I’m still trying to wrap my head around what is going on with the Omaha Marathon. In a nutshell Susie Smisek sold the race out from under the Omaha Running Club. Put the money in her pocket and rode off into the proverbial sunset. Pissing off much of the running community in the process, including the many volunteers and administrators of ORC that had poured their heart and soles into the event for many years. My sources indicated ORC would have nothing to do with the event moving forward, as currently managed.
So I was more than a little surprised yesterday when I received the email from Peak Performance announcing their partnership with HITS and the Omaha Marathon. But I do have to give the nod to Mike and his brother, they are a couple of Very Smart Cookies, and I’m hopeful their association will help to drive the necessary changes to make the event Something Special. Early indications from Mark Wilson show he was listening to the 2013 discontent/disconnect with the local runners.
And hats off to Alan Kohl. You don’t know him and I barely do. But he joins Mike and Ben Cohoon as movers and shakers in the competitive community. He puts on local triathlons under the Mimran Event Management, LLC (USA Triathlon). Read in this morning’s paper that he received an $11,500 grant from the Douglas Co. Toursim. Good on you Alan, good on you. And nice to know that you need not be a 501 (c) (3) to get a boost from the commissioners. NRGE, LLC will be dipping its beak into that trough in 2015.
I’ll never utilize the not for profit paradigm, and the attorneys that go with that designation, again. They absolutely corrupted the Excellence that used to be Team Nebraska. Bowing to faux charms and ridiculous social pressures that fomented nothing but the fall of one of the top clubs in the U.S. Now lucky to be the second or third best club in Nebraska. I hardly know them.
And that’s the way of the world. But it doesn’t stop me from doing what I do because that is just the type of challenge that keeps me wet. We are coming for you all.
Giddyup!
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