As my fellow New Yorkers' know, you have to volunteer for one race (in addition to running 9 races) to get automatic entry into the NYC marathon. So on Sunday, I signed up to volunteer at the Run as One in where else but Central Park. When I got there I was immediately disappointed that I didn't run this race. Wanna know why? Because dude, they gave out tech t-shirts! They never give out tech t-shirts. Wanna know what kind of t-shirt I got for volunteering? A bright yellow long-sleeved cotton t-shirt that will probably never see the light of day again. Also note, that this yellow shirt was accompanied by an equally sexy crossing guard-esque vest that was made for someone a lot bigger than me. (Sorry, didn't get to keep the vest though). When paired with my black bag that I bring to work, it was a hot combination.
I had signed up to be a chip clipper, because, well, you get to sit down while you volunteer. But before I could clip chips, I had to work the corrals at the start. I was in one of the faster corrals and it was my job to make sure that nobody snuck into the corral who wasn't supposed to be there. Well sure enough, people who run 10 or 11 minute miles started moseying into the 7 minute mile corral. Now, normally I am not such a hard ass, but being a fellow runner who gets stuck in this clusterf**k every race, where it is hard to pass people, I thought it was messed up and started regulating on these people (nicely of course). And of course they fought with me. Them: "But I want to run with my friend." Me: "You can run with your friend, your friend just has to go into your corral back there." Them: "Bitch bitch, whine whine." Me: "Please don't fight with me and just get into the other corral!"
Come on people. That is so rude. Corrals are there for a reason. When you take your 10 minute mile self and put it in a 7 minute corral, you will just trip up the people behind you. I think it is really inconsiderate to your fellow runners. Plus, please don't give your fellow runner volunteers who got up at 6 a.m. on a Sunday and are sporting a bright yellow shirt and orange vest a hard time.
Onto the chip clipping. Before the day of the race, we were told, via email, to be on the lookout for people wearing two chips and to report anyone doing so, because this is a NYRR no-no. I couldn't understand why someone would wear two chips. But then someone explained it to me. Apparently, people will wear one chip for themselves on one foot, and one for a friend/significant other who can't/doesn't want to run the race. As a result, the friend/significant other gets credit for the race and the other person's time. Now when I heard this, all I could think of was "If I have to get up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning and run a race to get entry into the NYC marathon, well then so should YOU!"
So I was on the lookout for these "chip cheaters." And let me tell you, I found them (Hi! You will probably be disqualified! Sorry about your luck!). Now, come on people. If you are going to cheat and wear two chips, don't go up to the chip clippers, ask them to clip one of them and then they hope you don't see the other. We are not blind. Smart people would either rip the chips off themselves and hand them in, or just leave and return the chips to NYRR the next day. But I guess these people weren't so smart.
I will say though, every person whose chip I clipped said "Thank you" and some even said "Thanks for coming out and volunteering today." Even the chip cheaters said it. I thought it was really nice.
After volunteering and a post-volunteer nap, I headed over to the Y to get my swim on. I used one the workouts posted by my triathlon team. Total yards: 2000. Did I do it? You bet! I actually did 2100 by accident. But who would've thought I could swim that far! And it didn't even feel that hard! Olympic tri, here I come.
Monday, April 20, 2009
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6 comments:
Wow, I never even thought about people cheating like that. I need to volunteer for a race too, but I'm waiting until June when it's nice and warm at 6am!
Good job knocking out your volunteer duties early! I'm procrastinating, as usual.
Those chip-cheaters you caught were definitely rookies. The 'smarter' bastids use their laces to secure the chip. They get their chip clipped and then inconspicuosly drop the other chip into another bucket at a different chip clipping station. They have it down to a science. I'm glad NYRR is cracking down on this because you're right, it isn't fair!
Great work volunteering, even if you didn't get to keep the hott vest.
Hope some of your cheaters get kicked out, they really need to perfect their cheater methods.
I manned the corrals once too, and witnessed what you describe. I think the ones that really want to get through will eventually get through. However, I think just the presence of someone checking and turning people away keeps most of those people out.
I've also seen people legitimately up in the front corrals, based on their race number, but I know are not faster than me. All it takes is for someone to cheat on one race (not race and then cross the finish with a really fast time, or go the 2 chip route) and then they get a lower number as a reward.
Further, my understanding was that NYRR would use your fastest time from within the last year, but that doesn't seem to be true. In my case, my fastest time had been over 2 years old (I finally beat it at Coogans!), and it was still used as the basis of getting my number assigned. I think they need to really reset the counters every year, or somehow calculate based on a rolling average of your minutes per mile (they have technology, this is possible!)
Thanks for such an interesting post!
i've started saying thank you to as many volunteers as I can during races because it finally dawned on me that we couldn't do this without them!
why are people so rude... I don't get it!
I love your hardass story! That vest was POWER.
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