You can do what you want with your money, but the idea behind the team competition is loose at best. Ritz, Carney, and Hartman all live in different areas of the country, and they are not all coached by the same coach. Hartman runs for Team Strands, Carney lives in Boulder, Ritz lives in Eugene. Not really fair to call them a team, is it? But hey, Ritz needs more money...he doesn't get enough from Nike and NYRR and Alberto.
todd williams went through 10k in 28:07.
Back to the original post and all those congratulating Jim Estes and Gate river for this novel concept.......Team championships have been a part of every national road championship for at least the past 20 years. It's in the rules. The regulations governing them are also in the rules. The bigger problem is that MLDR has pretty much ignored the rules over the past 8-9 years so now when something gets done the way it is supposed to be people are shocked.
Let me rant here for just a second. Our current group of leaders in LDR have no sense of history. Zero. None. As a result they try to reinvent the wheel at every opportunity. Here is yet another case.
For the last time, our race is NOT a USATF Team Competition in any way, shape or form.
It is our own competition and we made the rules.
A lot of negativity for a $20,000 "add on"
I suppose it would be better to have no money at all ?
Too many folks stuck on worrying about minutae instead of thinking up ways to make our races more exciting and more lucrative to the competitors.
Yes, we have had a team competition at River Run for over 20 years. But with no money, it has been a total joke and drawn no interest.
This year, it has drawn a ton of interest, a great filed, and the only negativity has come from anonymous posters on Let's Run.
check your facts ....
Don't get worked up. Everyone (excepting the lunatic fringe on letsrun) is excited about this. Toni Reevis and others have been arguing for this to save the sport for years and congrats on being the first to step up. (next, link up with 5 more road races for a season, mixes of 5k, 10k, and maybe another 15k).
Can us fans watch the coverage live if we are not local?
Richard Fannin wrote:
Too many folks stuck on worrying about minutae instead of thinking up ways to make our races more exciting and more lucrative to the competitors.
Yes, we have had a team competition at River Run for over 20 years. But with no money, it has been a total joke and drawn no interest.
This year, it has drawn a ton of interest, a great filed, and the only negativity has come from anonymous posters on Let's Run.
well if making up "fictional" teams makes you feel good. Go for it
I'd say "go blue team" but they probably wont be wearing team colors anyway.
Right. You were on board with the "Carolina Panthers" day one. All teams are put together and then they get some history. Baltimore ravens (no ravens anywhere near there btw). Role with it, it might work out.
Distance runners often move too fast to develop a long history with a team. There are some exceptions - but by and large, if you are too restrictive, you are going to have a watered-down competition, where few of the top tier runners are involved.
True, organizations such as Team USA California and Tempo Sports are not as tight (and haven't been around as long) as Hansons and some of the others, but they are bona fide groups that train together and often share coaches.
Some athletes are forced to move away from the geographic area (for instance Dan Browne had to move to San Diego for military duty) - does that mean he is no longer allowed to compete with Team USA California ?
James Carney's two team-mates (Dathan and Hartmann) moved to Eugene last year. Does he no longer get to compete with Marathon Performance because he didn't feel like re-locating to another state ? They are all still coached by Brad Hudson.
The lines right now are just gray - and that is the state of our sport.
Rather than tear down and poke holes in those trying to highlight and spotlight the advent of team running, we should all be celebrating it and pushing for it's inclusion in other road races.
The phenomenon of the group and team concept in our sport has really added to the depth the last few years and helped us "close the gap" on the foreigners.
richard may I remind you of the original post. You wanted input.. so people gave it. Do i think the team competition thing is cool. Absolutely. But would be a lot cooler if it was an actual team competition. Just giving my input. Dont take it so hard. You guys put on a great race.
Author: oshott
Subject: Gate River Run Competitive Team Competition
Message:
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?
I appreciate all of the input.
Just offering some point - counterpoint.
I should know better than to let posts on "Let's Run" get me riled up. This site is vicious.
Richard Fannin wrote:
For the last time, our race is NOT a USATF Team Competition in any way, shape or form.
It is our own competition and we made the rules.
Yes, we have had a team competition at River Run for over 20 years. But with no money, it has been a total joke and drawn no interest.
This year, it has drawn a ton of interest, a great filed, and the only negativity has come from anonymous posters on Let's Run.
Hey Rich, not to bust your balls here buddy because I appreciate what you do for the sport, but bak on page 1 you said it was a usatf comp, following usatf rules.....so which is it?
Not a problem, Ray. Good point.
We originally intended on making it a "USATF" team race, but for various reasons, decided we wanted the flexibility to make our own rules. Some of the USATF rules are so onerous, that they hinder what we are trying to do.
We realized that no matter how we structured it, we would have some unhappy people.
Again, the team concept for post-collegiates is still relatively new and evolving, and runners are hopping around quite a bit.
We just wanted to be able to create a format that gives us the ability to make some judgement calls.
I really do appreciate the feedback - even the negative stuff. We will listen to "the people" and tweak this thing each year until everyone is happy - although that goal is probably unattainable.
Richard, can you post your email address? I am with one of the teams and have a question for you. Thanks!
gateriver2 wrote:
Richard, can you post your email address? I am with one of the teams and have a question for you. Thanks!
click on his name. the email will pop up
sure - it is richard_fannin@ml.com or call me at 904.662.3814
Can a athlete be eligible to run on more than one team?
For example can Cele Rodriguez run for both STRANDS and McMillan Elite?
Afterall Strands is a legitimate team and so is McMillan Elite.
Can someone that ran for Indiana Elite and moved to the other side of the country for a job (similar to Dan Browne) now run for Club Northwest who he has never represented before? Or can he run on both teams?
Below the rules are spelled out - as you can see it allows for some subjectivity. This year we made the difficult decision not to allow Strands to field a team. We saw Strands as more akin to a \"sponsor\" like a shoe company - AT THIS POINT. As Strands matures, they will probably develop into more of a \'team\". And as for the unnmaed runner for Club Northwest, I know who you are referring to and we discuused the situation at length - and made a judgement call - which we are allowed to do.
Again, we know there is no way to do this without rankling some people. We have to make some tough calls, But we are trying to be fair.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A TEAM ?
This is an issue that has been given a lot of thought. The current landscape of US elite distance running contains many teams and clubs, most (but not all) consisting of runners who live in the same geographical area. Most share the same coach – some have a few athletes that run for the club – but maintain their own coach. Some teams consist of runners who all have contracts with the same shoe companies. Many have runners with varied shoe company affiliations.
What we have attempted to do is to allow enough flexibility to be somewhat liberal in our rules for teams, stopping short of allowing “pick-up teams” or shoe companies “throwing runners together” temporarily for the purpose of one competition.
Since we are all having so much fun - and I am a glutton for punishment, I figured I might as well go ahead and release seeded bib #s.
Let the discussion begin !!!!!!!
1 Carlson Andrew
3 Brown Emily
4 Ritzenhein Dathan
5 Nelson Tim
6 Torres Jorge
7 McGregor Katie
8 Moran Ed
9 Carney James
10 Gotcher Brett
11 Torres Ed
12 Browne Dan
13 Famiglietti Anthony
14 Bizuneh Fasil
15 Dobson Ian
16 Meyer Luke
17 Vega Antonio
18 Cabada Fernando
19 Downin Matt
20 Donaghue Rebecca
22 Kirkpatrick Ryan
23 Braden Forest
24 Pilkington Seth
25 Hartmann Jason
26 Lehmkuhle Jason
27 Watson Luke
28 Sayenko Mike
29 Enman Kasie
31 Moen Josh
32 Johnson Chad
33 Morgan Mike
34 Gabrielson Matt
35 Briney Trent
36 Dereuck Colleen
37 Davila Desiree
38 Rudolph Amy
39 Pannone Chris
40 Dryer Elva
41 Akbar Samia
42 Kanyaruhuru Daniel
43 Eberly Josh
44 Moran Cw
45 Jankowski David
46 Grace Allison
47 Hanlon Mike
48 Morgan Thomas
49 White Melissa
50 Kilburg Michael
51 Gray Joseph
52 Gallo Anthony
53 Lehmkuhle Kristen
54 Lundstrom Chris
55 Rodriguez Celedonio
56 Quinn-Smith Tara
57 Levassiur Matt
58 Anderson Lindsey
59 Peck Nate
60 Sheehan Ryan
61 Jellema Paul
62 Lowery Brad
63 Serrano Charlie
64 Storage Tara
65 O'Neill Kate
67 Dare Joe
68 Storage Kara
69 McKaig Alissa
70 Trujillo Juan
71 Armstrong Meghan
72 Moody Tera
73 Mort Emory
75 Rundhaug Katrina
76 Meyerhoff Sally
77 Gall Jessica
78 Messner-Vickers Carrie
79 Begay Alvina
80 Higgins Lesley
81 Lilienthal Michelle
84 Minty Jess
85 Ashley Levi
87 Trafeh Mo
88 Joyce Monica
89 Antablin Abbi
90 Hooley Matt
91 Pawelek Kim
92 Jefferson Carol
93 Fryburg Kristen
94 Korb Danielle
95 Todd Melissa
96 Lenihan Stephanie
97 Herron Camille
99 Trujillo Esteban
100 Strizhakov Oleg
Corrections to this list - Matt Downin has scratched
Amy Yoder-Begley is a late entrant - and has a high #