Gate River Run, the 15k national championship is thinking about holding a team competition for the elite runners field. There would be prize money for the winning teams. They have already had good feedback from Team USA California and other elite programs.
What do you guys think? Any good ideals?
Sounds like a good idea. If it was to work I think you would need the best runners from each team to show up. I think you would need a Sell from Hansons, a Hall or Meb from big bear. Wonder if it would be a mens team race or a a mix, lets say 4 Men + 1 girl.
A "team" all wears the same uniform. You can't have Meb wearing Nike and Ryan Hall wearing Asics, and consier them the same team. The excitement involving a "team" competition is the ability to know who you are cheering for.
Of course they won't get Meb and Hall competing as team athletes. The team competition would be a lot like USATF club xc's in December. Super-elites don't belong to clubs.
They might be able to get Sell; he ran at club xc's once to help the Hansons take the title.
It's not a bad idea given the team events that have had success on the northeast corridor: Mayor's Cup, New York Bad Boy XC, etc. You need a little more prize money than those though, as you want the teams from that area to be able to afford to travel to Jacksonville.
runduderun faster faster wrote:
Of course they won't get Meb and Hall competing as team athletes. The team competition would be a lot like USATF club xc's in December. Super-elites don't belong to clubs.
Did you read the Original Post?
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They have already had good feedback from Team USA California and other elite programs.
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Who will they get from Team USA California?
From Brad Hudson's message board:
http://myforum.marathonperformance.com/user/Discussion.aspx?id=138237
That would be awesome if they can pull it off. I think it would be tough for many of these training groups to agree on singlets. Easy for Hansons, Zap, OTC, since they are all sponsored by the same shoe company. A little tougher for others.
Being a Jax native and many-time River Run participant and volunteer, I would LOVE to see this idea come to fruition. Many of the USA-Cal folks have been running this as a tune up for their spring marathons anyway - Deena, Meb, and Hall to name a few. Plus a number of USA-Minnesota folks have run it along with the Boulder crowd. I don't recall seeing too many Hanson's jerseys before, but they have enough folks to put together a couple of teams probably. It's an easy trip for ZAP and the Adidas Raleigh club (if they still exist).
To the OP: Would the teams be mixed gender, or all-,ale and all-female, etc?
Lowest score like they do in cross. Top 5 per team.
Polar Opposite Express wrote:
That would be awesome if they can pull it off. I think it would be tough for many of these training groups to agree on singlets.
Competition Rules state that all team members must wear the same singlet. This is not open for debate in any USATF sanctioned event.
geesh if Gate inst deep enough already?
Will Mcmillian be able to run guys like Fagan who arent American? or is this team thing USATF sanctioned?
The Bolder Boulder 10k has this type of event and it is really exciting to watch. The elite guys all wear the same uniform for this one race. They have a USA team and a Colorado team, along with a few other country teams. Seems easy enough for other races to do.
Jacksonville running co. wrote:
geesh if Gate inst deep enough already?
Will Mcmillian be able to run guys like Fagan who arent American? or is this team thing USATF sanctioned?
Foreigners are not eligible to run Club Cross, so I would guess that Lemoncello and Fagan are out. This alo eliminates most of the Westchester Track Club.
"Teams" should really be teams and not just collections of athletes. They should be in the same training group, have the same coach, be part of the same USATF club or live in the same area.
I've heard some sketchy things about how they are defining 'teams' which I don't think we'd think of as a team (e.g., getting 3 athletes from the same sponsor even though those athletes don't train together, live in the same area, have the same coach or really have any connection other than sponsor. Do we know if they will abide by USATF rules like at club XC for this?
If they have no rules I think Team Kimbia will be tough to beat.
Hall Dobson and Meb
I am organizing the team race for Gate River Run.
5 things I would like to clarify
1.) Team competition will absolutely abide by USATF rules.
2.) YES - we will have the best. I believe there was a comment that "superelites don't belong to clubs". Nothing could be further from the truth. Look at the Runners with Salazar and Schumacher at Nike OTC (Rupp, Goucher, Rohatinsky, Tegenkamp, Solinsky, Riley). Look at the runners with Brad Hudson at Marathon Performance (Ritzenhein, Carney, Hartmann. Tempo Sports (with Jorge and Ed Torres and Cabada)and of course Team USA California (with Meb, Ryan Hall and Dan Browne.
3.) Whether an athlete chooses to compete with his club or -in some instances - his or her shoe contract may mandate that they compete for their shoe company. In no instance will we ask (or expect) a runner to violate their contracts or USATF rules. The only 2 permissible teams will be either one sponsored by a shoe company or a legitimate bona fide team that has publicly posted it's members well in advance of the race.
4.) Team prize money is $20,000 - ON TOP OF the $65,000 individual prize money. We believe this is the top purse for "US runners only" of any non-marathon in the country in 2009.
5.) Lastly, I do not want to violate anything told me me in confidence, (cannot mention names of who has committed) but the interest and feedback has been phenomenal. Our field will be loaded.
Hardly any of these guys actually train together. There is no traditional "team" atmosphere in the United States - the only exception would be the Hanson distance group. I'd be shocked if you got all those top guys to participate.
Also -
a couple of other points....
1.) Scoring will be "cross country style" - but top 3 - not 5. A team can run as many people as they want, but only top 3 count in scoring.
2.) No foreigners will be allowed on any of the teams.
Just like the individual prize money structure, competition is US only.
3.) No - we decided not to mix male and female.
Some teams are exclusively male and vice versa.
Wanted to keep them "separate and pure"