You’ve raised the questions. So what’s the deal? Is Lahti booked up for worlds? Are motels jacking up prices? Is the official tour operator looking to cash in? Here’s the latest word from Rex Harvey, vice president of World Masters Athletics: “Monty (Hacker, WMA acting prez) and Friedel (Schunk), as WMA treasurer, have recently been in Lahti and housing was one of their specific subjects for being there. As I understand it, what they found was that travel agents had reserved about 60% of the hotel space in Lahti and that is why Lahti Travel was telling me earlier that Lahti was booked. It appears that the travel agents are using the rooms as bait for their total packages rather than just selling rooms alone.”

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Freddie Hubbard (top) and Nolan Shaheed (above) were soul brothers on jazz stage.

One of the greats died in the waning days of 2008. Not a track legend but a music icon — jazz musician Freddie Hubbard. Since Nolan Shaheed, our multi-year Athlete of the Year, is a fellow jazz trumpeter, I asked him if he had known Freddie. Of course he had. Here’s how Nolan began a touching and funny remembrance: “I did know Freddie Hubbard, and I have played with him from time to time. But we both play the same instrument, so the times I’ve played with him have been at jam sessions and a couple of times when he invited me to play with him on his gig. He was without doubt the greatest jazz trumpet player who ever lived and his command of the horn is legendary. He used to come out and hear me play at a Los Angeles jazz club called The Baked Potato and just sit in the back and dig the scene. Freddie was fiercely competitive and was always challenging cats, but the funniest thing was that we all considered him to be the best anyway so his huge ego was for naught. He embarrassed me one time on stage in Cleveland in 1978 by inviting me to blow a very difficult, up-tempo tune with him.”

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After learning of Alisa Harvey’s latest sub-5 mile (her 4:56 for 1600 meters indoors Sunday in Maryland), I wondered: When did she run her first sub-5? And can any woman claim a longer span? Question No. 1 is now answered. Alisa writes: “I believe my first sub-five mile was in February of 1983. I think I ran 4:54 at George Mason University’s indoor track.” Unsure if Ruth Wysocki or Yekaterina Podkopyeva can beat Alisa for having run sub-5s nearly 26 years apart. I also asked Alisa about her weekend race. Turns out her field was even more crowded than Kevin Forde’s! But she was prepared, she says: “Things got physical. I had to give an elbow or two.” Ha! Don’t mess with our Alisa, kiddies.

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Posted on the WMA website is this eye-opening note: “Despite its better judgment and conviction, WMA has decided to augment its recent announcement on accommodation availabilities for the 2009 Lahti Stadia championships. WMA cannot and will not defend individual price levels, as those are not set by WMA and customarily reflect market rates. However, WMA can confirm that the actual prices quoted by Lahti Travel are within the contracted ranges that were disclosed to the GA assembly which (and not Council) awarded the championships to Lahti.”

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M45 Kevin Forde and W40 Alisa Harvey on Sunday ran some great miles at the Maryland venue of indoor nationals in March, according to these partial results of the all-comers meet held there. Kevin ran the 1600 in 4:37 and Alisa, at age 43, clocked the same distance in 4:55.8 (basically the same as my all-time PR of 4:56 run at age 20 indoors at Kansas.) Julie Hayden, who at 48 ran a nifty 4 and 8, reports: “Alisa battled it out in a big open men’s field and had to ‘take care of herself . . . as always a great icon for masters women’s track.”

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For the fourth consecutive year, Andy Hecker of Southern California is putting on a masters/open meet with “indoor” events in advance of masters indoor nationals in mid-March in Maryland. The 2009 “Southern California Indoor Meet . . . Outdoors” will be Sunday, March 8, at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. (Here’s the meet site.) “Rain or shine,” Andy says, “and last year’s weather proved we will be there if it rains. We hope by being a couple of weeks later this year we will have better weather.” Andy also is looking for input on what events to include. So below are some polls he’s created. “Do you want to do the same distances you usually do on an outdoor track — like 200, 400, 800? Or should we do odd, indoor-type distances like 150, 300, 600 (or maybe even 600 yards, wouldn’t that be a kick) and 1,000?”

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Several times a year, someone writes me: How many people compete in masters track? I hem and haw, and cite a few vague numbers — like 50,000 worldwide (Al Sheahen’s estimate from several years ago) or 8,500 in the United States (the latest figure I heard in Reno at the USATF annual meeting). But that’s not good enough. I want to know how many men 50-plus run hurdles. I want to know how many women 40-49 pole vault. I want to know it all! And not to satisfy mere curiosity. It’s to get a fix on who we are and where we need to grow — and what resources we can leverage for funding and sponsors. Of course, USATF Masters Track & Field has commissioned demographic studies up the yingyang. But these detail percentages of retirees and how many plan to buy cars in the coming year. They are bloodless studies. We need to flesh out our real numbers.

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