Late last week, amongst the chaos of state track meets, NCAA DI Outdoor Track and Field Championship preliminaries and the build-up to the adidas Grand Prix, USATF announced Boulder, Colorado will host the 2014 and 2015 USA Cross Country Championships.

While the quiet news was all but silently discussed amongst distance running fans, there were a few detractors in the crowd of mostly supporters, saying they shouldn’t host a championship event at altitude and Boulder is too small of a city to host a championship event. While I understand these arguments, in my mind, Boulder is the perfect community to host the USA Cross Country Championships.

In Boulder, you have a built in fan base, a city that prides itself on how active it is, thus supporting endurance events such as the USA Cross Country Championships. If we learned anything from the 2007 USA Cross Country Championships, which were hosted in Boulder, you’ll know very few USA Cross Country Championship events have captured the hearts and typing fingers of the running and sports media in the same way over the past 25 years. This is meaningful.

Additionally, you have a city that has a history in distance running, thanks in large part to Mark Wetmore and the powerhouse he’s built with the men’s and women’s cross country programs at the University of Colorado, as well as the Dick’s Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER 10k, which annually attracts 50,000+ participants. With just under 100,000 people living in Boulder, those are pretty great numbers.

USATF’s move proves they are thinking bigger picture. By giving Boulder two years of the championship event, the organization is allowing the host committee the opportunity to promote their event in the community, building it up in 2014 when there isn’t an IAAF World Cross Country Championship taking place, then building it up even more in 2015 when there is an IAAF World Cross Country Championship.

Hosting a championship event consistently in one community works. If you need a good example of this, just think of Terre Haute, Indiana staging the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The crowds are strong, fans have become comfortable with the rustic city and it pulls adult fans of the sport consistently from the entire Midwest, despite the fact that it’s held on a Monday (I still don’t get that!).

Not to be overlooked, but a two-year commitment to a city for a championship events helps attract greater sponsorship support, giving said sponsors two years to activate at the event and really brand themselves with and around the event. Our sport needs a cash infusion from corporate America and offering two years of event stability should give at least some confidence that our sport is thinking bigger.

I understand the concerns of holding a championship event at altitude. It’ll probably dissuade some of the best runners in the country from competing. I also understand the concern of holding the event in a smaller city market that gets little media exposure. To me though, our sport should be focusing on strengthening its masses, and hosting the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder, long considered one of the great training meccas in the United States, is a good step forward for the sport.

Is Boulder the right fit for the USA Cross Country Championships two years in a row? My answer is yes. What’s yours?