How do you participate in meets?

GBTC has high preformance meets. i dont know what area your in but im sure clubs near you do the same type of thing.

You can run unattached in the vast majority of NCAA events. The principal website for signing up is directathletics.com. They have few meets listed for the next season because 2009 track season isn't close to starting. You have to register with directathletics and you can look at meet results from last year (and get idea of what meets were held).

Usatf has an online calendar for track meets, which you can find here:

http://www.usatf.org/calendars/search/

You can select track meets specifically; You do not have to go through the road race jogging crap.

When you join USATF (you get travel discounts that are worth much more than the membership price), you get a list of track meets from your local association.

Also, local universities sponsor meets, and you can look directly at their track team sites. I know that the University of Washington, Arkansas, and BYU all have 2009 schedules up.

Thank you both. This is very helpful. I am in the Chicago area. I will see if I can find something local.

Thanks again

If you search through USATF.org, you can find the associations for your state and area/city/whatever. Join that local club and network with people to find out competitive opportunities. Along with college meets, there will be other club meets potentially.

I wouldn't get too geeked up about this Team USA stuff, though. You'd have to be a whole lot faster than you are. To make "Team USA," you need to run at least 1:45-46. How fast did you run in college? What leads you to believe you can run so much faster now?

Not trying to bust your bubble or be an ass, but you need to be realistic, too. Now if you tell me you ran 1:48 in college ... then maybe you have a chance.

Thanks for the extra info.

I know how hard it is to make the team, but I figure as long as I am alive, I have a shot. I don't think you're being an ass at all. If someone told me the same thing, I would probably respond the same way, but I have nothing to lose in trying :)

I never ran in college. I was a triple major in a dual degree program and there was no time for anything else. After college, I became a slave and worked 90+ hours a week and I have nothing to show for it, so I am taking an early retirement.

I can't even fathom how hard it is to run sub 1:50 in the 800, my fastest time was 1:57 and change. I might have gotten a little ahead of myself on the first post with the sub 2 minute. I think the fastest I ran so far since I began training again was on accident when I ran 2400m thinking it was 1600m and I ran it in 7:03 (I was shooting for a 3 mile run averaging sub 7 minute miles and I crapped out after 7 minutes). It gave me a good laugh, cause I was thinking I lost all of my endurance and I was just an idiot :P

Dangerzone wrote:

After college, I became a slave and worked 90+ hours a week and I have nothing to show for it, so I am taking an early retirement.

How much did you make and what do you do now? What are your career plans for the future?

I always just emailed coaches a while before their home meet and asked if I could run. I was never turned down using this approach.

I was an auditor. I made on average, I would say $55k - $65k per year, but then when you do the math, it came out to like $9 per hour:

90 hours per week at work + 15 hours commuting = 105 hours per week x 48 weeks = 5040 hours per year

Salary = ($65,000 * .9235) - ($63,000 * .03) - $10,308 - $6500 = $41330 per year

$41330/5040 = $8.20 per hour

I make much less now, but I work 1/10 the time literally :P

I did nothing but work, and I have a whopping $6,000 in my bank accounts... After I made all the car payments, insurance, food, and so on, I was left with next to nothing from my paycheck.

I am not sure what my career plans are for the future. I work seasonally now for a CPA and I make about $20k - $25k per year. I can put about 1/2 of that away in the bank every year and I do have some money invested. I might get a real estate license and do that a little, but money is not an issue. Since all my money always went to bills, I don't even know what to do with it. I don't drink, don't drive anymore, I am not in a relationship. I do martial arts, I took up an instrument, I am reading a bit, I watch movies, I take walks; life is much better. My blood pressure dropped below normal levels for the first time since working and my skin tone is looking much better.

I might start putting in more hours if I need money later on, but unless I get ready to settle down, I don't see that happening.