A beautiful day (Sunday, Nov. 6). Just shorts and a top is all you need, even in the morning on the Verrazano. Hockey great Mark Messier, in the crowd, the running crowd, that is. Any bold predictions, Mark? His first marathon, just finishing it is enough (Official Time: 4:14:21). And then, maybe a word with Tortorella, the coach of the New York Rangers, the kind of shape he’s in, and the gutsy determination of him, and he’d be a better bet than say, Wolski, or yeah, Avery.
Cross the pond and the NYC Marathon has a slot for you. Live in one of the five boroughs, where thousands race and jog and traipse through, and chances are the NYC Marathon doesn’t have a slot for you.
There are ways to get in, of course. Every year you can enter the lottery, paying a nominal $11 fee, for a chance that seems as likely as winning the Mega Millions. But if you happened to enter in this way for three consecutive years and still don’t get in, then the fourth time you’re assured entry, along with your $196 entry fee. (Well, this just in ... that entry option is, as of Oct. 12, 2011, not available, starting in the 2013 race, unless you currently have two lottery misses in the bank; I guess this option simply didn’t generate enough cash for the sponsors, the New York Road Runners Club.)
Also, NYRR members ($40) can run by completing in the previous calendar year nine of their 50-plus sanctioned races (entry fees required for each, plus an additional $1,000 donation) and volunteering for one NYRR race. There also is a charity option, in which the runner must pony up $3,500 to a listed charity, with the understanding that you will raise that money for the charity. In any event the charity has grown by $3,500 – and you have a runners’ dream, a bib for the NYC Marathon.
Another option. Time qualifying. For next year, I'm still pretty close. I have to shave 3:08 off my personal best to hit the qualifying time of 3 hours, 30 minutes. But, for the 2013 race, that all changed on Oct. 12, when the NYRR made the QTs much stricter. In my current age group, I’d need to run a 3 hour, 14 minute marathan, which is quite a long shot, in order to qualify for the 2013 Marathon. Even in four years, I’d have to run a personal best of 3:24 to qualify in the 60-64 age group.
Believe me, runners who put out on Sunday and are now dragging their lame asses around this week have earned their slots – and how! It’s a wonder that a sizable majority of local people who ran on Sunday will run just a single NYC Marathon. It’s possible the entry hurdles alone are enough to deter re-entry. Other races, outside of Boston, are easier of course. You simply go to the race Web site, submit your entry materials, do an online fee, and you’re in.
These are quibbles, of course. (And, hey, I’m nothing if not a quibbler.) The NY course is just too cool to not do at least once. One of these days I’m going to do it. April is my best bet, when I do have a bettor's chance to beat 3 hours, 30 minutes, and run in NYC Marathon 2012. Failing that, I'll have to manage a 3:24 when I turn 60. Or a 3:35 when I turn 65; or a 3:46 when I turn 70 .¤.¤.
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I read somewhere that one percent of North Americans will run a marathon. That’s hard to believe, particularly at 9:45 a.m. (DST) on Marathon day at the Center Slope dog run off Fourth Avenue at Fourth Street in Brooklyn. Looking great the seven-minute milers and the hundreds cheering them on, not to mention the street side rock, Bruce Springsteen and Pat Benatar covers, straight ahead rock because, if nothing else, marathon running is a Straight-Ahead pursuit, a north-sound game, barreling on to the goal, a finish line 19.2 miles away.
There’s a second one percent that is getting a lot of press. (Or strictly speaking, 0.1 percent as noted by Times columnist Paul Krugman http://nyti.ms/qjPV11) Occupy Wall Street protesters, or the 99 percenters, are targeting the 1 percent of American society (between 1979 and 2007, income in this group soared 275 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office http://1.usa.gov/tWgtQb).
I haven’t crunched the data but something tells me that the marathon one percenters and the wealthy one percenters don’t overlap so much. (Although there would be nothing to stop the one percenter from setting aside the time and devoting her body, mind and spirit to running a marathon; it just strikes me as not a likely pursuit of the filthy rich.)
So if given the choice, I know what I would choose. That is if I could in only one One Percent Club. The marathon one. Or in a perfect world, first I’d join the rich club, pay off our debts and K’s student loans. Then duck back out into the 99 Percent Club, and the Running One Percent Club. That is, if it’s kosher. Usually in wishes like this there are Faustian strings attached. In that event, give me enough money for shoes and electrolyte chews, a 3:14 Boston . . . And bring on the New York City Marathon 2012!
Next: Running for Your Life: Feeling “Occupied”
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