Jennifer Aviles
As we recognize Ken Young’s contribution to our sport, let’s also acknowledge Jenifer Aviles.
Ken and Jennifer were a dynamic husband and wife team running the National Running Data Center (NRDC). They invented the record keeping movement of our sport. This included many bumps in the road dealing the governing bodies, athletes, race directors and course certifiers. The NRDC and its publication NRDC News served as a clearinghouse for all the stakeholders of long distance running. Jennifer was the NRDC office manager, and served as the secretary for Road Running Technical Committee (RRTC).
I’m currently organizing Ted Corbitt’s course measurement files during this era. I’m reading over many of Jennifer’s letters. It’s interesting to read the myriad of issues and personalities she addressed in this groundbreaking work. Many of the letters are quite long addressing multiple positioning issues in a very organized manner. I’ve separated a number of letters where she addresses my father’s workload in signing off on all road course certifications for many years. How my father was able to do this volume of work still astounds me. Jennifer often had the job of explaining to race directors why delays were occurring in getting final certification for their course.
I thank Jennifer and ken for making for legitimizing our sport whereby running records could be verifiable. I thank this community of course certifiers that do honor to the pioneering work of the first generation of course measurers of the 1960s, and 1970s.
Gary Corbitt
Curator: Ted Corbitt Archives
February 2018
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