Wednesday, July 22, 2026
USATF MASTERS OUTDOORS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, GENEVA, OHIO
~JULY 16-19, 2026
I just returned from Ohio Monday. The meet went in a way none of us could have predicted--that's for sure! When I drove to Geneva from the Cleveland airport last Wednesday afternoon, I was noticing the haze in the sky. By the time all of my teammates/housemates arrived that evening, the air was thick with smoke from Canadian wildfires. The meet began the next morning, and they ran a few events on the track, and then moved them to the indoor track, and then canceled all events for the day a few hours later. My group tried to make the best of it--we went to Target and then a Walmart Super Center to speed walk and do striders down empty aisles. Late Thursday night, or early Friday morning, they cancelled all the events that had been scheduled for Friday. We were all bummed, but tried to remain positive and hopeful. The air was really bad. Like toxic. It was hard to manage nerves and emotions. Luckily for the, what--couple thousand?--track and field athletes who had traveled to be there, the events proceeded Saturday morning under much improved--but not perfect--air quality conditions. A few events were, unfortunately, cancelled in their entirety. I felt really bad for those dedicated athletes.
To solve the problem of squeezing what was left in, they decided to run the scheduled outdoor events on Saturday and Sunday as they were, and then to run all of the outdoor events from Thursday and Friday simultaneously on the indoor track at the facility (which is a 300 meter flat track--something many of us had never run on before). So athletes were moving back and forth from outdoors to indoors throughout the day depending on what they were registered for.
This new schedule didn't work out great for my events (I mean at least I got to run!)--I had to run my 800 meter race outdoors at about 11:30, and then I had to run my 400 meter (all heats were "final," meaning the best times overall get first through sixth place) inside about 4 hours later. So although I didn't have to run a prelim on Thursday and then a final on Friday, I had to run my two events within hours of one another (and teammate Jacques L. had to run his 100 meter race before the 400 as well). So, it wasn't ideal. I would have much rather been fresh for my 400. But every meet is different and every race is different.
I was seeded third in the faster heat of the 800 (which was a huge improvement from last year when I was seeded 5th or 6th in the slower heat!--at least this year I knew I'd be challenged by stronger 800 runners). There was a guy in lane one (well, it was a "waterfall" start, so we were just stretched out across a staggered line) who, spoiler alert, I just missed at the line, who got the gold--Landen Summay. A look at the ranking website ahead of time told me that A) a year ago he was running 2:13(!), B) that he has decades of experience in Masters track running the 800 and 1,500, and C) he has recently turned sixty, aging up into our group. I thought he might be the one to beat. In seed two position was Benoit Hogue, the Canadian 800 and distance runner champion who is now sixty and likes to come down to compete in U.S. races (though whatever his place ends up being, he cannot get a medal or the associated points because he's not American). Anyway, when the gun went off, I was in a daze--not really focused on getting out fast. It was hot outside, too, and the air still had some residual smoke. It was my first time being seeded in lane 3, and it showed. I am used to sprinting out from the middle or top of the waterfall and cutting in to lane 1. So I immediately got boxed in and it halted my flow, my pace. And the pack was moving too slowly, I could feel it. I spent the first 150 meters figuring a way of it, and then I had to expend that precious energy to get out of it, and I knew instantly that might come back to haunt me. I think the first 400 I went through at like 1:13--about 7 seconds slower than I did a month ago in NJ when I ran 2:18. I was fourth or fifth at that point. I moved up to third by the last curve, and then I hit it. I passed Benoit on the last straightaway, he had been in second, and I was gaining on the leader, Summay, but I ran out of meters--he got to the line at 2:19.33 and I got there at 2:19.53. I ran a negative 400 split, doing in 1:05 (which is kind of nuts!) His experience in the 800 showed, and he really deserves his gold. It took me a much longer time to recover from this race. In NJ a month ago, I was pretty much recovered in 10 minutes or so--my breathing had gone back to normal and I felt good. But this took me, gee, 35-45 minutes almost to get my breathing back to normal and easy. I think that smoke situation really affected me (speaking personally--I know we all ran in the same muck!).
Me with my 800 meter silver and Bruce with his 400 meter 5th place ribbon
A few hours later I was on the line at the indoor track, which is as mentioned a 300 meter flat track (something I had never run on--but I don't think anyone else in the race had either). I declined to use blocks, which was a mistake. Using them may have signaled to my brain it was time to sprint. I got lane 6. In the video I can see my start was slow. John Curtis (teammate) was in lane 5 and he came up on me and passed me before the first curve. I stayed with him after that (a bit behind) but passed him after the second curve. David Jones (who won outdoors last summer and who beat me again indoors in Albuquerque) was on the inside and that helped him pass me up. The 800 race had zapped me too much, I just didn't have the gas to catch him. He won in 57.76, and I crossed at 58.29--which is a PR for me in an individual 400 (I ran 58.93 last summer at Nats in Huntsville). So considering everything, I am very grateful I improved my time by just over a half second from a year ago. That's something! Teammate Bruce Rash got 5th in the race, and he's at the top of our age group at 64. I was happy for him. John is going on to Worlds in Korea next month, and I'm sure he'll improve his time, too.
John, David, and me on the medal podium M60 400 meters
After that race, I went straight to a 4x100 relay team, competing in the Mens 45 age group. We got silver.
Next day was hard, too. I didn't sleep well Saturday night. I only had one race on Sunday at the end of the day--the M60 4x400 relay. There were a lot of nerves, however, because my hamstring was actually making grumbles of being tight, and that always makes me have muscle strain PTSD (I got through the race fine--though not fast!). The nerves were around the fact that our main competitors, the Southwest Sprinters team that we just edged out at Penn relays for the gold--where I ran my 56.88 miracle leg time--were at the meet and ready to challenge us. Having to defend our dominance made for a stressed nervous system. We would be slightly stronger in the potential line-up with the addition of just-turned-sixty teammate Jacques Lucien (who was supposed to run with us a Penn but ultimately couldn't make the meet). He ran 58 high outdoors in the winter down in Florida, and he can sprint a fast 200 as well. They had a slightly better 4th guy on their team this time as well. So it was going to be a fierce rematch. However, due to one of their sprinters saying he may have strained something in his 200 race earlier, and another of their guys having to make a plane, they scratched in the clerking line. We had one other team to beat, which was easy. So John, Bruce and I achieved a track Triple Crown by winning Millrose Games in February, Penn Relays in April, and now we're National Champions! Our "fourths" for each race were: David Ott; Brian Howard; and then Jacques for Nationals. I'm proud I got to be a part of that.
M60 4x400 Relay National Champions
Maybe the sweetest outcome of outdoor Nats '26 is that our Greater Philadelphia Track Club won the overall USATF National Champion title--the first time since the club was started 23 years ago!
Men's Score: 1st 588 Points
Women's Score: 3rd 263 Points
Combined Score: 1st 851 Points
It is taking me a few days to feel energetic again. I didn't really sleep that well Sunday and Monday nights. Last night was better. My legs are feeling normal again. I'm back at the lake in Minnesota. It's cooler now and the smoke is gone. I'm feeling grateful for the ability to enjoy my physical body and compete in track. It's still so much fun. My training partner and de facto 800 coach Alison Schwalm, also got silver in her W45 800m race, and she is the new National Camp in the W45 400 meters! She had an awesome meet. She ran relays, competed in shot put, and even ran the 1,500 on Sunday morning (I had registered for the 1,500 too, but scratched the day before . . . my chances of placing were very small to nil, and I really haven't trained for it). I am very happy that all of her hard work has paid off.
According to the World Masters Rankings, I am currently #3 in the U.S. in the 400 meters (8th in the world), and I'm #1 in the U.S. (10th in the world). My age graded performance in the 800 is 90.78%, and it's 89.85% in the 400 meters. These percentages are the real indicators to me that I continue to improve my performances as I age--and that is really the most satisfying measure to me at this point!
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