Please Pass Along! Save Track & Field

“On September 21st, 2012, University of Richmond Athletic Director Jim Miller informed the members of the University of Richmond Track and Field program that the University would be cutting the mens indoor and outdoor Track and Field teams. These cuts were made in order that the University could add a Men’s Lacrosse team. The Richmond Cross Country/Track program has been the epitome of what the NCAA promotes as Student-Athletes. We have succeeded both academically and athletically. The following are just some of the accomplishments by the Richmond Cross Country/Track and Field program over the past few years.

Spring 2011- Highest Team GPA all DI Outdoor Track and Field Teams

10 consecutive years on USTFCCCA All Academic Team for Cross Country, Indoor Track and Outdoor Track

2010- Qualified for NCAA XC Championships

2010-Top 25 finish in the NCAA

2010- Atlantic10 Cross Country Champions

Please sign this petition and vocalize your concern to the University community at large, to raise awareness and hopefully reverse this decision. Thank you for your support.

So I created a petition to Edward Ayers, President- University of Richmond and Jim Miller, Athletic Director, which says:

Please sign this petition in support of the University of Richmond XC/Track and Field program. Your support represents a commitment to what NCAA athletics are meant to be about- success in the classroom and in athletic competition.

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/save-richmond-track?source=s.fwd&r_by=5694246

Thanks!”

Please sign and pass this along to all of your runner friends!

The Rise of the Female Distance Runner

The Rise of the Female Distance Runner

“It takes getting used to, seeing young women run long distances, gasping and gagging and staggering around and going down on all fours at the finish line, pink foreheads in the mud,” began an article in Sports Illustrated in 1966 about the National AAU Women’s Cross-country Championship. “But they are young women, all right, make no mistake.The shaved legs, the singlets that actually do a service, all that symmetry, that fragrant hair.” One athlete’s coach, “a practical man, says it is good that she is trimmer, too, because she is going to be a woman much longer than she is going to be a runner.”

So what exactly were the “long distances” writer John Underwood was referring to? A mile and a half. For even the most recreational of racers set to compete in this Sunday’s 2011 ING New York City Marathon, that would barely even constitute a warm-up.

Read the rest of this great article HERE. 

Sorry if this image makes anyone uncomfortable. I don’t want to scare anyone off with Paula Radcliffe’s “shaved legs” and “fragrant hair” covered in sweat and mud as she drives victoriously through the finish. Maybe I should have warned you before posting such a graphic image. I mean, yuck, nobody wants to see that, right?