Club News - by Linda

I have some updates from the NYRR club team meeting.
The following are some highlights of what was discussed and voted on.

1. Club night- March 6, 2014.
6pm -11pm at Hardrock Cafe. $50.00/person includes 2 drinks and food. Cocktail hour 6-7 pm. Awards 7-9 and dancing 9-11. For more details, go to nyrr website. Sounds like it will be a fun night. If anyone is considering going, let the team know. Maybe a group can go together.

2. NYC half march 16.
The course has changed a bit. Start is on the East Drive by the Boat House and goes up north and comes out of Central Park at Lenox Ave at the top of the Park.  Then we run across 110th for a quick out-n-back, returning to the Park at the same entrance.  After that, it's the same as previous years.  Up Harlem Hill and out of the Park at 7th Ave through Times Square and West Side Highway, FDR and end on Wall Street. For full details please see race info on the website.

There will be 3 Waves: 7:30, 745, and 8:10 with a 7:10 start for wheelchairs participants.

3. Pacers for 1/2 marathons.
There will be pace teams for every half marathon and NYC Half from now on.
NYRR is looking for volunteer pacers. Information will be sent to club teams and then posted on the Facebook page. There are certain criteria that need to be fulfilled. For your service, you will get free race entry, that will count as a qualifier, and a special singlet. If you are interested, let your captain know.

4. There will be a club handbook created soon.

5. Club Points Races: There was a vote to finalize Club Points Races for this year.
There are no changes to the list of races previously sent. I want to repeat, Brooklyn Half is a Club Points Race.  If you need a list I can resend it to you or you can look them up on the NYRR website.

I do have great news about one of the Club Points Races. There has been a vote and this year and The Team Championship Race will be LADIES FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!   So the race times are 8:30 am for Ladies and 9:30 am for the Men. Whoo!!! Then it'll switch every year thereafter. It's about time!

6. Other news:

• The Bronx race may become a 1/2 marathon again.
• They are also looking into Queens being a half marathon in 2015.
• Grete's may be decreased to a 10 miler this year, not finalized yet. The reason? Because there are a cluster of potential halves around that time.
• The SI half will count as the last chance to make Local competitive line up for NYC marathon. They still might include Grete's even if it is a 10 miler.

For the next team member to attend:  
The next meeting is on March 5, 2014 at 6:30 @ 156 west 56th street (between 6&7 ave), 3rd floor. 

It has been a pleasure updating you all, Happy Running and good luck with your training!              
See you on the road!

Linda

Team News - by Linda!

Hey AgoNY!

Happy new year to you all and wishing you a new year of PR's, comebacks, and Ultras.

What a year 2013 was!  There were many successes.   
Our not so little team raced near and far.   And we even put a new meaning to "long distance" running, thanks to our warrior princess, Maria aka Xena.

So what's in store for you in 2014?  Is it to run more miles than ever, finally break, a huge PR, maintain fitness, or just stay healthy and injury free?  Whatever your goal is why not accomplish it by hitting the road, of course adding some strength training, and signing up for some races.   

Below, I will list 2014 Club Points Races and the dates.  Take a look and see what races will get you started on your path to achieving your goals.  There have been some changes to the usual schedule.  As you will see Brooklyn Half is not a Club Points Race this year, and the men and women share a weekend of racing back-to-back in the form of Mini10K and Portugal 5M. The schedule shuffle brings the Fifth Ave Mile earlier.  

Remember we need 10 MEN AND 10 WOMEN for the August's Team Championship Race.  To be eligible to run in this race, participants running for a team race would need to have raced AT LEAST 2 races under Agony prior to August 2.  Please start recruiting now!!!!!!!

As always, race when you can.  But we do need as much participation as possible!  To score, we need 5 men AND 5 women per race for distances under 25K.  NYC marathon requires 3 men AND 3 women.  Our ladies are doing so great!  If you didn't know, here are our club standings in 2013.  We hope to have even more success in both male and female divisions. 

Ladies:

Open B (still don't know what that means) 4th place out of 74 teams!!!!

40 + ranked 14 out of 57 teams (lets go for top 10 this year Ladies!)

Men:

Open B- ranked 36 out of 86 teams

40+ ranked 37 out of 77 teams

Wishing you much success and happy running and racing!

Linda

2014 Club Points Races

March 2nd (Sunday) - Coogan's 5K

April 5th (Saturday) - Scotland 10K

June14th (Saturday) - Oakley Women Mini10K

June 15th (Sunday) - Portugal Day Mens 5M

June 28th (Saturday) - Front Runners 5M

August 2 (Saturday) - Team Championship Race 5M (men/women)

September 6th (Saturday) - Autism Speaks 4M

September 13th (Saturday) - 5th Ave Mile

October 5th (Sunday) - Grete's Half

November 2nd (Sunday) - NYC Marathon

December 13th (Saturday) - Ted Corbitt 15K

Weird Runner Stuff

We'd like to kick off 2014 with weird runner stuff, a popular topic amongst runners, because hey, we need to be humble to pick up those precious karma points.

1. Winter Running - we appreciate running in 20F or lower temperatures because this means less people in the Park.  Which basically means, "We can fart all we want going up Harlem Hill and no one will hear it."
2. Big Foot - as a runner accumulates "running years", their foot gets mysteriously larger.  Even a seasoned masters level runner will notice a strange, sudden foot size growth. 
3. Noticing Odd Stuff - when looking at pics of random people, we notice odd running item.  Like this Garmin Forerunner 410 (?). 

Don't blink. pic.twitter.com/vujKLQRWbA
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 8, 2014

4. Port-a-Potty - that scary port-a-potty situated in that corner of a scary field is no longer scary.  Unless you are suddenly reminded of FLUKEMAN.
   
   
   
5. Diet - we never really diet, but there are certain things that suddenly becomes prohibitive during certain days of the week.  Like "No Beans" on Friday or "No Kale" on a Monday.  
6. Tights - "Men In Tights" doesn't sound strange at all.  In fact, wearing tights right now is a very good idea. 
7. Travel Plans - when making vacation or business travel plans, the first order of business is not price, not scenery, not beach access, not food.  It's to find out how runnable the location is.  If it's not very runnable, we look for a well equipped gym. 
8. Priorities, Priorities - Your entire running wardrobe costs way more than your entire work wardrobe.  Let's face it.  Those fancy thermo-wicking-supertights costs $150 a pair...
9. The Winter Laundry - since those fancy thermo-wicking superights costs $150, you can't afford to have more than one or two.  But you run at least 5 times a week.  Which means, things get reused.  It's not like we sweat a lot in 20F weather, right? Right? Which means winter running gear laundry load is smaller than the summer load, even though winter items are thicker and bulkier.
10. Other Winter Sports - suddenly skiing, snowboarding, and even tobogganing seems dangerous.  "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IF I SPRAIN MY ANKLE?  HOW AM I GOING TO TRAIN FOR BOSTON????"  - 'nuff said.