On the SCUSATF website, it says that "Open" athletes go up to age 39. It says that "Masters" begins at age 40.
If an athlete is 39 years old, is he is in his last year of racing in open meets. Will he be banned? What if he is fast and can win events in the open meets?
Correction, Masters begins at age 30. Same question.
Rest easy. You are NOT required to run in masters events. Masters is basically for people too slow (not too old) to run open division. You can also run in NCAA events (which I do on the weekends when my NCAA team is not competing). You might not want to run in a 2:00 or 11.2 race if you can only run 2:35 or 15.0, but as long as you are competitive nobody will say anything.
You can also run in SCAUSATF or SDUSATF open championships as a master (as long as you have a USATF number).
Thanks for the info. This is good news.
The only NCAA type race I know of is the Cal State LA Last Chance Meet. What other NCAA events will take me? Will an invite take me or do I have to wait to be invited. Serious question.
There's no way I'm going to enter a race and look like a fool. I always look at last year's results before entering anything.
If they hassle you, just flash your AARP card. Problem solved. Trust me.
Respect.
I raced in many open "Invite" races in SoCal well into my 40's. And I lived in WA state (travelling)
There are races like Mt. Sac and Occidental that have entry standards (and some listed on Direct Athletics will require you to get permission to enter) but most do not have standards. You can go to the indoor meets at Northern Arizona or Air Force, outdoors at Ben Brown, two meets that Long Beach will hold at Cerritos, Steve Scott Invitational at UCI, Triton Invit at UCSD, meets at APU, all as a master without entry standards (none of these are masters meets).
Right now I'm getting ready to race at the Armory next month on an open weekend from my team's schedule.
The SoCal meets that you CANNOT race in as a master are the exception. Mostly these are college scored meets.
Go to directathletics.com, click on "open to individuals" and select the meet(s) in California or elsewhere that you want to enter. If you cannot enter directly, they will tell you or the meet won't show up. The indoor meets at U Washington have some masters sections. If your age allows you to enter, these will show up.
This has been the most helpful thread experience I've ever had on LRC. Thanks.
There were only 1-2 meets in CA on direcathletics.com. Will there be more posted later?
If I look at a team's schedule (UCR), could I just contact the meet directors and see if they'll let me enter or do you think those will be closed meets?
Have you entered the Northridge meets? How are those?
Avocado's Number wrote:
If they hassle you, just flash your AARP card. Problem solved. Trust me.
Respect.
Thanks for the laugh.
Coach D,
As long as you are here, I have a question for you. I've seen you write on more than one occasion that the problem with American distance running is that athletes don't run hard enough in training.
Historically I have always ran hard in practice and have done well in between injuries. Today, I tried backing off on a 6 X 500m workout with 1:20 walk recovery. I focused on form and running a pace that was REASONABLY fast, but I didn't extend beyond myself as pertains to effort. I was surprised that I actually ran decent times for my work intervals anyway and when I went hard on the last one, I was able to get my HR up to 181, and up around 177 on some of the others. I want to train this way from now on. I think I could avoid injury this way.
What are your thoughts?
[quote]From200mTo8k wrote:
Coach D,
As long as you are here, I have a question for you. I've seen you write on more than one occasion that the problem with American distance running is that athletes don't run hard enough in training.
I agree, they don't train hard enough.