Why the stands were half full in Des Moines

Eug is a dangerous, high crime, poor white trash small town. Eug sucks. The rain, thunder, pollen, are terrible all year long. It's a 3rd tier destination for T&F. There's no 5 star hotels etc. It's sad that that's all our sport has today. What a pisser. You have to agree with me ?

It pays to spread championships around the country. USATF and NCAATF must continue to foster the sport throughout the nation. Lolo Jones, Lisa Koll are from Des Moines and Iowa. Bizzari is from neighboring Illinois, Christian Cantwell is from nearby Missouri. Of the 32 medals brought home by USA T&F athletes from 2009 Berlin, 4 were from Mid-West states and zero were from Northwestern states. The mid-west deserves to host USA & NCAA championships again in the near future based on their accomplishments on the world medal stand. We need the Mid-West just as much as we need the medals juggernauts in Texas and Southern California.

Spreading it Pays wrote:

It pays to spread championships around the country. USATF and NCAATF must continue to foster the sport throughout the nation. Lolo Jones, Lisa Koll are from Des Moines and Iowa. Bizzari is from neighboring Illinois, Christian Cantwell is from nearby Missouri. Of the 32 medals brought home by USA T&F athletes from 2009 Berlin, 4 were from Mid-West states and zero were from Northwestern states. The mid-west deserves to host USA & NCAA championships again in the near future based on their accomplishments on the world medal stand. We need the Mid-West just as much as we need the medals juggernauts in Texas and Southern California.

Ha, not to mention that most of the fastest 5k guys (except Lagat) are from the Midwest.

I don't necessarily care if Eugene is a 'vacation destination', I just hear everyone else on here bitching about how Des Moines isn't, and how there is no reason for them to spend their money to go there because it isn't a vacation destination.

When I go to a USATF meet I rarely leave the area to go do other stuff. I'm there to watch the meet. Doesn't matter if it's in Eugene or Des Moines. I've been to the USATF meet in all kinds of places in the west and midwest and always managed to have a good time without disneyland or the statue of f***ing liberty being in the backyard.

Good point. Sponsors pay based on performance. Can't keep forgetting that for some reason ;-) The US T&F Team is #1 in the world because of the entire United States, the Midwest included in the medal tally. What happened to the athletes from Wa, Or, Id, Mt ? Zero medals from Beijing. Zero medals from Berlin. That's zero plus zero equals zero.

Didn't Sacramento do a good job? And if I remember, it cools down nicely at night there with low dew points.

Montesquieu wrote:

Didn't Sacramento do a good job? And if I remember, it cools down nicely at night there with low dew points.

Correct. Also, BOTH Olympic Trials in Sacramento had higher attendance than 2008 in Eugene. That's what USATF gets for rigging the bid process.

Sacramento conditions would have been far better for the distance athletes.

Bizzari is from Ohio. Went to same HS as Zach Wills

Tim Mack is from Cleveland, Ohio too.

Montesquieu wrote:

Didn't Sacramento do a good job? And if I remember, it cools down nicely at night there with low dew points.

This deserves to me mentioned over and over. I've run major meets at most of these locations and Sacramento is at the top of the list.

I'm from Oregon, and there will always be something special about running in or attending a meet at Hayward, but I have to say for the overall meet, Sacramento is hard to beat. Stanford is also exceptional, and Carson City would be good if you didn't have to be in the smog drenched hell hole that is L.A.

hayward is the pits with homeless meth freaks even when there is no pollen and no rain is present which is never, and it's in a pisshole ville that nobody likes. sac st, mt sac, home depot, sac hughes, and stanford have hot days, cool nites, major airports and hotels and are in nice big cities.

Thanks for the French lesson.If I were forced to, I would have translated "Des Moines" as "Some monks." or "From the monks."I would have translated "This sucks.", literally as something like "Ce suce." or "Ceci suce." or Cela suce." or figuratively as something like "C'est tordu", or "Cela ne me plait pas", or "Cela ne vaut pas la peine", or even worse "C'est chient." (pardon my French).But, with all the complications of gender and grammar, it's sometimes hard for "aliens" to understand these subtle nuances in foreign languages.

D. Douglas Dent wrote:

Des Moines is French for "This sucks."

Eugene 2010 was a disaster wrote:

NCAA 2010 in Eugene was a disaster again. It rained like hell and was miserable for the athletes. There should never be any T&F championships held in Eugene during June, July, and August.

You have to be a moron. Have you ever been to Eugene in July and August. The weather is probably the best in the world. All Oregonians know that you don't leave the state during those two months to vacation--because almost anywhere you go will not be as good.

eojtlc wrote:

Carson City would be good if you didn't have to be in the smog drenched hell hole that is L.A.

You'll be happy to know it's over 400 miles from LA.

midwaste wrote:

I don't necessarily care if Eugene is a 'vacation destination', I just hear everyone else on here bitching about how Des Moines isn't, and how there is no reason for them to spend their money to go there because it isn't a vacation destination.

When I go to a USATF meet I rarely leave the area to go do other stuff. I'm there to watch the meet. Doesn't matter if it's in Eugene or Des Moines. I've been to the USATF meet in all kinds of places in the west and midwest and always managed to have a good time without disneyland or the statue of f***ing liberty being in the backyard.

great, so you're one of the 15 like-minded people. Good argument for keeping things the way they are. Hope you enjoyed the excitement with the stands 1/4 full in Iowa.

rekrunner wrote:

Thanks for the French lesson.

If I were forced to, I would have translated "Des Moines" as "Some monks." or "From the monks."

I would have translated "This sucks.", literally as something like "Ce suce." or "Ceci suce." or Cela suce." or figuratively as something like "C'est tordu", or "Cela ne me plait pas", or "Cela ne vaut pas la peine", or even worse "C'est chient." (pardon my French).

But, with all the complications of gender and grammar, it's sometimes hard for "aliens" to understand these subtle nuances in foreign languages.

are you this much of a douche in real life?

What about in Austen? The Texas Relays is always a pretty big event. I know it would be scorching hot, but that's track. Plus Austin is a pretty great place to be in the summer while away from the track.

Eugene 2010 was a disaster wrote:

NCAA 2010 in Eugene was a disaster again. It rained like hell and was miserable for the athletes. There should never be any T&F championships held in Eugene during June, July, and August.

Bad weather places like DM, FAY, EUG, AUS, IND should be barred from hosting champs. It's bad for the sport when it rained for two days in EUG 2 wks ago. It's bad for the sport when lightning delayed FAY last year. On and on. The stupid fools at NCAATF and USATF are ruining our sport with debacles like DM, EUG, FAY, IND when they know from gov't reports that the weather sucks in those pissholes in Jun-Jul-Aug.

True but there's no arguing the fact that it would have drawn MUCH better than Des Moines did. The stadium can hold 50,000 plus people, so it is somewhat of a risk, since if it does bomb in attendance, it will look worse than a Florida Marlins home game. However, I think in an Olympic or WC year, Franklin Field would be an incredible place for a national championship. The strange lane setup does not prevent Penn Realays from being one of the most successful meets of the year.

Penn Relays is the national jewel of T&f. But summer in the NE USA sucks. Heat and humidity makes for another huge fiasco like we had at IND, DM, FAY, EUG. None of us can change the weather. Only Cali is suitable for champs in Jun-Jul-Aug. What else can we do otherwise we keep losing kids to soccer, volleyball, x-games, etc.