Track and Field Blogs - Justin Kopunek

April Fool’s Day; a holiday that tests one's creativity, duplicity, and gullibility. This year, every one of your favorite running websites attempted to pull a fast one on you. Here at Flotrack, the promise of an insane Usain workout left many Rick-Rolled. Let’s Run claimed the recession was forcing them to shut down, and Track Shark, oh…well (RIP). One that had some people fooled still days later came from Dyestat. They posted an article in which the premise was a little out there, but plausible enough. That combined with most reader’s desire for the story to be true got message board posters talking. It told of the Grindstone Mountain Elite Distance Development Project, which was to begin in the fall of 2009 on a mission to gather and train the countries most promising distance talent at a private academy in North Carolina in hopes of producing world class distance runners. The facilities were state of the art, with altitude simulating rooms, underwater treadmills and miles of trails. On top of that, there would be top notch coaching, rehabilitation, training partners, nutrition and a challenging academic curriculum. We now know it was an elaborate hoax that left many disappointed, but it left me wondering about the idea.

Is a program like this feasible in America and would the juice be worth the squeeze? Right now, the US distance running landscape is having a rebirth and it seems this would be the perfect time to try and experimental distance training program. Even though young Americans are running faster than ever, they still are not at the level of their elite African distance running peers. However, the United States is a premier place to train, as many of the world’s top athletes spend at least some of their time training within its boarders. What this fictional school hoped to do was utilize our assets and marry that with regimens of the globe’s top athletics dynasties to produce the best possible American distance runners. What does the United States have? All the things Galen Rupp gets slammed for having, great technology, equipment, and coaching. Imagine Alter-G and underwater treadmills, altitude tents, first-rate coaching, weight training, and proper nutrition made available to the top distance prospects at 14 years old. Add to that what US teenagers do not usually have, like dorms a few miles from school that they are forced to run to and from (like many African children must do out of necessity) and a swarm of training partners.

All this sounds promising, but there are some drawbacks and looming intangibles. The first would be money. Of course this would be terribly expensive and many of the athletes would require financial aid, or scholarship. To get the school off the ground you would need some generous benefactors, or corporate sponsors. The dyestat prank suggested that the school would have students not in the program that attend simply for the academics and their tuition would cushion the amount, as well as being able to rent the facilities out, primarily in the summers (perhaps some first-class running camps). Also, it would be difficult to get these prospects to move so far from home. These students would have to make a very large commitment at a very young age. But, perhaps this type of sacrifice is what is needed to become the best in the world. Elite gymnasts move their families and devote their lives all to attain greatness. Some of the Olympic Chinese gymnasts were given away by their parents at a young age to be trained for gold. They often achieve this, but that example is a bit extreme for the US. Many of the world’s elite in all sports make the commitment young and sacrifice the comforts of home. David Beckham signed with Manchester United at 14 and that is not out of the ordinary. Many countries have Olympic Development programs for young prodigies. In Jamaica, one may end up at a specific high school because they showed sprinting or jumping promise. It is no coincidence that the same few Jamaican high schools that give the US a thrashing at Penn Relays each year. It may be time America got in the game if they want to stay competitive in distance running.

A big question would be how to find these prospective students. It would no doubt be a difficult task to locate the countries most promising runners who are middle school. Obviously some of the country’s best talent does not poke through until the back half of high school and even into college, but there are a select few who show promise quite young (think Rob Finnerty, Sintayehu Taye, and Charles White). Elite middle-school girls will be not as hard to locate, but distinguishing which have long term potential will be the test (think Jordan Hasay, Nicole Blood, and Marie Lawrence). Another question is what will happen to the students after they graduate. Will they go to a nearby college and continue under the same coach at that facility, or will they take the chance of a possible downgrade in facilities by choosing to enter the NCAA. If the school had a corporate sponsor, sort of like the Nike Farm Team of high schools, would they be able to enter the NCAA? There are clearly many variables that would be involved in a project like this.

Of course most of these athletes would not turn out to be Olympic medalists and American Record holders, but would the entire project be considered a success if you got 1 Olympian out of each class. How about 1 major international championship medalist out of every 40 students? Would the money put in by investors, or the sacrifice of the students and their families, or the blood, sweat and tears of the staff be worth the reward? You may end up with a cautionary tale, or the catalyst for a new method of training for our elite distance runners. Picture schools popping up around the country; in Flagstaff, Boulder, Eugene and New York. The idea is not as far fetched as it may seem at first, which made it perfect for fooling the ever-hopeful distance loving youth. Perhaps, one day we will see a similar training project for our young distance runners and maybe, just maybe, the founder got inspired by a April Fools prank.