Sacramento coach defends Charlotte nationals team
Randy Sturgeon, coach of Brooks Fleet Feet Racing in Sacramento, posted a comment on an old blog entry today that’s worth revisiting. His was the club that included Terri Lowe, the “walking hurdler” of Charlotte nationals fame. Randy started by apologizing for the delayed response. He said he’d been dealing with the death of his oldest brother at age 65, and “I just wasn’t able to jump into the conversation at the time but did want to respond as my team asked me to do so.” So here’s his response to the August post.
Randy writes:
There has been a lot of e-mail traffic about what is a “legitimate masters team” and who should be allowed to participate in an event and who should not in the National Masters Meet.
I do hesitate to get into some of these discussions because I try to be very careful about judging and criticizing people I do not really know. I see people at meets and see things they post at websites but I don’t really know what they are thinking, who they are, or what they are about.
So I don’t like to make assumptions about people in debates that are not in person.
I would like to address some things said about my team and masters track in general. First off is the comment about what is a team. There are complaints about people who recruit from outside their region. What is really a club or not. For me I like things to be local. Our club is practically all local and the majority work out together.
However, I understand people who may not have something going where they live and wants to join a group that offers something that fits their needs.
And there are also people, who over time make friendships and want to be on a team with them or they just want to get together to be on a relay team. I think those are all valid and people should be free to do what they want to do. I think people who get upset about that are worrying about something that really isn’t that important and borders on petty jealously.
First off, our club is not a track club. We are really a local road running and cross country group that has over the last three years gotten involved in doing some track for the purpose of growing the sport, especially locally. We don’t really recruit, but grow through word of mouth and people just asking to join.
On our team we have four people not from our region. One is a personal friend of a team member and that is how he got on the team. Another made friends with members of the team two years ago and after not being able to find something close to home joined us. Another I knew for many years and he just decided he wanted to be on our team. And another due to his work spends a great deal of time in our region and also has family in the area.
They are all fine people and I would want them on our team regardless of their abilities.
Most of the ones in our region live right in the Sacramento area and train and socialize together. We have three up in Reno and a few others within about a 90 minute drive. Our core is all local and that is why we have a lot of team spirit. Our sponsor promotes a local grand prix of local road races for our members and that is the major focus.
The second issue I want to address is who is a “legitimate entry” and what is scoring “legitimate team points.” For us, the national masters meet is not about a team championship or winning a trophy (the one from Charlotte is being given to a little girl and family who have inspired us).
The goal is to get more people involved in track, especially people who have never been involved before and specifically to get more women involved. Many of these ladies didn’t have the opportunity to participate in track and field earlier in their lives. One of the ways to do that is show people they can help their team by participating, that you do not have to be a star to have value.
Masters track and field is not about records, gold medals and team trophies. It is about participation. It was started to get us off the couch and provide us with something that would motivate us to be active.
That our athletic lives did not end when we left school. That we could still participate in a sport many of us dearly love.
I think anybody who practices, pays their entry fees and is willing to do the best they can and compete should be celebrated no matter how good they are. If you listen to some people no matter how long you train and how long you have competed if you are not at a certain ability level you should not be there and that is not what this is about. Track, unlike road racing in this country, has an elitist image and that is why the sport struggles.
We should be doing everything we can to get more people involved in this sport and the team competition is a great way to do it.
Maybe someday there will a number of teams with large numbers of people, doing lots of events and the meet comes down to the last relay to decide the team title. 1300+ in Charlotte was great but why not 2000 or 2500 next year. How great that would be. As far as pushing people to do a lot of events for points I actually encourage people to do the events they most want to do and try to get them to cut back. However, as one of our members likes to say, “The national masters meet is like an amusement park and I want to go on all the rides.” They just love to compete at the meet and try new things.
Finally I want to address the issue of a competitor in a cast, Terri Lowe. First off, let me thank Ken Stone for writing a very nice article about her competing at the nationals in Charlotte. She is a sweet, generous, wonderful person who deserves all the good things that can come to her.
Terri competed at last year’s meet in Hawaii. What got her started was the desire to lose weight, get back in shape and compete in a sport she loved in high school. She also competed at the indoor meet in Boston this past March.
She trained really hard for the Charlotte meet. Yet shortly before leaving she developed a slight stress fracture in the front part of her right foot.
She still wanted to compete. Part of it was that she had trained, paid for her airfare and room and didn’t want to miss the meet. But more important to her as Ken wrote about was her desire to help raise money for a 10 year old girl who recently had a kidney transplant and whose family is struggling financially.
She consulted with her doctor who cleared her to compete. She asked if it would be okay with me. She wanted to know if I would be embarrassed by her. I told her that she didn’t need to compete. We didn’t need her to just go out and score points for the sake of it. However, if she wanted to participate and join the team in helping that little girl I supported 100% and I said I would not be embarrassed by her, but that was proud of her for being so strong of heart and mind to step out there when she could in no way perform at her best level. I think the people who criticized her and think she should not have been there live in very small worlds.
That is my two cents. Again thanks to Ken for the article on Terri and all he does to help promote masters track and field.
8 Responses
Randy, I couldn’t agree with you more when you said “Masters track and field is not about records, gold medals and team trophies. It is about participation. It was started to get us off the couch and provide us with something that would motivate us to be active.”
For some, those records and medals are the motivating factors and unfortunately that is where the controversy for them begins. They feel the National Meet is top level competition like an Open Level National Meet. Those of us that truly love the sport for the enjoyment of the sport see it as a coming together to compete as a nation in a sport we love. LONG LIVE THE MASTERS MOVEMENT….no matter what side you take on the issue!
I totally agree that anyone who’s willing to compete no matter what degree of ability, should be allowed to do so. Lets face it. We are just a bunch of over age amateurs having fun, and nothing more. Although some of us believe we are much more. Besides, we need more people compeyeing in our meets. And not just a few old geezers who take themselves a bit too seriously. lighten up. We are having too much fun, to kill it with an elitist attitude and a club mentality
I posted on this previously(completely agreeing with Randy Sturgeon and then some) but would like to add that I believe Terri Lowe was certainly not participating for medals, nor did she care about seeing her name in print. As awards announcer, I recall that as I calling the results for one of her events, the pentathlon, she had to be encouraged to accept by several people standing around, and she also kindly asked me not to announce her individual score. Attempting to be accomodating to as many people as possible during these 4 days (tougher job than I had originally anticipated), I did honor her request and, after much encouragement from those standing around, including her teammates, she somewhat reluctantly accepted her award and many photos were taken by numerous observers(comraderie won out in the end).
After giving out over 3,000 awards over those 4 days, I still remember this one (and many others as well), it was one of the hundreds, or perhaps thousands of human dramas that happened during those 4 hot and humid days. After all was said and done in Charlotte, we have the memories of these dramas (and there were many) and the posted results (which were certainly impressive), both are important of course, and one or both of these things have varying degrees of importance to all that took part. If we all took a little time to be a little more encouraging to and understanding of our peers, I think the sport would be better off, and perhaps more would join in and participate, which is certainly needed for many reasons, including financial.
We should hope that twice as many women show up next year in Maine, now that would make a good article in the National Masters News!
At the next planning committee meeting for the 2007 outdoor Nationals, I hope someone proposes the meet be extended to 8 days, and several new events be added and interspersed throughout those 8 days inbetween already established traditional events: walking hurdles (100m and 400m), walking 100m, 200m, 400m, etc., a strictly walking steeplechase, walking long jump and high jump (actually these could be tough ones!), tennis ball toss…let’s make participation at the “nationals” a chance to increase the numbers, and, increase the total money collected in entry fees!
Those who feel the Nationals represent a “culmination” and season-ending “pinnacle” of achievement can enter the “traditional” events and get a feeling of being recognized as the best, and those huge numbers of new participants who are perhaps not bothering to “try new things” at local, smaller meets can have the experience of participating at a national level.
There are the natural athletes for whom training and winning is the norm. Then there are the people who participate because they love the sport. The times and distances may not be as fast or as far, but the effort is equal and really just as worthy. I so want to go to nationals not only to participate but to watch the people I’ve been reading about on this website, and I cant go just to watch. It doesn’t take away from a world record performance if another competitor in the race merely achieves their own PR or even just finishes a race they couldn’t run the year before. I am greatful for this program, it has given me something to strive for, something to look forward to and people to be in awe of. I hope to see some of you in Maine.
Good thing you’re not sarcastic Peter!
my favorite summer Olympic games to read about was the 1904 one in St. Louis.
Randy, you’re doing a heck’a’va job with Fleet Feet; ya gotta wonderful team, filled with appreciative, supportive, and motivated athletes. (Okay, I confess. I’m sorta a member, albeit injured, and on the sidelines) Fleet Feeters do wanna have fun and most wanna do well. And they’re generally, and generously, encouraging of other runners from other teams. Many are highly competitive, deserving National point scorers, medal winners and a few are Individual National Champions. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to score lots of points and win the National Championship but you and I have differed over the way to do that.
Yes, Masters Track should encourage more people to participate, get involved, recruit more from joggers and road runners, try out new events. That’s the advantage of local and regional meets, or the mini-meets you sponsor, and seem to be where one can practice and play at the “amusement park,” not at our National Championships.
But maybe you see all meets as the same, as you kept referring to the “national master’s meet,” “the indoor meet at Boston,” “the Hawaii meet,” and “the Charlotte meet,” as if they’re sorta National Masters All Comers meets and never called them our National Championships.
A National Championship is not just about participating. It’s also, for some, a higher level of competition, not a practice meet. It’s where we test ourselves, improve, hope to achieve personal bests, go after All American standards, records, or even medals. We time and measure things and compete at specified distances and events because the outcome seems to matter to most; that maybe marks actually matter, that many are competing either against themselves or another, or against some standard they’ve set or have accepted. For many the effort is part of the fun, pleasure, the challenge, the reason and reward.
See, I don’t think track’s elitist; yeah, it’s demanding, incredibly challenging; often painful, unpredictable; you’re out in the open and not lost in the crowd, and therefore not for everyone. Yet extremely rewarding.
There’s a bias that if ya want a National Master’s Championship meet to be competitive, that a Championship medal mean something, then ya don’t really, truly love the sport. That instead, you’re one of those “natural,” take yourself way too seriously, elitist athletes where everything comes easily, but who’s afraid to look in the mirror; “lighten up,” and see that high school is way over, and you’re never ever gonna letter again. While the real lovers of the sport run just for pure fun, friendship, and personal bemusement. But many of us love the sport, are passionate about track and field, have fun and great friendships here, yet want to run at our best, considering where we are now, against the best, and have that culminate in a National Championship.
For me, running fast is fun. (Relative to age, and motionless objects, etc. Individual mileage may vary) It’s a great feeling to push your body, somewhat, and have it respond (somewhat), in spite of our age, injury, time constraints, mental and physical conditioning, and common sense.
Okay, so Master’s Track National Championships can be about camaraderie, participation and competition, standards, records, and medals if we could find a way to meet in the medal/middle.
As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, for those who enter for the sheer joy of participation, where standards and medals really don’t matter, then let’s do away with medals in those cases and award Certificates of Completion, not National titles. (Just as the Swiss do, with their Medal Standards; see Ken’s article Sept 12, 2006 on this blog), And yet have National Championship titles and medals awarded when they are actually merited.
Leave a Reply