October, 2006
October, 2006
Teammates & Friends:
This Newsletter is a small milestone for Mass Velocity - it's been one full year of monthly newsletters and this,
our first anniversary issue! I'm sure many of you think this is all my doing, but if it weren't for all the contributions
of e-mails, quotes, photos and competition commentary, there would be no newsletter.
During the BBQ (see below) John Olseki told us the story about the Tuckahoe (NY) Motel. If you haven't heard it,
and he starts telling you the story at a meet - run away. You'll be laughing so hard you probably won't get to
the starting line when your heat is called.
In this Newsletter we've got photos from the BBQ, the results of the USATF- New England, Board of Governors voting,
a discussion about club affiliation as it relates to the coming Indoor Nationals, this months birthdays, Outdoor
Nationals photos, World Masters Rankings from Master Athletics, the Maine Senior Games report, the Indoor Season
preview and lots of notable quotes. Let get to it.
MASS VELOCITY BARBECUE PARTY
There was a modest turnout at the Sept 30th (first annual) Mass Velocity BBQ party held at Carroll Blake's home in Jamaica Plain. I think I speak for everyone that was there when I say that it was a great time and a grand success! These photos might capture the good time we all had but what they can't give you is a taste of the great food.
Hosts Carroll Blake (far left) and wife Pat
(far right) with Roger Pierce,
Bob Segal, Tucker Taft, Warren Graff and John Olseki in the shot
James Morton in the red shirt, far right
Warren's wife, Barbara and Pat Blake
Roger and James in mid-chew, Warren on the
left
Cochise McBride and girlfriend Jade
Within moments of this MVTC cake being placed
on the table, this was the best shot I could get
See what I mean?
The BBQ ribs and chicken with mac &
cheese were followed by lots of fantastic cake.
Now everyone has to start training in earnest to get back into shape.
There were only two contested positions for USATF - New
England Board of Governors and Athlete's Representative was one. Thanks to a good MVTC turnout, Larry Libow was
elected to one of the Athlete Representative spots. John Olseki retains his Vice President position and Carroll
Blake is the new Chair for Masters Track & Field.
From the USATF-NE Web Site: "Elections
were the next order of business, with Ken Robichaud (Brookline NH/NMC) taking over as president (Gary Snyder
has served the limit of 2 terms) by acclimation. Robichaud, who has served as a vice-president and LDR chair, is
a past president of the North Medford Club. Three vice presidents will be Harry
Brooks (Amherst MA/Sugarloaf Mt AC), Jim Garcia
(Westford MA/GLRR), and John Oleski (Belmont MA/MassVelocity). Steve Viegas
(Reading MA/Mystic Runners) will take over as secretary. The treasurer position remains unfilled.
Some repeat and some new faces will serve as sports chairs. Incumbent Courtney
Bird (Falmouth MA/FTC) will join newcomer
Sue Maslowski (Nashua NH/GLRR) as men's and women's Long Distance Running chairs; the masters
LDR chair remains vacant.
Dave Callum (Lawrence MA/GBTC) and Carroll
Blake (Boston/MassVelocity) take on responsibilities
for Open and Masters Track and Field Chairs, while Patrick
Sweeney (Dedham MA / HFC Striders) and Lance Turley
(Nashua NH/NHWWTC) will continue to share Youth Committee responsibilities.
Paul Kirsch (Madison NH/White Mtn Milers) is new chair for Mountain-Ultra-Trail Running and
Justin Kuo (Brookline MA/NEWalkers) continues with Race Walking. Rounding out the chair
positions Bill Newsham (Nashua NH/GBTC) will take over as Cross Country Chair after
the only contested chair election of the evening.
Athletes representatives complete the board with Larry
Libow (Springfield MA/Mass Velocity), Sarah Lawson
(Wayland MA/GBTC), and Josh Seeherman (Somerville MA/GBTC) all serving for the first time
on the board."
We also had an opportunity to congratulate Roger Pierce, Mary Harada and Bob Matteson for their selection as Athletes
of the Month.
Bob Matteson (90) and Ashley DiClemente (11)
were the past year's oldest and youngest USATF-NE Athletes
of The Month.
Photo: Justin Kuo, courtesy of USATF-NE
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Carroll Blake will soon provide us with information on
Reggie Lewis fees that
will allow all those interested in participating in regularly scheduled MVTC
practices at the Reggie. More information to follow shortly.
With the National Masters Indoor Championships scheduled
for March 23-25, 2007 in Boston, it's not too soon to start getting your membership and club affiliation in order.
If everyone who is a current member of MVTC gets their club affiliation in order, and we all stay injury-free,
I see every reason to believe that Mass Velocity can be a contender for the club that scores the highest number
of points at Nationals. We could have scored much higher last year except for a large percentage of members who
never officially switched their affiliation.
If you are not currently affiliated with Mass Velocity, be aware that you cannot switch affiliation until after
competing un-affiliated for 90 days. That means that you cannot
compete for any other club after December 23, 2005!!!
To be on the safe side and to give yourself adequate time for your switch to go through (including those currently
members of USATF Associations OTHER than New England who must get their present club to agree to let you join the
NE chapter), I strongly recommend that you do NOT compete for any other club from this point onward.
I want to remind those who are members of other clubs that you can retain your membership in multiple clubs but
you can only be officially affiliated with one club for the purpose of accruing USATF points for your club. So
if you belong to a club that is a road-running club or a club that doesn't have enough T&F members to be in
contention or doesn't care about team point totals, I urge your to switch your club affiliation to MVTC and remain
a member of your other club.
If you have any questions about any part of the procedure, please get in touch with me.
Roger
Pierce Paula Fortuna Dave Neumann
INDOOR SEASON PREVIEW
The following indoor meets and dates are preliminary
and there is no official registration information or web sites currently available. Be that as it may, here's what
it's beginning to look like (expect corrections):
Dec 2 - Northeastern Winter Carnival - Reggie Lewis
Dec 9 - Harvard Invitational - Harvard
Jan 5 - Dartmouth Relays - Dartmouth
Jan 13 - Wesleyan Invitational - Wesleyan
Jan 20 - GBTC Invitational - Harvard
Jan 26 - BU Invitational - BU
Feb 9 - BU Valentine Invitational - BU
Feb 18 - USATF- New England Championships - Harvard
Mar 23-25 - Masters Indoor Nationals - Reggie Lewis
OUTDOOR NATIONALS
Dick Camp
(in red, far left) writes "This photo was on the medal stand for the 4x100 relay in Charlotte. The "young
guys" (60-65) beat the 65-69 group by 19/100th of a second. I was pleased to have been on team that won the
silver medal."
In a string of photos of Mass Velocity members gracing the cover of National Masters News - Paul Fortuna is on the front page of the Sept. NMN with the finalists of the W45 200M
Warren Graff writes "If you are still a subscriber, you may have received this as well
- someone or some group (IAAF?) is taking over tracking world masters rankings from the hapless WMA. For 2006,
Carroll is listed for the 200 and 400, Roger for the 100, 200 and IS NUMBER ONE for the 400 (the Grand Pubah!).
Bob Matteson is in there for the 100, 200, and is also NUMBER ONE for 400 and 800!. Former MassVelocity sprinter
Mike Needham is in the list (M45 200M). Mary Harada is in there for the 800 and 1500. I apologize if I missed anyone,
after looking only briefly. They must be not looking at all meets since James Morton and Charlie Kelly should both
have made the 400M in their age groups based upon the times I see. It says you can send in results and I don't
see any restrictive criteria (so go for it, gentlemen!). Send to office@mastersathletics.net
The website for world masters rankings is http://www.mastersathletics.net/
They don't go very deep in the rankings (around 30?) and there's a lot of dupes, which would be my first criticism
since this automatically prevents others from being on the list. You can tell that they are going strictly by time
and not paying attention to the name, hence the dupes. I'm not too disappointed, however, since this is better
than nothing, which is what we have had for several years. Anyway, it's great to see some MassVelocity folks on
the list - congratulations!"
MAINE SENIOR GAMES REPORT
by Bob Segal
The Maine Senior Games were held on Saturday Sept.
9 at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. It was a beautiful sunny day, despite forecasts to the contrary, such that
we all found ourselves trying to find shade as if it were the middle of July!
Mass Velocity (or friends thereof) was represented by me (Bob Segal), Dick Camp, John Polevy, Bill Wright, Jon
Tetherly and Mary Harada. All of us ran well enough to place in all our events and bring home some medals for our
efforts. They used FAT timing but were a little short-handed I think, so there were some delays in getting results.
Here is a link with those results.
Highlights:
- Mary Harada blazed to victory in the 1500 and got a "shout out" from the PA announcer to let the crowd
know exactly whom they were dealing with out there!
- Dick, John, and Bill went 1-2-3 in both the 100 and 200 meter events!
- Jon Tetherly won the 800 and took third in the 400; then promised to "lengthen" Mass Velocity by joining
soon.
- I snuck in for three second place finishes in the 100, 200, and 400. It was my first competition since mid-July
due to a recurring foot problem, so while I had no PRs, I was happy just to show up and compete credibly.
Other Notes:
I tried to do some recruiting. There was a 50-year-old guy there named Dean who took first in the 100 and 200---in
his first meet ever, with no spikes and no blocks!
If you search the results for Shelley Keeling, she is a 55-year-old woman from NY who won 5 golds in running events
(100, 200, 400, 800, 1500), a gold in the long jump, and a silver in the javelin. Yes, you'll see there wasn't
much competition in her age group, but this was quite a feat nonetheless. She told me she is primarily a cross-country
runner but pretty much entered everything because she felt like she could hold her own no matter what. (Yes, I
tried to recruit her.)
The night before, I walked from my nearby hotel to the baseball park and saw the Red Sox minor league team, the
Portland Sea Dogs, beat the Yankees minor league team, the Trenton Thunder, before a packed house. Why packed?
It was a playoff game and Hideki Matsui was playing for Trenton rehabbing from his broken wrist! (He got called
up by the Yankees a few days later.) The Sea Dogs also had George Kattaros in his first game since being acquired
from San Diego when the Red Sox traded David Wells. All this for SIX dollars!
I spent the rest of the weekend further north in the Rockport/Rockland area visiting my cousins and going to the
Farnsworth Art Museum. Actually went to the very site that Andrew Wyeth immortalized in his classic painting, "Christina's
World"---beautiful field, farmhouse, coastal waters all still there. Here's a link to the painting, to refresh your memory. I was walking around right there!
"Larry, Just received my Mass Velocity Track Tights, Will be using them
at the Huntsman World Games in St George, Utah in October. Are any other members competing there?" Abe Bernstein
"See
you on the 19th at the Marriott - and my husband Mak (that mysterious guy who rarely appears at track meets and
some folks think is just a figment of my imagination) probably will be there with me." Mary Harada
[Editors Note: I don't think I saw him
and now, I too, am suspicious]
"Hi
Larry, Hope all is well with you. As usual you are doing a great job as club Founder and President and
as a tireless advocate for Masters T&F. I regret to say I won't be able to attend the BBQ on Sept 30th as I
will be out of town with my family. I am very much looking forward to the indoor season not only to compete but
for
the camaraderie of the MVTC." Dave Neumann
"Thanks,
Larry, for your leadership in our track club. I am proud to be part of Mass Velocity, and you are doing a great
job in keeping us together." Dick Camp
"I
had the privilege to carry the torch and run in the World
Harmony Peace Run through part of Norwalk. Then I was
invited to the ceremony at the United Nations that ended the run. I know some of the runners were in Boston. You
can follow the run on the Internet at www.worldharmonyrun.org. Can't wait for the indoor season to start." Mary Roman
"Hi
Larry, Greetings from the youngest and least active member of Mass Velocity:( Calf injuries have kept me inactive
since last winter, but I haven't given up and am starting to train again. I plan to run at Harvard and beyond in
December. Hope your training is going well and see you in December. Cheers," Ed
Faison
"Hey
all, Check out these great track finishes for a little inspiration for the indoor season:
distance running compilation on YouTube.
My goal is to run 300 yards with them. Charlie Kelley
"Just
got e-mail from Karla del Grande from Canada (one of my relay teammates). She told me that Peter Taylor is impressed
with the Mass Velocity website. Do you know him? I don’t, but apparently he’s been ‘the voice’ for masters track
and field for many years…the wonderful announcer that we hear at most big meets."
Gail Johns-Rees
"Hi
all- I must admit-- I clicked the refresh button three times to see it happen, but this morning masterstrack.com
topped one million site visits to our home page. Many thanks to all athletes, friends and family members who have
supported our project over the years." Dave Clingan
"I
want to send special thanks to Pat and Carroll for hosting the BBQ event and for making us all feel right at home
- that's after we climbed the Great Wall of China to get to the front door. Did anyone else notice how thin the
air was in the backyard? It was great fun! Peace to all."
James Morton
"I
think you've just hit upon Carroll's secret to success. He does "stadiums" in altitude!" Bob Segal
I have patches waiting for the following folks and will gladly mail them
if you mail me a check (made out to Mass Velocity Track Club) for $5 per patch. Or you can wait until you see me
at one of the upcoming indoor track meets. If you sew at the speed I do, you'll want to get started now so that
the last stitch will be finished before the Indoor Season is over.
I have run out of patches from the initial order and ordered another 25 patches that will be delivered soon. If
you want a patch (identical to the one on our uniforms) for a jacket, sweatshirt, etc., let me know via e-mail.
Patches already reserved for:
Gail Johns-Rees - 5
Brady Mayer - 3
Dave Neumann - 1
Bob Marchetti - 2
David Westover - 1
Mary Roman - 2
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Probably every athlete knows that an injury is just a misstep
away. Landing the wrong way, a hit to a joint, a slip or a trip and it could be the end of a season, possibly a
career. It's probably on the mind of every athlete and probably more so for Masters such as ourselves.
I try to stay in tune with my body and I pay attention to every new ache or pain in hopes that an immediate response,
be it stretching, ibuprofen, ice, massage, wraps, Tiger Balm, orthotics, cortisone or surgery, will keep me going.
Sometimes I'm successful and other times I'm not.
A friend of mine went to see his doctor after persistent back pain wouldn't go away. He was in mid-forties and
in good shape. Just before I left for my vacation in mid August I was told he was very sick and I simply took it
to mean he had some sort of cold or flu. Upon my return at the end of August I found out that Steve had pancreatic
cancer and that the outlook was dire and imminent. By mid September he was gone. I was devastated as was everyone
that knew Steve.
The next season, the next meet - it's what keeps me going. If I didn't have Masters track what would have to look
forward to? I have goals to be attained, times to be improved, new friends to make, new MVTC members to find. I'm
not getting older - I'm aging up - and I think I speak for all of us when I say I can't wait.
We walk that fine line between extraordinary athleticism and that one misstep. Please be careful out there - life
is short and there is so much to do!
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