THE FORGE

Great ideas are everywhere, all you have to do is steal borrow them (with appropriate credit to the source). One of the big ideas around here has to do with my/our long term plans for the program. We're very fortunate to have the example of a much more mature program in the form of Guelph Running, under head coach Dave Scott-Thomas, to use as a model. See below for excerpts from a recent Guelph Mercury article about the program, borrowed from Reid Coolsaet's blog.


Efforts of many make champions
August 4, 2009
John Marsden
www.guelphmercury.com


Why Guelph? It is not the facilities. The university has a dirt track, built before Canada adopted the metric system. The St. James track is more holes than patches these days.

Our resource is human, a group of athletes that train together. This is the factory that produces international-level runners.

In a workout, they push themselves through a series of runs, trying to increase their speed as they get more and more tired. The strongest runners lead, the others try to maintain contact. They support, help and push each other. It is this depth of talent working together that produces superior athletes.

The source of talent is social. Over the years, something happens during those intense workouts; something is transmitted, runner to runner, that transforms them into world-class athletes.

You can see them now, on the roads and trails. They are young and lean, running faster than you or I can imagine. This is the place in which champions are forged.

Full article.