Club Nats - Omaha is Hotter the Hell

In Sacto you have to drive from the track to 99% of the lodging accomodations. In Eugene, you can walk to 75% of the lodging accomodations. Very few dining options anywhere near the track in Sacramento. Nearly unlimited dining options within walking distance of the track in Eugene. Cost of lodging is comparable between Sacto/Eugene. Despite all the brouhaha, there was no shortage of accomodations in Eugene. In fact, double booking, etc resulted in many late hour cancellations, resulting in less than full hotels at the end. The Sacrament facility itself is fine for the athletes, but sucks for fans (this is not a track stadium). Hayward Field is Hayward Field (nuff said). How many times did you dine out in Eugene? There are plenty of decent restaurants for all price ranges to allow a lunch and dinner for 10 days, without having to re-peat any restaurant, if that's your beef. Omaha and Sacramento's bids were not comparable. Omaha took a meet that no one else wanted. Sacramento begged, borrowed and stole to win out over other bid sites. Athletes didn't come to Sacramento for a variety of reasons--don't put it all on the Economy.

In Sacto you have to drive from the track to 99% of the lodging accomodations. In Eugene, you can walk to 75% of the lodging accomodations. Very few dining options anywhere near the track in Sacramento. Nearly unlimited dining options within walking distance of the track in Eugene. Cost of lodging is comparable between Sacto/Eugene. Despite all the brouhaha, there was no shortage of accomodations in Eugene. In fact, double booking, etc resulted in many late hour cancellations, resulting in less than full hotels at the end. The Sacrament facility itself is fine for the athletes, but sucks for fans (this is not a track stadium). Hayward Field is Hayward Field (nuff said). How many times did you dine out in Eugene? There are plenty of decent restaurants for all price ranges to allow a lunch and dinner for 10 days, without having to re-peat any restaurant, if that's your beef. Omaha and Sacramento's bids were not comparable. Omaha took a meet that no one else wanted. Sacramento begged, borrowed and stole to win out over other bid sites. Athletes didn't come to Sacramento for a variety of reasons--don't put it all on the Economy.

I am living in Omaha this summer and had no clue a USATF meet was going on this weekend. I didn't see promotion of it anywhere. If you live in Omaha you see a Giant bust of a swimmer going down Dodge St which is the main road that divides the city. It was put there by the sponsor of the Olympic swim trials and had had maybe 30-50 visitors a day for about a month now taking pictures. There is a reason why some sports do better than track and one of them is that we lack the initiative to go out and get spectators to come to meets.

I put up a scenario of USATF putting together a C or D level tier of meets going on throughout the country. This would give real sub-elites and wannabe sub-elites at least the platform to chase the dream we all have dreamed about or still dream about.

I think this would be more viable if USATF club nats aligned with a weaker organization such as the NAIA, NCAA D2 OR NCAA D3 and followed their regional, sectional and the nationals schedule. I mean if the time correlates well and whats the big deal about having a team of weekend warriors attempt to beat a team of future weekend warriors. If they have to give out separate medals in the same race I don't think its a big deal.

Nothing bothers me more in the sport that have empty lanes in a track, at this moment with the exception of Galen Rupp or Lagat, there are 8 people in the US that could line up on a track and run within 1-5 seconds of each other, the goal of USATF should be to try and get as of those groups of 8 people in the time spectrum aligned to run a full, competitive and entertaining race.

found this blog about club nats:

http://www.teamnebraska.com/new/?cat=1

apparently he is the one who got the nats in omaha. he says he is the pres of team nebraska. read the following dates: july 5, 3, 2. he is talking about club nats and throws people's names out there. interesting approach to advertise this past weekend. if you scroll down about half way through the page, he posted pics of "his mate" training. he calls himself the "runguru". does anyone know who this person is?

Will Lindgren. You either love him or hate him

Why is everyone making a mountain out of a mole hill. Seriously, get over it. If you aren't happy change it for the years to come. Otherwise shut up and MOVE ON.

I would like to thank Team Nebraska Brooks for being such gracious hosts this past weekend. My team and I enjoyed our time in NE. Being rationale human beings, we understand that you cannot control the weather.

As for those who are complaining about the competition level at club nats, I am one of those athletes that you are embarrassed by. My times have slowed over the years, but despite 3 injuries I got my butt out to Nebraska and competed in 6 events. Why? Because I love the sport of Track and Field and having a National meet gives my club/training partners a goal to work towards yearly. I will never be an Olympic athlete or even a Club track National champion, but being able to compete against others who have a passion for the sport is what Club Nationals gives me. We will continue to attend every year as we have since 2001 and will do what we can to try to grow the sport.

Upon Further Review2134 wrote:

found this blog about club nats:

http://www.teamnebraska.com/new/?cat=1

apparently he is the one who got the nats in omaha. he says he is the pres of team nebraska. read the following dates: july 5, 3, 2. he is talking about club nats and throws people's names out there. interesting approach to advertise this past weekend. if you scroll down about half way through the page, he posted pics of "his mate" training. he calls himself the "runguru". does anyone know who this person is?

I was briefly a member of Team Nebraska and left largely because of Will ("Runguru"). What do you want to know about him?

Big Slu wrote:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2012/USATFClubTFChampionships/results/F16.asp

My local Firecracker 10K had faster runners. Hopefully the USATF is dropping too much dough on this.

Oh really, do they? They can run sub 14 in the 5k and 2:18 in the thon? F'tard.

Who ran sub 14 at Club Nationals? I was there and saw the winning time around 15:10 or so.

if you love the sport and want a goal to work towards, why don't you just pick a crappy local track meet to work towards? it will have the same level of competition, will be a lot cheaper to go to and you won't have the issue of pretending that you did well at an important meet. the tens of thousands of dollars that were spent on this meet would be much better spent elsewhere in this sport.

I love how Will tries to say he's working to unite the running community but continues to upset people. He constantly talks about real racing... After looking at the five posts he has on his one site, this one stuck out:

35 & under, 36 to dead. I can’t let this one slide. A recent 5K (non-certified) out at Zorinsky, benefiting a worthy cause, $25-$30 entry fee. Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was the age group awards structure. While I demonstrate time after time my willingness to support local charities, this has taken the pillage of our sport to a new and unpalatable level. How difficult is it to spend a dollar on a medal and a quarter on a ribbon for some 10 year age groups? There were over 300 entries, and again I’m certain the charitable cause was worthy. But why not just set up a donation stand and have people drop money in it as they are out for their Saturday morning run, why pretend to call this a race? A RACE?!? Give me a break. I’m sure I’ll tick somebody off with this position, but what else is new eh?

So is it only "real racing" if there are 5 year age brackets so you can get a medal or ribbon for getting 3rd out of 7 in your division Will?

Also, who cares if it is a certified course. DON'T RUN next year! They (whoever they were, I don't know), were just trying to raise money.

If you ask me, it is a little sick how you have to pay off 23 year olds to be your friend.

I'll bet Jeremy Bascom, who ran 10.19, and Lalonde Gordon, who ran 20.63 and 45.02, found Omaha just fine.

Why should everything revolve around a bunch of distance joggers? There's much more to a track meet and the distance events beyond 1500 are frankly not very important to most people.

Sub 14? wrote:

Who ran sub 14 at Club Nationals? I was there and saw the winning time around 15:10 or so.

You aren't very bright. Nowhere did I say someone went sub 14 there. And obviously they didn't run the marathon you f'tard. He said faster runners, not faster times.

coach d wrote:

I'll bet Jeremy Bascom, who ran 10.19, and Lalonde Gordon, who ran 20.63 and 45.02, found Omaha just fine.

Why should everything revolve around a bunch of distance joggers? There's much more to a track meet and the distance events beyond 1500 are frankly not very important to most people.

so you actually think that more people find a 20.6 and 45.0 more important than some distance times? my guess is that most people couldn't give a crap about either. however, i would venture to guess that more people care about someone who runs a 3 hour marathon than someone who runs those sprint times. when you are work tomorrow ask some people what they think of someone who runs a 45.0 400. they will have no idea what you are talking about. then ask them what they think of someone who runs a 3 hour marathon. they will be impressed.

i'm sure your 2 guys found omaha just fine. they are 2 of probably 50 people who likewise found omaha just fine.

Do you understand that those guys ran Olympic A standard times?

Sure, everybody will be more impressed with some hobby jogger running 3 hours. Why do you think that even in the OT, the TV networks are constantly switching away from the long distance events? BECAUSE NOBODY GIVES A SHIT.

Dude - none of your posts make sense. And your use of "retard" speaks volumes of your intelligence level. Come back with some snarky putdown, but the fact is, none of what you posted came across with any sort of clarity whatsoever.

you are aware that 99.999999999% of the public has absolutely no idea what an olympic A time is and the difference between 45.0 and 65.0 in the 400? however, a good chunk knows what a 3 hour marathon is and is impressed by that. you might want to get out a little bit more and talk to some people before posting more of your naive posts.

i just wasted one hour of my life reading his blog. what does he mean by REAL racing and REAL competition? he has a coach that he refers to as "killer coach". yep, killer coach apparently killed him during the grandma's marathon. the blog said that he experienced hypothermia? who experiences hypothermia in 65 degree weather? isn't that what runners want? and he runs his workouts with a lady, who dropped out as well using the same "killer coach". his blog just made me keep reading shaking my head.

anyone else out there with stories about him? sounds like he is well known in omaha. i ran hospital hill and there was an older guy there (bald) who was shouting at the race director about a mis-scoring. he was something else. he was with the team nebraska team. we wondered who the heck this guy was. i bet this guy is the same guy. at the team meeting, the two team nebraska older people (guy and gal), kept asking questions about elite restrooms and elite bag drop. again, we just shook our heads. i am thinking this was the same guy.