03.17.112011 Photo Gallery UpdatesCheck out the photo gallery for recently added or updated albums, including those for the following events: Relay Carnival 2010, Holiday Party 2010, Cherry Tree 2010, Ragnar Relay New York 2010. Anyone wanting to submit photos for posting and who needs instructions, please send an email to webmaster@thereservoirdogs.com. 01.18.11This is a testHi all, just testing the old “President’s Corner” to see if it still works. If this thing works, Scott will be taking over the reigns from here. I sure do miss you guys. I hope to see you all at the Cherry Tree Relay and perhaps on some Monday Night Runs soon. All the best, Ex Pres…signing out of the corner! 06.24.09Do you qualify to run the Club Championships?Well, we want you to! As you may or may not know, NYRR requires that club members who want to participate in August’s Club Championships 5-miler have run at least one [update: marathon-qualifier] NYRR race as a club member, in 2009, by July 18th. I just heard from NYRR that participating in this weekend’s Achilles Hope & Possibility 5-miler does NOT meet that requirement. So, if you’re new or if you haven’t been racing this year, you only have 2 more opportunities to “register” as a Reservoir Dog before the July 18 deadline: the Front Runners New York Lesbian and Gay Pride Run this Saturday, and the CPC Run for Central Park on July 18. So get racing! 04.21.09NYRR Club Night 2009On March 24, 2009, The Reservoir Dogs earned our first-ever NYRR Club Points award with a 3rd place finish among Open Men B Teams in the 2008 racing season. Congratulations everyone for a great year! 01.22.092009 news from NYRRDave and I attended the latest NYRR Club Council meeting in December, and wanted to share the following information with you. As usual, if you have any questions, post to the message board or email one of us. Club Points Races for 2009 For more information about the club points system, check the NYRR site: http://www.nyrr.org/resources/clubs/index.asp Race Caps As you’ve no doubt noticed already, NYRR has started to cap the number of entrants permitted for a given race in Central Park. This is because of the crowding — over 10% growth in races every year for the past five years — which many of us have already noticed. The Central Park roads can only hold so many people while still permitting their use by non-racers (which is something the NYC Parks Dept requires), so the caps were inevitable. For the time being, the rules are simple: race entry is first come, first served. All races scheduled for the first quarter of 2009 should now be open for registration. NYRR will refine this process as needed for Q2, and is open to feedback, so if you have a suggestion, let me know and I’ll pass it along. NYRR Membership and Pricing The registration fees for NYRR races will change in April. Also, NYRR is reevaluating the membership options beyond the four levels currently available. Stay tuned for more info on both of these changes. ING NYC Marathon Entries 9 + 1 individual eligibility: NYRR will continue this plan, with some tweaks to the system including instituting shifts for the longer races. Overall, it should make volunteering a bit easier and a better use of everyone’s time. Team volunteering: The 9+1 system was so successful that NYRR is reevaluating the need for teams to volunteer in exchange for a couple of guaranteed entries; stay tuned. (Don’t worry, we’re lobbying hard to keep the team entries regardless!) NYC Half Marathon: NYRR is considering offering team entries for the popular NYC Half Marathon Presented by Nike; stay tuned for details. Other 01.08.09One Last PostHey everybody, I just wanted to write one last post in the President’s Corner to thank eveyone for all the kind words and notes that I have received. Being president of TRD has been a wonderful experience for me. I have made tons of friends and have really enjoyed being a part of the New York running community. Who knew that a little boy from North Carolina could grow up to wield so much power and influence! Anyway, we’ll be setting up Dave with access to this Corner soon, so look for his posts in the future. I know that I am leaving you all in good hands. Cheers, Russ 07.17.08A note about Team Championships, 8/16Team Championships are rapidly approaching, with all the cheering, picnicking, and oh yes, running that they entail. Yaay! We want everyone to participate, so please make sure you meet NYRR’s new requirements. They don’t apply to the vast majority of you, but just in case, from NYRR:
Any questions, please post to the message board or e-mail me. 05.16.08Official Race Report from the North Face Endurance Challenge 50kOfficial Race Report from the North Face Endurance Challenge in Bellingham, Washington on 10 May 2008: Men’s Accelerade 50K, Part II: Great Scot! Ryan Smith, 28, of New York City is fast becoming an Endurance Challenge “regular” – yet he’s also brand new to the sport. Four weeks before the Seattle-Bellingham Accelerade 50K, he volunteered with his New York-based running club, Reservoir Dogs, to work the Mile 33 Aid Station at the Endurance Challenge New England Regional at Bear Mountain, New York. He wanted to run that day, but decided it was best to save his legs for the Boston Marathon a week later. “Working the Aid Station, it was good to see what they (runners) were requesting and what they were eating,” says Smith, in an accent that reflects his upbringing in Scotland. With experience in hand and a 3:03 Boston Marathon time under his belt, Smith set off for Seattle, attempting to tackle both his first trail run and his first ultramarathon. “I was looking to do a longer, off-road race,” he says. “and Seattle was an area I hadn’t seen before.” Smith was immediately struck by the difference between running the Accelerade 50K and tackling the Boston Marathon. For starters, the 50K climbed over 7,000 vertical feet while Boston’s famed “Heartbreak Hill” is barely a 150-foot speed bump by comparison. Smith also realized that, because of the technical terrain, he needed to stay focused the entire time—whereas a road marathon allows you to “zone out,” as he puts it. Finally—and oddly—he found the Accelerade 50K to be easier on the body. “In the Marathon, the repetition of movement taxes your body,” he explains. “After Boston, I just wanted to sit down and sleep; I didn’t hit the same sort of low in this race.” Hesitant at the beginning of the race, Smith didn’t go off with the lead pack. “I didn’t want to go with them in case they were levels above me,” he says. Instead, he just let them go and enjoyed the solitude. “I must’ve run about 15 miles before I saw the first person,” he says, noting another enjoyable departure from the Boston Marathon, where he shared the course with nearly 20,000 runners and a million spectators. Smith’s conservative approach paid off in a major way beginning mid-way through the race. “I started to see some people and overtook them,” he recalls. “I was able to pick people off as the race went on.” It turns out, Smith was not entirely new to off-road running – even though his staple run takes him through New York’s Central Park. “I have a bit of a cross-country background,” he explains, reflecting on his early days in Scotland, “and I do a lot of hiking and spend time in the outdoors.” A little more than halfway through the race, Smith glanced at his watch, noting the time. It read “3:04” – and marked the longest he had ever run, by just one minute. “I thought ‘Whoa, I’m in uncharted territory.’” Soon Smith landed himself at the front of the race pack, running with Michael Havrda of Kenmore, WA. “I had some gas left in the tank,” he notes. That’s when Krissy Moehl (see above: “Homecooking”) caught and passed him. He tried to keep up, but she managed to pull away on a major climb. “I didn’t see her again,” says Smith. “She must have really been going for it.” With a time of 5:30:26, Smith finished the race in second place overall – first male—not a shabby trail ultra debut for a gent who had only previously run two road marathons to his name. He was followed by Havrda, who ran a 5:35:46, and Joseph Creighton of Seattle, with a time of 5:54:15. After all was said, done, and run, a total of 57 runners started the Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K, and 53 finished. Days later, in a phone conversation, Smith waxed poetic about his inaugural trail-ultra experience. “I’ve always secretly been a trail person, but I’ve also always lived in cities,” he says. “That’s where my heart is – trail running is just so much more satisfying than road running.” Look for Smith at the next Endurance Challenge event. “I’m thinking about doing the Washington DC one (September 6) … it’s not far from here,” he says. 04.02.08RTB ThoughtsThank you to those that are taking up the lead in planning for RTB participation. I know that it is a lot of work and takes a lot of time to plan all the details required for a successful outing. I have had a few questions regarding participation in the RTB relay and wanted to share some of my thoughts. The history of our RTB participation is that a very small and close-knit group of TRD members decided that we wanted to participate in the RTB and we formed the nucleus of a team. We then basically recruited others from TRD to make up the full 12. The club was much smaller back then and message board communication wasn’t quite as regular so no one really cared if there was an “open invitation” to the entire club. The fact of the matter is that due to the size of the club, the time commitment, the idea of running three times in 24 hours, and spending that 24 hours in a smelly van, we had trouble finding 12 people who could manage to stay healthy and interested from the registration date to the race date. When we expanded to two teams by the third year, we had to recruit a number of “outsiders” to make up the 24. All three of Julie’s brothers were on the team as well as a buddy of ours from Denver and Otto (the Orange Gazelle from CPTC) to name a few. The club was bigger and many more TRDers participated but there was and always will be significant difficulties maintaining a healthy team from Spring to Fall especially with so many people training (and sometimes over training) for a fall marathon. From the beginning, there was also wrangling and politicking for spots on certain teams and vans. I was guilty myself. Julie and I were a fairly new item that first year and I really wanted to be in the same van. Luckily, we packed our clothes in a shared bag, so we simply HAD to ride in the same van! In my opinion, people should not get too worked up about this sort of thing. Remember, the individuals, not the club, finance this expedition and, it is not inexpensive. So, if folks are already working to create teams or vans of their closest friends in TRD one should try not to be too offended. The team has grown so large now that there is no way that we can all share equal interests and, quite frankly, equal friendships with all members. Our goal should be to provide everyone who wants to the opportunity to participate and not be too concerned about the make up of the teams. I am quite certain that everyone will have a great time and will come away from the experience with closer and stronger relationships with all those who participate. From my reading of the board, it looks like there are two volunteers to lead teams. Both teams seem to be fairly full with committed participants. If there is enough interest, I will certainly do my best to recruit a leader for a third team. But, my guess is that by September enough people will have dropped out for one reason or another (schedule conflicts, injuries, etc.) that just about anyone who really wants to participate and is healthy will have the opportunity to do so. |
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