We hear you asking the question, right through your computer, who are those people racing through the woods, faster than a speeding groundhog, more powerful than a fawn, leaping small rocks in a single bound? And spending their time putting this shindig together?
Glad you asked. If you have questions, please contact the appropriate Poobah:
Race Director, Grand Poobah, runner: Eric Turkewitz. Eric is the race founder, having run 100+ loops of the course, using it as a personal marathon training ground. A description of how he put the race together over six years can be found here: History of the Race. Real job: Personal injury attorney.
Assistant Race Director, Volunteers/Logistics, runner: Greg Stern. Greg places our 200+ volunteers at strategic road and trail junctions on race day, and is involved in the day-to-day planning of this event from soup to nuts. If the Race Director should be struck by lightning — and he doesn’t plan on that, thank you very much — Greg will pinch-hit. Real job: Producer and Director of documentaries and the cool sporting events you fantasize about attending – including the Olympics, NFL, World Series, boxing and the Reach the Beach Relay.
Assistant Race Director, Registrar, cyclist, duathlete: Matt Lewis. Matt takes care of all registration issues and pays the bills. He’s a one-man, back-office, number-crunching machine, and was part of the troika in past years with Greg and Eric that got P2P off the ground with such great success. And if you’re begging and pleading to get into the race after it’s closed because you think you’re fast enough for the Olympics, he’s the man to talk to. Real job: Managing Director at New Oak Capital LLC.
Parking Poobah, runner: Joe Tait. With the race rapidly growing in popularity, we needed someone to deal with the influx of people, many of whom will drive. Joe’s got the job of figuring out where to put all the cars, and getting runners to the start line as efficiently as possible. Real job: Banker at Morgan Keegan.
Chief Technology Poobah, runner, hiker: Arun Kristian Das. Thank goodness for Arun, as web site maintenance is not exactly the long suit of the founder. Real job: Writer, editor, content consultant, and more.
Trail Master Poobah, runner: Nina Steinberg. A great debate raged at P2P Global HQ as to whether the title Trail Master Poobah was redundant, so we feel the pain of distressed linguists everywhere. Nina is the only person to have run all 13 of the first iterations of the race, and routinely took engraved tankards for age group awards. She will (with the assistance of many volunteer Trail Pixies) flag the course the day before the race and make sure (with her team of Trail Pixies) that it’s swept of flags afterwards, as we strive to leave behind nothing but footprints. Real job: Part time teacher, running store employee, mother to four wild boys, and pretty much a Jane of all trades still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up.
Water Poobah, runner: Wayne Rubin. Want to run a race without water? Didn’t think so. Wayne oversees our water stops at miles 3.8 (Mamaroneck), 7.5 (Scarsdale) and 10.8 (Eastchester). He was a critical member of the organizing committee for the Westchester Triathalon, and for many years, was captain of the Masters’ Division of the Westchester Track Club. His motto: No Race Director ever got yelled at for having too much water. Real job: Attorney.
Want to be a Poobah? Impress your friends? Frighten your kids? Races like this don’t magically happen. It takes people who want to spend a few hours of their time creating an event for a community. If you would like to help out — and we have many places where we could use help making this event bigger and better — please contact us.