New York City Marathon Opens

Applications to enter the lottery for the 40th running of the ING New York City Marathon will be available at 11 a.m. CST Thursday, Feb. 19 at www.ingnycmarathon.org, said race director Mary Wittenberg, the president and CEO of the New York Road Runners. This year's race will be held on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. More than 105,000 people applied for the 2008 event. The race featured one of its largest fields with more than 38,000 finishers. Applications will be accepted through Monday, June 1. Results will be posted in mid-June.

If you are not familiar with the New York Marathon's lottery process, all applicants pay a non refundable $11 application fee. (Yes, this means they make $1.1 million just of this fee, which does not include the race entry fee). At this point you enter a lottery and wait to see if you are picked.

You can also run by raising money for a charity which Ryan did for Team Fox in 2007. A select few can actually qualify with a full or half marathon time, but the standards are more challenging than Boston. We do however have at least one that would qualify.

All information about applying including charities, and qualifying can be found online. If you ever have plans to run New York, I suggest throwing your name in the hat now. Runner's don't choose when they want to run New York. . . New York let's you know when it is your turn.

I can honestly say it was the best race experience of my life, and I think Ryan might say the same. The entire trip was great from start to finish. When you are running in New York, you feel special. You can't help but think that most other marathoners around the world would love to be in your shoes when you are waiting for the race to start. It is a tough ticket to get, which makes it feel that much more special. I suggest running it some time in your running life. You will not regret it.

Sweetheart 5k RMEC Recap

There are too many RMEC members, spouses, and children who ran to write a summary for everyone. Jeff Miller was the first male finisher from the RMEC with a time of 19:08. New RMEC member Anthony Lucas was right on his heels with a time of 19:11. The first female finisher from the club was Kinnie Pruden with an impressive time of 24:01. RMEC runners were spread around multiple age group awards too. Here is a link to all of the awards. Note, the results sent to the Telegram had a calculation error that caused time to display faster for many runners. This link is the correct results.

I would like to highlight the couples teams, as we made up one third of the 41 teams that finished. Notice just how close some of the teams are. 16th-20th place were all only 52 seconds apart!

• 45:23 - It's Miller Time! - Jeff & Patti (5th)
• 48:42 - Team Wings - Scott & Leigh Ann (11th)
• 49:10 - Team Polley - Cliff & Rosa (12th)
• 50:09 - Flying Forresters - Michael & Ursula (16th)
• 50:11 - Bordyk&Babe - Brent & Debi (17th)
• 50:14 - The Prudens - Billy & Kinnie (18th)
• 50:34 - Sparkles - Dave & Tessie (19th)
• 51:01 - Team Batchelor - John & Jeanette (20th)
• 56:34 - Ole Skool - William & Cynthia (24th)
• 58:56 - Hustle & Bustle - Steve & Tampa (26th)
• 59:08 - Lakeside Lovers - Andy & Carol (27th)
• 60:25 - McAttack - Larry & Chelsey (29th)
• 62:09 - Cougars - Levi & Dana (32nd)
• 66:45 - Blazing Turtle - Tracy & Daniel (37th)

Due to my error with assembling teams, I joined two runners that should not have been joined. Once this was corrected, it turns out that Andy Barker and Carol Dickens won the 100-119 couples division. Great job Lakeside Lovers! They will get their prize later this week.

A few other things to note with the couples. Both Cliff and Levi encouraged coworkers to join a team with them, and got more people active in Rocky Mount. It was great to see them use this race as an opportunity to encourage running. Larry McKeel partnered with his daughter Chelsey to create Team McAttack, and paced her for much of the race. Finally, Tracy ran the entire 5k race with Mackenzie. She even out kicked her dad to the finish!

These are just a few great examples of the RMEC encouraging fitness in Rocky Mount. Please don't let it stop with the Sweetheart 5k. There are lots of local 5ks coming up where you can invite a friend to run and help them start their training. Here are a few to consider that are all listed to the right:

• 02/21 - 5k @ Wesleyan this coming Saturday
• 04/04 - 5k @ Tarboro - many from RMEC ran this in 2008
• 04/25 - 5k @ Greenville called Operation Sunshine. Only $10 for RMEC members (carpool?)
• 05/10 - 5k @ Nashville Blooming Festival - All of RMEC ran this is 2008
• 05/30 - 5k/10k/15k @ Rocky Mount in the Fun Run for Charities (15k was just added!)

Please keep running, and keep encouraging!

Have you tried Athlinks?

I wanted to introduce you to a useful and relatively new site to the RMEC, Athlinks. This site is a collection of race results. What makes it better than just that is you can "claim" all of your results, make your own profile with information about yourself (pictures, bio, goals, upcoming races, equipment, etc), do a bit of social/runner networking (add friends or find rivals), and also join the Rocky Mount Endurance Club to see what our other members are up to! It is a little like facebook for athletes.

There are even a number of tools to compare your race times by year, distance, place, and much more. This really is a neat site, and it is entirely free. You might be surprised just how many race results are out there waiting for you to claim. This site is not just for hard core racers. It is a great tool to keep up with how you are doing, and remind you how much fun you have racing! Be sure to check it out!

For some examples, check out the pages of Ursula, Scott, and Michael.

Races, Races, everywhere!

Krispy Kreme: Right off the bat, I need to congratulate Levi Moore on completing the Krispy Kreme Challenge last weekend. I have not had a chance to get all of the gory details, but Levi was one of 5,519 "runners" to take on the 2-miles, 12 doughnuts, 2-more-miles event. Levi finished in 1:12:03. Surprisingly, he finished 2nd in the "Levi Name Group"

Sweetheart 5k: Good luck to Jeff, Kim, Michael, Cliff, Ursula, Caroline, Levi, Patti, Carol, Andy, Eric, Larry, Tessie, Brent, Ron, Debi, William, Gerry, Tim, Colin, Xavier, Arthur, Bob, Amber, Jon, Steve, Tampa, Scott, William, Leigh Ann, John, Jeanette, Tracy, Daniel, McKenzie, Kinnie, Billy, Henry, Will, Thorne, Carter, Jackson, Jillian, Jenna, Griffin, Anna Scott, and any other RMEC name I missed!

Washington's Birthday Marathon: Frank will be taking on a new marathon on Sunday. It is new to Frank at least. . . This will be the 48th running of the Washington's Birthday Marathon. This loop course event is put on by the DC Roadrunners club. It is actually the 8th longest running marathon in the country. At present there are 163 registered runners. Frank is feeling strong, and is confident that he can win the "North Carolina" group in the race. Good luck Frank!

RUN RSVP: Sat/Sun/Mon

Most of the RMEC is racing on Saturday morning, so we will not have our formal group run. I know many of you still plan to do a long run as you prepare for your upcoming races. I will use this blog post, so people can comment on when and where they plan to run. Please share your plans.

Run Details:

• Where: TBD
• Supported: No
• Weather: Forecast
• Routes: TBD

Unfortunately, Scott and I are going to have to cancel our trip to Umstead on Monday morning. The good news is we are going to run at Medoc instead on Sunday at 11:15. The reason we are going to Medoc is to get a good long trail run in, and also to have some pictures taken. Trail Runner Magazine is actually going to do a story on new trail races, and will be including Medoc (How cool is that!). We want to get photos of people running on the trails, so please join us. There is no guarantee that they will use our photos but we would still like to grab a few.

If you are interested in going to Medoc, I can pick people up at Harris Teeter at 10:45. I will be at the park for about three and a half hours however.

Please RSVP with the time, place, distance and date you are coming.

RMEC Sweetheart Favors

Hard to believe, but the Sweetheart 5k in this weekend! There are 220 total registered participants right now. With 180 of them in the 5k, this will be the largest single race Rocky Mount has seen in years. I need a few favors from the RMEC members.

Packets: Please try to pick up your race packets at Dental Care on Friday (12-8). This makes race day much easier. Be sure to tell Dental Care thanks for sponsoring the event.

Running: Runners are told to stay to the right of the yellow line on Candlewood. Please follow this rule, and politely encourage other runners to do the same. This is how the course was measured. If you cut over the yellow line, you will not run a full 5k. All other roads were measured using the shortest distance. With 40 RMEC members running, people will follow your examples.

Weather: Don't let a little rain in the forecast keep you away. Bring an umbrella and a jacket for after the race. 28% of the registered runners will get an award, and there is also a Atlantic Beach hotel stay to be given away. Don't leave early.

Fun Run: Line the streets, and cheer like crazy for the kids in the Fun Run. Make them feel like they are about to win the Olympics

RMEC Shirts: If you have a RMEC shirt that will work with the current forecast, please wear it during and/or after the race.

Parking: Do not park in the Batts, Batts, and Bell parking lot. This is not race parking. You an park in the large church parking lot beside it (not on the HT side), or the parking lot across from the Candlewood entrance.

30 Minute Baby Sitter?

Several RMEC members are looking for a 30 minute baby sitter on Saturday morning during the race. Is there anyone who could help corral a few kids from 7:55 am - 8:25 am?

The kids could stay in the parking lot area beside the finish line. We would need to make sure they do not wander in front of the runners coming in to finish. Any ideas?

Who in the club needs help?