The regular entry deadline for the 2011 MileStat.com Elite Track Gala is scheduled for Thursday, June 2nd at midnight. After midnight on Thursday, the entry fee increases to $20 per athlete if entry fee is not paid by then. Athletes, parents, or coaches can pay online through paypal in the entry system. If parents or athletes are entering themselves, they need to claim their athlete profiles on MileStat.com if they have not already. Coaches and athletes can still enter after midnight on Thursday until the final late entry deadline (w/ a $5 late fee) of 5:00 PM on Tuesday, June 7th.
The Gala serves as a meet opportunity for those looking to end their season on a high note who may have not had exactly the final championship season meet performance which they desired as well as those continuing onto national and summer meets to have a meet in between the state championships and nationals/summer meets to stay race sharp. The meet also offers some unique events not regularly found in a normal high school meet including the 1500 meter run, 400 meter hurdles, 5000 meter run, and 2000 meter steeplechase which addtionally is an opportunity to post times in events which college coaches easily recognize. This meet is a break from the high pressure championship meets over the last few weeks as the stingent high school uniform rules go virtually out of the window in a USATF sanctioned meet, while music during the competition and lively race announcing make a fun atmosphere yet you can still produce a personal or season best in at one of the state's top track facilities (Sports Backers Stadium).
The Gala is an extremely important annual fundraiser for MileStat.com as after a long 10 months of using our subscription revenue to pay for photographers at meets and maintain our site coverage, our funds are always pretty low at this time of the year and the relatively in-active summer months of few meets typically do not see a lot of new subscriptions coming in. Thus, the Gala is a critical event for our site to get through the summer into another big year of covering the three seasons (cross country, indoor, and outdoor). Poor turnout can be devasting to the site's continued operation and maintaining its high level of coverage. Think of all the meets which you compete in throughout the year, what's one extra meet at the end going to really do? Well what your lone individual entry is going to do is help this site continue on into year #11 of promoting and covering high school track & field as well as cross country in the state of Virginia.
When you click on the green button to enter the meet, it will send you to a register or login in page if you have not logged in. If you do not have a MileSplit or state site username and password, you have to register and get emailed the password.
athlete. Click ok and try to reload the page. I helped someone this am that this happened when I was trying to create the new athlete - it gave me the error, but when I reloaded the page, the athlete was there and I was able to register her for the meet. This has been reported to our programmer.