Loyal listeners of the New York Running Show (all 81 of you) will have heard the distinctly distressed aural hand-wringing that four of us engaged in on Sunday afternoon as we discussed NYRR’s unveiling of the club points races for 2011. “No more Healthy Kidney 10K? Hey, a spring half — in Brooklyn! But WTF is Fifth Avenue Mile doing there?!”
But, as we like to say here in New York, “Whaddya gonna do?” It is what it is.
One of us at least is doing what any sensible person does in such cases: go west. And east. And north. And south.
That sensible person would be Steve Lastoe of NYCRuns.com who, along with a few other ambitious New York area runners, is attempting to supplement NYRR’s offerings (but not supplant them) with a new series of races in which clubs can chase points (and prizes!). The NYCRuns InterClub Challenge consists of races that are off the beaten path.
Here are the deets about the race series (still being created, but a few races are on the official roster) and the still-being-designed scoring scheme. Since I am now an “insider” (which gets me nothing of commercial or negotiable value thus far, although I’m scoring big on the personal satisfaction side of things), I know of a few other races — impressive ones — that are in the works. But I’m not allowed to talk about them yet.
These races are going to happen whether or not teams choose to exploit them as a competitive opportunity. But I hope they do make that choice, even if it means doing something incredibly adventurous — like taking a train or subway to an exotic new zip code — because it would be fun to carry that extra dimension of racing motivation and excitement to other venues around the area.
Filed under: racing | Tagged: interclub challenge, nycruns.com, nyrr | Leave a comment »
Races Like a Girl 