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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 7, 2011Firehiwot DadoAmanda McGroryGeoffrey MutaiMasazumi SoejimaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK RICHARD FINN: We welcome you to our Monday's Champions press conference for the ING New York City Marathon. It was a fabulous day, and we'll go through a lot of those numbers and reflections upon the day. We have all of our champions here. Our men's and women's wheelchair champions, one a record holder, a new course record holder, and our women's and men's champions as well with another record set yesterday. Lots of records were set yesterday. Just to give you an idea, this morning, all four champions were down at the New York Stock Exchange helping ring the bell and got on the floor, and that's always an exciting morning after the race. Like to turn it over to New York Road Runner President and CEO, Mary Wittenberg. MARY WITTENBERG: Thank you so much, Richard. The numbers are simply staggering. Starters 47,438, we'll talk about that in a minute. I think we'll be 47,500 when all is said and done. Finishers 46,795, that too will go up. We'll talk about it. I can't wait to see my friend, Mr. Carey Pinkowski. New York is now, this is like talk about staggering, this is stunning. New York is now the fastest record certified men's time in the United States. I have to repeat that because I don't know if we're ever going to say that again. But the fastest U.S. record certified performance is in New York. Geoffrey Mutai's 2:05:06, which is stunning. And the women's side in the wheelchair race, Amanda smashed the course record for a time of 1:50:24. The World Marathon Majors championship, which has been riveting, I think, through the five major races this year, came down to yesterday and Emmanuel Mutai won $500, 000. Our prize money payout in New York hit a record $1.2 million, and again, that is just part of an overall prize, time bonus, and appearance package. So, in total, we will pay more than we've ever paid in our pro fields. Jennie Finch raised $30,000 for our youth programs bypassing 30,000 people. She ran a 4:05, which is pretty remarkable having just had a baby in the end of June. Subway is donating $26,200 to Paralympics, youth Paralympics because Apolo broke four hours. He smashed four hours, he ran 3:25:14. This is astounding. Following the lead of our friends at the London Marathon, about five years ago we got serious about charity. Once we get serious, we get really serious. Our goal was raising a million dollars a mile. Last year we raised $30.8 million. We had hoped to surpass that, but with the economy, we thought we should be realistic. No need to bend that, $33.8 million dollars raised for charity. And I'm stressing $33.8 million because I was at a charity breakfast this morning, and I said we certainly better hit 34 before this is all over. So hopefully we get a few more don'ts or. Some other notable times. This to me was the bow that wrapped the package on a fabulous day. Jack Waitz, with a knee problem, a calf problem, and without the training that one would typically want going into a marathon, literally sailed across the finish line, big smile, and words of I'm so glad I did this. He ran 3:50:41. Mark Messier, world class athlete, once again leaving it all on the course, 4:14:27. Our chancellor of education, Dennis Walcott ran about 3:24 or so. We have all these details for you. The list goes on and on. I'll end with Kiki Homer of Flight 93 was pretty excited as she finished at 7 hours 14 minutes. She crossed the line, and a lot of us were there and she was really appreciative. She said, "I thought of my brother a lot as I was looking at the city landmarks. When I saw people dropping out, I thought of my brother and it helped me stay focused and keep going." I think in conclusion, I didn't plan this, I'm going to go like this, because it's not the numbers that matter at all, to be honest to us in New York. What really matters is the total impact of this event, and it is astounding at every level. From the individuals who participate to those they now help by their own partnership, to the spectators who are moved, to the volunteers who are moved. A lot of you have spent seven days with us, and a lot of you are part of our worldwide marathon movement, but this is incredible stuff. We're just really pleased to have a terrific day. RICHARD FINN: Carey just joined us. If you want to -- MARY WITTENBERG: Carey Pinkowski, do you know who has the fastest record, fastest time on their marathon course for men's field on record certified courses in the United States? CAREY PINKOWSKI: New York. MARY WITTENBERG: I know you'll quickly be working on making sure that's not the case for very long, but we'll take advantage of the moment while we have it. CAREY PINKOWSKI: Enjoy it. MARY WITTENBERG: Fair enough. But handing it back again, it's with huge congratulations to our champions. RICHARD FINN: We're going to ask each of our champions to say a few words and possibly reflect and look back at yesterday. Possibly this morning talk about the experience and what this might mean to the rest of their career. We'll start with Masazumi. MASAZUMI SOEJIMA: Thank you so much. This is the first time I participated in this marathon, and finally I won. I am so happy about this. And for me yesterday was the best day ever in my life. As you know, we are going through a hard time in Japan, and I hope the fact that I won will encourage the rest of the Japanese. And also I would like to thank you, the people here who have encouraged me yesterday. Thank you. RICHARD FINN: Thank you. To one of our two course record champions. Yesterday, Amanda, also I believe our 2006 champion as well, Amanda. AMANDA McGRORY: Thank you. Super excited. I'd first like to thank the New York Road Runners of course, and Bob and Kathy and the rest of the team there for putting together an outstanding wheelchair field as always. The best field on the hardest course. It's just great. Yesterday was an incredible day, perfect weather, the crowds were phenomenal, blue skies, and I felt great. So I couldn't have asked for anything better than that. Such a big win at such a prestigious course on American soil is a big deal, so I'm still pretty psyched about it. RICHARD FINN: If I might acknowledge, and we always do, but the wheelchair race continues to expand and get better each time. Bob Laufer, our wheelchair race, but Bob, in the back, thank you, Bob. We'll go to the ladies, and, Firehiwot, if you could. Certainly a surprise yesterday for many of us. Is it still a surprise to you what you did yesterday? FIREHIWOT DADO: In the first place, I want to thank God who helped me to achieve this victory. Next I would like to thank my manager who brought me to run here in New York and the organizers who invited me. I'd also like to thank my family. To be honest, until this moment I'm still surprised that I won yesterday's race. In addition this morning, we were treated very well and taken around the city and we saw a lot of interesting things. So all of that has been a great new experience for me. This gives me moral encouragement to train harder to achieve better results in the future, so thank you. I also would like to thank my coach who has encouraged me and pushed me to achieve this. Thank you. RICHARD FINN: Now to our other course record champion from yesterday and maybe the fastest man in the world at the marathon distance, Geoffrey Mutai. Geoffrey? GEOFFREY MUTAI: First of all, for me I want to thank God. Second, I thank the organization of New York, the people who were cheering me, members of the media, all the people who were there, although you were not participating, but you are watching or you clap or even you clap hands, you do a lot of job there. For me, what happened yesterday, I still keep my mind about the past marathon in Boston. I ran like that in Boston again. Up till now I still remember -- I keep my mind up to now to think what I have had and where I am now. This race has made me so proud to be here, which I cannot express myself. For me, maybe you cannot see how happy I am, but on the inside deeply, inside me, my heart, I'm happy. I don't know how to express. I have stayed in New York where I have passed through all those days I have been in New York I have enjoyed a lot. Until now I'm still enjoying. Thank you, and God be with you. RICHARD FINN: Thank you. Q. Mary, he broke the course record in Boston by about two minutes plus, and two and a half minutes here as well. Isn't it pretty obvious this is the greatest year that anyone's ever had in the World Marathon? MARY WITTENBERG: It evokes a little bit about Sammy Wanjiru. I think Geoffrey is a little like Sammy in that he seems to be a few steps ahead of everyone else right now. So I would definitely put Geoffrey's performance in the World Marathon majors at the very top, and maybe Sammy would be the one that comes to mind as well. Q. Geoffrey, how much did you know, other than having seen the race, how much did you know Sammy and how much did what he achieve mean to you and inspire you? GEOFFREY MUTAI: For me I can assure you that to know Sammy is only we are coming together from Kenya, but we don't know each other so much, even to meet him. We met only in competition like in Nairobi. But it's very hard. It's very painful to think about him again. I assure you that it's only, for us in Kenya or for me, it's only I believe in myself in training. I work hard, and it's coming now to show that it's coming to the race that I was training like that. RICHARD FINN: Just a fact that we announced yesterday in the press room, and I thank Jack Fleming who helped us out from Boston yesterday, Geoffrey is the first man to hold in the same calendar year, the Boston and New York title since 2002 with Rodgers Rop, quite a feat. Q. How much more motivation was it to you that after Boston everybody didn't really talk about -- well of course they talked about your time, but especially about the wind, and how much more motivation was it to show here that it was not just the wind, but it was you? GEOFFREY MUTAI: Oh, I think even it's that which helped me to keep training well. But I would not change my program. Although it was not recognized, for me it doesn't change me or it doesn't change my mind. That's the thing which kept me doing a lot of something again to go down. And then see one day maybe it will come to me. For me, everything I've never been forcing myself. If it's not mine, it's not going to come to me. So even if I would break the world record, I don't mean now, but if it is to do for me, I will do it maybe one day. MARY WITTENBERG: I've got to say, Geoffrey looked remarkably fresh at the end. How did you feel at the end? GEOFFREY MUTAI: I think I felt that I gained another power. Of course, because when I came through the road I found people were cheering me. I think all of them were helping me a lot. Because when somebody doesn't disturb you or follow you back or doesn't disturb you in the race, and you get people cheering you, it helps me a lot and it boosts me. RICHARD FINN: Mary, you were out on the course. What was the crowd like? It was a glorious day. Were the crowds bigger than we've ever had and especially spread out all around the race course this year. MARY WITTENBERG: Yeah, it's unbelievable. And I'll take a minute to speak about the global nature of this phenomenon. I was able to run about 17 miles of Carey's course. I'm paying you back here, Carey, and the fans were unbelievable there as well. Yesterday they were huge. I think it's the biggest we've seen. But it's exactly the difference is it was not all that long ago that this course had support, but it was about First Avenue. I truly believe now that Fourth Avenue is starting to rival First Avenue, Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. And I think this year we'll give the MVP of the course fans to the Bronx. I don't get to get all the way up there because I get to the finish with the women, but every report of the Bronx has been it's just hopping, which I think our Silver medalist had something to do with that, as well as some compelling stories of some runners from the Bronx, especially one of our Foot Locker challenge participants. But people are drawn to the magic of these events. And New Yorkers were out, I'd say, in record numbers yesterday as part of our record breaking day. Q. I'm wondering for Dado, how much during the race were you actually communicating with Buzunesh? Were they at all talking about ways with how to deal with the large lead that Mary Keitany had? FIREHIWOT DADO: As we were running, we were going at a very good pace. But she was really far ahead of us, at least two minutes ahead. As we approached and got a little bit closer and we saw her, at that point we were encouraging one another and telling one another to be strong. We were greatly encouraged by that, and we were able to close the gap and to catch her. RICHARD FINN: The lead was as big as 2:20 or even more around mile 15, so it was quite the -- you never gave up hope? FIREHIWOT DADO: I didn't give up hope. At first because of the great distance that she had gone ahead, we were concerned, but we didn't give up hope. It is a race, after all, and we were fighting to win. Q. I believe that Ethiopia also uses a selection process for the Olympics. Do you think now that you'll be named to the team for next year in London? FIREHIWOT DADO: Well, we have run very well, and New York is a major race. That itself is a source of joy. But in addition, I hope that I will be selected, and I know it is possible. RICHARD FINN: On the topic and subject of next year's London games, might want to ask both of the wheelchair athletes your thoughts on how does that work for the US Team, Amanda, for the Paralympics? AMANDA McGRORY: Yeah, definitely. Unfortunately, for me at the moment our official Olympic qualifier was the Chicago Marathon where I had some -- but don't clap because I didn't qualify there. Unfortunately, I had some pretty serious equipment issues which is something you run into when you're so reliant on a piece of equipment as the wheelchair racers are and wasn't able to finish the race. So top two American finishers at Chicago automatically made the team. In addition to that, we have four more slots that will be structure based on time. But I think with the win here, the win in London earlier this year, I think I'm on the right track for sure. MASAZUMI SOEJIMA: Last week we had the selection meeting in Japan, and I won a seat and I'm supposed to join the team. I heard that the course was a rough course with a winding road. But this opportunity is once in four years, so I would like to prepare myself well for it. Q. Geoffrey, you coach yourself. So do you think now by your example you might put other coaches out of business as other athletes try to follow your style and be their own coach? GEOFFREY MUTAI: For me I cannot say that maybe other people can follow me. This is something you make your own choice from when you are starting. Even when you are building your house you start from the ground. Someone cannot come and say I want to train myself alone like somebody. For me I started when I was still young. I was training with my colleagues, my friends, even without going to town, I was training alone at home. But when I joined my group there, I found that there was no coach there, so we continue and we produce more athletes there when I was even not competing well until now. So I don't see that for some people they need a coach, but for me, I don't need a coach because I know how to train myself. Q. Can you explain how it works? Do you write a coaching program weeks ahead or do you just run every day the way you feel like running? GEOFFREY MUTAI: For me what I can tell you first of all, when you are coaching yourself, first thing is discipline. If you are not disciplined, you cannot go through all those things because there are many temptations there. So for me I have my own program. I write my calendar and my program which I am using. MARY WITTENBERG: How far in advance do you write the program? GEOFFREY MUTAI: For me, I write my program by week. I have my own program for a week. Q. Who taught you this, or how did you keep this without a coach? I mean some coaches here they study for years and they don't know it as well as you, it seems. GEOFFREY MUTAI: I found there my colleague which I think maybe people can know him, another colleague that is still running, William Kiplagat. So I get him there, he was training there with a small group. He was having a program. I don't know where was getting the program or who gave him that program. But after we get that program, we modified it or extended it some other things there, so we make it to be different. Q. Mary, on a weekly basis for the races you have here, how often do you see Buzunesh? How many of your races does she go to? MARY WITTENBERG: Often. Buzunesh has been our New York Road Runner, Runner of the Year for the last two or three years. So she's got to run a minimum of six races to qualify. Last year she ran a lot of marathons, so she probably didn't run that many more than the six. We see her pretty often. More than the races, we see her running. She's here. She's got a pretty heavy national calendar of events, but she runs here all the time. Q. For those who broke the course records, what do you do for an encore? What is your next goal? GEOFFREY MUTAI: My next goal now is if I will be selected to be on the Olympics, that will be my focus. I am focusing now on the Olympics if I will be selected. AMANDA McGRORY: That's definitely my next biggest goal as well. I'm looking forward to an easier off-season. This is my last big race of the year. I'll probably start the spring season off with London again, but the ultimate goal is to qualify to run in the Paralympics. Q. If you do that, then what? I mean, let's say you make it? AMANDA McGRORY: Gold Medal, of course. Q. In the Paralympics, will you do an array of distances or just the marathon? AMANDA McGRORY: No, I'll actually do a variety of events. Wheelchair racers have a little bit of an advantage on runners is that they can stretch it out a bit more than that. So it's not uncommon for a wheelchair athlete to go to the Games and do three, four or five events. So my main focus event will be the 5,000 meter, and I'll stretch that down to the 1500, and then up to the marathon. RICHARD FINN: One thing we did this year and I want Mary to say a few words is we stretched and expanded our race day I think through the full weekend, and it's still going on today. Your observations and reflections, Mary? MARY WITTENBERG: I was going to close with that. To me part of the underlying theme of the weekend was risk taking. I was really proud of our team. We took some real risks this year, including -- these are big, big events and there are a lot of expectations around them. We really believe that there is opportunity to continue to grow well beyond the day, certainly from a marketing perspective, we think of this as a year round event. But as you've heard me say, I think it's like the people's Olympics, so we wanted to go for opening ceremonies on Friday night. We did not spend money on promotion or very little of it outside of our event, but we built and really focused on, as we often do, we focus more on the doing than the promoting. Put together a really powerful opening ceremonies program, and you always have risk. We better have people in those stands, because that's what expectations would be for us in New York, and it was a pretty extraordinary evening. I've got to say in some ways, Friday night was a huge highlight for our team. Same thing that we really believe in promoting and telling the stories of the sport. So the daily cool down with Carey and Zach working really hard on that, and the NYRR Live. We'll do more and more and more digital and broadcast quality programming around this marathon so we can keep telling the stories. Same thing with Barbara's Marathon News Service. Those were all things that we invest in. In some ways it takes you're splitting your resources and deciding where to place them, and we really believe in stretching out the weekend, as Richard said, in those ways and telling these stories. You can expect it to see more of it. It just gives me a good chance to wrap with an incredible thank you to our team. It's an extraordinary team. You can't believe the degree to which people on this team care about what's happening here. It's really risky to name names, but we mentioned Bob. Huge hat's off to David and Sam on the pro fields. They work really hard on them, and I think represent us really, really well. Our technical director Peter in the back, I can't say enough. But they represent, together with Richard and 140-plus full-time employees, we're just the nucleus, but it's a nucleus of people who will do whatever it takes to dream big for this race and really deliver. So it's really I just certainly finish the week with huge appreciation for them. We're just trying to live in and step into the shoes of Fred and Alan before us, and keep trying to run as well as we can. RICHARD FINN: One more, Mary. We're already looking ahead, midnight run, Empire State Building run up, the half? MARY WITTENBERG: Yes, a big schedule ahead. Really excited about 2012. I think the Olympics gives everyone a chance to be excited and focused on running. I just want to call out the 2012 ING New York City Marathon process begins now. Planning began a long time ago. But what we're going to do this year is a little bit different. We're not opening the application today. Instead we're encouraging people today to give us their email addresses. Tell us in 134 characters or less, kind of Twitter worthy why they want to run 2012. Then we're going for Marathon Tuesday today, to Marathon Monday today, Marathon Tuesday tomorrow. We'll pick the first 43 entrants to the 43rd running of the ING New York City Marathon. We also have a fun social media campaign going on, which we call our Marathon Monday Mania, and people can try to win a couple of entries there as well. But we're planning to launch our 2012 application the end of December. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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