One year ago I posted a short mention that the High Altitude Training Center was closing. Here we are one year later and things have gone from bad to worse for the running community of Flagstaff, specifically, and the entire community of Flagstaff, in a more general sense. Below is a letter I recently received from Mike Smith, an outstanding runner, running coach, organizer and coach of Altius (a local running club), and all around good guy:
Friends of TEAM ALTIUS,
Greetings from Mike Smith. Most of you I know and have had the pleasure of working with, for those of you who are on our listserve who I have not met, I am one of the coaches of TEAM ALTIUS and have been operating it since we began with the Center for High Altitude Training in December, 2006. We’ve built a running club that I am very proud of and has been a tremendous asset to those that have participated. The name of the game is community, and if anything ALTIUS was a place for people to come together to share in their enjoyment of running. Thank you for your interest in our club.
Today was the day when you were to receive an email (sadly, already written, currently saved in my drafts folder) announcing the start of our 2010, coming together after a hiatus, with new and exciting changes, new offerings, renewed spirit, making way for an even better running club. Since December we have been working on meeting the insurance requirements issued by NAU Risk Management to allow access to the 300m indoor track housed in the Skydome. This facility is crucial for not only TEAM ALTIUS, but in an equally urgent cause, the access needed by the elite athletes that call Flagstaff home. After being very optimistic about meeting these incredibly difficult requirements, the underwriters from our outside provider have denied our certificate: access to the Skydome is not available for runners.
This means TEAM ALTIUS continues it’s indefinite hold on practices, and this means that our local elites are denied entry and use of a facility. On a large level, I personally believe that our proud claim, that I was once proud to make of Flagstaff being the best place on earth to run, is not true.
Consider the following:
-We proudly claim that our city is home to handfuls of Olympians and aspiring Olympians, yet these people have to sneak into facilities and hop fences to high school tracks?
-We claim a hospitable devotion to struggling athletes and a community behind them and their cause, but we SHUT DOWN, without a fight, the the US Olympic Training Site, one of only ten in the United States?
-When we speak of running in Flagstaff we use the word “community”, but our local running club is shut out of a facility that sits empty otherwise?
-Did you know that our city has three BRAND NEW high school tracks in Flagstaff, as well as one of the only indoor 300m tracks in the western United States, yet NOT ONE of these tracks are available to runners in this community? Imagine 4 swimming pools in Flagstaff and Michael Phelps having to sneak into them because he wasn’t allowed. And then imagine us at the same time saying with a straight face “Flagstaff, AZ: home of Michael Phelps!”
These things bother me because we CAN be as great as we say we want to be. I have listened to our city, the university, our community leaders, and our businesses talk about the economical impact (millions), and community support behind fostering the kind of environment which they claim to foster. Some of these people have the ability to greatly affect these matters. When it comes to the progress, there is much talk and little walk. Personally, those of us that are in this for the runners keep pressing on but days like today come and I want to tell athletes to go somewhere else! Go somewhere where you are welcomes and supported. I want to tell my running club what they really represent when they proudly say “Flagstaff, AZ” as their hometown.
We are exactly one year since the closure of the Center for High Altitude Training. I hope people are now understanding the crucial need filled by that operation and those that devoted themselves to it. In this time since it’s closure, I have encouraged people to play nice, follow the rules, wait and see, and always have hope. However, these methods are not working. Action is required, and I propose that the time has come to make noise. Based on what I have seen in the past 365 days, the fight won’t be a short one, and I don’t think we’ll get answers we like, but that doesn’t mean we should not fight.
Alert the press. Write a letter. Email John.Haeger@nau.edu every single day until you get a response. Forward this email to anyone and everyone. If you don’t like this, DO SOMETHING about it and don’t stop when they tell you to stop. Don’t be quiet when they tell you to be quiet.
To those of you who have been disappointed by the pause of your running club, I offer my sincere apology. TEAM ALTIUS is my love, I believe in it greatly and refuse to let it die. Riding this rollercoaster, much of which occurs behind the scenes, takes its toll. We’ve done our best to survive the rough waters since the closure of the Center and I just ask that you hang on a little longer, we will get there.
Thank you for your patience and support.
Mike Smith
