Nico Montanez was brilliant today but is he currently the only male runner on the Mammoth team? I just checked their roster and it only shows 4 athletes. Nico, 2 women, and a retired Deena Kastor. It also appears that ON is no longer a sponsor? I guess all good thing come to an end but this track Club once had nearly a dozen Olympians and now THREE athletes?
I have no inside information but the town is very isolated, retiree oriented place. My uncle has a home out there and it’s a nice escape for a week but not much else. College and HS teams use it for a few weeks out of the year for altitude training. If you are between the ages of 21 and 28 or so, you will have trouble meeting people, getting a job relevant to your college degree, traveling in and out of there, etc…The hermit lifestyle of training has shifted during the Ryan Hall and Meb days of the group to being near things to do to take your mind off the grind of training.
I am a long time Mammoth resident. Once they built the track, from May through June it was a who's who of American distance running on that track every day. Not only the Mammoth Track Club, but all of the other top clubs as well. Everything changed in the summer of 2018. Fires in the backcountry covered the area is smoke for months and clubs that were here left and the ones that were planning to come changed their plans. Smoke has been an issue for weeks at a time nearly every year since. Since that time, the MTC has been shrinking, and the other track clubs stopped training here as well.
One could argue that is a big deal and why boulder proper has kinda died (Alot of the pros are in Longmont/Westminster surrounding areas) or gone to Flag.
I am a long time Mammoth resident. Once they built the track, from May through June it was a who's who of American distance running on that track every day. Not only the Mammoth Track Club, but all of the other top clubs as well. Everything changed in the summer of 2018. Fires in the backcountry covered the area is smoke for months and clubs that were here left and the ones that were planning to come changed their plans. Smoke has been an issue for weeks at a time nearly every year since. Since that time, the MTC has been shrinking, and the other track clubs stopped training here as well.
Wasn't the MTC instrumental in getting the track built in Mammoth?
Thinking about all the pro groups in Flag, and their difficulties using HS tracks.
I am a long time Mammoth resident. Once they built the track, from May through June it was a who's who of American distance running on that track every day. Not only the Mammoth Track Club, but all of the other top clubs as well. Everything changed in the summer of 2018. Fires in the backcountry covered the area is smoke for months and clubs that were here left and the ones that were planning to come changed their plans. Smoke has been an issue for weeks at a time nearly every year since. Since that time, the MTC has been shrinking, and the other track clubs stopped training here as well.
Wasn't the MTC instrumental in getting the track built in Mammoth?
Thinking about all the pro groups in Flag, and their difficulties using HS tracks.
I would think the track would make this a very appealing area. I thought that prior to Poopgate but especially now. It's not owned by a school or even near one. No one around to complain. It is supposed to be run on! I remember a picture in Running Times (RIP) with high-profile Oregon-based guys training there. There are also tons of soft-surface roads available. Most of this is between 7000' and 8000'.
So why isn't it popular among the very top level of US running any more? I think the smoke is as big an issue as the above poster implied, maybe the biggest. When it is bad, it is a very big deal, as in not safe to even sit in a house. And it really is every year now. It is cold and snowy half the year. The other half, it is uninhabitable for much of the time.
When Mammoth is good, it is hard to imagine anywhere better for training on roads or trails in the US. The track is a amazing and there are open restroom facilities available year round (port-o-potties in the winter and restrooms in the summer).
Agree with the others citing smoke. I lived near Mammoth in the summer of 2018, and when the skies were clear it was the best running of my life. When the smoke was bad, though, running was out of the question — you could barely even breathe or see. I still love the Eastern Sierra, but I moved to New England after that summer because I couldn’t take another fire season.
When Mammoth is good, it is hard to imagine anywhere better for training on roads or trails in the US. The track is a amazing and there are open restroom facilities available year round (port-o-potties in the winter and restrooms in the summer).
Funny that the restroom situation is considered the most significant point when discussing the track. I guess the Flagstaff thing was truly a big deal for the US pro running community. Besides the track, the general area and variety of terrain is great too. Summer weather? Perfect.
The USFS and NPS policies to not put fires out (even if it is environmentally sound, and I can give them the benefit of the doubt) really has ruined the Sierra Nevada training-wise. I had to leave hastily last year and couldn't get home for much of the summer. I left Purple Air open on my phone and went to the Coast.
The year before, I left home late (after I'm normally down for the night) and headed to Las Vegas. One doesn’t abruptly leave the Sierra in mid-summer and the middle of the night for Vegas except under duress. The smoke was that bad; I couldn't see stars.
Maybe this will pass. It might not go on every summer. It seems it would be a great place for many pros looking for Flagstaff/Park City elevation - with easy access to 4500', like those places. There are Magnolia-like roads and flatter paved routes too. When there's neither snow nor smoke, it's probably as good as anywhere in the country.