It’s come to our attention that a couple of runners still haven’t received their t-shirts from the Trials. It was bad enough that runners didn’t get a shirt at the race (or any other souvenir), but even with such a small list roster of runners they still managed to forget about a few.
We heard about Dan Vassallo’s situation and tweeted out about it and pretty quickly got a response from another runner.
Sure, that’s only two runners that we know of, but it’s still two too many. For Dan it went beyond the t-shirt snub:
“I was also off of the 100-day sunglasses mailing list, the ‘how to book travel’ mailing list, and the week-of athlete guide mailing list. I am not surprised one iota that I don’t have a shirt. It’s like I bandited the Trials.”
After checking in to make sure he was put onto mailing lists, he nearly missed declaring for it because he wasn’t aware he had to. Luckily another runner saw that he hadn’t yet declared and forwarded him the message that was never sent to him. So clearly there are bigger issues with the system in place, but he’s not focusing on that. The focus is the t-shirt. Maybe not the shirt itself but the principle of it all. Dan added, in an exclusive text to the Level: “I mean, it also took me seven years to get there.” So get this man his shirt!
An excerpt from a follow up email that Dan sent to the race organizer’s (they closed the survey before he could respond):
“I had no dreams of winning the race or finishing in the money, so I had been working for this goal for about seven years “for the sweatshirt.” My friend who had been to the Trials before told me about how you get a sweatshirt when you go to the Trials. I was really looking forward to competing in the race against the best in the country and having the sweatshirt to symbolize this experience and the work that went into making it there. So, when the gift bag consisted of a bottle of Coke and a water bottle, I was a bit underwhelmed. All I wanted was a sweatshirt. I didn’t even have a chance to buy one.”
Through it all Dan has maintained a good sense of humor about the situation. In fact his frustration has been our entertainment as he’s been tweeting a ‘races with shirts’ series on a daily basis. He’s up to Day 54! Although Day 50 was a good one:
It’s quality stuff. If you want to see a runner with a more straightforward approach to addressing the problems with the LA Trials, then check out Patrick Rizzo’s twitter account.
Until Dan and Kaitlin finally get their shirts, we’ll settle for the entertaining updates:
#USATFail on Trials T-Shirts?
by EJN April 7, 2016 Comments (0) Articles, Commentary 1
It’s come to our attention that a couple of runners still haven’t received their t-shirts from the Trials. It was bad enough that runners didn’t get a shirt at the race (or any other souvenir), but even with such a small list roster of runners they still managed to forget about a few.
We heard about Dan Vassallo’s situation and tweeted out about it and pretty quickly got a response from another runner.
Sure, that’s only two runners that we know of, but it’s still two too many. For Dan it went beyond the t-shirt snub:
“I was also off of the 100-day sunglasses mailing list, the ‘how to book travel’ mailing list, and the week-of athlete guide mailing list. I am not surprised one iota that I don’t have a shirt. It’s like I bandited the Trials.”
After checking in to make sure he was put onto mailing lists, he nearly missed declaring for it because he wasn’t aware he had to. Luckily another runner saw that he hadn’t yet declared and forwarded him the message that was never sent to him. So clearly there are bigger issues with the system in place, but he’s not focusing on that. The focus is the t-shirt. Maybe not the shirt itself but the principle of it all. Dan added, in an exclusive text to the Level: “I mean, it also took me seven years to get there.” So get this man his shirt!
An excerpt from a follow up email that Dan sent to the race organizer’s (they closed the survey before he could respond):
“I had no dreams of winning the race or finishing in the money, so I had been working for this goal for about seven years “for the sweatshirt.” My friend who had been to the Trials before told me about how you get a sweatshirt when you go to the Trials. I was really looking forward to competing in the race against the best in the country and having the sweatshirt to symbolize this experience and the work that went into making it there. So, when the gift bag consisted of a bottle of Coke and a water bottle, I was a bit underwhelmed. All I wanted was a sweatshirt. I didn’t even have a chance to buy one.”
Through it all Dan has maintained a good sense of humor about the situation. In fact his frustration has been our entertainment as he’s been tweeting a ‘races with shirts’ series on a daily basis. He’s up to Day 54! Although Day 50 was a good one:
It’s quality stuff. If you want to see a runner with a more straightforward approach to addressing the problems with the LA Trials, then check out Patrick Rizzo’s twitter account.
Until Dan and Kaitlin finally get their shirts, we’ll settle for the entertaining updates:
Dan Vassallo, Kaitlin Goodman, olympic marathon trials, Olympic Trials, t-shirt
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