For track athletes, Christmas comes in September. Instead of tip-toeing down the stairs in the early morning, we crowd around the equipment room to receive our gifts. New shoes? Just what I wanted! And these sweats almost fit perfectly!
Now we might get a new sponsor for our clothes and shoes. That means new stuff (yes!), and the new sponsor is much more tailored our sport than the current one. Granted, all we get to keep are a couple t-shirts and our running shoes, but that doesn’t take away from the awesomeness of new gear.
But there’s a catch.
For a new sponsor, we’d have to cut back the budget in other areas. Shoes could come at a price of a meet in California. Sweats might cost a couple teammates’ spots on the travel roster.
This problem simply doesn’t arise at larger schools. Not only do they get a ton of sweet stuff—and keep it—but they host the cool meets in which we want to compete (besides Drake Relays—go Drake!). Because they have bigger programs, they have the luxury to travel and get plenty of gear.
I realize that’s just the nature of college sports. Until we bring home some national championships, we can’t have it all. To me, the chance to get out of Midwest springtime and compete in warmer weather seems better than new stuff. Unless they’re snow boots, new shoes aren’t much use in 30-degree weather and snow showers anyway.
So I guess I’m torn. If you had to choose between better training gear or a warmer travel schedule, what would it be?
Warmer travel schedule! I have always been a bit jealous of athletes for all of the sweet stuff they get. I guess I thought they always got everything for free. But, like they say, there is no such thing as free. I always thought you guys got to keep your stuff. That sucks you have to give it back. I would definitely rather have a warmer travel schedule though. Getting the “free” gear doesn’t seem like it’s worth the price. Getting out of the crazy Iowa winter weather is much more valuable. It saves your sanity.
I would take california over new sweats any day!! Although because I am not athletic in any way, I would probably take the sweats if it meant less meets, which meant less running. Haha, just kidding.
i agree- new gear seems like nothing compared to getting to travel around to warmer places!
Ah, I would love to be able to get away from Des Moines for the couple of days during the winter! What a wonderful treat. While new gear is awesome I agree with everyone else– trips are where it’s at!
Well that’s kind of a cruel cycle. You want new gear to compete, but you might not get to compete if you get new year and the only way to have both is if you compete and win a championship? Right? Well if I had to choose I’d choose competing over new gear becuase in the long run that will give you the greatest chance of winning and growing your program. On the other hand, that can be hard if the reason it’s hard to win is because you dont have gear that functions as well as other teams. Hence the cycle.
It is a cycle! And more than anything, it’s just nice to compete in warm conditions. It’s difficult to get decent times and marks when your muscles start to tighten up during a race from the cold. I think I decided. I’d rather have better meets.