Three years into the experiment that has become the Dundas Valley Track Club, we're still here. We could simply tell you about the great performances from club members this year, but the reality of keeping a club going is that there's also a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes (who knew?). So the story of where we, DVTC, are now is as much a story of how we got here. If you've had thoughts about starting your own club, considering taking a few minutes to read on.
On January 1st, 2016, a group of local runners, most (if not all) of us having connections to the McMaster team, ran together to kick off the New Year. We were (mostly) post-collegiates, balancing work/post-graduate degrees and running and life, otherwise known as early adulthood, and making a conscious decision to continue competing outside the framework of scholastic competition. We'd meet for easy runs and workouts in the evenings, and a long run on Sundays at 8:30AM.
When someone mentioned in the following months that we needed a name, Gregory Lariviere suggested the Victoria Coates Track Club, and VCTC was instantly adopted, to the chagrin of our most nationally-competitive athlete.
Officially everyone running with us represented other Athletics Ontario clubs in competition in 2016, but in workouts we were our own entity. To be honest, some days that entity was pretty small, no more than 2 or 3 bodies on workout nights. Staying healthy was even more a priority knowing there wouldn't be much of club if even one person was sidelined with injury.
In 2017, after some encouragement locally, we decided to make things official. Unfortunately our eponymous runner was not thrilled at the idea of us registering the VCTC name officially with Athletics Ontario. Going so far as to attempt to settle the debate with multiple rounds of ranked ballots, we eventually decided on DVTC.
The process for registering with AO in 2017 was relatively simple. Essentially it came down to picking a name, paying a fee, and naming a board of directors. The harder stuff was settling on a club logo, designing a website, and ordering customized singlets (how can it take 3 months every time we want some new singlets, Nike?!).
This past year, a group led by Cole Czuchnicki that was previously associated with a local gym came under our umbrella, adding new pace groups and different workout days. We also started to look into fundraising options to cover our costs. Finding a revenue stream became even more important when we learned about AO's intention to update their club registration guidelines to require NCCP-certified coaches and incorporation, which would essentially quadruple our costs from the previous year.
So this all probably begs the question: why? Why did/do we need to exist at all? Certainly we've been asked that question by other people. There are other clubs in town; we could probably join any of them (or any in Ontario, really) and still operate as an independent unit, similar to what we did in 2016, since past the university ranks, no one really seems to care what you do if you're not carded. And joining an established club would cut down on our financial and administrative burdens significantly.
We debated this question internally. There still are days when there's only 2 or 3 people at workouts. People move elsewhere for jobs or personal reasons, and we're left wondering if we've made any progress.
Then we get ten people out on New Years Day for a hill workout:
Or three full teams for a DMR in the summer during a long weekend:
And all these people come together to support us:
When it comes down to it, we've grown to like what we've created. And for at least the foreseeable future, we're different. For starters, we're not interested in high school runners, who we believe are better-served by other local clubs with a wealth of experience coaching kids. We're university, post-collegiate, and masters runners. We're united by a desire to run fast and because having a group of people to suffer with makes it easier to get out the door. We believe women and men should run equal distances for all events. We're not trying to make money doing this. We just want to train and compete and have fun doing it. We think there's a place for small clubs like ours, just as there's a place for big clubs like Speed River and the Ottawa Lions, and that one model isn't necessarily better than another. And what big club didn't start small? We often find ourselves repeating that you have to start somewhere. And when people come out to run with us because we're filling what would otherwise be a void in this area, it doesn't seem pointless at all.
Knowing what was coming down the pipeline in terms of AO regulations, we fundraised to ensure we could still exist in 2019, and also reached out to AO to express our concerns. We strongly doubt we were the only club blindsided by learning about the regulations on Trackie; clubs that had been registered for a couple years prior supposedly would have been aware of the incoming changes, but it's unclear to us if those changes were communicated beyond the AO General Meeting, an event that was attended by less than 20% of Ontario athletics clubs this year (the source on that figure would be us, who were in attendance).
To those considering forming a club: it will likely be harder than it was in the past. You'll likely become frustrated at some point with the increasing layers of bureaucracy, and you should know what's coming. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth it. If you're uncertain, reach out to us.
Now if you've stuck with us for this long, we can get to the fun stuff: what our club did on the roads, trails and track this year!
This won't be an exhaustive list. Because we've (fortunately) grown, the list of results has become rather daunting. But here's some big performances and performers.
Cynthia Campanaro - 1st Place Sulphur Spring 100mile (20:52:41)
Jennifer Coleman - 7th Place Mt Hood 50k (5:05:53)
Eric Ashby - Debut Marathon @ Road2Hope - 3:03:10
Dave Castle - Debut 1/2 Marathon @ Road2Hope - 1:40:17
Emma Dalziel - Debut 1/2 Marathon @ Road2Hope - 1:44:44, broke her 1:45 goal.
Matthew Frazer - Debut 50k @ The Bad Thing - 6:52:26
Richard Whitlock & Victoria Pringle with incredible half Ironman seasons
Heather Borsellino - 7th Place @ Brazos Bend 100mile (25:08:41) 3.5hr PB, in really tough conditions.
Jodi Gallo - Debut 50mile @ Haliburton 50 - 11:12:29
Matthew Wongkee - Top 50 male @ Ultra Trail Harricana 65k in 7:53:15
Ryan Horricks - Debut 1/2 Marathon @ MEC Burlington - 1:43
Mackenzie Oliver - Around The Bay 30k - 2:42:24, crushing his 2:50 time goal.
Liam Kooyman - Debut 1/2 Marathon @ Road2Hope - 1:29:19
Drew Korzeniowski - Top 20 @ Sulphur Springs 50k - 4:49:27
Shaun Westlake- Worlds End 50k - 8:55:43 on a tough course
Cole Czuchnicki - Around the Bay 30k - 1:51:19
Arjun Rattan-Boston Marathon in torrential rain - 2:49:22
Robin Lombardot- Ottawa Marathon- 2:46:32
Bill Steinburg- Mississauga Marathon- 2:49:42 - 9th overall
Ryan Tice- Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon- 2:53:44
Lisa Giles- Around the Bay 30k- 2:27:54 while smiling
Victoria Coates - 47th @ World Half Marathon Championships - 1:13:35 PB
Eric Barry- 1st Overall Canadian XC Championships Community 5k- 16:42
Jeremy Walsh - 9th Overall Canadian XC Championships Community 5k - 17:29
Patrick MacKinnon- 22nd @ Toronto Waterfront Marathon- 2:25:18 PB
Kim Thomas- Ottawa Half Marathon- 1:26:29
Erika Scott- Ottawa 10K- 39:41
Daniel Fournier- Waterloo Fall Classic 5K- 15:00
Grant Wignall- Waterloo Fall Classic 5K- 15:24
Jose Fuentes - Waterloo Fall Classic 5K - 16:17 (1st master)
Kyle Rooke- Canadian XC Championships 10K- 32:55
Jason Laporta- Boxing Day 10 Miler- 55:42
Paul Felix- Boxing Day 10 Miler- 59:51 (1st master)
We hope the results continue in 2019!