I’ve been trying to stay out participating in this thread since many of the issues being brought up don’t directly concern me, nor was I a member of the club when they happened. I haven’t heard all the details, and don’t think it’d be appropriate for me to comment on them without knowing the full story. However, some of my friends and teammates are being unfairly attacked, and I’d like to address it:
Reid: The fact of the matter is Reid had a good 2011. He was in a good spot financially when Guelph was raising money for their track, and he donated the money. Simultaneously, New Balance was running a campaign where for every shoe sold, a portion of the proceeds would go towards sponsoring Reid and Eric (ie. their salary). The two of them have worked hard to get to where they are today. What they chose to do with the (limited) money they make is up to them, and (imo) donating it back to the community seems like a pretty nice thing to do. Reid and Eric did help out promoting that Run Canada campaign, but most of the money went towards the running programs that Reid mentions.
Anthony: Bringing Anthony into this thread (what’s this thread even about anymore? Might as well have named it “Slinging mud at Speed River) is a severe low blow. After having a really good start to his season, Anthony began having a medical issue that forced him to drop out of several races leading into Pan Ams (he wasn’t able to race the national championships two weekends prior). It’s taken him nearly half a year to recover, and only now has he started consistently working out again. Anyone who knows Anthony will agree that he’s one of the nicest, hardest working, humble, and patriotic guys out there, and it’s a shame that there’s a few people out there who jumped on the back of one of their countries best middle distance runners who was going through a tough time.
Rob Watson: It’s a shame Rob has negative feelings towards the club, but let me also emphasize that he had many positive things to say including: “I wouldn’t be where I am in this sport without Speed River. Dave and Chris are fantastic. Amazing group of athletes. Those guys are great. I respect Guelph (x2). I love the guys.â€
Dave: Again, I can’t speak to any of the events that occurred before September 2014. What I can say is that people in this thread are trying to judge Dave’s success on the amount of Reid Coolsaet’s he’s had (ie. people who continue to run with Speed River through their collegiate careers and into the professional ranks). I think this is an incredibly unfair way to judge a coaches success. Running post collegiately is a high risk, low reward endeavor (unless you’re lucky enough to punch through to the world class level), and for most people to give up chasing the dream after 1 or 2 years post-collegiately is completely natural. From what I see, most people that join this group get better and set PB’s while they are here (even if their time spent with the club is limited).
I wish I could address some of the other events more specifically, but I really don’t know enough about them. What I can say is that I’ve had an extremely positive experience with Speed River so far, and I’m constantly surrounded by some incredibly hard working, humble, and dedicated athletes. I believe that the negativity displayed towards my teammates in this thread comes from small group of individuals that does not reflect the Canadian running scene as a whole.