Feet don't fail me now ⏱

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The sportsmanship 😿

Mo Ahmed and Eric Avila had an epic collision at The Track Meet, one that was the subject of great discussion. I’ve watched the race in slow motion a billion times and my conclusion is that the official should be court-martialed for going AWOL. A horse-collar tackle is worth a 15-yard penalty in the NFL, but also because Avila actually really needed that race.

Ok stay with me: The Olympic 1500 field will be 45 men. The automatic standard is 3:35.00, although it will be filled off the descending order list since 45 men won’t hit that time. Eric is currently ranked 58th in the world, but since only 3 people from each country are eligible to compete, we take out the extra men for consideration. Once that is accounted for, Eric is now the 5th man out. Your ranking is based on the average of your 5 best performances (scored on a combination of time/place/level of competition). Currently, Eric is being dragged down by a 3:41.22, 10th place showing at a low-grade meet. If he runs halfway decent in this race, then he’s in position to make the team pending a top 3 finish at the Olympic Trials.

Meanwhile, Mo is a 12:47/26:59 stud who was just running a tuneup on his way to potentially medaling in Tokyo. And guess who came back to pace who that evening to win the 5k? The only explanation for Avila helping Mo up afterwards is that some Canadian rubbed off on him during the fall.

Also, Centro won in 3:35.2 looking incredible — no surprise to anyone who isn’t a 15 year old on Instagram.

How was your quarantine? 😷

In what was one of the last track meets before the world collapsed I watched Josette Norris run a 16:01 5k to get beat handily in the ‘slow’ section at BU. For perspective, the Bowerman Babes ran over a minute faster that same night and also had 3 women get under the American Record in the 3k. But who has the fastest time of 2021? Josette ran a 14:51 this weekend to lead a string of Americans to personal bests. (The race was won in 14:35 by Sifan Hassan, who might as well have been in a different heat given how much of her run was solo.) This was a 28-second PB for Norris, which just does not happen at this level. The Olympic delay affected everyone differently (for example, I quit running entirely). And in Norris’s case, a year ago she wouldn’t have made the trials, while now she’s central to the conversation of who’s making the team. If only we could run a parallel universe VLOOKUP to compare the roster of the 2020 team we never got vs. the one we’ll actually cheer on in Tokyo.

The greatest mystery in T&F 🤑

Non-disclosure agreements are the name of the game in track. If I wasn’t worried about pissing off a legal department still, I’d have no problem disclosing my previous contracts. (I’ll release my tax returns when I run for President.) Instead, when asked how much money I made as a professional athlete I speak in generalities: from a first year teacher in an underfunded school district to a tenured professor depending on how well I ran the previous year.

As the article noted, there aren’t many agents in the game, and it’s in their best interest to diversify investments while maintaining a strong relationship with the other end of negotiations. For their bottom line, it’s not worth arguing over $10K for one athlete if it may jeopardize their standing with [insert shoe company]. They’re only going to see $1500 of that and there are even fewer brands sponsoring athletes than there are agents. So while a 15% cut seems extremely high at times (like when that money fails to hit your account), if there were less agents in the sport then athletes would all be on their own.

Extrapolate that thinking and apply it to minor sponsors and you see how little incentive there is for an agent to chase after those potential contracts. As an athlete, I was sponsored by Xendurance and Feetures, but that’s only because I took the initiative to reach out and sell myself to them. Just as the shoe companies and agents are looking out for themselves, athletes have to as well. Run fast, build a following, advocate for yourself, and go back to school the last couple years of your career because trust me, no one hiring 30-year-olds for entry and associate-level jobs cares about your mile time.

Luck of the Irish ☘️

Yared Nuguse took advantage of an ideal night in a low pressure situation at the ACC prelims to take down my old American and Josh Kerr’s NCAA record. I said this was inevitable, but my crystal ball foresaw rabbits and competition. Occasionally in this sport you’ll have those, ‘where were you when Kennedy got shot?’ type situations. This, plus Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker’s 3:50 make my list. Things are just wild at the college level right now. A week ago, Cooper was only .01 behind Nuguse. And this weekend at Pac-12’s, Hocker followed up an 800 PB with a 5k victory over Teare 35-minutes later. Did Nuguse suddenly become way better than the Ducks? Probably not. More likely is that this track is even shorter than Swarthmore’s oval and I am actually still faster and very much relevant beyond just writing this dumb newsletter, right? Right?

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Cinematography of the week 📹

JuVaughn Harrison couldn’t miss at SECs this weekend, going 7 for 7 from the field, capping it off with a final jump of 2.36m for a new world lead. There’s a lot of discussion about how fast NFL players could run, and not enough arguments about NBA players jumping. But to put things into frame, this jump is over Manute Bol’s head. And it requires a bit more technique to get every body part over a bar vs. dunking a ball. Sound off in the comments!

You are personally invited 📨

Scrolling through my feed and seeing adidas athletes invite high schoolers to the Boost Games made me think about how I’d have felt if Alan Webb sent me a similar message in 2008. (It would have been recorded on an indestructible Nokia that was primarily used for Snake.) As shoe companies battle for the hearts of kids everywhere, this is a great way to engage with the next generation while actually utilizing professional athletes. Somehow paying for kids to fly across the country and giving away a bunch of free stuff isn’t an eligibility violation, but it’s a mutually beneficial way to imprint your logo in the minds and hearts of the target demographic. Personally, I was rocking a very ugly Reebok varsity jacket to class because it was a status symbol. One of the New Balance Nationals backpacks recently resold on eBay for $240. There’s always been Footlocker and NXN, but now Nike just announced they’re having a national meet at Hayward and then there’s the Brooks PR Invitational. From a gear and opportunity standpoint, these are the golden years for freakishly fast high schoolers.

New York, New York 🗽

This is good news! But also, why isn’t it 100%? Seems silly to drop out at the 16 mile mark. (Ay-oh!!) But seriously folks, either it’s safe to have races or it’s not, and from my understanding, it is. I’m just following the science here, but since the CDC says we can cram ourselves into bars like sardines if we’re vaccinated then it seems like we can run outside together just as safely. Plus, those extra 20,000 people would really help the NYRR’s finances, an organization that laid off almost half of its workforce due to the pandemic. Meanwhile the Boston Marathon, which has a very different definition of ‘qualifying time’ than I do, is requiring two negative tests (regardless of vaccination status) and is utilizing a rolling start instead of waves. There’s still a lot of time between now and November/April for policy updates, but the current projected level of caution speaks to why none of us made the high school soccer team. And don’t get me started on the fan situation in Eugene next month!

The end of an era 🧦

Please don’t be like that time Samson cut his hair! The Olympic 200m favorite has long been known for letting his personality shine through his feet. But when running at those speeds, the extra friction from socks can get hot! (This is a litmus test. If you knew what video that was before clicking, then you are a certified track nerd.)

Colleen to lululemon

Colleen Watch 2021 has officially ended! Internet detectives have been combing through her social media content with a magnifying glass ever since her departure from Bowerman was made public, but the wait is now over. There was a ton of speculation as to why one of the country’s best runners would leave the comfort of a group that helped her make every international team since 2015. But at the heart of this switch was Nike, a contract, and Colleen’s long-term earning potential. She is fast, just like many others. But with 239k followers on Instagram, Colleen takes a professional approach to her off-track operations, too. She is now as much an influencer as she is an Olympian, and it is obvious to anyone watching that she is working hard to cultivate her brand beyond performance.

This most certainly bothers a segment of the running population who believe in the old school mentality of letting race results speak for themselves. As it’s been discussed ad nauseam, the game is changing quickly and if the top ranked athletes don’t respond their sponsorship dollars will disappear. According to Colleen on the Citius podcast, her contract with lululemon is 3x that of Nike’s final offer and features the same bonus structure with no reductions. Doing all those give away contests and #fastbraidFriday posts has now paid off in a tangible way. And from a macro-perspective, a $40 billion dollar company, dipping their toes into the sport could intensify the market price for the next athlete with the ability to successfully straddle being an Olympic medal hopeful and also an influencer. That said, if lululemon wants to prove they’re serious about track then they’d sponsor this silly newsletter and send me a pair of those stretchy-formal pants!

Trials of Miles: NYC Qualifier

I’ll be back in the booth this Friday at 7:15pm at Icahn Stadium commentating a stacked line up of races. As always, there will be a live FREE stream on the Citius Mag YouTube channel — and now you can buy tickets to go watch in person if you’re in the area!