Anyone know what happened with NorCal?
Anyone know what happened with NorCal?
Ask, and ye shall receive; Seek, and ye shall find:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8433152
I don't think readers have an appreciation of how hard it is to run a post-college group whilst not receiving a coaching stipend, money for operations (travel, facilities, massage, etc). These groups without financial backing of a shoe company are very difficult to keep afloat. Drew tried to keep up with the Nike groups as well as the star athletes making tons of contract money. I didn't know who Kate Grace was until 2016, I have always thought Conley completely maximized her talent, and Leah showed up with a broken foot. So if some drama away from the track is the real culprit, that's fine. But perhaps Drew got tired of managing all these people for free?
Flag, Frisco, Boulder, ABQ, Colo Springs, Dago, Seatac, LA are producing so many medals and top finishers I guess......
Never heard of it
Drew got paid from Brie, Kate, Leah from coaching stipends in their contracts.
Maybe reality is actually wrote:
I don't think readers have an appreciation of how hard it is to run a post-college group whilst not receiving a coaching stipend, money for operations (travel, facilities, massage, etc). These groups without financial backing of a shoe company are very difficult to keep afloat. Drew tried to keep up with the Nike groups as well as the star athletes making tons of contract money. I didn't know who Kate Grace was until 2016, I have always thought Conley completely maximized her talent, and Leah showed up with a broken foot. So if some drama away from the track is the real culprit, that's fine. But perhaps Drew got tired of managing all these people for free?
He didnt coach them for free...
Anyway, a mass exodus over a few months sounds more like drama drove away the athletes, forcing drew to admit that norcal was no more, rather than drew ending it for other reasons, in which case all the athletes would have left more at the same time and they would have just said the reason.
But I agree that running a pro team is hard. He was running the equivalent of a "boutique" team, so lacked the fancy tools and equipment of some of the bigger teams.
He had to convince potential athletes that all those fancy gadgets werent as important as good training. Plus, he had to convince athletes to live in a crappy part of the state, with very high summer temperatures and very wet winters, and not much lower cost of living than the rest of the state. That was always going to limit his team size and make it difficult to remain financially solvent.
Plus, he had to convince athletes to live in a crappy part of the state, with very high summer temperatures and very wet winters
Sacramento doesn't have wet winters.
Huh??? wrote:
Sacramento doesn't have wet winters.
Sacramento doesn't have winters.
reed wrote:
Huh??? wrote:Sacramento doesn't have wet winters.
Sacramento doesn't have winters.
shorts/tshirt running year round
Drew is a nice guy who hit the Lotto with Kim who was an underdeveloped talent. He is no Mark Wetmore. Hence the dissolution when reality/drama set in.
I talked with Drew about running with NorCal. He told me that there was no funding and I needed to have a shoe deal in place to pay for all of my essentials. This was not the case at most of the training centers.
No funding equals short life for any program.
Huh??? wrote:
Plus, he had to convince athletes to live in a crappy part of the state, with very high summer temperatures and very wet wintersSacramento doesn't have wet winters.
I lived there for 5 years. It definitely has wet winters and it is cold when it rains. There are certainly worse places for winter training, but there are also a lot better places. Even just 1.5 hours away in the bay area, the annual rainfall averages are about 30% lower. 5 hours south, and the annual rainfall is half.
Here is a map. You can see sacramento is right on the edge of the 20ish inches per year area:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/norcalpcpn.phpTo the east and south you quickly get into areas of less annual precipitation.
not alot of people around here liked that group very much. they carried a "we're better than you" sort of vibe with them. i cant speak for the entire community but nobody i knew was very fond of them
Are you kidding me about 20 inches of rain and a month of temps in the 40s? If you are worried about that you won't make it as a runner. Haha
Bay Area and LA are horrible with the costs of living, traffic, and parks/trails to train on without stopping at every other block to avoid being run over. There are no successful elite training groups there as well.
The track record for this club speaks for itself....Kate & Kim & Lauren won National Champs and Kate & Kim made WC & Olympic teams. The community supported them whole heartedly...you just needed to attend the winter 10km they help organized in 2015 at SacState to see the love.
Time for Drew to get a real job and stop being a Chicken Hawk.
sactown native wrote:
not alot of people around here liked that group very much. they carried a "we're better than you" sort of vibe with them. i cant speak for the entire community but nobody i knew was very fond of them
i disagree with this. most of the people i run with think it's great seeing the pros sharing the same trails as us hacks.