June, 2006

Friends & Fellow Sprinters:

May is one of those quiet months as we transition from the Indoor to the Outdoor season. It's seems especially quiet after our heady showings at the Indoor Nationals and the Penn Relays. But the Outdoor Season is now upon us and it's going to be practically non-stop for the remainder of the summer.

In this month's Newsletter we'll spotlight "Mr. Prime Time," Inaugurate the NY VS. NE Masters Relay Carnival, I'll give heartfelt thanks on behalf of my high school boys track team, update you on some recent meets (with great commentary by our own non-fiction writer, Charlie Kelley), give you a reason why the Mass Velocity uniform is red, update you on the club t-shirt survey and finally, urge all Mass Velocity members to get their club affiliation in order.

So let's get going ...

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Not only has Roger made the cover of Prime Magazine (in the
special "Man" issue), he is gracing the cover of National Masters News for the
second month in a row. Please note Warren in the shot (below).
I guess if the photo makes the cover of NMN they don't feel the need
to include any mention of our winning Mass Velocity relay in their rather
lengthy article! Let's hope the next time Roger gets his photo on the
cover of a magazine, he'll be wearing his MVTC "reds!"

I decided that the Prime cover could be improved upon so I
fixed it up a bit in hopes that if I get in a heat with the "man"
(who now prefers to be known as "Prime Time Pierce")
he'll slow down a bit so I only come in a few steps behind him.

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As you folks may or may not remember, Mike Fortunato from the Albany area threw down the gauntlet last year and challenged the New England sprinters to a series of relays. Mike and I have been trying to work this out and it looks like the first (annual?) Masters Relay Carnival will be held in Springfield at the conclusion of the USATF - East Region Masters Outdoor T&F Championships, on July 22nd.

Steve Vaitones is okay with it but says the FAT timing will probably be down. That's just fine, because we're proposing some unique relays in addition to the usual. We want to give everyone a chance to run and we want this to be fun. Mike and I (both "big" people) propose a sum-of-weight 4x100 relay where the combined weight of the relay team must be at least 850 pounds. In addition, Mike writes:

"First, with respect to age groups, I propose a sum of ages rule -- for example, instead of an M50 race that requires all 4 guys be >=50, I would suggest their ages have to add up to 200 or more (averaging 50 or more, in other words).

I don't have any subset who would be close to 40, so it would be good for us, if it's good for you, to make the categories: M45, M55, and M65. Sum of ages would be: greater than or equal to 180, greater than or equal to 220, greater than or equal to 260.

For those three age groups, I think we might be able to put together a 4x1, 4x2, 4x4, and an SMR (2-2-4-8)."

We also want to create some mixed-gender relays and maybe get some children or high school volunteers into some events. Please keep in mind that the goal here is "run and fun" so we're not looking for winning teams as much as creating competitive match-ups.

I need feedback from Mass Velocity members (and anyone on this mailing list) who intends to be at the July 22, East Region Masters Championships. Are you interested? Let me know!

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A few weeks ago I made an appeal to Mass Velocity to help me help the High School of Commerce track team that I've been working with as a volunteer coach for the past few years. The kids on this team have so little - in terms of both their track program and their family - that I felt compelled to reach out to all of you.

I can't express enough gratitude I feel to the following people who made generous contributions:

In addition, there were a few good suggestions offered. Rob Porcaro offered a pair of spikes in perfectly good condition. Spikes and training flats in any size are a great contribution. Bring them with you to the summer (or winter) meets and I'll put them to good use.

Butch Blake had a fantastic idea. The sad fact is that almost every boy on the track team is without a father due to death, imprisonment or abandonment.

Butch wrote "What do you think about each member if they can become a track mentor/sponsor to a student. Giving him a call every now and then to see how his practice and meets are going and help him out financially at time with track stuff. I will start it by becoming a sponsor/mentor for one of the students if you think this is a good idea. In some case members may only be able to be mentors and not sponsors and I think that would be fine, it gives the students another person in their track life."

I love this idea and I will be looking for potential mentors at the beginning of the next Indoor Season. Most of the kids have access to e-mail and I will try to bring as many as I can to assorted indoor meets so potential mentors can meet the kids in person. When no one in their family shows any interest in track it's hard for them to stay motivated. When no one in their family shows any interest in their grades, it's hard to for them to stay academically eligible. This concept has great potential. Mass Velocity can provide a bridge between youth and masters where the joy of track & field is the common bond.

With this years contributions, we were able to hold a fine awards banquet and allow the athletes to attend at no cost. The guest speaker was our own James Morton, who started the track program at Commerce 4 years earlier. He wrote "You and Katie are doing a great job with the Commerce Boys Track Program. I was truly impressed with the "vibe" in the room and the energy you have created around track in our community." Katie is my daughter, who is a history teacher at the High School of Commerce and the head coach. I can't tell you how much I enjoy working with her and how much hard work and enthusiasm she puts in.

Remaining contributions will be used for training aids and equipment for next year. It's not too late to contribute. or you can mail a check made out to the Commerce Track Team Booster Club to Mass Velocity TC, 56 Riverview St. Springfield, MA 01108. Thanks everyone!

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RECENT MEETS



A Wonderful Story
by
Roger Pierce

A friend gave me a round trip ticket to the meet/with hotel. It was a fabulous experience!!! I was 2nd to Bob Koontz in the 100m (beat Ron Johnson) I ran 12.72. I won the 400m in 57.84, a meet record, and I defeated Johnson in the 200m in 26.21. There was a strong gusting wind all day which affected times. Koontz and I ran with two other guys in a 4 x 100 and did 52.1..we had no competition in the relay but it was a good 60s time.I have attached two pics which I hope show the 4 of us who were in the relay.

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[Editors Note: Although edged out by Oscar Peyton for a cash prize for best overall age-graded performance, Roger did receive the Ervin Mitchell Award for best age-graded performance in the 100 and 200 by a male (100, 92.5% and 200, 92.1%)]

I found myself in Cambridge on this windy, cool, late Wednesday afternoon. I was struck by the whimsy of the architecture, the lack of traffic, the number of biotech icons and the number of vacant lots. My thoughts were wandering to just how secure those labs bustling with biological promise were.

I was looking forward to the prospect of communing with the masters sprint brethren. It had been a few weeks since the last (a catholic phrase) hurl into oblivion and I was in need of a sprint competition fix.

The polymeric exercises of the last couple of weeks were evident in my lack of joint mobility. I had buried myself under a load of weight and sprint interval training since the end of April and was in need of a time trial. The track was what one sprinter referred to as "the best mondo, tacky and slightly cushioned."

Prior to the start of the 100-meter, I experienced a wardrobe malfunction of sorts. I suddenly realized, as I tucked in my shirt that my shorts were on backwards. There is something a bit dissonant with the notion of moving forward fast, with your shorts on backwards. I was offered some body screening by some very entertained participants, but being in Cambridge and all I declined. The 100-meter dash seemed harmless enough, until I was about a third through it and all the muscle fibers below my waist rebelled simultaneously in a painful symphony of complaint.

One of our more notable veteran sprint artists in the practice of a new competitive foil conspired to let out a yelp of sorts as we veered out of the blocks (actually there were no blocks). This had the collective effect of ‘freezing’ us all for one of those infinitesimally small moments, as we lost focus of our forward motion and flinched to our sides. Of course I would not have been able to catch him with rocket shoes on anyway … nevertheless backwards shorts.

It seemed that the USATF meet officials were practicing some sort of Blitzkrieg track event experiment on the relatively few participants who showed for this MIT all-comers opportunity. Steve Vaitones on fast forward is like sprinting with Roger Pierce. I usually give myself more time between sprint intervals than we had between the 100 and the 400.

We were at the 100 yard or so break point in the 400-meter before I realized that the gun had gone off. I was dead last as usual; trying to figure how all that hard training work was translating into last place. I had closed on at least one runner at the 300 mark and was hopeful. At about 380 the runner in front of me seemed to actually stop running and was doing something like a fast stutter step, just enough of a forward movement to keep me from passing but not enough to actually be considered running. This was probably the closest thing to taunting you would ever see at a track event (I’m not running anymore and you still can’t catch me). This was actually an embarrassing moment, to realize that I could not catch the runner in front of me even though he was actually not running anymore. This will prove to be a strong motivator on my solitary training sessions.

Watching one of the masters runners in a prior heat of the 400 meter event, I was taken by his extraordinary acceleration from about 150 meters through about 320 meters, at which point that 600 lb. gorilla leaped on to his back (I SAW IT) and he strove through the finish with transcendental verve. Judging by his semi-conscious state, garbled repose, and extreme body temperature fluctuations (chills and sweats), I was thinking that maybe he passed into a different dimension at 320. It was good to see his smile emerge as he normalized a few moments later.

This was a fun, engaging and eventful start to the outdoor season. This will be my first as a master sprinter, and I am looking forward to developing as a sprinter and sharing the season with my fellow masters sprint brethren.

David Westover writes "I ran in the Vermont Senior games. Horace Hudson from New York was there, he ran on the 4x 100 relay for Sprint America at the Penn Relays. I edged him in the 100m (12.58) and he bested me in the 200m, I ran 26.8."

Great work Dave!

The 06 Conn Senior Games were approaching on the tail end of four days of rain, bluster and cool temps. Sprinters, unlike runners in general, are fairly particular about their weather conditions. Bluster, rain and cold temps (lions and tigers and bears) are their bane, and with good reason. After all, the entire goal is to go as fast as possible, this being measured in hundredths of second increments. Being a reformed distance runner, weather as a showstopper actually had not even occurred to me. Marathon training through the winter in Boston had made me impervious.

My solitary drive (my fellow car-pooler had bailed) to the Trinity College campus was long an uneventful. My thoughts wandered to last years Conn Senior Games. The medals were big and shiny, I met some very interesting runners, had a dynamic (if not fast 800 meter race), and oh yea, these guys don’t do well-run track meets. Not that I am ungrateful for being given the opportunity to compete with fellow senior sprinters from other states, but there should be an element of truth in advertising. I mean there are circuses and there are track meets, and track meets should not be circuses.

The weather was holding out okay, no giant hail balls were falling and the trees were pretty much vertical. I made great time and rolled in at 8:20. Registration was to be at 8:30 and the 100-meter was scheduled for 9:00. I started warming up and immediately got the sense that I was back at the circus. Registration started at 10:00, I put my watch away.

I spotted Larry with an audience, he was doing his best ‘run in red’ recruitment pitch.
[Editor's note: "Okay, I may not run very fast but I'm the fastest MVTC recruiter you'll ever meet!"]

The heats were set up by the order you signed up for the meet, no time seeding here. Four out of seven of the runners in the second heat were no shows. They set us up in lanes 1,3 and 7. I was in lane 7. It was a close race, even though we couldn’t see each other.

The 200-meter was more interesting. They had given out lane assignments for lanes 7 and 8, on a six-lane track. I was fortunate to have been assigned to lane 4, as 2 had a puddle and 3 a mud slick. The weather was holding well, there was a slight breeze and it felt warm and humid. We were feeling very fortunate. The 200 felt comfortable, I could have used someone to chase. All the Mass Velocity runners looked to have well executed races most were pleased with their performances. While waiting for the 400 I witnessed a great duel with a dynamic finish in the 800-meter.

I found myself in the second heat of the 400, my competition was in the first. They called us onto the track, immediately the temperature dropped like a stone, the sky darkened and it started to sputter. They waited for what seemed like an impossibly long time, as inattentive runners were slow in responding to the call. The cool wet air felt good on my face as the gun sounded. I made it through to about 275 yards when the wheels came off. My breathing was labored, arms and legs stiff and heavy. The perceived effort was off the charts, the struggle was reflected in my time.

I spoke with a couple of runners who had personal bests on the day. I met a couple of interesting people, shared some training and injury experiences with some knowledgeable runners, and was entertained by the Conn USATF meet disorganization*. All and all, we had a pretty good day on the track.
*[Editor's note #2: USATF-CT may not run well-organized meets but the CT Senior Games was not their mess. This one belonged to the CT Senior Games alone.]

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Last comment on the CT Senior Games - Being my first meet of the Outdoor Season I rushed out of the house without my camera so there are no photos. Sorry! But it was great to see Rob Porcaro make his return to running after being on "injured reserve" for something like a year or so. Also there were John Novak, Bobby Segal, Spencer Parish, Jon Tetherly, Tom Ranuga and of course, Charlie. I did take every opportunity to talk to competitors about Mass Velocity and hope it might lead to a few new members.

If winning is everything, British anthropologists have some advice: Wear red.

Their survey of four sports at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens shows competitors were more likely to win their contests if they wore red uniforms or red body armor.

"Across a range of sports, we find that wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning," report Russell A. Hill and Robert A. Barton of the University of Durham in England. Their findings are in a recent issue of the journal Nature.

Red coloration is associated with aggression in many animals.

Similarly, the color's effect also may subconsciously intimidate opponents in athletic contests, especially when the athletes are equal in skill and strength, the researchers suggest.

In their survey, the anthropologists analyzed the results of four one-on-one contact sports at the summer games: boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.

In those events, the athletes were randomly assigned red protective gear and other sportswear.

Athletes wearing red gear won more often in 16 of 21 rounds of competition in all four events.

The effect was the same regardless of weight classes, too: 19 of 29 classes had more red winners, and only four rounds had more blue winners.

The red effect also might come into play in team sports.

The anthropologists made a preliminary analysis of the Euro 2004 international soccer tournament, in which teams wore jerseys of different colors in different matches. They found that five teams scored more goals and won more often when they wore shirts that were predominantly red, as opposed to blue or white jerseys.

Scientists don't precisely known how wearing red might give athletes an advantage. But the color delivers implicit messages of vigor and danger. When people get angry, their faces turn red. It's also a reason why stop signs are red. So are most Ferraris.

A case can perhaps be made that most of the recent winners of U.S. sports championships have at least a touch of red on their uniforms: among pro teams, the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, the Detroit Pistons. And in college football, Southern California.

But it's the gracious sport of golf that offers the best example. Tiger Woods wears an iconic red shirt on Sundays, the final day of most tournaments.

The T-Shirt survey from last month netted the following results:
9 responses (2 medium, 4 large, 2 XL and one 2XL).

Folks, the minimum run for most silk-screening is a dozen.
I might do a run anyway with the expectation that the
extra shirts will move sooner than later.

I'll send out an e-mail to everyone as soon as I've got shirts.

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Mass Velocity Track Club could have scored many more points at the Indoor Nationals but many club members did not have their affiliation in order. Please check to make sure your affiliation is with Mass Velocity. Our club number is 02-0273.

This is straight from USATF regarding the upcoming Masters Outdoor Nationals:

Athlete’s Affiliations - An athlete’s club affiliation will be determined by what is indicated in the USATF membership database. If an athlete is not affiliated with your club, they will not be displayed in the Team Entry Module when you log in, and you will not be able to enter them into the competition(s). To request a change of club affiliation the athlete must contact their local Association—please plan ahead and allow sufficient time for processing a club affiliation transfer/update. Unattached athletes can enter the events using their 2006 membership number and password via the “Individual Entry Form.”

The Mass Velocity Newsletter is an open-access publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Users may freely copy, distribute, and display its contents, but must give credit to the original publication source and author.