Dave Milner is the meet director for the Music City Distance Carnival (MCDC), one of the premier track events in the US. In addition to always assembling a strong elite field, Dave has been a huge supporter of masters runners since he started the meet . There have been a number of notable masters performances at MCDC over the years and we talked about some of these during our conversation. Dave is also an accomplished coach who has worked with quite a few top open and masters runners over the years. He was coached and mentored by the great Jack Daniels, so he knows what he’s talking about. Dave has also been known to jump into the occasional race as a masters runner himself. In fact, Dave is entering the 50-54 age group soon and was looking forward to competing at the World Masters Athletics Champs in Toronto this summer, but like the rest of us, those plans have now gone out the window. MCDC was originally scheduled to take place at the end of May. Dave is currently working with USATF and others to see if it’s possible to still hold the meet in August. Given his position in the sport, Dave has some great insights about ways to improve coverage of track and field at every level from HS to professional to masters and I really enjoyed discussing things with him.

Show Notes:

Music City Distance Carnival website: https://runmcdc.org/

Article about Dave coaching elite 800m runner Quamel Prince: http://citiusmag.com/quamel-prince-underdog-story/

Video of Tony Whiteman becoming only the second masters runner to break 4-minutes in the mile (and the first to do it outdoors) at MCDC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaOaAkzRJo

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