Track and Field Blogs - Ryan From Flotrack

Anniversary 1: the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event ; broadly : a date that follows such an event by a specified period of time measured in units other than years

Its been about a year for me now, and what a big year its been. A one year anniversary. I put the definition above solely because I've read some cool things that start with a definition so it feels like you are about to be given some great knowledge about life or something....but don't worry, you probably won't learn too much here ;)

Many of you know that a little over a year ago I was sitting at a desk (it was actually just a table, not even a cubicle) in Boston working behind a computer for 8+ hours a day. I was wondering, "what am I doing. Am I supposed to go through everyday day of my life going to a job and while I'm there constantly think of other things I could be doing with myself?" I felt like my job was holding back my life (I know some of you out there know what I'm talking about). I've told others this, but I got to the point where I said to myself "I have the rest of my life to find a job I don't like that much, why start at my first job out of school??" I was on xmas break in FL with the fam thinking ok I am gonna quit when I get back. Then I was wrestling around with my younger cousin (but he's a lot bigger) and he kind of dropped me on my head. Anyway, long story short, I hurt my neck and had to keep my job a little longer to get those sweet insurance benefits (you still miss that and 3 weeks vacation everyone once in a while, but I think the sacrifice is worth what I am doing now). But luckily I didn't quit right away and leave Beantown. I had gotten a camera for xmas and then indoor track rolled around. Only a few months prior I discovered Flotrack, and yeah, I put two and two together. Camera+Track+Boston (great indoor scene)=me doing something cool on the weekends! It was awesome. I emailed Flotrack, Mark came to my place to crash and things took off from there. You may remember some Red Runner Recaps.

But back to the anniversary.... This coming weekend is where it really all went down. Boston Marathon, Mt. SAC, and the road trip down to Austin. Honestly I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but thats how I wanted it to be. Go with the Flo (a little pun for ya). Boston was the first big weekend for, I had done some track meets but never a professional event. Elite athletes, media, agents, late nights, early mornings, interviews..... It was exciting stuff! But it wasn't just a big weekend for me, it was a big weekend for Flotrack. '08 Mt. SAC marked our first ever live broadcast! I could tell Mark was excited and I tried to share that excitement with him, but shoot I was new and walking around like a deer in headlights. I remember we went to a bar one night (just a social thing, not craziness)....athletes, agents, all these people there I had never met. There where guys walking around that I looked up to as young runner, so cool. But I remember Mark found a computer in the back corner of this bar and we pulled up the Flotrack website, I could sense Mark was nervous hoping this Live thing was going to work. We're standing there next to Todd Williams, the US's top 10k guy while I was growing up, just hoping it would show up. Whats the first thing we see.....FAM!!! Just killing the steeple chase! All of a sudden people were crowding around the computer wanting to see what was going on and that when I knew I was a part of something special. Fam stormed up the bleachers into the announcers booth with his spikes on chanting "USA USA".....man I had never seen anything like that, its still one of the coolest things I had experienced in track and field.

A lot has happened since then....so many trips, meeting so many people, sooooo many races, and tons of interviews. My road trip to Austin took over 5 weeks after that and I don't think Mark thought I was ever going to actually make it. But I met so many people on that trip, learned so much and saw how great our running community really is. After that it was even crazier. Meet after meet, breaking down (twice) on our road trip to the trials, watching one of the greatest meets ever (the Trials), meeting Olympians, and then being told only 2 days in advance that I needed to get to Europe! Haha, if you know us, that is the Flotrack way....you can't be anal in this job (I used to be, had to have all the details blah blah blah), but not now. As long as I'm not getting rained on while sleeping and I can score some cheap food, I'm golden! And the thing is that it never stops, thats the beauty of our sport (and also the exhausting thing about it!). Always great things going on from XC to indoors to outdoors to the Euro circuit....never ending goodness.

So this weekend is very special to me, very special to Flotrack. The anniversary of going live, the anniversary of the road trip that changed things for me. Not to mention this past weekend, almost a year to the date, we had our first race footage on the track!! We constantly trying to push and make things better. I really hope you are digging what we're doing because I am. I am so thankful to be in this position and a lot of that is because of you out there. We couldn't survive if you weren't into it, you weren't getting involved, caring about the sport, caring about Flotrack. I thank everyone out there for all you've done, the people on my road trip, the coaches who helped along the way, the volunteers that do so much to help us get where we are (that's how I started too!), and the fans of track & field/Flotrack! It's been an amazing ride so far and its just going to keep getting better....

And how fitting is it that I'll be sitting in the announcer's booth with Todd Williams this weekend, commentating races we watched in a bar together one year ago...ironic?

Thanks to everyone for all you do to make our community great. Hope you're ready for another crazy weekend, Mt. SAC and Boston!

Ryan

P.S. Yes, we'll be live again this year at Mt. SAC ;)