NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 4, 2001

Allan Steinfeld

ALLAN STEINFELD: Thank you. This is not about me and it has never been about Fred even though people thought it was. We always had a fantastic team, which is our staff and the 10,000 volunteers, but it's also a partnership. Because this race doesn't take place without the city being part of it. We don't close the roads. We don't close bridges. We don't get helicopters up. The city does all of that and they put all of their might and power behind what needs to be done to make this race what it is. We do an advertising campaign to get the runners here. We are not to get the runners because we don't advertise for them because we have got so many, but to get the spectators out there, and they were there and this obviously, after 9/11, was a whole different world. There was a question whether or not the race would take place and the week after, just in people's minds, never really spoken outloud. I had called the Mayor's office when he started saying we have to get back to normal and they came back and said, "Yes, we do, the marathon is quintessential to New York City, so we need to do it." We then got involved with people we never got involved with before which is the intelligence division of all the agencies in this city because there were concerns, and rightfully so, and they told us what we needed to do. We told them the things that we felt we could do and they passed on things or said, "Well, you can't do this," and then, in the last few days, you know, the decision was made to close all the bridges, so there was no traffic alongside the runners. That had never happened before. The decision was made, and rightfully so, to have the runners arrive by 8 o'clock so they can do whatever they needed to do at the bridge to make it secure. Then we had a major concern, two major concerns having nothing to do with safety, but with reality, is Pier 94, which is where we used to of our expo, but more importantly, we gave out the running numbers to the 30,000 athletes that came in from all over the world. That was taken over by the city and the government and became a staging area for the families of the victims and emergency services. So, we were left out on our own we thought, initially, to go find another venue to house the 30,000 runners that had come in and all the additional requirements we needed for our sponsors and for the runners when they leave here to come back with Marathon gear. Through the efforts of the city, we got the Javitz Center, turned it around in two weeks, which was absolutely phenomenal. Helicopters - it is a no-fly zone that exists over the city within 25 miles. The city worked with the agencies they needed to got the helicopters for us. That's extremely important. This race has always been about New York City, and what New York City looks like overhead. The view of the bridge with the 30,000 runners lined up, that's the quintessential marathon start of any event in the world. Nobody can duplicate it. That was there. It was also necessary to relay the signals, so important, so we could have the TV show. We were live in many countries, German TV, the Netherlands, Spain had live broadcast, four hours, that's unprecedented, it's always been tape delay or it's been live, but they didn't set up commentary positions in the city in the park. I mean, everybody was on board for this race and supporting, is based on what happened in this city. The city showed its resilience as it always had, it showed it's energy and diversity and I am just so pleased nothing happened in the race. The race was successful, you know, weather could have been slightly better, but you take what you get. It was cool, but it was a bright sun, no cloud cover, some of the athletes were having a problem, we have the American championships, we bid for them in November, we wanted the American athletes to come here, and test their medal run with the best to be the best, be showcased and they did that as you heard before. On top of it all, this reminded me very much of 1981 when Alberto Salazar and Roe broke the records. Our records people have said for many, many years are really tough because this is a tough course. Today's event proved that's not the case. You put the right athletes together who are willing to run and you see the difference. We had a record in the men's event, we had a record in the women's event. And just like when Naolo Takahashi, she broke the 2:20 barrier, and then Catherine Ndereba went onto run 2:18 a week after, I think now that people see that the records have been broken we will continue to see those records: Any questions?

ALLAN STEINFELD: Look at the total distance of the race 26.2 miles. Look at how much the course has changed. 900 feet. Less than a kilometer. I have no problem because it's our determination to make. It's our organization that pays the money that this is indeed a course record. We have had changes over the years due to problems with the streets. A few years ago we had to go around Bedford Avenue, if someone had the course record we would gladly pay. This was a decision we made in the course and we stand by it.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Absolutely, because you are dealing with one hill for 200 meters. If you look at the top athletes, if they slowed down two or three seconds or they gained two or three seconds it won't make a difference. The real factor today was we had great athletes, but the reason you didn't see better times is that sun was beating down on them and if we have a cloud cover that was supposed to be here, you'd probably pick up another 30 or 40 seconds, I believe.

ALLAN STEINFELD: I was concerned but I must admit I was dealing with our group that was start (inaudible) unfortunately unlike any of the (inaudible) takes everybody and puts them in a corral which is Ft. Wadsworth which is what we need to do. We pre-stage them there. Then they march out onto the bridge apron before the start of the race. That's done because we have got to get athletes over and we use a lower level of the bridge going to Staten Island. If you look at Boston, Chicago, any other race you find that the athletes go out leisurely to the starting area, get themselves staged except for the elite athletes that come in then they go. I have always have trepidations about 30,000 people being inside a fort, coming out 12-foot wide openings, three of them, to get onto the bridge apron. That's always there. Obviously this time it was heightened by -- but I felt comfortable with the measures that were public with respect to protecting the bridge and protecting the athletes and also knowing the fact that the mayor was out there and he and his staff, myself, the commissioners from all the various departments, were there and they would not allow this race to take place if they didn't feel confident that they could protect it.

ALLAN STEINFELD: Yes, I wanted to get some faster times but also it was psychological. As I said when Gordon Bakoulis was at that press conference he said yes, 2, 3, 4 seconds that's not the margin you are looking for. This race is about the front part of it which is professional athletes and then 29,900 other athletes and I think it's psychologically it makes a tremendous difference for those athletes that are running and all of a sudden they have to make this turn and they look up and they go, oh, my God, and they get up there and they keep going 'til they get to 90th Street. Here it is a gentle slope as they are climbing from 102 street to 90th Street. It's not a sharp turn. It is into the -- right-hand turn, it goes like this. (Indicating) as I said it's only a few seconds, but psychologically it makes a difference, and even Gordon had said that you know, it is great not to think all of a sudden oh, my God --

ALLAN STEINFELD: Certainly two, three seconds anybody would take, that's the psychological factor.

ALLAN STEINFELD: First Avenue was a sea of people shouting and screaming at anything that went by in the race, motorcycle cops, a press truck, my car, before the athletes got there, when the athletes got there, then they really exploded. It was extremely exciting. There were American flags. I have never seen American flags. I have seen flags from other countries. In certain areas in Brooklyn there were American flags all over the place. Again because it's an Hispanic area, as well as Afro American area, there were flags from their countries. I think what made the difference this year besides 911 which is the major difference we're talking about another 5%, is the elite athletes as I mentioned previously, had on their running bibs and if they are an American, had U.S.A. down the right-hand side, so the people could identify them as well as TV could identify them for the television show. The international athletes not from the U.S. had their three letter country code down the other side. People all of a sudden saw nameless athletes, because our sport is not as popular as we would like it to be, running and knew what country they were from and so they were cheering for them so they knew KEN meant Kenya and so on. Also the mayor helped publicize this race. The last few days he had mentioned about the bridge closings, and at the same time, he would say come out and cheer the runners on, so I think there was a heightened awareness as well as the heightened awareness due to 911 that this event was taking place.

ALLAN STEINFELD: It's okay, it's her opinion.

ALLAN STEINFELD: I think she would have. She made that break when she came over the bridge; she just left people in the dust. She's a strong competent runner, also you need to know most runners tend to be self-depricating.