Coaches, Runners, Fans, and Meet Staff:
Ten years of hosting this meet now completed! It is amazing looking back and thinking how far the site and the meet have come. The first year I started the meet, I was a sophomore in college with precisely zero meet management experience and my fraternitiy brothers and I calculated the team scores with a small solar caculator leaning against the back of a car and writing them on a posterboard with sharpie. It was small and amateur, but it had a spirit and great competition even then, but wow how truly far we have come!
I would say that cliched line of how I never imagined it would get to where it is today, but that wouldn't be true. This is exactly what I hoped and believed the meet would one day become. Our mission for the meet is simple in concept yet incredibly difficult in practice: we want to be more than just another meet. We want to be something special, unique, and fun. There are plenty of other meets on the schedule, but we want to be the one that the kids circle on their calendar and look forward to and then later, even after graduation, look back and say "Wow! That was great!" Fortunately, I am so pleased with the end result of this year's meet and I believe we accomplished exactly that.
The competition was great; the awards were great; the races were on schedule; results were prompt; we had great announcing; great course; great midway area layout; shirt sales were good (although again we need more smalls!); registration was efficient; few timing or results errors; thousands and thousands of runners; team tents as far as the eye could see; great interactive vendor tents by Nike and X-Treme trips; great food and concessions; limited traffic and parking delays (though we filled up both BCC and Chain of Lakes on Day 2!!!); friendly and hard-working staff; (mostly) friendly athletes, fans, parents, and coaches; it had that great festival or Woodstock like atmosphere that leave a sort of "this is something special" feeling in the air that you can't describe without being there; you took good care of the facilities..... just everything guys! It just worked!!! Seeing you all enjoying yourselves, seeing it come together, and especially after the two Race of Champions... just gave me goosebumps! This is exactly what we want... a showcase of just how great our sport is!
First of all, I want to thank all of the incredible runners, coaches, and parents for your support of both the web site and this meet. Without you of course there would be no meet! Thank you to all of you who come and make up this meet of over 4000 athletes strong!
There are a lot of teams who have been coming to this meet for a very long time, some who have only missed one year. According to my research only five have been to every single year and I want to thank and congratulate them! Thank you to Winter Park, Our Lady of Lourdes, Gulliver Prep, Bloomingdale, and Trinity Prep... our ten year vets!
One thing needs to be clear... I don't work nearly as hard as I used to at this meet. Sure it's a lot of work and a lot of planning, but for the first seven years of the meet I just ran around like a chicken with my head cut off at the meet. Frantically, running from one place to another to make sure everything went off as planned and putting out fires. I would be in complete sequester weeks before the meet because I had to wear every hat. Not that I didn't have great helpers then, but I was still involved in every aspect from micro to macro. That all changed three years ago.
I have the best meet director working beside me that I have ever known: Jeff Kramer. His drive and attention to detail have taken this meet to new heights in Titusville and likely saved my marriage! I know that Jeff will help me take care of the finer details and he has proven again and again that they are secure in his competent hands. This leaves me to focus on more macro issues in planning the meet and on meet day leaves me to relax a bit or do small (mundane?) things like unpack the awards on stage! Jeff, thank you!
But what makes Jeff so good? He knows the same thing I've learned, that you surround yourself with good people. He has assembled a killer team over there that just goes above and beyond. I hate to start mentioning people, so as not to leave anyone out... but thanks to the core of our core staff: Marty Winkel, Randy Minnihan, John Smith, and Terry Hayden for their tremendous efforts. Dave Rittenour helps us just about every year as our starter, and this year Tony Tussing and his meet official crew kept things running smooth and efficient! Steve Huff did a great job of painting the field and the swoosh! Dave Mitchell heads up our finish line crew and while chip timing made his life a lot less stressful in that regard this year, he was still invaluable!
Speaking of going above and beyond... Steeple Timing's team of Jeff Wentworth, Marcia Wentworth, and Chris Kail have gone not only the extra mile for me these last few years, but the entire extra 5K! They are amazing and way past the call of duty for a timing company. This year our all-star timing crew also included amazing chip timing support from Dusty Smith of Half Mile Timing and IPICO Sports shipped down their equipment and brought their expertise in Larry Hicks and Doug Luman. Thanks to those guys!
Titusville High School was an excellent host school for us this year, they made sure things got taken care of and did everything cheerfully and enthusiastically. Specifically there Terry Hayden, Dan Diesel, and Ron Philpot were great. Thanks also to Astronaut High School's Terry Humphreys and Bill Canfield who were accomodating in sharing the course and supplies with us.
To Nike... what a great team we made this year. Through some difficulties and changes, you worked hard through it all and pulled off definitely the best sponsor presence I have ever seen at a meet. This is what it should be. The Nike tent and athlete lounge was a great addition to the meet. It is what sponsorship should be, not a billboard but a handshake. It wasn't an advertisement to the kids, it was an interactive, fun, learning place for the kids (and adults) to hang out. Great work! Specifically thank you to my buddy Jason Knight, Scott Henson, Mark Lau, and Tut Said for their weeks of work. Thank you to the execs from New York for coming down and checking us out... hope you liked what you saw! Thanks to the Nike Truck East crew for joining us. And thank you to Lauren Fleshman for being a great, fun, and informative celebrity guest.
The City of Titusville, Titusville Chamber of Commerce, Brevard County, Brevard Community College, and Brevard Parks and Rec were especially gracious and helpful hosts. From helping us with the stage and tents, to maintaining the grounds, to letting us use their facilities, for the hours of labor and dedication, to the support and donations you rounded in the community... GREAT! Thanks specifically to: Mayor Jim Tulley; Director Terry Lane and Leon Cronk of Parks & Rec; Rusty Buchanan and Carol at Space Coast Sports; Michelle Richard, Dr. Linda Miedema, Armando, and the entire janitorial and security staff at Brevard Community College; Commissioner Robin Fisher; and the dozens that I have forgotten. Thank you to Susan Withers of the Ramada Inn for her willingness to help in anyway she could with rounding up community support. Thanks to the officers who helped with traffic and security, to our EMT medical crew, and our parking attendants from THS.
Our race ambassadors who met the teams at their buses... you were a great addition and made the teams feel so welcome. To my lovely wife (Melinda who was at Registration), parents (Charlie and Renee who worked T-Shirts), and in-laws (Gary and Sherry who babysat and always lend their accounting skills) thank you for your help and just putting up with me. (Also if you happened to see a beautiful little baby in pink with pigtails - that was my Ansley!) Thank you to my dear friend Carla Portilla for helping out yet again this year. Thank you to John Roberts and Laser Engraveables for again making our awards the finest in the state--since year three of the meet! And to T-Formation for working with us on the shirts.
Thanks to our sponsors: Nike, WARR10R Running Camps, X-Treme Trips, FLORIDA TODAY, RunningZone, IPICO Sports, Space Coast Tourism, and MF Athletic.
Thanks to the extended running family of Titusville HS, Astronaut HS, and Titusville in general: The Slaymans, the Spoerles, Sarah Guttery, the Haydens, the Kramers, and so many others. Thank you to Rick Andrews, Paul White and Ralph Epifanio for their photography skills, Mark Decotis newspaper coverage, and Cris Davies at the FLORIDA TODAY for her help. Thank you to Joe Laughlin (J7 Event Management) for his great announcing; Fred Finke for his friendship, support, and use of his clock; and to the Piercys at RunningZone for their help and clock. I am so sorry for all of those that I have not mentioned, Jeff can do a better job than I can at this.
Thank you to Matt Mizreck, Armando Del Valle, Erick Montoya, Kathryn Fluehr, Erika Fluehr, Shelby Hayes, et al for making for some exciting, memorable, and historic Race of Champions! Thank you again for all of you supportive runners, parents, families, and coaches. Your encouragement means everything to me and you leaving happy is what really determines the success of failure of this event. Based on your smiles this year, I am very confident that we pulled off the finest meet in our ten year history! THANKS AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
Very Sincerely Yours,
Jason Byrne
flrunners.com Founder