Minutes 2014 USATF Annual Meeting Anaheim, CA Women's … · 1 Minutes 2014 USATF Annual Meeting Anaheim, CA Women's Long Distance Running General Session #1 December 3rd, 2014, 8am-9:50am

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Minutes2014 USATF Annual Meeting

Anaheim, CAWomen's Long Distance Running General Session #1

December 3rd, 2014, 8am-9:50am Pacific

Attendees (for one or more sessions), Executive Committee: Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick (Chair), Kathy Nary (Vice-Chair- International Competition), Mickey Piscitelli (Vice-Chair- Awards and National Championships), Camille Herron (Secretary/Athlete), Lesley Higgins (Athlete), Nina Kuscsik (Law & Legislation), Darren De Reuck (National Championships Chair), LeeAnn Meyer (National Championships Committee), Julie McKinney (Developmental Chair), Nancy Hobbs (MUT Chair), Bill McKee (Rules Committee), Amy Yoder-Begley (Member)

I. Call to Order/Welcome: Women's LDR Chair, Ms. Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick, convened the meeting at 8:04am.

II. Introduction of Attendees: At the request of Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick, she had everyone in attendance introduce themselves and their role with USATF.

III. Approval of 2013 General Session Minutes: Women's LDR Secretary, Ms. Camille Herron, mentioned that the 2013 General Session Minutes should be available online in the document library for review. Also, Ms. Herron sent out the minutes via email last year to all of those who provided an email on the attendance sheet. She will continue to do the same for this year’s minutes. Ms. Mickey Piscitelli made a motion and Ms. Nina Kuscsik seconded to approve the minutes. The minutes were unanimously approved.

IV. WLDR Awards: Ms. Piscitelli (WLDR Vice-Chair for Awards) talked about the two awards our committee gives: the Runner of the Year Award and the Marja Bakker Contributor of the Year.

Ms. Molly Huddle- Runner of the Year. Objectively given to the top point scorer of the USARC. Ms. Huddle will be unable to attend the awards breakfast.

Mr. Doug Allred- Marja Bakker Contributor of the Year. Mr. Allred is the longtime race director for the Gate River Run/15K US Championship. He said he’ll have the Gate Rive Run serve as the 15K Championship as long as they are welcome. He also won’t be able to attend the breakfast.

V. Report from RR Technical Council: Mr. Gene Newman (RRTC) noted to make sure our list of US Championships get pre-verified for record purposes.

VI. 2015 US Championships: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick talked about how LA is hosting the 2015 US Marathon Championship in March on the regular marathon course. While the athletes won’t get to run the Olympic Marathon Trials course, they’ll get to familiarize themselves with the city, travel, roads, LA, the hotel, and the race director crew. We’re hoping the Olympic Trials course will be finalized by March, so the athletes can take course tours.

Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick and Mr. Ed Torres (MLDR Chair) and others got to preview the proposed

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course on Monday (drove and walked). They made some recommendations/tweaks. There’s a 2.2 mile out-and-back North loop (fairly straight, three turns). Then you come back and do a 6 mile loop four times towards the USC campus—this loop is like a “U” you do in the middle of the campus. It will be surrounded by college kids cheering. Also, it goes further South to showcase the Coliseum. They made recommendations so the course flows- no crazy turns and curbs. They want the course to be “athlete friendly”.

We’ve also learned the Olympic Trials will be on the same weekend as the Grammy’s, so we hope to have a star sing the National Anthem. The race will start at 10am Pacific time and be televised live on NBC. The men and women will start separately (women first) - the time differential will likely be the time it takes for the women to complete the first full loop (2.2+6 miles).

VII. Review of 2014 US Championships: Our National Championships Chair, Mr. Darren De Reuck, gave a report on this year’s Championships and the winners.

Jan. 19th- Half Marathon- Houston, TX

Serena Burla won the first US Championship of the year in 1:10:48.

Feb. 15th- XC 8K- Boulder, CO

The Cross Country Championship is now part of the USA Road Circuit. The race this year was won by Amy Van Alstine in 27:35.

Mar. 15th- Gate River 15K- Jacksonville, FL

Shalane Flanagan set a new American Record at Gate River, finishing in 47:03.

Apr. 6th- Cherry Blossom 10 mile- Washington DC

Janet Cherobon-Bawcom set a Women’s-only American Record of 52:12.

Apr. 22nd- Blue Mile- Des Moines, IA

Heather Kampf won the Mile Championship in 4:32.62.

May 10th- Fifth Third Bank 25K- Grand Rapids, MI

The longtime 25K in Grand Rapids once again played host to the US Championship. The race this year was won by Kellyn Johnson in 1:25:26.

July 4th- Peachtree 10K- Atlanta, GA

Peachtree was an American-only race this year. Amy Hastings won in 32:16.

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July 26th- Bix 7 Miler- Davenport, IA

This year was the 40th anniversary for the race- they host the US Championship every five year when they celebrate their anniversary. Ms. Molly Huddle won her first (of four) Championships this year at Bix, in 36:14.

Sept. 1st- New Haven 20K- New Haven, CT

Ms. Huddle won her second US Championship of the year at New Haven, in 1:08:34.

Sept. 21st- Providence 5K- Providence, RI

Facing strong winds, Ms. Huddle ran an impressive 15:10 to win the 5K Championship in Providence.

Oct. 5th- Twin Cities Marathon- Twin Cities, MN

The US Championship was won by Esther Erb this year in 2:34:01.

Oct. 13th- Tufts Team Championship 10K- Boston, MA

Team USA-Arizona won (Janet Cherobon-Bawcom/Amy Van Alstine/Kellyn Johnson/Alvina Begay). Of note by Mr. De Reuck, three of the four team members had won National Championships this year.

1st American- Emily Infield- 31:47 (2nd Overall)

Nov. 16th- US 12K Championship- Alexandria, VA

Ms. Huddle capped off winning the USARC by winning the 12K in 38:08.

USARC Results

1) Molly Huddle2) Sara Hall3) Brianne Nelson

Stats of 2014 National Championships

1) 13 Championship Events2) 8 different National Champions3) Molly Huddle- 4 Championship wins4) 2 National Records- 15K (Shalane Flanagan) and 10 Miles (Janet Cherobon-Bawcom)

VIII. 2015 Upcoming Championships: Mr. De Reuck listed off the 2015 Championships, starting with:

-the Houston Half in January 18th

-Cross Country National Championship will be in Boulder, CO on Feb. 7th and serve to select the

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World Team that competes in China-Gate River 15K, who says they are “on board as long as we want them”, will be on March 14th

-LA Marathon is serving as the Championship next year on March 15th

-Fifth Third River Bank 25K is May 9th; the 1 mile is going back to Twin Cities on May 12th (serving as a Championship the next 2 years)-New Haven 20K will be on Sept. 7th

-Tufts 10K will be a stand-alone individual Championship with no team competition on Oct. 12th

There’s a few competitive bids- Cherry Blossom and Twin Cities have both bid for the 10 miler, so it will be in either April or October; and, Carlsbad bid against Providence for the 5K Championship. Also, we might have a bid for an 8K Championship. There will be 12 National Championships in 2015.

Women’s LDR Athlete, Ms. Lesley Higgins, asked Mr. De Reuck about the prize money breakdown for the Championships. He said it’s on the USATF website (it’s on the Runner’s Space site devoted to the USARC, although the present prize money breakdown is for 2014-http://www.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=30069 ). As Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned, Men’s LDR gave a handout in their meeting with the prize money breakdown- 11 Championships in 2014 provided $323,800; there will be 10 Championships in 2015 giving $331,650+. There will be $697,000 of prize money given for both genders in 2015.

As Ms. Paige Biglin (OH) pointed out, the National Championship prize money comes from the local organizing committees, except the .US 12K Championship which comes from .US and USATF. This is important to note, since with the T&F Championships, the prize money comes from USATF. Mr. De Reuck mentioned there are guidelines in the bidding that so much money (a minimum) must be devoted to prize money.

WLDR National Championships committee member, Ms. LeeAnn Meyer, spoke up about her experience as a liaison with the Bix 7 miler. They like to host the US Championship every five years, in conjunction with their anniversary celebration. Otherwise, they usually draw an international field. She showed a book they put together in celebration of the race. She also showed the newspaper headlines (always good to have the local newspaper provide sponsor support to cover the race). Ms. Meyer mailed Sean Quigley a copy of the newspaper clipping with his picture. She mentioned the athletes are housed in dorms that are like townhouses.

Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick gave the lowdown about her experience as a liaison at the .US 12K Championship. She said the event has grown tremendously in its second year. The field size was around 25. She said we want to look at trying to grow the field. At the present, the top 10 from each Championship qualify for the 12K- the top 5 get their trip paid for, while those who finish 6-10 get an entry into the Championship. We want to expand the qualifying to include automatic qualifying for those who finished in the top 10 at the .US 12K Championship the previous year. There’s been discussion to expand the qualifying to 15 deep at the National Championships. Also, post-collegiates are considered for at-large entry. The prize money will stay the same. The course was changed- it was an out-and-back along a popular parkway in Alexandria, VA. There weren’t a lot of crowds, but the flat road surface was fast. We want to move it to later in the morning. The town supported the event.

Mr. Matt Weingardt, who serves as Events Manager at the National Office, spoke up about the

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event. He talked about how we saw tremendous growth in the general population (there’s an open event, in addition to the Championship). We had 60 qualify, but only 25 competed. He’s reached out to athletes and agents to get feedback on any criticism to make the event better for next year.

IX. 2014 International Teams: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick asked Ms. Katie McGregor (MN), to speak about her experience serving as the Women’s Coach with the Chiba Ekiden Team. The US Team finished 6th and consisted of:

MEN - 5km leg Tyler Pennel (ran close to a PR, 13:42)MEN -10km leg Girma Mecheso (didn’t come, so Jacob ran as the alternate)MEN -10km leg Christopher Landry (5th on his leg, 28:55)MEN - ALT Jacob RileyWOMEN - 5km leg Katie MatthewsWOMEN - 5km leg Liz Costello (1st on her leg, 16:17)WOMEN - 7km leg Rachel Ward (5th on her leg, 24:15)WOMEN - ALT Sarah Pagano

http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2014/International-Chiba-Ekiden/Results.aspx

Ms. McGregor said that overall it was a great event, and they were treated well.

Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned that we want to have the qualifying for the Chiba Ekiden Team posted much earlier, by January. She said our qualifying is usually based on performances in the road races/track (5K/10K). She said it’s usually difficult getting athletes to come, as it’s late in the season. However, it is a great opportunity for developmental athletes to get international experience.

X. 2015 International Team Opportunities: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick spoke about the two teams for the marathon in 2015, World Championship Team (three spots) and PanAm Games (two spots). The procedure for selecting teams will hopefully be posted by January. For the World Champs Team, we selected the winner from the 2014 Twin Cities/US Marathon Championship (Esther Erb and Tyler Pennel, both accepted spots). Then, another spot will be given from the winners of the 2015 LA Marathon, provided they have a qualifying performance on an IAAF-certified course (~since LA is not IAAF-certified; certified courses listed here: https://iaafmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/competitioninfo/2b4e1101-01b0-4f84-911f-020babb88e1b.pdf ). The 3rd spot will be based on the performance list going through March 29th, 2015. If Esther/Tyler/LA Marathon winners decline their spots, they would be replaced from the performance lists. The IAAF has done away with 4th-5th team members, since there is no longer a team competition. For the PanAm Team spots, we will go down a performance list and have a cut-off through March 29th, 2015.

XI. Collegiate Running Association: Mr. Steve Taylor, Men’s Cross Country/Track Coach at Richmond University, spoke about the new Collegiate Running Association (CRA). He provided a handout about the new non-profit organization (will include as an Addendum). The CRA provides additional competitive opportunities for collegiate students-athletes to keep them in the sport-those who are both regular students and also D1/D3 student-athletes. Any student that’s enrolled in any college course is eligible. The NCAA changed their bylaws which allow prize

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money to be earned by D1 athletes up to the point of covering running-related expenses.

In 2014, they had two National Championships- the Ukrop 10K ($10,000 in prize money). The race organizers at Ukrop’s were very supportive of serving as a host for the Championship. They had 3,635 college participants at Ukrop (!). 92% of high school runners don’t continue running beyond high school, so the CRA is trying to serve as a way to keep these athletes running/competing.

Additionally, the CRA had a Mountain Running Championship at Loon Mountain in July- they partnered with the USATF Mountain Championship. Four student-athletes qualified for the World Mountain Team. The Collegiate Running Association provided an additional $6,000 of funding support, in addition to the prize money provided by serving as the USATF Mountain Championship. They plan to continue this partnership in 2015 (USATF Mountain Championship is going to Bend, OR on July 25th).

A question was asked if the NCAA legislation will change to allow D2/D3 athletes to compete for limited prize money (since their bylaws are different from NCAA D1). Mr. Taylor mentioned that most athletes/coaches don’t even realize the bylaws changed so they can compete for prize money. D3 athletes can accept prize money, but only in the summer months when they’re between seasons. In contrast, NCAA D1 athletes can accept money associated with their sport over an entire calendar year. Here are examples of running-related expenses that could be covered by prize money: insurance; travel expenses; medical expenses; coaching; shoes/gear; etc.. He gave the example of Brian Shrader, who won $20,000 at the .US 12K Championship- he could come up with this amount of expenses in association with the sport in the calendar year, in order to accept the prize money.

Mr. Taylor also mentioned that programs that have cross country-only could now have a competitive opportunity in the spring (Ukrop 10K). D1 institutions are permitted to pay for athletes to compete in out-of-season competitions. D2 has more strict rules that doesn’t allow for receiving prize money.

XII. Athlete Advisory Committee: Ms. Kelly Flathers, our Women’s Road Race/XC AAC representative, said that so far the AAC is simply giving introductions of new athletes in attendance this year. There will be a lot of discussion about updating the Tier System. There’s also the Run/Jump/Throw event that’s happening, to get the athletes involved with the kids in the community.

XIII. 2015 Budget Increase: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick talked about the presentation that was given in the Opening Session, showing the increases in budgets due to the increase in sponsorshipsupport. She talked about brainstorming ways to get additional funding to the athletes who need it the most and what type of support to allocate. We want to support the athletes who are below the top Tier.

Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned providing support towards health insurance (~2 years ofsupport). Could we partner with Nationwide (~USATF’s insurance sponsor) and set criteria to provide support for athletes who need it? Also, we could delineate criteria for continuing to receive support.

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XIV. Athlete Development Program: The Athlete Development Program has been a longtime program to provide travel/housing support to development athletes. Information about this program can be found here: http://www.usatf.org/groups/RoadRunning/elite/ADP.asp

Mr. Andy Carr (Records liaison) brought up whether we could use the increased budget to support this program. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick replied that there have been discussions on restructuring this program. She said that WLDR Vice-Chair for Awards/National Championships, Ms. Piscitelli, offered to take over this program, re-vitalize it, and identify athletes we want to support. We need to connect better with college coaches and post-collegiate athletes. We need to bridge the gap to support athletes who may not be getting a sponsorship contract out of college (~33:00+ 10K runners).

WLDR Secretary/Athlete, Ms. Herron, brought up the point of education about the ADP. Information about the program isn’t readily accessible on the USATF website. The races that are providing ADP support need to list this on their website.

An attendee from the Pittsburgh area mentioned that the way they’ve provided support in the past is their local Association has matched the support provided by the race (as part of the ADP) to help cover travel/hotel. Mr. Bryan Jones (Lake Erie) mentioned that there needs to be “local control” by the local Associations, whereas either the local USATF Association is providing support or National USATF.

Discussion went back to providing health insurance for the athletes who need it. Mr. Ben Rosario (AZ) mentioned making health insurance that is affordable for ~part-time workers. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick added on that maybe we could buy into the plan with Nationwide (~like a pool of athletes- the “athletes insurance”), but have the deductible be ~$500 instead of $1000. An attendee from Oregon talked about how college athletes are able to get PT and athletic training support for injuries, but when they graduate and potentially keep running, they don’t know who to turn to for care, or don’t have the finances to pay for care. Kim mentioned that a benefit of the training centers and elite clubs is they’ve identified the healthcare professionals athletes can go to, possibly for reduced costs.

Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned that we want to brainstorm with ~Mr. Max Siegel (USATF CEO), those at the National Office, and also with the athletes on how to allocate this additional funding and whether it’s possible to create insurance support.

XV. Rules and Regulations: Since our WLDR Rules and Regulations Chair, Mr. Bill McKee, wasn’t present, Mr. Bill Roe (LDR Division Chair) gave an update. He talked about the rule regarding using gun vs. chip timing. For Open athletes, we should stick with gun time. For Master’s athletes, gun vs. chip timing is a bigger issue cause of races that start in waves (Bolder Boulder). Mr. Roe feels that the determination for using gun vs. chip timing should be up to each race and the size of the event. He’s alerted those in Rules and Regulations to make sure to keep the wording such that for Open results/awards, we’re sticking with using gun time.

XVI. Association News: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick asked if there’s anything Associations are doing well. She mentioned about how back in the day the NJ Association had a Grand Prix. An attendee from the NJ Association gave an update about this Grand Prix(http://www.usatfnj.org/ldr/index.html ), saying they expanded on the original Grand Prix to

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include a Cross Country Series (http://www.usatfnj.org/cross/index.html ). They’re encouraging their athletes to go to National events- they have a 3-Tier program with travel stipends ($100/200/$300) for athletes who meet qualifying standards. They have a total of $10,000 that’s used towards travel stipends to go to National races. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned reaching out to the colleges within the NJ Association (~Rutgers) to identify athletes who want to continue running and need support.

Mr. Roe mentioned that Associations need to talk to other Associations on how to improve the accreditations for their LDR programs-- ~having enough Championships events to meet the requirement. Ms. Paige Biglin (OH) talked about her experience since taking over the LDR component. She’s been trying to reach out to race directors in her area to get them listed as State Championships. Mr. Scott Slade (South Texas) said that since he’s taken over the LDR reigns for his Association, he came to the National meeting to brainstorm with others on how to grow their LDR component. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick said that what they did in the NJ Association (~9 races) is contact the races for various distances, ask them if they’d like to be part of the series, assign an appropriate number of points for the race distance, and the athletes collect points and earn prize money. This ends up drawing more athletes to the events, as they want to compete for points and prize money.

Mr. Roe mentioned that we should do a survey of what LDR Associations are doing—we could email and survey the constituents. Mr. Marco Anzures (San Diego-Imperial) mentioned how Mr. Paul Greer did a survey of “best practices for a cross country series”. Ms. Lisa Doucett (New England) said they have a race series that others can look up (www.usatfne.org). Mr. Patrick Lynskey (Adirondack) also mentioned that they have a 12-race Grand Prix- others can look up information on their website (www.usatfadir.org). He said their Association puts on three of the events, and then they piggyback on other events.

An attendee mentioned that one problem is getting the immediate results and knowing who’s a current USATF member. Someone else mentioned that you have to set it up through the website registration to include your current USATF membership number (although this is a problem if someone is registering in the previous calendar year).

Ms. Biglin mentioned they have a prize money budget of $2-3,000 for their Ohio Grand Prix. WLDR athlete, Ms. Higgins, mentioned that prize money could be split between coming from the race and from USATF. Mr. Roe said that USATF State Championships could piggyback with RRCA State Championships so athletes are getting potentially ~triple the awards. He used Bloomsday as an example- they give $7000 to the first Washington resident, who qualifies as the USATF and RRCA Double State Champion. He said they go five deep on rewarding the Washington residents with prize money.

XVII. Support for AAC Athletes: Ms. Chanel Price, AAC athlete, spoke up on what can the AAC athletes do to help, and how should the AAC be helped by LDR. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick brought up again the point about trying to use the increased budget funding towards health insurance for ~Tier 4 athletes, who get limited support and are the ones who likely need more financial support. It would likely be cheaper to create a ‘buy into group plan’ (~collection of 500 athletes) rather than buying individual health insurance. We could create time standards to qualify for this sort of insurance plan for athletes. WLDR athlete, Ms. Higgins, went on to describe the Tier funding levels (which can be found here:

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http://www.usatf.org/groups/HighPerformance/Resources/tierCriteria.asp ). There was discussion that the Tier system leaves out the distance athletes and needs to be revamped to be more inclusive. Mr. Roe mentioned that the Tier system is likely largely driven by the USOC—they want to gear their funding/support towards athletes who will reach the podium.

Ms. Price brought up the point that for two years after college (and before she won her World Indoor medal), she didn’t have a sponsorship contract. Its talented athletes like her that aren’tnew post-collegiates (Tier 3) and fit into the limited Tier 4 group that we need to be helping.Lesley mentioned that the AAC and LDR need to join together and say that providing health insurance is a top priority and identify those in need. We also need to help with ~travel support to National-level meets (Occidental for example, which recently got sponsorship with Hoka One One).

Mr. Phil Stewart (RRCA) brought up the support from the RRCA, specifically the Roads Scholar Program and their RunPro Summer Camp.

Another point brought up by an attendee is large races giving all their funding to charity, with no devotion to prize money. Mr. Roe said this is definitely an issue, as races need to consider giving part of their funds back to the athletes. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick talked about how the USATF Foundation reached out to race directors several years ago, and they started providing funding support to the various elite training groups.

Mr. Rich Harshbarger, the new CEO for Running USA ([email protected] ), said his organization is trying to grow the USATF membership. How can they help connect the dots and bridge the communication between race directors, USATF, and supporting athletes? Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned that she and Mr. Torres have attended the Running USA meeting and tried to communicate with more race directors. She mentioned talking to the creators of the Color Runs and how they should consider giving some of their money back to the athletes.

WLDR Executive Committee member, Ms. Meyer, mentioned whether any of the race directors/Running USA has connections to health insurance companies, to become the “company of athletes” for the Tier athletes who need it. Rich mentioned that Running USA grew out of a genesis of race directors coming together. While they have business connections and have discussed health insurance, they don’t want to start something that may already exist—they want to be complimentary and not duplicate or confuse the market. He feels that USATF should take on the role of offering insurance programs to Tier athletes.

WLDR Secretary/Athlete, Ms. Herron, brought up to Rich the discussions from last year regarding more races directing their prize money support towards Americans. As has happened over the years (including Competitor Group temporarily last year), a lot of races have dropped their prize money because they can’t justify keeping it or they decide to give it all towards charities. However, since these discussions, more races have taken notice and started providing support for Americans (~Olympic Developmental athletes). Ms. Herron mentioned that she would like to continue to see more races directing their support towards Americans, as it’s a good cause, they are good ambassadors for races, and generate more interest from the ~media/public.

An attendee added that Mr. Harshbarger should try to create a package deal for race directors explaining to them the benefit of why they should bring in an American elite field. Ms. Verity

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Breen (Pacific) asked whether it could be required for races to give a minimum of their proceeds towards prize money. Mr. Harshbarger said he will definitely bring all of this discussion to theircommittee and consider it as part of their programming for their upcoming annual meeting in February. Mr. Roe mentioned there are strong lines of communication between representatives from USATF and Running USA.

The meeting recessed at 9:43am until 3pm this afternoon.

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Addendum

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