NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 7, 1999

Allan Steinfeld

ALLAN STEINFELD: 384. I think that is in the press kit but the number's plus or minus that. It sounds good anyway.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Yeah.

ALLAN STEINFELD: The cannon didn't go off but the cannon went off fortunately. The military had a backup cannon, which was a way from the starter platform where the mayor and I and various commissioners were stationed and the mayor he pulled the line again it looked like after slightly joking but I was rather upset. That trying to start a lawnmower that wouldn't start. Then the military person we have -- I didn't know existed. I am glad it did exist but the military played it safe. Then caboom, it went off. And the runners started because fortunately but never gave exact time, the runners were just waiting and did the National Anthem instead of taking 46 seconds after the anthem to begin, I think it took a minute and two seconds. They couldn't tell the difference because it was so cold anyway.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Three or four maybe. It would do that and it would fire. The mayor is the official starter. I just tell him when to start.

ALLAN STEINFELD: There is a backup cannon that if you see the start, you've got the bridge apron where the cars normally are, and all the way on the left-hand side, when the camera looks at it, is the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Headquarters, that is where they have additional cannon. Just happened to be there, thank God.

ALLAN STEINFELD: When the gun is fired.

ALLAN STEINFELD: I didn't receive any reports but there was. If you were late you missed it. Right at the beginning of the Hasidic section and I couldn't read, it happened so fast, there were probably about a series of signs, 20 or 30 foot long on one side and that was it. They said something to the effect, I don't recall -- New York City Marathon protest, just making a statement. But as we went along the area there were various people in the neighborhood, some were Hasidim, some were kids who were clapping and cheering the runners on as they always do every year. Certainly they are a little more stoic and staged in their position, but periodically there is a few people who get into it and they were cheering.

ALLAN STEINFELD: I believe the Williamsburg section. It is a little after 10 miles when you make the turn.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Well, it was related to the fact that a member of the freedom party of Austria -- I forget his name, you guys would probably know . But if you looked at this morning's Times, there was a piece -- and I managed to read the sports section while I was out there waiting for things to happen -- where he was supposedly meeting tomorrow with the Jewish community to talk about things and he's alleged that these things are not correct and he is willing to do that. And in the article it said that the community would not be protesting which when I read that in the morning at about 4:30 at the start, still had a slight sigh of relief knowing that it wouldn't be a major protest like the protest back in 1988 which almost happened for those who probably remember. When the BQE was undergoing major construction, they were getting all the trucks coming off the BQE into the Williamsburg section, they had a real problem with that. So there was an attempt -- they didn't do it on race day -- they planned to protest to make the point that traffic has to be rerouted another way and not into Williamsburg, you have kids out there all over the place. In fact the individual, Isaac Abrams, is the same one who wrote the letter appealing to the Road Runner's Club not to have this gentleman run in a race or reroute it. And when I spoke, because he was concerned that things were getting blown out of proportion, when all of a sudden we are reading in the paper that this group or that group was going to do a protest, whatever, he wanted to let me know that that was not the case. So there was a working relationship here and I think it just died down.

ALLAN STEINFELD: No, I did not.

ALLAN STEINFELD: It wasn't the wheelchair division.

ALLAN STEINFELD: I make no comment on that because we are in litigation.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Not another German but a German because he was Austrian.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Politicians, yes, it often is for security reasons. We had one of the princes from the Netherlands run this year and I forget which one it is, because I am not very good at that monarchy stuff, and the people who met with me said we are not going to use his proper name but this is who he is, number such and such. Obviously with respect to the Austrian individual, the papers wrote that it was 5777 was his number because it was on the internet because we list that information and everybody kept asking me "where will I find it? Will you change the number?" Of course we changed the number. But we will let them know. In fact what I wanted to do but didn't have the guts to do it was have a few 777s and put them on a little old ladies in the back of the race (laughter).

ALLAN STEINFELD: That is correct. However, I would imagine that if someone contact the office now since the race is done, and he is not no longer a security problem, they probably tell you look him up internet on such and such which is what happened with the principles last time too.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Geez, to say I am stunned is an understatement. He was an interesting individual could we work with him directly. As you may recall in 1984 we put on World Cross Country Championships so we worked with he and his committee from '81 and he actually had tremendous respect for what we were doing. I don't believe the idea very, very recently when they realized that the sport of road running has a very high profile was really ever thinking about doing anything with that. Certainly been battles that existed between federations, maybe not directly ourselves, but city marathons so (inaudible) -- I guess from the media's point of view (inaudible) marathon championships. In doing it he also wanted to make sure that those dates were protected and so no other races could run against those dates. And some dates they chose, I think one was London, another was Rotterdam -- he didn't choose New York because he probably realized that we would not back down nor would London, nor would Rotterdam so they rescheduled things. So I wouldn't call it a love/hate relationship; I'd call it a like and maybe a problem relationship at times. But we would were never treated poorly. Personally with the with respect to the club because Fred was such a high profile individual. He has done a tremendous amount to promote the sport, not just in the United States, and those of you who travel, most of you do, this race is better known outside of the United States than it is here. For that Primo was eternally grateful. He will be missed.

ALLAN STEINFELD: No, because it is in litigation. In fact there is a stipulation which both parties were dealing with which is supposed to be sacred stipulation because it is like a gag order to get stuff done. I can say some of the things we did differently this year which because there were problems last year, one was there was a problem on the 59th Street Bridge which you probably discussed where runners were held back, there was a safety issue, tremendous number of cars going over the bridge and in the other athletes coming. In the past we have the outer roadway on the southern end of the bridge to get one group over versus another and we didn't have that last year there was a problem. So this year with all the city agencies the wheelchair athletes went on the northern outer roadway which lengthened the course and because more than is 26 miles, 385 yards, we removed the start-up by the distance which was close to I think 780 feet. An additional problem which we dealt with this year as opposed to last year, is the fact that the chip, which is the EZ Pass described before allows us to have only three or four openings at the finish, I know those openings are about 8 to ten feet wide. Prior to that when we used to tear off bar codes we needed (inaudible) inches wide. And due to that fact the wheelchairs could not go down any other lanes but a particular one that was on the right. That was problem last year and we resolved that this year.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Well, his lawyers are, but maybe he is not.

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