2011 Is In the Books!

I’m exhausted! And I didn’t even run the darn thing.

Congrats to all the finishers.  Unofficial totals are 655 registrants and 481 that actually toed the start line. Some cancelled due to injuries or family  committments (as we always expect will happen), but I think it’s clear that the mud from prior rains was a concern for some.

But based on all the  happy faces I saw in the finish area, they missed a great day racing this grand loop around lower Westchester. We apparently had very few injuries — for which one of our sponsors, Sound Shore Medical Center manning the finish line and aid stations, was no doubt happy — and none that appeared major.

My thanks to a superb group of volunteers that I think numbered over 100, including groups from Iona College out on the trail (cross country / track and field teams), New Rochelle High School cheerleaders at the start and finish, the Remington Flyers (Boys and Girls Club of New Rochelle, who ran from the White House to Westchester earlier this year).

On an individual basis, we couldn’t do this event without:

Greg Stern, my right hand man who handled so much in the way of placing volunteers, handling race logistics and working with sponsors;

Matt Lewis, our registrar and treasurer who fielded a thousand “what happens if…” questions from me that he punched into spreadsheets;

Wayne Rubin, who handled water station logistics with a crew, and improvised a mid-race solution when we had trouble with our third water stop;

Nina Steinberg (sporting bib #1) who handled a crew of people to flag the trail, and then proceeded to take home her fourth consecutive age-group tankard;

Jane Turkewitz, who not only puts up with me, but spent a huge amount of time trying to get our shirt graphics onto a small print area, and also worked with sponsors;

Joe Tait who put together a parking plan and getting signs and people out on the streets so that we didn’t have chaos;

Gregg Rubin, who worked the finish line and captained the stuffing of 600 goody bags,that were provided courtesy of Weichert Realty.

And a growing list of sponsors…if you haven’t checked your goody bags yet,  you will see some good swag. Water from Walgreens, PM Pediatrics (off-hours pediatric services) with those indispensable post-race towels and hand sanitizer, so you can put your mitts on the Fairway food (check the goody bag for a $10 off coupon!). Thanks to Robeks for the ice cold smoothies that were sucked down so fast by runners they had to go back for more.

Almstead Tree and Shrub was a very recent sponsor and cleared part of the Leatherstocking for us, just three days ago. REI was great with those  gels at the start. Clifbars in all the bags. Violight sonic toothbrushes went to the first 75 to show up at Westchester Road Runner (a founding sponsor of ours), and if you look around those goody bags you will see a discount coupon from Violight also.

And with winter coming on (but not today!) there are those Grabbber Warmers in your bags that my wife loves to use when skiing.

A full list of our sponsors for 2011:

• City of New Rochelle
• Town of Mamaroneck
• Village of Scarsdale
• Westchester County Parks

Private:

• Sound Shore Runners and Multisport Club
• The Turkewitz Law Firm (NYC)
• Westchester Road Runner (White Plains)
• Breaking the Tape Productions, LLC (Mamaroneck)
• Robeks (New Rochelle)
• Weichert, Realtors, House & Home (Riverdale)
• Sound Shore Medical Center (New Rochelle)
• Grabber Warmers
• Clif Bar
• Violight
• Walgreens
• PM Pediatrics
• REI (New Yonkers location!)
• Fairway Market (Pelham Manor)
• Almstead Tree and Shrub (Westchester, CT and NJ)

I wish I could go to sleep at this point, but I have a van to unpack, signs to retrieve, and results to post. Stay tuned for that… And the results are in…