From Andrew Moore of the 50+

NYC MARATHON recap: 

Congrats to all our 50+ team mates on a fine day of marathon racing resulting in a team first place finish. 

On a beautiful sunny day, leading the 50+ team was Alan Ruben (2:49:17), Michael Rennock (2:54:27), and Peter Allen (3:01:06). 

A solid team turnout was backed up by Yasuhiro Makoshi (3:06:17), Noel Labat-Comess (3:13:48), Roger Liberman (3:46:07), Richard Shaver (3:55:09), and James Smyth (4:12:06).

A good job put in by all. – enjoy your recovery days! 

There have been reports of NYRR errors in results postings including missing team registrations – if I missed you, please let me know

<<<<<< 

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+

Going into the final race of the year, 2nd and 3rd positions of the Club Awards for men 60+, as I had feared, are up for grabs. We are tied for 3rd with West Side Runners after Witold’s Runners fielded a full team for Grete’s and took a solid second place. Greater NY picked up 3 points on their marathon effort. We did not have 3 finishers for either event. Like a metaphor for the USA in the global economy, the world has caught up to us. As of today’s unofficial NYC Marathon results:

NYRR Men 60+ Post 2011 NY Marathon Team Scoring – unofficial

1          NYF                15

2          Clifton             12

3          Korean                        10

4          WSR               8

5          GLI                 6

6          Rockland         5

7          Millrose           4

8          GNY               3

9          PPTC               2

10        Achilles           1

Current NYRR Men 60+ Post 2011 NY Marathon Team Standings – unofficial

1          TRR                117

2          Witold’s           70

3          WSR               63

4          CPTC              63

5          GNY               58

6          NYF                56

7          VCT                54

8          FR                    46

9          Rockland         43

10        Prospect          15

As you can see, as West Side Runners, Greater NY, the Flyers and Van Cortlandt do as well, that we need 3 strong scorers for that 3rd spot. Witold’s too are in the hunt because of the “mulligan” rule: “At the end of the year, each club’s point totals in the 9 best races of the 11-race series (the lowest 2 scores for each club is automatically dropped) are added to determine the club’s overall ranking for the year.” Will NYRR drop just one race from each as we all lost the Percy Sutton 5k? 

If you go to: http://www.nyrr.org/resources/clubs/60Men.htm   you will see this, which does not include the marathon, my figures above represent the current standings but the table below should change when NYRR gets around to posting it on the site:

Where does that put us? If I have my math correct, we have a statistical advantage against all but West Side in that we get to subtract a couple of zeros while all others have to lose real numbers. Assuming that all the dogs in the fight have 3 finishers for the final race, Witold’s loses 6 and they only get more points if they come in over 5th place in the race. Short of an act of god, Taconic will take first and the 15 points. The fight will be for second place. As West Side is situated like we are with 2 zeros to throw out, they will go for broke, and we must as well. Greater NY has to lose 4 points. Therefore, they too need to get the 12 points of second place to best both us and WSR. Could the Flyers take second and other competitors bottom out, only gaining a few points? I don’t think so. West Side has the talent to give us a run for our money. Conceivably, CPTC and WSR could take 2nd and 3rd, leaving Witold’s to throw out 12 points. It’s a horse race.

The bottom line is that we need to be strong and avoid injuries. We need to score, meaning have at least 4 committed runners for the Join the Voices 5 miler on December 4th at 8:30 am, and have 3 strong finishers. All these teams will be poring over the same numbers, that could change with updated corrections in the marathon results. 

Please get back to me if you intend to run this race and register for it ASAP. Next year some of us should be stronger and we will have more talent coming of age, and try to work out some commitments towards those races that we did not score in. In the mean time, don’t miss XC racing season at VC Park. There are 2 upcoming shorter races: the Fred Lebow 5k XC Championships on 11/20 at 11:30, and a NYC USATF XC event expected on November 26.

Train, but don’t strain!

Yours,

Hank