Why the WMDP selection as “Club of the Year” was not controversial to me.

WMDP and GLRR at the start of the 2012 Kerouac 5k (and other clubs).

Recently I was faced with the question of what club to vote for as 2012 USATF New England Club of the Year. We all have the childish reaction to vote for our own clubs for some sort of pat on the back. For me, that would have meant voting for one of three running clubs: the Wicked Running Club, the Greater Lowell Road Runners or the Saratoga Stryders. The Saratoga Stryders were out because they are in USATF Adirondack. Neither Wicked nor GLRR were nominated so I was forced to think about what club deserved the award. My vote went to the Western Mass Distance Project.

WMDP was named co-Club of the Year along with the Whirlaway Racing Team at the USATF New England banquet and to my surprise this selection was controversial.

The first thing to come to mind was that members of snubbed clubs would think that their club should have won, but it seems to be more than that. There seems to be a genuine disagreement about what Club of the Year should mean, and that’s ok.

USATF stands for United State of America Track and Field so some members might think that the Club of the Year must stand out in throws, jumps and track events. In addition to track and field events, USATF New England also governs road running, cross country, mountain running and race walking so perhaps each of these racing arenas should weigh into the decision, but how much does each event matter? Does a club winning the Men’s Open category of the road Grand Prix count as much as another club having a member set the Women’s Masters American Record at the Triple Jump?

Then there is the question of activities like race organization, volunteering at races organized by other organizations, youth outreach, philanthropy, club member benefits and so forth. Do these activities matter for Club of the Year and if so, how much do they matter relative to racing and each other? I don’t have THE answer.

But I do have AN answer.

My answer is that there is no mathematical formula for deciding what club should be the Club of the Year. The answer is that it doesn’t matter how many events a club wins or how much money it raises or how many youth outreach events it has or how many members volunteer at the Boston Marathon.

When deciding what club should be Club of the Year I go back to the two core functions of a running club that supersede everything else:

1) Does the club inspire runners to run more?

2) Does the club inspire more people to become runners?

I listed these two questions in this order because I consider the first more important. There are as many reasons why people start running as there are runners and for the most part the running club isn’t something that starts us running. The running club should be something that keeps us running.

In my early days as a runner I joined Wicked Running Club partly because Tim Short was wearing a Wicked singlet when he won the Men’s 20-29 group at all the races around Salem, MA and he was always at the finish line when I crossed, waiting to cheer every Wicked member in to the finish. When I joined Wicked, I started training with Danny (Chick), Tim and Rich (Tomlins) on Saturday mornings.

Rich and Tim cruising in the 2008 Nahant 30k.

Wicked had club social events, hosted races, gave scholarships, volunteered at Boston, hosted youth track meets and competed at races at many levels, but for me, the most important thing that Wicked did was have that Saturday morning run because Tim, Rich and I pushed each other to run faster and train harder.

After running the first 2 USATF-NE GP races in Wicked red I decided that I wanted to use competing in the series as a catalyst for my training. Since Wicked wasn’t fielding a team for the USATF races, I wanted to find a club that I could train with where I would have the chance of scoring for the team if I worked my ass off, but where I would get pushed by other runners passing me if I slacked off. I found the Greater Lowell Road Runners.

GLRR makes an appearance on the Steamtown Marathon website.

Whether it was EJ logging a 3000 mile year and running a 2:50:04 marathon (fastest runner 50 or older at Steamtown) or Lauren winning the Bermuda Challenge, Bui running BQ marathons on three consecutive weekends or Bash terrifying everyone by getting hit by a car only to come back with two fall marathons including a BQ in Tucson, GLRR has never failed to provide inspiration to keep training.

So that is what I value in a club: the ability to inspire runners to run more.

To me WMDP earned their place as co-Club of the Year by living the blueprint for success. It is so easy to turn a 90 second rest between intervals into 2 minutes. It is easy to do your tempo runs at Marathon Pace and it is easy to figure that 18 is enough on a 20 miler day and it is even easier to decide that rest days don’t matter and go out for an easy 10k with your friends. WMDP has shown that success comes from the combination of only two things: you must work hard and you must work smart. Or, in their words: Respect the Process. In my eyes this is not a competition club vs. club. We are all in this together and if one club can not only inspire its own members to train harder and smarter but also inspire the rest of us then that club deserves the accolade of Club of the Year.

I still have not met anyone who runs with WMDP, but to all of you, my hat is off. Though I (and many others like me) cannot race as fast as you guys, we can follow your lead and Respect the Process of our training. Congratulations on being named Co-Club of the Year.

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!