again. As she did last year, when Chris won three first-place awards for her photos in the San Diego Press Club journalism contest, she again kicked my butt Tuesday night. She won two first-place plaques to my one. I got a second and a third as well — as I report on one of the Patch hyperlocal news sites I oversee in San Diego County. Chris won four awards this year, just like last year, in a club called the third-biggest in the country. Do they drug-test photographers?

Athletics Weekly — the British version of Track & Field News — reports that sprint legend Steve Peters, a renowned sports psychiatrist, has been named to the UKA Performance team. In other words, he gets to advise the British Olympic track team. What took so long? AW says: “Peters, who has spent the last decade working as an integral member of the successful British Cycling team, is the first significant hire under the leadership of UKA’s Performance Director Neil Black. Dr. Peters will work closely with Black on driving forward the winning culture of the sport, as well as focusing on selected athletes. He will also lead a team of handpicked sports psychologists who will work with all athletes on the World Class Performance Programme.”

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TAFWA (Track and Field Writers of America) says efforts are afoot to establish a major track and field library and archives somewhere. My latest TAFWA newsletter reports: “There is not a library dedicated to track and field in America, but three are now in the works. To be precise, there is a TF library in Los Angeles. It is part of the larger all-sports Helms Foundation Library, which contains the old AAU/TAC collection once housed at Butler University in Indiana. Butler however did not keep it long, and they shipped it on to California. Remnants of this collection however are now often for sale on eBay, so it is not clear how much of that original library remains intact. However, there is good news to report on this front, as three libraries are in different stages of development.” Since many of this blog’s readers have more memorabilia than you can shake an 800g javelin at, consider contacting the folks mentioned.

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Dave Ortman in Seattle has done some research on the WMA world meet next year in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Here is what he found (with a West Coast perspective): “Flights: WMA has managed to select a city that adds significantly to the cost of getting there. Frequent Flyer awards: There are no frequent flyer awards to Porto Alegre, Brazil for either United or Delta. Both fly to Sao Paulo, Brazil.  So you could use FF awards to get to Sao Paulo and then pay an extra $240 RT or so to and from  Porto Alegre. United: I do not believe that United has a carrier connection to Porto Alegre so you would likely need to make separate arrangements with the in-country carrier. Delta: Delta does have a carrier connection to Porto Alegre (but no frequent flyer arrangement). The regular Delta RT Seattle-Porto Alegre runs a bit over $1,000 a the moment (although you can’t make actual reservations until mid-Novmeber or so).  If someone has another carrier consolidator or bucket option, it would be good to know.”

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Three days after Saturday’s 5K cross country masters nationals in San Diego, results are posted on usatf.org. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of entrants were Californians. Also no surprise about how one runner did. 5K legend Pete Magill won M50 in 16:31, which would have won M45 by 19 seconds. His time was only 17 seconds behind M40 winner Tim Gore. Easily the top woman was Sonja Friend-Uhl, 41, who won the race in 17:50 — 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Grace Padilla. But also notable was Eileen Brennan-Erle, who won W50 in a time (19:41) 6 seconds faster than the W45 winner. Pete also excels at the postrace, as he noted in his recent Running Times column, which is a revelation on several counts.

The Concord Monitor shares sad news. Olympic vaulter Albert Richmond “Boo” Morcom, a Masters Hall of Famer, died Oct. 3 at age 91. He competed into the 1990s. His Wikipedia entry included this quote: “I went to 105 different countries. I won records everywhere. I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt and caught malaria. I would go to Canada, set a record, come home. My wife would have my bag packed, and 12 hours later I was in South America talking to Eva Peron. When we get to heaven, we’ll have a track meet, And everybody will be young and strong.” Godspeed, Boo. We’re cheering for you.

Cindi Blevins, meet director at the Huntsman World Senior Games, says she has seen enough. She’s quitting her gig after 10 years. But she’s not angry. She’s just envious. She writes: “After 10 years as Director for Track and Field, I am retiring to return to competing. (Yay, I am 51!) It has been a pleasure working with you each year.” She also shares these Day 2 results of the three-day meet in St. George, Utah. I was impressed with sprint results of St. George resident Atherley Burrowes, who won the M50 50-meter dash in 6.98 seconds and was second behind national champ Michael Waller in the 200, 24.75 to 25.10, with a legal wind. But my real hero is Oregon’s Daniel Bulkley, who won the 50 in 12.86 and the 200 in 1:10.52. Dan is likely the meet’s oldest entrant at 95. Go, Dan, go!