I know what you’re wondering: With Paine to Pain now less than six weeks away, has the race committee followed in the footsteps of the New York City Marathon and dumped baggage check?
Not to worry, not only will we have baggage check on October 14th, but we will also have showers at the finish, courtesy of the New Rochelle High School.
Do we treat you right, or what?
Also, Fairway is returning! Because even if you want to stay dirty and sweaty at the end, you’ll still want fresh fruit and food. Smoothies are also back at the finish, thanks to Robeks. And VitaCoco is a new sponsor, providing its increasingly popular coconut water. Don’t fret, we will also have regular H2O, courtesy of returning sponsor Walgreens.
Our objective here, of course, is not only to put on a fun event, but to raise funds for the local trails we use. Municipal parks departments have been cut to ribbons, so net proceeds of the race will be used to maintain and improve them. (The race committee, myself included, continues to be 100% volunteer.)
If you’re worried that all those trail racers might cause congestion on the course – we are expecting a record crowd of perhaps 700 or so – we have you covered. We will once again use chip timing as we send runners off in four waves, set five minutes apart. Our middle-of-the-pack runners will be sprinkled across different waves to help spread things out. We seed you based on your recent 10K and longer results, so the speed demons don’t get stuck behind my plodding feet. Your wave designation will be available at packet pickup.
And new this year: Free kid races! We are working on those logistics now, but hope to have various distances for toddlers, teens and in-betweens.
If you haven’t registered yet for the main event, you can do so online at active.com or by completing the entry form on our website.
And now, for the trail rookies in the crowd, or for those who need a little boost in confidence:
Six Tips to Start Hitting the Trails (active.com)
Trail Racing 101 (Runners World)
Blaze Any Trail (7 all-terrain tips for your off-road steps) Men’s Health
The Ups and Downs of Trail Running (Sky Runner)
Next up, some reviews from last year if you have still not registered for this year’s event:
And the 2011 Reviews Come Pouring In… (Paine to Pain Blog)
We are also proud to welcome this year Team in Training (training thousands of athletes as they raise money to combat Leukemia and Lymphoma) as well as Bike MS (whose event this year is October 21st, as they combat multiple sclerosis).
We could always use some extra helping hands, so to volunteer, please contact our Greg Stern.
Finally, we couldn’t do this race without our sponsors. Included this year (in addition to those above): Westchester Road Runner, Houlihan Lawrence, REI, Nathan Sports, PR Bar, Twin Lakes Farm, Breaking the Tape Productions and Sound Shore Medical Center.
You can also follow us online with updates as we get close to the race by joining the Paine To Pain Facebook group, or following us on that Twitter thingie (@PaineToPain).