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298,557 total views | Who I Am.... Latest Blogs
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| VideosYou can link to any video on RunnerSpace and put it in your video box on your profile! |
My first Olympic Trials Marathon was in Houston in 2012-- I qualified via the half marathon and ended up having a decent performance in my first marathon. After arriving home from my first big experience in the road racing community, I reflected on Houston with even more love for the sport. I cannot put my finger on the specifics of why, but I remember feeling important, supported, and encouraged. I felt that as an athlete, I was everyoneâs #1 priority.
Over the next couple years, my personal circumstances caused my life to transition from ârunning firstâ to âcareer firstâ and I became a full-time English teacher. I toned down my competitive participation and used running as an outlet.
For this OT, I was one of the last-minute qualifiers due to the time adjustments. A marathon I ran in the fall of 2013 got me in. Every day since I officially became a 2016 OT qualifier, I arrived home from school, laced up my sneakers, and logged anywhere from 10-15 miles in the icy darkness. I will admit-- I did not enjoy every minute. However, when I very first posed the possibility of not running the OT Marathon even though I had a qualifier, people told me I was crazy. I was between a rock and a hard place-- I was healthy, I had a base from racing half marathons in the fall, and I had a qualifier-- I sort of had an obligation to do it. With the decision made, I got myself into shape to at least run faster than the qualifier (2:45).
Let me first preface this with the fact that I am NOT whining here. I could have easily skipped the OT and chosen to run a marathon of MY choice on MY time, with the full knowledge that I would be covering all expenses, facing obstacles, etc etc. I am writing this because I was part of an exclusive event that people aspire to be a part of.
I am left with a bitter taste. Not at all about my result (a crawl to the finish in 3 hours and 11 minutes), but about the entire process before, during, and after the race. I stayed in an official ârace hotelâ that, considering LAâs HORRIBLE traffic, was located about an hour away from the race headquarters. I had first tried to get into the main hotel, but the rooms were sold out. I paid for that, a flight, a rental car, expensive airport food & water, expensive LA food, etc. I took two days off from work and prepared lesson plans. The day before the race, I paid for an entire new racing outfit since I left my other one at the hotel that was an hour away (my running clubâs logo was TOO BIG anyway). I sat through a technical meeting in which the atmosphere was so tense, I felt like the room was going to snap. (maybe dedicate 5 minutes to a motivational speech or story? maybe I am too much of an idealist?) I justified everything by the fact that it was the Olympic Trials Marathon and that many people would do anything to qualify.
Total, I dished out about $1500 to run 26.2 miles around a repetitive curb and pothole-ridden course with only steaming hot fluids to drink-- fully accompanied by 5 days straight of heat-exhaustion-induced diarrhea. That is all I remember. Because, really, nothing else validated the hours of commitment and planning it took to get me to that starting line.
I did not have the ability to heat train or to visit the course weeks/months beforehand to prepare myself, so the lack of preparation is totally on me. However, I have a right to be bitter about the experience. I never once felt like a priority. I looked around the morning of the race, and just felt like we were all animals in a zoo. It eerily reminded me of a big conglomerate, and the only saving grace was the support and enthusiasm of the actual competitors themselves. There was no spirit like there was in Houston. I canât quite put my finger on it, but something very, very important was missing. I am so glad that others are voicing their concerns, because I thought maybe it was just me.
The point is not that I, personally, had a sub-par experience. Iâm back to the daily grind, and itâs just another memory for me. The point is that, if I were 21 years old and I was just getting my feet wet in the marathon, and I had the physical potential to one day be an Amy or a Desi or a Shalane, I would need SOMETHING to show me that such an untraditional and difficult trajectory was worth taking. I would need someone to show me that there was a reason to be motivated to train my ass off and come back in four years with the potential of making the team. I would need to know that the risk would be worth taking, and that I would be respected for taking that risk.
The qualifying standard/window is a different conversation. The fact of the matter is, when an event such as the OT happens only once every 4 years, it sure as hell better be perfect for the competitors. Sure, you can get more people on board with the sport of running itself, but at the end of the day, you cannot do anything without the RUNNERS.
I don't know man, A roof over your head, water to drink, food to eat..no food?.Well 2 out 3 ain't bad. You think you have it bad, how about Paul MacCartney, Taylor Hawkins, and BECK! being told to scram when they tried to enter a post Grammys wing ding..............Anyway, my highest regards to you as an athlete and a credit to the whole sport. Did it occur to you that if your ran faster or were a political **, you too could have been in the VIP tent instead of out in the cold with the rest of us smucks? Yeah, I didn't think so.
On top of all this, I tried to tell my wife about you and your very articulate, possibly career ending diatribe and what does she say...? "What a babe. I would have taken care of him at the finish line."
Best Wishes,
Rick Andrews
Any one know how much NBC paid the USATF, or whoever, for broadcast rights?