2012 USATF Executive Committee Meeting: Women’s Long Distance Running

Thursday, November 29 1pm

Linda Barnhart, Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick, Julie McKinney, Nina Kuscsik, Virginia Brophy Achman, Mickey Piscitelli, LeeAnn Meyer, Kathy Nary, Darren DeReuck, Megan Peyton (via teleconference), and Julie Culley

Guests: Jack Wickens, Kelly Flathers, Leslie Higgins, Bill Mc Kee, Matt Weingardt, Jeff Mlynski, Veronica Rodriguez, and Jim Estes

The meeting was called to order at 1:05pm. At the Chair’s request everyone introduced themselves and explained their role within the WLDR committee. The recently hired USATF National Office Events Coordinators were introduced as well.

Since, Jack Wickens was not going to be able to address the group during a general session, which had been his custom for the past several years; he gave an update of the work of the Foundation and the Distance project. He mentioned that it was 7 years ago that a group of “enlightened” people gathered and put forth the idea of setting up elite training centers throughout the country. Seven years later we have at least 13 elite training centers with different geographies and different, but great coaches. The bad news is that many of the centers are in need of money. Things are at a worrisome stage as donor sources are shrinking. Even the Distance Project donor base is shrinking. The professional staff at the training centers knows that it is expensive to train well. There is equipment such as the alter g and altitude tents. It is expensive to move to train in warm weather. Many of the training centers are working on supplying housing to the athletes. Eleven training centers have already asked for support. Jack informed the group that later in the week (Saturday) representatives of RRCA and Running USA would be gathering to brainstorm regarding ways to keep our training centers operating at the level originally envisioned.

He reminded the group that the Foundation gives grants to individuals and that they have just hit the one million dollar mark. This money has come from individual donations and that quite a large portion of it has been funneled toward what have been traditionally the under supported events such as the throws.

They have recently embarked upon their most ambitious program ever. The aim is to expose the youth in America to the sport of while at the same time teaching them how to eat well and take care of their body by keeping fit. Having our current athletes as role models may indeed be the best way to accomplish this. The key partner to assist in the delivery of this important message may be the newly developed “Health Teacher” videogame. It features our athletes walking kids through specific exercises to get them and keep them fit. Jack anticipates that it will reach students in grades 3-6 in 5000 schools across the country.

When a school completes the entire series, they will get an onsite visit from one of the featured athletes. It is hoped that during 2013, perhaps 40 of these athlete school visits will take place. We want to send the message that good health and nutrition are important for everyone from childhood through adulthood.

At 1:28pm, 75% of those in attendance voted to close the meeting.

Housekeeping:

The Chair distributed reimbursement forms for expenses related to the Annual Meeting were distributed to all executive committee members.

There continues to be a need to update the organizational directory for the USATF website as it relates to WLDR. Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick verbally reviewed what was currently listed on the website and this secretary noted changes, additions, and deletions to be passed along to Sherry Quack.

Rules/L&L updates:

Bill McKee brought to the attention of the group that the means by which a tie would be broken was going to be a topic for discussion. Naturally everyone recalled the tie at the Olympic Trials: Track & Field in which no means of breaking a tie had been established before the fact. Bill reminded the group that there are a number of ways in which ties may be broken…. a run off, drawing lots, flipping a coin etc. Perhaps ties will be broken differently based upon the event, or the distance of the event. Bill assured us that he would inform us of any developments in the area of Rules.

Regarding Law and Legislation, Nina Kuscsik, informed us that she had introduced a suggested rule change. It was her belief that it would be appropriate and congruent to change the “open women” age to 16 or older on the day of competition. Currently, the rule reads that “open women” are 14 or older on the day of competition. If the rule were to be changed as Nina proposes, a 14 year old girl could still participate, but they would not be considered in the “open” category.

It was also reported that Ekiden records will no longer be recognized.

Nina asked if there was a procedure in place for team staff selection for international competition.

Kathy Nary will continue working on this. Any changes to our WLDR Operating Procedures will be reported by Nina to Jim Estes.

Nina advised that Article 18 should be added to our operating procedures. It states that an elected chair’s term will commence January 1st of the new year.

Jim Estes reported that the national office personnel are still working on liaison guidelines. Once completed they will be made available to all of the sports committees and councils.

He noted that the 2013 budget for WLDR will be decreased by 5% from that of 2012. WLDR is not being singled out for this decrease in funds. All sports committees and councils will experience this percentage decrease in funds. The budget for 2012 had been approximately $19,000. In an effort to be more transparent with financial matters, Virginia will ask Melissa for a copy of the quarterly ledger statement. Currently, said budget covers our costs for medals, liaison championships expenses, conference calls, records research and filing by Andy Carr, our two annual awards, and annual meeting stipends.

Kathy Nary reviewed the year in terms of our two international competitions.

The first was the IAAF World Half Marathon in Kavarna, Bulgaria on October 6. The team leader was Julie McKinney. The athletes were:

Maegan Krifchin 13th 1:12:29

Adriana Nelson 18th 1:13:30

Shalane Flanagan 25th 1:14:41

Michelle Frey 32nd 1:16:55

Alvina Begay 33rd 1:16:58

Team USA finished 5th out of 9 teams

The second was the Chiba Ekiden in Chiba, Japan on November 23. The team leader was Magdalena Lewy Boulet. There was a mixed men’s and women’s team. The athletes were:

Stage #1: 5km Men James Strang 14:06 (9th)

Stage #2: 5km Women Chelsea Reilly 15:29 (3rd)

Stage #3: 10km Men Jacob Riley 28:46 (2nd)

Stage #4: 5km Women Emma Kertesz 16:25 (3rd)

Stage #5: 10km Men 28:20 (1st)

Stage #6: 7.195km Women Neely Spence 23:30 (3rd)

Alternate for the women: Mattie Suver

Opportunities for 2013

March 24th World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland

August 10-18 World Championships in Moscow, Russia

November 23 Chiba International Ekiden Chiba, Japan

Down the Road 2014 March IAAF World Half Marathon in Copenhagen, Denmark

September 13/14 Continental Cup in Marrakech, Morocco

2015 August World Championships in Beijing, China

2017 World Championships in London, UK

Team leader for the World Half Marathon, Julie McKinney, gave a brief recap of the event. The athletes were limited to a rather small warm-up area prior to the race. The course itself was repeated loops of an up and down the main street of the city. Race day was quite warm and humid and several athletes needed medical attention. There appeared to be very little in the way of medical services at the race. One of our athletes was not feeling her best in the days leading up to the race, but gave it her best effort.

Kathy received a post-event comment via e-mail from this year’s team leader at Chiba. The comment was that they could have used more warm clothing. No gloves and hats were sent out to the athletes. Jim explained that it seems to be an issue whenever there is international competition in the autumn of an Olympic year. Coordinating matching Team USA uniforms is not as simple in the last quarter of the year as the number of stocked competition apparel are at the minimum.

Mickey asked about the results of the surveys sent in by athletes participating in the USA Olympic Team Trials-Women’s marathon in Houston and Jim stated that those results would be forwarded to the committee.

Chair Virginia Brophy Achman will communicate with Aron and Sandy regarding detailed guidelines for individuals serving as team leaders for international competitions.

Darren DeReuck, chair of the national championships subcommittee, gave an update. There currently 9 confirmed race distances for 2013 with a possible 10th coming onboard.

Virginia has inventoried our current stock of “thank you” gifts for those hosting our national championships and will be selecting and purchasing 28 additional USATF branded gifts while onsite at the Annual Meeting. There are 4 gifts offered at each of our hosting races.

The WLDR Liaisons to the 2013 National Championships were determined

March 9th 15K Gate River Run Jacksonville, Florida Mickey Piscitelli

May 11 25K Fifth Third River Bank Run Grand Rapids, Michigan Linda Barnhart

June Half Marathon Grandma’s Duluth, Minnesota LeeAnn Meyer

July 4th Peachtree Atlanta, Georgia Darren or Kim

September 2 20K New Haven, Ct. Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick September 22 5K Providence, R.I. Kim or Kathy or Darren

October 6 Twin Cities Marathon Minneapolis-St. Paul Mickey Piscitelli

Oct 14 Team 10K Tufts , Massachusetts Kathy Nary

Linda Barnhart, our Athlete Development Program coordinator gave her report. She encouraged all committee members to, through our networking opportunities and informal conversations, encourage race directors for our national championship races and/or high-profile races to include, if they are not already doing so, an ADP component to their event.

A motion was made at 2:33pm to recess until the following day.