fifteen-hundred meters as fast as you can

My training stint in Tallahassee ended with a 5k at the Raleigh Relays. I was unsure how I would feel going into the race and having done 7 hard sessions in a span of 15 days leading up to the race with only Wednesday and Thursday to rest up for the Friday race. Surprisingly I felt pretty good, albeit a little flat over the last lap. When things are going well and your confidence is high pushing your body usually becomes easier, both in races and workouts. Still, with over 3 months until the Olympic Trials I can say that I was happy to run 13:52 at the end of our base/strength building phase. I have to hand it to Brendan Fennell of American for his effort over the last lap. I had no idea he was there and with 100 to go he came flying by me! It was a good win for him and a big PR as well I believe.  I am now back home in Washington, DC and preparing for my next outing at the Sea Ray Relays where I will run the 1500m. The next 4 weeks are the beginning of our transition away from volume and strength oriented workouts into more intense 1500 and 800 pace workouts so the Sea Ray Relays will be another chance to get in some work that would be difficult to simulate in a workout environment. I am happy with how the last 8 weeks have gone and aerobically I am the strongest I have ever been. I can’t wait for May to come now so I can test my fitness and take a good stab at my PR. One of the most exciting things about running, on all levels, comes when the results of all the hard work start to show.  Well, my coffee mug is empty so that means it is time to start my morning run. Adios.  

This post stems from long running discussions I have had with a number of people regarding the marketing and brand positioning of the sport. It is easy to sit back and criticize the IAAF and the USATF for failing to make the moves necessary to address the evolving face of sports, media, and fans.

Track needs to continually evolve, like any efficient business does, to the demands of the marketplace. This is something the IAAF and the USATF have been very slow to do. The USATF needs to refocus the professional side of the sport towards a revenue generating operation. The limitation of the current non-profit structure has only limited USATFs ability to commit itself to a proper brand image and marketing strategy that can contribute to increased interest in the sport and the further “professionalization” of the sport in the United States. The search for a new CEO at the USATF has brought the organization to a monumental crossroad. One road leads towards more of the same and a glacial attempt to catch up and emulate what other sports knew 5 years ago. The other road, which can only be traversed by bringing in someone from outside the established organization, leads to a restructuring and probably a few years of growing pains to implement a corporate style structure into the financial, branding, and marketing functions of the USATF.

The restructuring of the USATF has to begin with a full separation in operations of the professional and non-professional aspects of the sport. They could go as far as to completely eliminate USATF from any relation to professional track and field in the US and name it something else. This is not because the USATF has failed at what is has done. It just hasn’t progressed as fast as the market has. The separation would be needed to instill a unified identity for each aspect of the sport that all employees and athletes can stand behind. By separating and restructuring it eliminates any confusion or muddling of the core values/identity of the professional side of the sport. One side of the organization would remain a non-profit and focus on all youth and masters efforts. This side of the organization would also be the national governing body of track and field for all “non-professional” activities. This is similar to what already happens with the elite athlete department run by a separate group of people. However, I’m calling for something more marked. The reasoning behind creating a new group (maybe even a name change?) is to fully focus business efforts for each group. Youth and Masters runners who participate are one market that the USATF has to consider. However the elite side of the sport needs to focus itself towards fans. Participators are not necessarily fans. The disconnect between people who run and people who watch running is HUGE and fully demonstrates this point. There aren’t many sports that people participate in and still take no interest in outside of their own participation.

To focus on the fans, professional track and field in the United States needs its own organization and its own structure, distinct and separate from what we currently have. This is necessary for the elite side of the sport to find its voice. A comprehensive brand overhaul is needed first. Track is unidentifiable. Cycling has its romanticism, baseball its history, and basketball its urban swagger. What does track have? The Olympics are an obvious answer, but anyone who runs knows there is more to the sport than that. Track and running needs to find that voice and then market it to the point consumers (ie. fans) can identify with it. We can’t confuse consumers with mixed or inconsistent messages.

Consumers want images, they want ideas, and they want a culture that they can project themselves into. Often times this sport underestimates the power that good marketing and branding can have in drawing in interest in the sport. Track needs to reinvent itself in a more glamorous light. This means better branding of the USATF, better marketing of its core message/voice, and tweaking the way meets are run. Sponsors need to become more visible as well. The USATF needs to make their sponsors a part of their strategy. We can’t just paste a Toyota logo up around the track and call it a good sponsorship strategy. We need to draw those sponsors in with inclusive strategies that treat those sponsors like they are part of the organization (which they truly are). The athletes need to be utilized through more community interaction and local marketing of individual athletes. When I meet people (even briefly) in DC and I tell them I am going to be racing on ESPN at the New York Grand Prix they are far more likely to watch because I have given them a reason to watch. I’m a local and I’m someone they met that they can root for. I’ve given them a reason to tune in. For instance, I don’t necessarily love college basketball, but I love to watch Georgetown play and I won’t miss a game. That is because I have a reason to watch. Track needs to give fans the same reasoning. Finally the USATF needs to open up athlete sponsorship by changing logo size rules, race number configuration (make meet sponsor logo bigger and athlete name smaller). Fans on TV should be able to see that Reebok sponsors me. However under the current rules the size of the logo is limited and nearly impossible to see unless you are on the track.

Obviously a few pages of writing (although I would call this blogging more than writing due to its free form nature) only really scratch the surface of the possibilities for the sport. However, I felt it was important to add something to this discussion. With a lack of mainstream media coverage I am hoping that the voices of people intimately connected to the sport will be heard and considered. I believe the more the sport is discussed the more likely it is that really good ideas will be hatched.

As a post script to this post I am adding a few points that my father brought up in an email to me. He mentions the USGA and the PGA as a prime example of how separate organizations can operate independently yet use their synergies to promote both the amateur and the professional sides of the sport. The USGA  governs the sport at all levels and promotes the game to scratch golfers and +20 handicappers alike. The PGA, as the professional arm of the sport, deals with its own marketing, branding, tournaments, and the biggest major championship of the year. On top of that they protect, utilize, and encourage all of the players within the association. The PGA has done a very good job of supporting the guys at the bottom of the leader board as much as they do the guys at the top. If anything the strength of the PGA is in its overwhelming depth of quality players. The USATF and the IAAF alike have very little if any system in place to give the guy fresh out of college the support necessary to spend 4 or 5 years training and racing before reaching their peak in their mid to late 20’s. This is where having a separate professional organization in the US can make a difference. The USATF puts a lot of time and energy into their grassroots youth programs but hasn’t developed a system that can do the same for elites. So far it has been private organizations that have taken the initiative to do this (Hansons, Zap, OTC etc.). So how does the USATF support those organizations? I really don’t know but I’m putting it out there. We need a CEO at the USATF who can think creatively about the whole system and develop comprehensive solutions. The USATF pays well enough that they can find the talent to do this. The question really is, will they look outside of the establishment to find a leader? The role of CEO of the USATF should not be viewed as a reward for minding ones p’s and q’s within the organization and showing “leadership” qualities. In my opinion, the first fault of the USATF is looking within the sport for a leader. We need a fresh perspective.

Today started early with an easy 11 mile run at the Alford Greenway so we could make it to church to celebrate Easter. It is always a little lonely to spend holidays away from family, but Kevin and his wife Karen have made me feel right at home since I’ve been here. I’m now considered “Uncle Chris” when it comes to their cats who have slowly taken a liking to me. Since my training stint in Tallahassee is coming to and end this week, and considering we had most of the day to kill (one can only watch NCAA basketball and sit on the couch for so long), we decided to take a trip to the Gulf Coast. We were hoping to find a bar to watch the Georgetown game once we made it to St. Marks. The only place we found was infested with burly bikers who didn’t seem like they would take a liking to a boy from a northern state (or district if you will). We quickly decided against it and kept driving to Alligator Point, Florida. I’m still hoping to see a gator before I leave so I figured a place called Alligator Point might yield some results. Alas, all we found were sandy white beaches. I think the Alligator moniker was simply a ploy to scare people away from this beautifully secluded place. Oh well. I would probably piss my pants if I ever saw one anyway.

I often get asked what kind of music I listen to. I suppose it is the twenty-something equivalent to children asking each other what their favorite color is. Music is a huge part of my life and it always has been. That is what happens when you grow up in Seattle at the time when grunge was in full swing. Music became a thread in the fabric of my life. Just ask my neighbors! Whether I am at home enjoying dinner or in my car on the way to practice, music is always present. Usually once a week on an easy day I load up my iPod shuffle with new delectable mix of songs and hit the trails to lose myself to the music for an hour or so. This is what I have been listening to lately. Well actually for awhile, as I tend to obsess over songs until I find something more addictive.

Wow, this blogging thing is harder than I thought. My original ambition had me imagining daily posts filled with boat loads of content and photos. This came before the hard work started and my preference for lying prostrate on my bed beckoned more intensely than my desire to blog. My last race at the Boston Indoor Games highlighted the fact that there is no faking it in this sport. After battling a nagging foot injury through most of December and January I found myself unable to get myself to the line with any semblance of race readiness. I was fit from all the cycling, swimming and pool running I was doing on top of the running that I was able to do. Unfortunately I found myself a good month out from race mode. I convinced myself I could pull it out and lined up anyway. That race wasn’t the way I envisioned this season starting. Needless to say, but the indoor season ended as soon as it began. What I needed was to train and to focus my energy away from trying to race indoors and towards the Olympic Trials in July.

A few days after the Boston Indoor Games I left for the high desert of California to do some training in Joshua Tree National Park. It was as much a spiritual retreat as it was a training trip. A return to the basics if you will. Lots of miles, lots of long intervals and tempos and no distractions. It was about as minimal a trip as one could imagine and it was everything I needed to jump start my training cycle. I returned to DC in mid-February to continue on with a strength oriented training cycle that ended just before I left for Tallahassee, Florida to do start on a more intense speed-strength training cycle with Kevin Sullivan.

I am thrilled to wake up everyday here and face temperatures more conducive to high quality training than the nipping cold that DC can sometimes provide. Sully has been a bit of a mentor for me over the past 3 years since I started running professionally in 2005 and I’m thankful he opened his door to me to come down and train. He is a metronome on the track and he is an ace chef in the kitchen. What else could a person ask of a training partner?