From The Daily Camera
By Michael Sandrock
When Dan King and Chris McDonald left the University of Colorado and the CU track team, in 1980 and 1992, respectively, a lot of running and racing potential was left out there on the Potts Field track. Back in those antediluvian days — No Tik Tok! No AI! No Super Shoes! — only a few runners had the support to continue training after college.
“There was no crossing the chasm,” is how McDonald, 54, put it in a recent interview. Those that did often led ascetic lifestyles, scraping by month-to-month and race-to-race.
That was not the path for McDonald and King, both of whom went on to highly successful business careers, and now, as top-ranked national masters runners, have teamed with fellow Boulder Road Runner Marcey Cote, another top masters athlete who is just tapping into her running potential at an older age, to offer up a new program to support “aspiring” local post-collegians as they train with a focus on the 2024 Olympic Trials.
Called Aspire OTQ, (Aspireotq.com) the athlete support program is accepting nominations for monetary stipends to be handed out this fall. A launch party is set for June 21 at Longmont’s Shoes & Brews running store, 63 S. Pratt, from 6 to 8 p.m. Aspire OTQ builds on a tradition started by Boulder Road Runners founder Rich Castro, who used to help out graduating CU runners get to races. Most runners in Colorado, however, pay their own expenses to the Olympic Trials, as well as paying for gear, coaching and traveling to qualifying sea-level races.
Aspire OTQ aims to change that, as does another athlete support program, the Colorado Athletics Project, started by local runner and chiropractor John Minen, 34, who donated funds to the Boulder Road Runners scholarship program before the 2020 Olympics.
Boulder Road Runners President Chris McDonald, left Marcey Cote, and Dan King organized the Aspire OTQ athlete support program formalizing the Boulder Road Runners long-standing tradition of supporting local athletes. (Monika King / Courtesy photo)
“The BRR has a tradition of support and a history of giving money,” said McDonald, a steepler at CU, who clocked a 4:46 mile at age 52 and who this winter took home silver and bronze medals in the U.S. indoor masters track championships. King is a past masters world record holder, while Cote was part of the Boulder Road Runners W50 cross-country national champions.
“Many high-achieving post-collegiate runners struggle to bridge the gap between college and earning their first professional contracts, especially the financial cost of pursuing an Olympic dream,” according to a press release from Aspire OTQ. “While some athletes do earn sufficient money from corporate sponsorships, most do not.”
One of those helped in the past by the Road Runners is Colorado grad and Tokyo Olympic steeplechaser Val Constien, who received financial help in getting to Tokyo. “I did not have a contract, and just buying running shoes was a financial strain,” she explained. “The grant that BRR gave me helped me keep my head above water.”
Constien, whom McDonald calls a “poster child” for the program and who is an ambassador for Aspire OTQ, added, “I feel so lucky to have had so much support and success, and it only feels right to give back.”
An Aspire OTQ launch party is set for Wednesday, June 21 6:00 pm at Shoes & Brews in Longmont.
John Minen, a 3:42.05 1500-meter runner and chiropractor who qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials, started the Colorado Athletics Project as a way to help post-collegians with training expenses.
Minen, the owner of Colorado Sports Chiropractic, is another successful runner looking to give back to younger runners. While still competitive enough to dream of breaking four minutes for the mile — “but I have a long way to go now” —he realizes his glory days of qualifying for the Olympic Trials, as he did in 2012, are past. He started Colorado Athletics Project (www.coloradoathleticsproject.org). as a way to get unsponsored post-collegians the treatments they need through treatment, nutrition, coaching and access to facilities which they are often unable to afford. “Not a lot (of Olympic trials athletes) are making any money, or are well-funded,” Minen, 34, said.
What these two local athlete support programs show is how connected the running community is, from the kids programs to the elite training clubs, and how the organizers of Aspire OTQ and the Colorado Athletics Project are putting their smarts and dedication to helping younger runners, glad to see others receive the support they did not get when young. “I only dabbled in running when I was younger,” said Cote. “But now it’s an essential part of my life, and I’m honored and excited to be helping athletes through this program.”
Cote’s commitment is real; she and her BRR masters national champion teammates — Lesia Atkinson, Kate DeSimone, Jeannie Freis and Allysn Serrao — donated their winnings from the U.S. championships and from the Colleen de Reuck Cross Country Classic to Aspire OTQ program.
“If we keep raising money, hopefully it keeps building on itself,” said McDonald, who will go for the 4:36.9 American mile record when he turns 55 next year. He added that nominations for deserving runners are being accepted through the summer, and that some local elites are expected to attend the June 21 launch at Shoes & Brews; the store has donated to Aspire OTQ, as has High Plains Bank. Details or to donate: www.boulderroadrunners.org.
Follow Sandrock on Instagram: @MikeSandrock