Passion in St. Louis

November 30 - December 4th, 2011

Only weeks after the (unfortnate...) World Series victory by the St. Louis Cardinals, more sports fans overtook the the Hyatt Regency at the Arch with Passion of their own.  The USATF was conducting their Annual Meeting in St. Louis and the track and field nation came together to honor hero's of the past, conduct meetins do discuss the and review the past year, and in many occassionas their was much discussion about the future of our sport

When I found out thruogh a fellow training partner and firned that the annual meeting was in St. Louis and how she was approved to receive funding to attend (travel, meals, lodging), she shuggested I apply too, knowing how passionate I am about the sport and the future growth domestically and specifically the growth in my beloved city of Chicago.

As October was coming to an end I sent in my application and the initial reply was that I'd have to wait until the 10th of November to see if my application would be accepted.  With the "requirements" USATF puts on athletes attending to those that have qualified for a US championships (basically the top 20 in your event), I knew I was on the outside looking in with my 3:50 1500 pr, 1:53 800 pr, and 1:09:40 half marathon pr...I wasn't "fast" enough, but was hoping that wouldn't matter...

In my waiting period, the New York Marathon had come and gone and discussion regarding the much publisized logo issues surrounding Lauren Fleshman began to boil over on all the major running websites.  I was already closely following Nick Symmonds' facebook group and after hearing about a Team Nebraska Brooks (a USATF developmental club), runner at the 10 mile road race championships being told she had to cover up her club logo with her race number and on top of it was told she couldn't wear her warm-ups during her warm-ups and after the race during cooldown.  Having heard all of this I had to get involved.  Racing 2009-2010 for Club Northwest while I lived in Seattle, I had grown attached to how club teams help the all athletes, and give special aid to the "emerging elites" that I would label myself as.  I am currently training and working towards making a future US championship and specifically training in hopes of making next summer's US Trials, so I saw it was in my duties to start learning what I could do, listening to the issues and adding comments where I saw fit in the athletes fight.

When November 10th rolled around, Melissa Beasley from USATF emailed me notification that my appilcaton had not been accepted, due to not meeting criteria listed online.  I was determined to be part of this weekend, which I knew could be a monumental time in our sport, so I made afew replys to Melissa basically begging for a badge for the meetings.  After a few email exchanges I could tell that my persistence with Melissa helped as she was able to get me a badge for the weekend with a promise that I'd attend all the AAC meetings.  I now had to find a place to stay (hopefully free) and make sure my car could make the 5 hour trip south to St. Louis.

Thanksgiving had come and gone and still didn't have a definite place to stay.  The one friend I had living there had just taken a job with Nike in Pittsburg so he was moving there the week before thanksgiving.  My Dad's cousin in-law has a sister and brother that live there, people I had never met before, so I was waiting to hear if they would have room for me to stay with them.  My Dad also offered his car to me for the week, knowing that the "new" (70,000 miles) engine in my car (that wiped my savings clean) didn't need to be tested on this trip.

So car was set and I thought I'd have to bring my air mattress down and find a safe place and live out of my Dad's SUV for the weekend when My Dad's cousin-law came through.  His sister Cathy and her husband lived only 4.5 miles away and were very willing to open their home to me for the week!  Success!  I was on my way to fight the good fight and just be a fly on the wall and learn.

I again knew that someone was looking out for me when former USATF President and friend from Club Northwest, Bill Roe, emailed me the morning I was leaving to tell me he had an extra bed in his room.  It was going to save me time and allow me to get the whole experience of the weekend, which started with a short run on the treadmill when I arrived, running next to Khadevis Robinson, as he ended his run.

Later on that night I checked in and met Melissa and received breakfast passes I didn't expect for the remainder of the week and an outline of what to expect for the meetings.  She introduced me to "JD" (john drummond) and got to see his initial excitement for the weekend ahead and his passion for the sport and its progression.  He introduced me to Dexter McCloud (who in my head, kept calling Dexter McCluster...) who was going to give me some tips for the weekend ahead.  He grabbed Stephanie Hightower (USATF president) who briefily thanked me for being a part of the weekend.  Little did any of them know that I basically was putting myself up, thanks to my personal connections and paid my trasportation to attend the meetings, they just thought I was another funded athlete.