Sprints for the ages: Pete’s latest take on Charlotte
Masters meet announcer Pete Taylor shares another in his series of Charlotte wrap-ups, this time quoting M40 sprinter champ Aaron Thigpen, who says: “The Charlotte meet was a good meet, setup nice, officiating seemed good, facilities great, accommodations good.” But Pete saves special praise for the sprints and 800, saying:
“Sid Howard, the affable Hall of Famer from New Jersey, agreed with me that this was the best-ever talent in nationals for races of 800 meters on down. Not to say it was not brilliant elsewhere, but 800 and below rocked.”
Pete continues:
Aaron Thigpen, who insists on running college times (OK, not big-time college) even though he is in M40 (10.73 100) enjoyed the meet as well. Aaron is in a rare position, as he still runs in open competition, was on 11 national teams, etc. Many of our masters stars were not “heavy hitters” in open or college.
Before I go to Aaron, let me thank Dr. Gordon Edwards, the meet director. It’s not easy riding a bucking bronco, and there would have been no meet without having Gordon astride the beast for the last 2 years. Gordon Edward told me his original plan was to have morning and night sessions, but that was rejected.
We had not only brilliant competition but also the best presenters of awards, the nicest awards for performance, a dedicated field event announcer (Andy Boyajian) who did a very fine job, an awards announcer (Eric Braschwitz) who held up until almost to the end (stopped because of prolonged exposure to heat), a pretty good track announcer, terrific desk for packets and information (I commend Joan Green and colleagues), many other good things.
Aaron shared a few thoughts with me: “I really love competing at the masters level ….You have people competing solely because they love the sport.”
Comparing open and masters: “(In masters), the personal challenges are always there regardless of win or lose. As open athletes we tend to define ourselves based on win/lose…. There’s not the posturing, bravado, overcelebrating, and other gamesmanship that goes on in an open meet. Masters athletes are gracious in victory and defeat.”
(In masters): “Camaraderie between friends and competitors. I love running into the fellas and hanging out after the meet. I also meet a lot of new people who are great. In open there tend to be cliques and people are a little standoffish.”
“The Charlotte meet was a good meet, setup nice, officiating seemed good, facilities great, accommodations good.”
As minor issues Aaron cited a preference for warming up on the unused part of the track (rather than on outside grass) and possibly some adjustments on the part of the starter to avoid so many false starts.
One Response
It was a great meet for the shorter events – that seems to be the consensus. For the longer events – it was not so great. A comment was made that the early starts for the 10 k should be rotated to allow the men to have the earlier starts. That would be fine for the younger men/women but I don’t think you really want to see the older men and women running at 11 am in the high heat in the 5k and 10k unless you have alot of first aid workers standing by. For those of you who have not hit the 60’s and above, the tolerance for heat diminshes with age. and older runners and race walker take much longer to complete a 5k or 10 k than folks in the 30’s and 40.’s. While a 40 year old male runner could compete the 5k in 15-16 minutes, the 60-70 year old woman 5k races is out there almost twice as long or even longer if in the late 70’s or 80′. For those of us who are 70 plus – those distance races are an entirely different beast than for the kids in their 30’s or 40’s or even 50’s in terms of the time spent on the track.
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