Interaction with professional athletes is something seldom experienced by the majority of sports fans. And while loyal supporters might be able to rattle off a player’s statistics or top achievements, their knowledge of the athlete is usually all they can cherish. The opportunity to spend time with elite sports figures is, quite simply, rare.
That’s why the experiences of Chris Chanyasulkit and Karen Lee are noteworthy. The Boston University alumni, employed by the Chestnut Hill-based sports marketing and event management firm TRACS, Inc., recently completed a two-week stay at Downtown Boston’s John Hancock Elite Athlete Village — an Olympic Village-style residence housing the top-25 athletes competing in the Boston Marathon.
Every April since 1989, elite runners gather at the Village two weeks prior to Marathon Monday. During their time in Boston, the athletes’ daily needs, such as meals, transportation, health care, entertainment and tours of the race course, are managed by 75 trained volunteers.
And while carrying out daily chores doesn’t seem particularly glamorous, close interaction with the runners on a regular basis has left a lasting impression on Chanyasulkit, who was so inspired by last year’s participants that she decided to fulfill a lifelong dream.
‘I set a goal when I was 18 that I would run a marathon by the time I was 30,’ Chanyasulkit recalled. ‘So right after [2006 Boston] Marathon, I trained for and ran the Chicago Marathon, and finished it four days before I turned 30. I never would have considered running a marathon before I came involved with [the Elite Athlete Village]. It’s a great community with TRACS and the Athlete Village. I’ve been doing this for 12 years, and it’s like a family reunion.’
The volunteers’ consistent one-on-one communication with the runners during their time at the Village eventually leads to the growth of personable relationships, and in some cases, friendships.
‘You get to meet these athletes and know them on a more personal level,’ said Lee, a 2006 School of Management graduate. ‘Other people don’t have a chance to do that.’
‘You wouldn’t think [you’d build relationships], but you do,’ said Chanyasulkit, a 2001 School of Public Health graduate who has worked at TRACS since her freshman year at BU in 1994. ‘I ran [last year’s] Chicago Marathon and talked to [three-time Boston Marathon winner] Robert [Cheruiyot] about it recently, and he said, ‘Why didn’t you come and visit me?’ The athletes really do remember you.
‘I still write to and get letters from athletes,’ she continued, adding she received postcards from athletes in Athens, Greece, while they were competing in the 2004 Olympics.
‘They were sending me a postcard saying best wishes, and I hadn’t seen them in half a year,’ she said. ‘I only knew them for a week and got a postcard from Athens. I still email with a couple of the athletes I’ve made such good friends with.’
Both Chanyasulkit and Lee agree their experiences with Cheruiyot, whether providing his transportation to the airport or accompanying him to a pre-race press conference, have been extremely gratifying.
‘Robert is a wonderful, engaging, personable person who is really sincere in his work ethic and communication with people,’ Chanyasulkit said of the heralded Kenyan, who captured his third Boston Marathon title since 2003 this Monday.
The Elite Athlete Village is not the only Boston Marathon program backed by TRACS. The internationally-recognized institution, founded in 1983, also oversees the Race SpotWatch and Spotter’s Network, a pair of services geared toward tracking race results thanks to on-site updates from more than 100 local high students stationed at each mile of the course.
‘[Race SpotWatch] was great,’ said Lee, who interned at TRACS in 2005 before returning to the company in 2006 as a part-time employee. ‘I got to see the race firsthand and interact with the athletes one-on-one. It was a great experience for me because I’m not from Boston and came from Singapore to BU to study. It’s one of those things where you feel like your experience isn’t complete without something as home to Boston as the Boston Marathon.’
TRACS President Fred Treseler, who said his wife urged him to start TRACS to consolidate his dual passions of running and professional coaching, said the Boston Marathon is the premier event associated with his company. Lee said he considers the firm’s involvement with the Marathon to be quite significant.
‘It’s the biggest event because we have a huge sponsor in John Hancock,’ Lee said. ‘It’s a huge operation.’
And based on the day-to-day dealings with runners as they prepare for the grueling 26.2-mile race, do the members of TRACS feel somewhat accountable for the athletes’ race-day performance?
‘You feel more a sense of accomplishment,’ Treseler said. ‘More importantly, if all 25 feel their experience in Boston was a positive one and had every opportunity to succeed, then I think that’s a positive thing because only one person’s going to win. We want the other 24 [runners] to go home feeling good about their day at the Boston Marathon.’
‘A lot of the [athletes] have their coaches and agents here who are technically responsible for them,’ Chanyasulkit said. ‘But all of us, as hosts, have a great responsibility in our position because we do care so much and want to make sure they have the best possible preparation for the race on Monday. Starting with picking them up from the airport all the way to not slamming doors in the building in case an athlete is taking a nap — that’s the kind of responsibility we all feel.’
