Barely Hanging On!

 So with nothing much happening on the PSU Track/XC front, some other news occasionally bubbles up. One of those things was the recent American Road Race Record in the 10-Mile.

Kiera D'Amato set the record the past weekend in Washington DC.

This is officially the very last Women's American Record which is not better than my PR. (51:11 in 1977).   Sigh...

 

 

 

Workout Wednesday: My Least Favorites

 

A notable alum has berated me mercilessly for having workouts I didn't particularly like, but it is what it is.  All in all, I loved running back in the day and enjoyed virtually every part of it.  My favorites were the mountain runs and repeat 400s.  My least favorite were:

1. Tees to Greens - this was invariably on Wednesdays.  Big mistake was trying to catch back up to the real runners after every surge.  Made for a 10K at near race pace and a time nearly as good as the upcoming Saturday race.   My problem, my fault.
2. The Modified Michigan Workout  3 x Mile with 2 miles of  "tempo" between.  Same problem for me in this one.  My problem, my fault.
3. Any Hill Workout:  My heart murmur never liked these.  This led to excessively high heart rates at the top when John Barber or Coach Groves himself had you take your heart rates right after the peak.  I had to lie to avoid having to be shipped to the ER.  No one should ever have a 250 heart rate without seeing a doctor.

 

What are your favorites?  And least favorites?  I would love to hear from the Throws guys and the Jumpers and Sprinters as I barely know any of your workouts to begin with.

It's Not Easy Being Green

 

Got a fairly good response to the repost of the 2010 post on "The Greatest Shoe Ever Made".  Of course, most disagreed with me, which was sorta kinda the whole reason for the post.  Thanks for the input everyone!  Your input is very valuable to me.  The Interns have filed these away in cardboard boxes in their moldy basement abode, for future reference.

 

But by far, the greatest reaction was entirely positive concerning the Adidas Spiders spikes from the mid-70s.  Many of us had them. And loved them.  Even the fastest among us...

 I mentioned your post this morning about the Nike Internationalist.  It is one of many shoes I do not remember... but then at my age!  So, you also mentioned the Spider.  I have attached something from the old running storage box.  I wish I could tell you they smell new, but they smell more like "basement."

-Greg 

 

 I will add that mine didn't have the white tongue and ankle rim.  The green suede was all their was.  Not sure which version was the version 2.0.  Ah, the memories.

I will add that the best way to describe their color is that Michael Scott's Office used the same pigments.

 

 

The Lord Giveth And The Lord Taketh Away

 

After an incredible flurry of activism, fund-raising and general Hell-raising, the William and Mary Board has reinstated all of the teams previously discontinued following this school year.  This will be contingent on a restructuring of gender equity and financial concerns.  I feel that this means the hard part is yet to come.

As gender is defined today, (or not defined!) any governing body can pretty much do as it pleases. 

With the bold actions of thousands of concerned track athletes and fans, otherwise unaccountable bureaucrats were made to listen at least a little.  Highest praise goes to the Women team members of several sports at William and Mary who finally said "Enough".  The rest of us need to continue to stand for what we know it correct.

 

 

But with the rather positive news filtering out about the W&M news, word came immediately that Clemson had discontinued its Mens Track and Field team following this season.  This storied Power-5 program needs no one to sing their praises, and yet we must. 

As I view their information, I discovered that the Football team has its own water slide, barber shop and amenities unavailable to other student-athletes that boggle the mind.  The football coach makes a salary of nearly $9,000,000.

From Yahoo Sports:

Diving deeper into the numbers, the Clemson men’s track & field and cross-country program had operating expenses of $2.3 million in 2019, according to Sportico’s database. The program offers 12 scholarships that are distributed across 26 athletes, plus an additional 25 walk-ons, meaning that the tuition paid by runners in the program dramatically outweighs the cost of the scholarships awarded.

Clemson has offered men’s track and field since 1953. The program has won a combined 23 ACC championships and 16 individual NCAA titles, and produced 22 Olympians.

Throwback Thursday: The Greatest Running Shoe Ever Made

 

The Greatest Shoe Ever Made?

Due to my choice of profession, I am often asked "What is the best running shoe?".  My answer is invariably, "They don't make it anymore."  The recent craze of "minimalism" in running shoes is an overcompensation for the extensive cushioning all the shoe companies competed with each other to provide.  Air, gels, foams and more are put into shoes to provide off-the-shelf shock absorbing qualities which deteriorate quickly after your first miles.  A professor once described these gimmicks as "horsesh*t and splinters", especially when done to excess.  For us old joggers, they are fine, but for the competitive runners, they may not provide what's needed. Cushioning vertical forces, for the physics nuts out there, provides less horizontal force, the mainstay of a fast runner.  "Barefooters" and minimalists point to anecdotal evidence that today's shoes lead to more injuries.  True science shows a different story, something conspiracy theorists in the running community never heed.

The "perfect" combination of cushioning, wear (and quality looks!) was provided in the Nike Internationalists from back in 1978 or so.  I honestly put more than 4,000 miles on one pair without wearing out the out-sole and they still had the same cushioning (albiet less than today to start with) than when they were brand new. ( I know some will dispute this, but it's true!  Remember, I weighed less than $1.20 and couldn't afford a new pair anyway!)  I saved them and could still run in them if a gun was held to my head.  (Sometimes that is what it takes nowadays to run anyway.)  Nike even brought them back a few years ago, but they weren't the same and came in colors that were less than desirable.

By the way, Adidas Spiders were the "perfect" spike, just to show I can give some love to the other companies.  That green suede  was indestructible, even when a teammate spiked you in a cross country meet, removing your big toenail with surgical precision. (Don Ziter, this means you.) My toe was mangled but the shoe lived on. The trip to Ritenour (Wait an Hour) Health Center was memorable and sealed my choice of profession, if only to treat others better than I was treated that day.

I want feedback on "the greatest shoe ever made".  Give me a comment on your ideal shoe in the comment section below!

Martin Luther Split The Catholic Church; William And Mary Womens Track And Field May Just Unite All Of Track And Field

 

When monk Martin Luther nailed his demands to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, he essentially divided the Catholic Church and heralded the Lutheran Church and Protestantism.

With the William and Mary Womens Team's taping their demands to the door of the University President, they have asked all of us to stand up for Track and Field and against the arbitrary removal of college teams across the country.  Gutsy stuff.  I am hoping they aren't excommunicated...

Taking A Stand

Alumni T-Shirt Finally Finds Its Home

 

Thanks to the work of Mark Hawkins and some donations from other Alumni Golfers, a special Alumni T-Shirt was made for Coach Teri Jordan who retired last year.  With all the craziness of 2020, it was finally hand delivered to her by Beth (Stever) Shisler in sunny Florida!  Thanks for all you did for PSU Track and Field and XC.

Coach Groves To Be Honored By William And Mary Via Zoom

 Coach's daughter Marianne has sent along info about a Zoom Ceremony honoring Coach Groves on October 18th.

Here is some information about an event at William & Mary for Dad.   It is on October 18, 2020 at 4:00 PM and it is a virtual event.  If you will need to go to homecoming.wm.edu/sunsetceremony.  Upon opening you will see in the  upper right hand corner a box  to register.   You will need to fill in the boxes as needed.  In the  box labeled “Select Registration Type”  select Guest/friend of WM/Other.   On the boxes that do not apply select not applicable on the drop down list.  Once finish select the next button.  You will see the events that are being presented select Sunset Ceremony.  Click next.   There is no cost for this event, it will show that.   Keep going until you complete the registration.   Upon completion you will receive an email showing you are register with more instructions for when the day comes.  If you have problems you can call 757-221-7529 speak with Alisha.     This is a zoom event just to watch.     Feel free to share with others if you like.  

 

Hope all are well.  Marianne

 

A Gift For Us From The Left Coast

 

Housed in an immaculate garage in San Francisco's suburbs is the greatest Track and Field Museum in the World.  And I am honored to have a lifetime pass to the facility.  And our great Group Friend and member Michael Fanelli sent us this gift cementing his place in my foursome at a future Coach Groves Golf Tourney.  He could do worse than a 3-time winner!

 

At Penn in 1922 Penn State wins what is then called the American College Championship sprint medley relay (440, 220,220, 880)...the winning team as shown here ran 3:33 1/5

Here is the 1922 winning Medley Relay squad of J. Moore, Alan Helffrich, (?) Lock, and Larry Shields.

 

(3 Times) Around The World In 80 (+16,398) Days

 

It took me a lot longer than Phileas Fogg did in the 1956 movie and the two most recent remakes of Jules Verne's classic 1873 novel. It was a loose goal of mine from undergraduate days while in a statistics class. I had figured the chances of making it 4 times around the world somewhat remote. And I am probably correct with that...

But 25,000 miles x 3 seemed realistic and worth running, jogging and now slogging toward. (Actually it's 24,902 x 3 = 74,706 miles.)  

There are some in our Universe with more, even if they never kept track (the sane among us!) In the lead is coach John Lucas with more than 160,000 miles.  If I am wrong, let me know.

So, the statistics for me:

• 75,001.25 miles in 16,478 days
• 4.55 miles per day since June 1975, when I started keeping track. There were probably 2,000 miles before that do not count.
• With 90.14% of days run, that's 5.05 miles per days run.
• Longest run in one day was 40 miles.  Longest continual run was 35 miles.
• Longest streak of days with at least one mile run is 2,022 days (5.6 years)
• Longest streak with no run is 42 days (fibular neck fracture)
• Best race (according to IAAF (World Athletics) points is 10 miles in 51:11 in 1977 with 1978 Johnston road 10K in 30:47 second, and 1980 PSU Track 10K in 30:54  third. (891 points, 889 points and 888 points)
  

They Are Getting Way Too Close For Comfort

Since way before the current Pandemic, I have been lamenting the loss of Track and field Programs across the country.  West Virginia, Millersville, Bowling Green and Maryland (reversed for Outdoor) only started the trend.  Recent additions of William and Mary and Akron added a second layer.  Now, the Pandemic has given administrators another reason to eliminate more Programs.

 

Bob Hamer sums up the situation with superb insight:

There is so much to cover in all of this and where it has gone wrong but it begins and ends with football. 

ADs and universities realized years ago that the big time money was in football. Yes the NCAA BB tourney makes a billion dollars but you share that with every DI school. Football is not controlled by the NCAA. Conferences control their media rights and make a ton of money off of these rights. There was a scramble to chase these big payouts which led to conference realignment years ago.  The BIG media rights payout was supposed to be $52 million in 2021. Not certain how that will play out this year due to COVID but rational thinking would lead to believe it would be less. This is why other conferences are playing football right now. Money. Rutgers faces a ton of criticism in NJ for being in the BIG and spending the money they spend. Who is laughing now when they get $52 million from the BIG. They won the lottery due to their cable TV footprint and eyeballs. UConn sold their soul for football and they were left at the altar by the ACC and now they are left with a football team with no conference and they had to grovel to rejoin the Big East. They also cut sports this summer as a result. 

Here are the projections for future years for the media rights payouts for the BIG

2024  almost $70 million

2029  $89 million

Let's apply this to Minnesota. In 3 years they are expected to get $18 million more per year in media rights and then $38 million more per year in 8 years. They cut 4 sports to save $2.7 million per year. And to continue to invest heavily in football because they are experiencing a huge resurgence under Coach Fleck. 

College athletics has changed drastically in the last 10-15 years. As schools are investing in football, they are also investing heavily in other non revenue sports. Eventually the model of supporting 25-30 sports at this level is non sustainable. They have palatial locker rooms, incredible facilities, flying all over the country for competition, snack stations, stipends, etc. All of this is great for the non revenue sports except that they do not generate the money to sustain it. If you do it for football, you need to provide for others as well. At some point something has to give. The pandemic has accelerated that. If ADs wanted, they could try to figure it out. Yes , they are faced with really tough decisions during these challenging times. In my opinion, the pandemic has given them the cover to eliminate sports which will make it easier down the road to provide for the other sports to compete at their desired level. 

I was angered in the early 1990s when men's XC/TF teams were being cut for Title IX reasons and I am still angry today by these cuts whether it is Title IX or budgetary. The opportunity to compete at the college level was an invaluable experience for all of us. It has connected us for a lifetime. It established long term friendships and incredible memories. It was the moments that we spent together on some crazy long run up the mountains, driving in the van with Coach, hanging in the dining hall unpacking the crazy workout we just completed, celebrating the highs and helping each other through the difficult lows, and just hanging out and experiencing college life. This is what made it special. My heart breaks for the athletes that have had this taken away or for the many others who will never get that experience because the opportunity will not exist anymore. 

If it can happen at William & Mary and Minnesota, it can happen anywhere. 

Support your program. Rally around it all the time. It gave you so much. Make sure that you give it something back. 

We Are!

HAMMER

As always, there is blowback coming, and you can help add to the noise!

Sign The Petition!

The Toad Interviews The Hat

 

Although it has appeared on the Facebook Page before, I wanted to feature The Undersecretary of Fun's epic interview with Dave Wottle on the blog itself.  I wanted to interview him previously and even made him, teammate Sid Sink and Evgeni Arkhonov honorary members of 800U.  All of them accepted.  The difference between Billy Cvecko and I is that Billy always follows up on his ideas.  His dogged determination is another feature I admire.

 

Here are some links to previous posts featuring all of the key figures:

Sid Sink Also Wore A Hat

Yevgeni Arzhanov Joins 800U

Greg Fredericks Sorta Kinda Helped Dave Wottle Tune Up 

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