Northrunning.com has announced that within a year it will switch focus. Starting in January of 2009, the new entity, North Running Group (NRG) will be formed. Under the direction of retired track and field coach Dwight Estey, the web-site will become the information source for an affiliation of track and field programs covering the spectrum of preschool to geriatric competition.

 

USATF voted unanimously to accept this group under its umbrella, providing publicity and tactical support as well as insurance coverage. Under the provisions of the two-year agreement, USATF will re-evaluate the program prior to January of 2011. At that time they will either terminate their connection with NRG or adopt the model. It is rumored that if adopted, NRG will accept a projected seven-figure buyout plan.

 

NRG is a consortium of five track and field programs. The levels of participation were recently outlined.

 

A grass roots program to increase participation in the sport. Whereas many sports provide feeder programs starting as early as age five, Tots-running will certify competition from the time future athletes can walk. In a preemptive move against sports that funnel off many athletes before they experience the sport, Tots-Running will provide through local hospitals a one-year free membership card. The combined birth/running certificates will be issued through maternity wards. Premies get an extra six months free. Details are still being formulated to sign-up home birthed athletes.

 

Geared from ages 5 to 12, this program is developed around weekly Saturday morning meets. It is expected to be a hit with parents trying to pull their children away from the TV. The concept is a reworking of an idea spawned in 2006 in which track athletes were portrayed as super-heroes. Spinoffs will include track uniforms with capes and popular track and field action figures. The new line of figues includes the Sponge Bob discus thrower and the Alley Cats 4X200M relay. Plans for the "Olympic" and "Prison" editions of the Marion Jones doll were scrapped.

 

This is expected to be the most controverial but effective part of the program. Teen-Running will use a European model of club-based track and field with no direct ties to schools. Track and field programs will no longer be adulterated with misguided “educational objectives.” The focus will be on performance, not tangential goals such as developing sportsmanship, integrity or school pride. Without the interference of state governing bodies and their restrictive competition seasons, track and field will truly become a twelve-month sport.

 

Formerly known as elite-running, this level blends both college and post college age runners of national and international caliber. Instead of following a college system with its haphazard athletic scholarship recruitment sham, athletes will be able to draw direct salaries, not $40,000.00 per year "educational subsidies.” The extended-club format will be a direct expansion of Teen-Running, but clubs will become regionalized with corporate sponsorship. Current club affiliations such as the Hanson's Project and Zap Fitness would easily adapt to the system. Regional amateur clubs such as the BAA would have to decide whether to become more selective and capitalistic, or to become part of the post-professional level. With track and field removed from the colleges, Pro-Running would absorb top athletes earlier. Track and field will have a greater attraction to young athletes because of the prospect of going pro at ages 19 or 20.

The final level of running, the post-professional, will adopt and expand on the previous Master's competition theme. Formerly a loosely based program under the unweildlingly massive USATF umbrella, master's competitions will immediately benefit from the branding with the internationalally known name – Northrunning.com. The hope is to encourage hundreds of thousands more “over-the-hill” athletes to slap on their spikes and have another go at it. Estey will maintain most contact with this age group. In a Sunday morning interview he said, “This is the group that has the most direct effect on the success of all the other programs. They have the most disposable income so they will have the highest membership fees, entry fees and uniform costs. With any luck, their need to prove they still have it will feed the coffers with enough money to subsidize the other programs.” The national membership campaign starts off next month with the theme, “Join North-Running before your body goes south.”