Publisher Paul Merca talks track on the Gill Athletics Connections podcast...

It's always a pleasure to talk track and field, especially in this weird and wacky 2020 season that literally was wiped out worldwide due to the pandemic.

I was a guest on the Gill Athletics Connections podcast hosted by Mike Cunningham (above/screenshot courtesy Gill Athletics), the national sales manager for Gill Athletics.

We talked about my start in the sport at Sharples Junior High School in south Seattle, leading up to running at Franklin High, and eventually walking on to the University of Washington cross country team, despite never competing at the Washington state high school championship meet.

Along the way, I talked about running the Seattle Marathon both my sophomore and senior years at Franklin after finishing the cross country season (surely there must be some questions about my preparation for running a marathon).

We dive into my undistinguished career running cross country at the University of Washington, and my four years studying advertising and public relations, which, after some stumbles along the way after graduation, led to me working on the staff of the 1984 US Olympic Women's Marathon Trials as the assistant director of communications, and eventually freelancing on most of the major televised track meets in the US for the networks.

Mike and I touch upon the Club Ballard years as well as my time coaching track and cross country in the Seattle School District at Ballard, Franklin and Ingraham high schools.

We then go into how I got into announcing, beginning with compiling the announcer's notes for the adidas Oregon Track Classic, and how that helped me become the announcer for the University of Washington track and cross country teams (above, interviewing Shalane Flanagan/Howard Lao photo).

I also touch upon how I got into photography, and how paulmerca.blogspot.com got started. We also have a discussion on whether or not DK Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks could really qualify for the US Olympic track & field trials (the podcast was recorded two days before my post on this site).

I hope that you take some time to either listen or watch the podcast, which is posted below:

You can also download the podcast by going directly to this link.

NOTE: Special thanks to Mike Cunningham and Gill Athletics. 

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