Oh, the brouhaha!  The Competitor Group’s decision to radically re-direct funds toward mass participation that had previously been earmarked for its elite athlete program, a story that quietly filtered out over Labor Day weekend on Larry Eder’s RunBlogRun.com, has since gained Spinal Tap volume over the ensuing two weeks.  Today, Letsrun.com published a blistering editorial excoriating CGI for its decision while encouraging its readers to boycott the CGI Rock `n` Roll events.

For its part, Competitor Group has aggressively defended its position, and offered no apologies for what CEO Scott Dickey sees as a purely market driven reconfiguration of CGi’s business model — though he is fully aware it was “a controversial decision, “and the timing was a big thing, I know.”

But amidst all the din that has arisen in the wake of this story, we have begun to hear constructive responses that go to the solutions rather than accusations, recriminations and rebuttals  (not that there’s anything wrong with those, as they can be very cathartic for both sides.)

Today, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc., a nonprofit organization that touts itself as “promoting the love of running”, announced the expansion of elite athlete support for its calendar of events to more than $150,000, with a plan in the works to expand even farther. Included in the current plan is the introduction of the EQT Pittsburgh 10 Miler, which will have a prize purse of $10,500 for its inaugural run November 3^rd. Continue reading →