Key Notices
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ON NYRR SCORING
RACES
Each
year, the NYRR (in consultation with club representatives) designates about
twelve races as team scoring races. The overall club standings for
the year are based on each club's position in these races. For more
details about this club competition, please refer to www.nyrrc.org/runningclubs/clubpoints.html.
We want to assure our members that their contribution to our scoring teams
in these races has absolutely nothing to do with their value to our
club. Our main raison d'etre is to encourage competition in
running events and to help all members achieve their running potential in a
supportive team atmosphere.
Within
this context, this notice is also to convey to our members our club's view
on the importance of the NYRR's annual scoring-race series.
We are a competitive running club, and as such it makes sense that our
members be encouraged to run in these scoring races. They take place
regularly, they are conveniently located, and they are some of the
highest-quality races in the New York City area. They also provide us
with an incentive to compete against one another and other teams, and they
give each of our runners pride in being part of one of the top teams in the
city.
However, whether you can be a regular scorer for the team or not, these
races are a fairly random collection of distances and no one should feel
pressured to run in them just because they are scoring races. Instead
we encourage our members to do their best to incorporate them into their
schedule when that makes sense to their overall training goals.
There are many facets to CPTC, and many kinds of competitions in which our
members take part. The NYRR series is a valuable opportunity for our
distance and middle-distance runners to compete and excel, and our current
high placings are evidence of the quality of our training programs.
Recent successes in indoor and outdoor track, marathons, biathlons,
triathlons, and many more events are other such evidence, and the CPTC
members who concentrate on those areas are equally central to the team and
its goals.
The NYRR scoring series remains a valuable medium through which all CPTC
members can compete together, from first finisher to last. We all
contribute to one another's success, whatever our event or pace per
mile. That is the intrinsic value of a team.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ON PACING
This
message is to clarify to our members what is and what is not illegal pacing
in road races.
Firstly, there is in fact no pacing rule, per se, anymore. This was
replaced by the assistance to athletes rule a few years ago. The
actual rule is written as follows:
RULE 66: ASSISTANCE TO ATHLETES
1. Except as provided in road races (Rule 132) and in long distance walking
events (Rule 150), during the progress of an event a competitor who has
received any assistance whatsoever from any other person may be
disqualified by the Referee. "Assistance" is the conveying of
advice, information or direct help to an athlete by any means, including a
technical device. It also includes pacing in running or walking
events by persons not participating in the event, by competitors lapped or
about to be lapped, or by any kind of technical device. It does not
include participation of an officially designated pacesetter in the race.
NOTE 1: Pacesetting by a person entered in an event for
that purpose is permitted.
NOTE 2: Competitors may carry or wear articles of personal
equipment such as wrist chronometers and heart rate monitors.
What this means is that if you are watching the race, advice and
information to athletes in the race such as "there's someone 10 yards
behind you" is technically not allowed. Basically you are
allowed to support and cheer and little else. Pacing by someone not
in the race is explicitly prohibited. (If you are not in the race you
are certainly not allowed on the race course – this should be thought of in
exactly the same way as spectators are not allowed on a football field
during a game.) Pacing by someone in the race, however, is not
explicitly prohibited unless it can be shown to be illegal assistance.
Nobody is going to enforce this rule for the mid-pack runner. However
none of us are mid-pack runners – we are a competitive running team with
individual runners and teams who often win races. This, naturally
enough puts more focus on CPTC, and we all need to make sure that we are
competing within the rules.
CPTC POLICY ON ACCEPTING MEMBERS FROM
OTHER TEAMS
All
members of the Central Park Track Club should be aware of the club's policy
concerning recruiting people from other local running clubs. No one should
try to encourage anyone from any other local running club to leave that
club and to join the Central Park Track Club. However, if for
whatever reason a person has left or intends to leave their club and is
interested in joining CPTC, then it is OK to talk to them about what our
club offers and the procedure for joining CPTC. The important
distinction here is that the initial approach must NOT come from us.
If CPTC receives a membership application from someone who is leaving, or
has left their team, we will contact their team leader to make sure that
they are aware of the situation. If that leader objects to that
person joining CPTC and we determine that unfair recruiting has taken place
we will not accept their application at that time. We will not
reconsider a subsequent application from that person until at least three
months has elapsed from the date of the initial application.
Let's remember that we are one of the larger running teams in the New York
area and it is not in our interests to expand by recruiting people from
other smaller teams. We welcome a large number of vibrant, active
teams in the area in order to enhance the level of team competition and
inter-club rivalry.
