I have emailed our new Track & Field Coordinator, Paul Considine, the following suggestions which have come out of the Member Services Subcommittee. Any additional thoughts?
"We thought re-ordering and simplifying the program some-what would help improve it. We are not big fans of lots of events each Thursday night, however we do appreciate that there is a demand for many different kinds of events. We think there may be “too many feature events” but we also appreciate they exist to encourage participation and there are many end-of-season trophies on offer for various series, which would be difficult and unpopular to cull.
"So we came up with a simple pattern for the track component which might be more successful than the current one which has been developed over recent years.
"First up at 6pm a novelty event: spirals or long relays come to mind. Alternating perhaps.
"Secondly (say at 6:30pm) the walk.
"Straight after the walk, the main middle distance races/divisions.
"Following the middle distances, the main sprint events. Because of the nature of sprints/recovery, you could even have two sets of sprints in there, to give the distance people a longer break. Not forgetting 400m, which for Vets falls somewhere between “sprints” and “middle distance”.
"And the final event on the program, the main long distance race.
"Moving the spirals from “prime time” to the start of the program is our main suggestion. Some feel that the 3000s at the start and the spirals at the end had things the wrong way round.
"Also a personal comment, as a distance runner I would love to see the return of the 5k, as these – without me checking - seemed light-on this year. Particularly in October/November/December when it is cooler, a 5k option at the end of each program would be good (except obviously if the hour or a 10k were scheduled)."
"We thought re-ordering and simplifying the program some-what would help improve it. We are not big fans of lots of events each Thursday night, however we do appreciate that there is a demand for many different kinds of events. We think there may be “too many feature events” but we also appreciate they exist to encourage participation and there are many end-of-season trophies on offer for various series, which would be difficult and unpopular to cull.
"So we came up with a simple pattern for the track component which might be more successful than the current one which has been developed over recent years.
"First up at 6pm a novelty event: spirals or long relays come to mind. Alternating perhaps.
"Secondly (say at 6:30pm) the walk.
"Straight after the walk, the main middle distance races/divisions.
"Following the middle distances, the main sprint events. Because of the nature of sprints/recovery, you could even have two sets of sprints in there, to give the distance people a longer break. Not forgetting 400m, which for Vets falls somewhere between “sprints” and “middle distance”.
"And the final event on the program, the main long distance race.
"Moving the spirals from “prime time” to the start of the program is our main suggestion. Some feel that the 3000s at the start and the spirals at the end had things the wrong way round.
"Also a personal comment, as a distance runner I would love to see the return of the 5k, as these – without me checking - seemed light-on this year. Particularly in October/November/December when it is cooler, a 5k option at the end of each program would be good (except obviously if the hour or a 10k were scheduled)."
