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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

October 30, 2009

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

MARY WITTENBERG: Welcome. As I closed our last press conference, I said I can't think of a better way to close with the pro athlete press conferences than with living legends, Grete Waitz and Paula Radcliffe. I can think of no better way to close the week of press conferences than with representatives of what has become a really vitally important part of this race to us and the New York Road Runners and that is our charity runners who are out there raising a lot of money for charities.
As I'd like to say at New York Road Runners, we call the marathon our crown jewel. It's our biggest party of the year. But we're 365 days a year mission driven to make a positive difference in people's lives through running. We believe that through running we can do a tremendous amount of good in this world.
And it's been through our partnerships with now close to 80 charities that we've been able to extend the reach of running. We've been able to deepen the impact of running, and we've been able to achieve our goal of truly changing people's lives for the better through running.
So as I turn it to Sara, I just wanted to wish, in this case Matthew and Anthony Edwards will be up there next, our athletes running on Sunday all the very best and tell each of you that you represent over 6,000 runners who will be out there on race day with a lot at stake. Because they're going to have not only the opportunity to be helping themselves, as we know the marathon experience will do for you, but helping others. We thank so much. Now I introduce Sara Hunninghake, our PR manager.
SARA HUNNINGHAKE: I'd like to introduce to my left, Peter Wilderotter and Matthew Reeve, the son of Christopher Reeve who are both running on Sunday in support of the cause. And I think Peter's going to open.
PETER WILDEROTTER: In April of this year the foundation released the results of its prevalence study which showed among other things that 1 in 50 people in this country are living with paralysis, 1,275,000 through paralysis through spinal cord injury. Over 60% are living in households that have the income of under $25,000. It was at that announcement that Matthew die sided he was going to run the marathon. Because he's a board member, because he's lived this injury and because he understands what the solutions of care and cure are all about.
So much has been written and spoken about during this, during Matthew's training about him and his relationship with his dad, and the fact that he's doing this in his honor and his memory. And the whole Superman metaphor. And I think there is a lot to be said for that. I've gone there myself.
But I think the real story of what Matthew is doing can be found in the marathon itself and what we, as a foundation, and the 70 runners who are running for us, so enjoy with our partnership with New York Road Runners and ING marathon.
And that is that the body -- the marathon is really a triumph of mind, body and spirit. And the body really isn't built to run 26 miles and it summons all of the mind and spirit to get you through. And that's what we see with spinal cord injury. That although a piece of your body may be broken, you can really still continue to flourish and do great things if you put your mind and your spirit towards it.
And that's really what Christopher was about. And that is really why Matthew chose to wear number 1275 tomorrow, on Sunday, I'm sorry. Because he's a person who deeply cares, who knows about hope, who has lived this injury, and has dedicated a part of himself to making a difference.
So let me turn it over to Matthew Reeve.
MATTHEW REEVE: Thank you. A great way to be spoken of sitting next to someone. First I'd like to say thank you myself to the New York Road Runners Club and to ING, and the rest of the sponsors of this year's marathon.
I cannot believe this week is here. It was always so far away. Yeah, and in 48 hours it will be pretty much over -- no, in the middle. Just about winding down, so, yeah, looking forward to that.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually looking forward to it. And running with Peter and John O'Connell and the rest of Team Reeve. It's going to be a big day. I also have to extend a big thank you to the people who have suffered through my whining and wincing and complaining through the past six months of training. And that's Greg Peters and Jenna Silverman at LaPalestra, they've just been unbelievable. And I would not be as prepared as I'd like to think I am, we'll see. But I would be nowhere near ready for Sunday as I think I am, without them.
I'd also like to thank everyone who has sponsored me. I set a pretty ambitious goal of raising $26,200. About $1,000 per mile. I'm mildly short of it, but I would think by Sunday I'll get there. But everyone who has been generous enough and kind enough to sponsor me, a big thank you from the bottom of my heart. I guess they should just ask questions.
SARA HUNNINGHAKE: We'll take a couple of questions.

Q. When did the idea for you to do this run in memory of your dad and to raise money for spinal research come about?
MATTHEW REEVE: It was, as Peter said, it was back in April. We were down in Washington, D.C. Peter had just come back from running the Boston Marathon, and he could barely walk. The combination of his persistent nagging and the release of our paralysis population survey found out it would help far more people than previously imagined, I thought it was about time that I contributed by running this.

Q. Have you been practicing very long for this?
MATTHEW REEVE: Yes. I started training not long after that conversation. Kind of eased into it. I'd come off a period of not doing a whole lot of exercise. I'd been in an editing suite finishing a project, sitting still a lot. So I eased into it. And then in May, the six-month countdown started full-time training?

Q. What is the most distance, farthest distance you've run in training?
MATTHEW REEVE: The farthest I've run is 20 miles. And I can't remember how long it took. It was about 3 hours and 20 minutes, 3 and a half hours. But that was about a month ago. October 3rd.

Q. I wanted to ask you, how many members of Team Reeve are there? And you stated your goal raising 26,200, how about all of the members of Team Reeve on Sunday's race? What is your target? How much do you want to raise in Sunday's race?
MATTHEW REEVE: Well, there's I think we're up to just over 200,000 now between everyone. To join team we have a minimum requirement, I believe, of about $4,000. So the last I checked we were about 270 combined right now. I mean the goal is as high as we can get.
PETER WILDEROTTER: I would just add there is a ferocious competition going on who is the top fundraiser. Right now it's Matthew Reeve. But John McConnel is closely behind and intends to give Matt a run for his money.
MATTHEW REEVE: Yeah, I need help fending him off.

Q. How will we be able to -- how will the spectators, millions of spectators be able to distinguish the Team Reeve members? And what will you be wearing?
MATTHEW REEVE: We'll be wearing white T-shirts that say Team Reeve here. So that's a start. I'll be wearing the number 1275, as Peter said, to represent the 1.275 million people living with a spinal cord injury. The number of 1,275,000 was too big to fit on the shirt, so we condensed it.

Q. What made you decide to do the marathon? You know, you picked an incredibly challenging event. But there are other challenging events. You could climb a mountain or do something else. I'm just wondering what your reasoning behind doing that was?
MATTHEW REEVE: Sure. Well, Team Reeve has been around for many years. It was pretty much the one aspect to the foundation that I hadn't been directly involved with. As Peter said, I'm the board, I'm on a number of committees. A quality of life committee. Our executive committee, co-chair of the champions committee. And Team Reeve was the one that I had no involvement with.
Traditionally they run marathons, whether it's Chicago, the Marine Corps recently we had some runners. And the marathon, there's something about the marathon. To be honest, it's on a lot of people's to do list, it was not on mine at all. But it got on there, and I'm really glad it did and really looking forward to crossing it off.
So it was a combination of doing something I'd never done before. I was not a runner. I mean, you'd have to convince me to run if a building was on fire. It was a complete challenge. And it also, of course, I had kind of been in New York, you know. I'd been in London for a while, but I moved back here back in March. And I was going to be here for a while, so I knew I'd be able to do the training and really commit to it.
I also I think at the time it was in the top 5 of all time sporting events to attend or be a part of, and that's certainly was a big factor.
SARA HUNNINGHAKE: Okay. Thanks. We'll take questions later on. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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