THE ELECTION

NEW YORK ROAD RUNNERS CLUB, INC.
ELECTION OF MEMBERS TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ELECTION PARTICULARS:  The annual meeting of the members of the New York Road Runners, Inc. will be held on September 23, 2002 at 730pm (DST) at P.S. #6, 45 East 81st Street, New York, NY.  One purpose is to elect five (5) Class Three members to the Board of Directors.  Eight nominees have been proposed by the Board of Directors.  In alphabetical order, their names are: Bernard Cooper, David Dittmann, Julie Geisler, Alan Kipust, Nina Kuscsik, Paul Nicholls, Norb Sander and Toby Tanser.  Of these eight, Cooper, Dittmann, Geisler, Kuscsik and Sander are current Class Three Directors up for re-election.  

WHO VOTES?  Members of the New York Road Runners Club at the close of business on July 31, 2002.

HOW TO VOTE: NYRRC members should have received a proxy form through the mail.  Members choose their candidates by placing checks next to the names of the nominees, sign and date the form and mail it back in the postage-paid envelope.   When a proxy form does not specify any selection, the five incumbents will be voted for.

THE CANDIDATE

TOBY TANSER

THE BIOGRAPHY:

THE AMENDMENTS TO THE BIOGRAPHY

• PHOTO:  The candidate decries the photo (see above) that appeared in the proxy statement.  He claims that this was not the headshot that he had submitted.  But we can rectify the matter of the photo easily.  After all, our website contains a trove of photos of Toby Tanser in all manners of regalia, moods and company.

• NYRR MEMBER:  More precisely, a NYRR Honorary Member since 2000.
   

• NYRR RACES:  'Winner of 31 NYRR races' understates his accomplishments.  The following are the wins that are known to us since he moved to New York City.  His pre-NYC resumé is much more impressive, incluing multiple Swedish and Icelandic championships and records.

1. Toby Tanser, NYC Marathon All Comers' 2.62 Mile Race, November 7, 1999
2. Toby Tanser, NYRRC Cross Country 5K Championship, November 14, 1999

3. Toby Tanser, Run for the Rainforest 5K, Central Park, NYC, April 22, 2000

4. Toby Tanser, L'Oréal Twosome 10K, Central Park, NYC, April 29, 2000

5. Toby Tanser, Flugleiðahlaupið 7 km, Reykjavik, Iceland, May 4, 2000

6. Toby Tanser, The Y-ME Race Against Breast Cancer, Chicago, Illinois, May 14, 2000

7. Toby Tanser, The Firemen's 5K, Central Park, NY, May 18, 2000

8. Toby Tanser, Tommy's American 4 Miler, Central Park, NYC, July 4, 2000

9. Toby Tanser, Tavern On The Green Breakfast Run, Central Park, NYC, July 19, 2000

10. Toby Tanser, Dash & Splash Five Miler, Central Park, NYC, July 29, 2000

11. Toby Tanser, Manhattan Half Marathon, Central Park, NYC, August 5, 2000

12. Toby Tanser, New York City Marathon Tune-Up (18 miles), Central Park, NYC, August 27, 2000

13. Toby Tanser, Henry Isola XC 4 Miler, Van Cortlandt Park, NYC, September 3, 2000

14. Toby Tanser, Harry Murphy XC 5K, Van Cortlandt Park, NYC, September 10, 2000

15. Toby Tanser, AHA Wall Street Run, New York City, September 20, 2000

16. Toby Tanser, Terrace Bagels 10K, Prospect Park, October 1, 2000

17. Toby Tanser, Staten Island Half Marathon, Staten Island, NYC, October 15, 2000

18. Toby Tanser, Turkey Trot Five Miler, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, November 23, 2000

19. Toby Tanser, Hot Chocolate 15K, Central Park, NYC, December 2, 2000

20. Toby Tanser, Holiday Classic 5M, Prospect Park, December 3, 2000

21. Toby Tanser, Banchory & Stonehaven AC 3 Mile Boxing Day Run, Scotland, December 26, 2000

22. Toby Tanser, Fred Lebow Classic 5 Miler, Central Park, NYC, January 7, 2001
23. Toby Tanser, Alumni Run 10K, Central Park, NYC, January 14th, 2001
24. Toby Tanser, Chicken Soup Loop 10K, Central Park, NYC, January 21, 2001
25. Toby Tanser, Gridiron Classic 5K, Central Park, NYC, January 28, 2001
26. Toby Tanser, Lucky Seven Mile Reversible, Central Park, NYC, February 4, 2001
27. Toby Tanser, Valentine's Day Twosome 2 Miler, Central Park, NYC, February 10, 2001
28. Toby Tanser, Brooklyn Half Marathon, Brooklyn, March 10, 2001
29. Toby Tanser, Spring Fling 4 Miler, Central Park, NYC, March 17, 2001
30. Toby Tanser, Rabbit Run 10K, Central Park, NYC, April 8, 2001
31. Toby Tanser, Race For Freedom 5K, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, April 28, 2001
32. Toby Tanser, NYRRC Pajama 5K Run, Central Park, NYC, April 29, 2001
33. Toby Tanser, Harbor Fitness 5K, Brooklyn, NY, May 13, 2001
34. Toby Tanser, NYC Firefighters' 5K, Central Park, NYC, May 16, 2001
35. Toby Tanser, Carey Wall Street Rat Race 4.01K, Wall Street, NY, May 22, 2001
36. Toby Tanser, Tavern on the Green Breakfast Run, Central Park, NYC, July 18, 2001
37. Toby Tanser, Run to the Home Plate 5K, Shea Stadium, Queens, NY, July 21, 2001
38. Toby Tanser, Terry Fox Run, Central Park, New York City, October 13, 2001

39. Toby Tanser, Teen Challenge of Brooklyn 5K, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, April 27 2002

40. Toby Tanser, Home Depot Mid-May Classic, Fairfield, CT, May 19, 2002

41. Toby Tanser, Carey Wall Street Rat Race, New York City, NY, May 21, 2002

42. Toby Tanser, Tavern On The Green Breakfast Run, Central Park, NYC, NY, July23, 2002

Nobody wins every race that they enter.  Somewhere back behind these 42 wins are numerous other tough, quality finishes.

• THE MARATHON BEST:  Technically, a 'sub-2:30 marathon' is correct.  But the exact time is 2:16:07.  Other PRs are 3:44 1500m, 8:08.8 3000m, 13:48 5000m, 28:45 10000m,  48:25 10M and 1:03:01 half-marathon.  (See A Brief Chat)
   

• CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, NY RUNNER MAGAZINE:  Add numerous other magazines to the list.  Example:  The current issue of Running Times (October 2002) has his article "Kenyan Women Having It All" (p.18) on Lornah Kiplagat, Catherine Ndereba and Joyce Chepchumba.  Also add NYRR website to the list --- example: 2000 NYC Marathon Journal and 2002 Club Team Championships.
   

• AUTHOR OF BEST SELLING BOOK:  The book is Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way, now in its second edition.
   

• COACH OF SEVERAL RUNNING CLUBS AND CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS:  The organizations include: Urban Athletics, The Reservoir Dogs, NYC Police Academy, Project A.L.S. Running Team, ...  Also a member of the Central Park Track Club, the Fat Tuesday Athletic Club and Spårvägens (Sweden).
   

• OBVIOUS OMISSIONS: 
  - Website Tanser.org is the best source for the NYC running community. 
  - Shoe4Africa.

ENDORSEMENT BY 
ALAN RUBEN, PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB

From Alan Ruben: "Members of the New York Road Runners (NYRR) will be receiving in the mail an opportunity to vote for up to 5 directors of the NYRR in the next couple of days. Our men's team leader in Saturday's Club Championship 5 mile race, Toby Tanser, is standing for election. On behalf of the Central Park Track Club, I would like to urge our members to vote for Toby because, apart from being a nice guy, he is a competitive runner who would be a strong advocate for club runners in New York City like ourselves." 

(8/21/2002)

ENDORSEMENT BY 
ROLAND SOONG, CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB WEBSITE EDITOR

All NYRRC members have received or will receive a proxy statement in the mail about the upcoming NYRRC board of directors elections.  At this point, we endorse the nominee Toby Tanser and we urge all our readers (who are members of NYRRC) to vote for him.  Voting is easy --- just check the names of the your chosen nominees, sign your name, enter the date and mail the proxy form back in the postage-paid envelope. 
 
This endorsement is a personal one (by the Central Park Track Club website editorial staff of one), and does not reflect any official positions of the Central Park Track Club.  This is the first time that we have actually made an endorsement.  In the past, we have provided space for candidates as a matter of public interest, but this will be the first time that we actually advocated someone.  Given our very exacting standards (just read our restaurant reviews to see how hard we are to please!), this was not a specious decision.  We will offer you our specific reasons. We point out that this does not imply that we disapprove of any of the other nominees.  Rather, Toby Tanser is the only nominee for whom we had sufficient information to make this endorsement.

We have four major reasons for endorsing Toby Tanser.
  
First, we esteem the New York Road Runners greatly as an organization.  This is a group of people who 'get it' --- namely, the successful integration of media communication, marketing, promotion, merchandising, volunteerism, community involvement and organization is the path to growth and excellence.  This sounds simple and obvious, but a lot of people don't get it.  You have to have lived elsewhere to appreciate how fortunate the New York City running community really is.  
 
Reflecting the importance of integrating multiple approaches and activities, the NYRRC Board of Directors has a diverse representation of people who are drawn from advertising, marketing, running publications, sports medicine and so on.  Clearly, people will contribute most effectively in their areas of expertise.  Any organization will face the problem of evolving in the direction preferred by its leaders, rather than always following the objectively optimal paths.  The New York Road Runners serve multiple constituencies --- elite athletes (as in the New York City Marathon and the Mini Marathon), local professional or semi-professional runners, competitive club runners, middle-of-the-pack runners, beginning runners, youth runners, etc.  The constituency that this particular website represents is that of the competitive running clubs.  We are first and foremost for the Central Park Track Club but we are more (after all, we average 1,000+ users per day when we have only 200 paid members) as we are the de facto website for people on other clubs.  We would argue cogently that this constituency forms the core of the whole running community --- we are hard-core frequent racers, heavy-spending consumers, running folklorists, opinion leaders, unpaid running evangelists and all that.
 
The NYRRC has more than 30,000 members.  Sociologists say that any social organization of more than 150 people will break apart because it is no longer possible to form intimate relationships with so many people.  Nobody will claim that they personally know all 30,000+ members.  Rather, runners bond closely together in smaller groups in the form of the running clubs, which are formed for reasons such as location, schedule, competitiveness, sponsorship, coaching, socialization, nationality, and so on.  The danger here is in the Balkanization of the whole running community into various compartmentalized cliques, and there can only be tensions when they interact solely in competitive situations.  In this regard, we believe that Toby Tanser has already done a great job in breaking down these barriers.
 
Toby Tanser is currently competing as a member of the Central Park Track Club.  This fact had zero impact on our endorsement decision.  In fact, if he was the type (but he is not) that said "My blood is orange-colored," we would consider that to be a BIG MINUS.  What impressed us was the fact that he is also involved with the Urban Athletics team, The Reservoir Dogs, the Project A.L.S. Marathon Team, the Nike RunNYC summer/fall sessions and even the NYC Police Academy cadets, thus showing the ability to transcend sectarian interests.  His website Tanser.org is the single most informative source about the local running scene, where people can find out about news also about the New York Harriers, Warren Street, Moving Comfort, Westside Runners, Westchester Track Club, etc.  Toby's first star endorser is NYRR Runner of the Year Paul Mwangi, who is a member of West Side Runners and also a frequent visitor of his website.  For those of you who are frequent visitors of Toby's website, we ask you to step back one moment and think how much less you would know without its presence.  We therefore see Toby Tanser will be a major contributor to the development of greater cohesiveness in the community.  Along this theme, please read his 2002 Club Team Championships wrap-up story on the NYRR website.  We do not see any other nominee with this type of qualification and/or track record.
 
Second, over the past ten years or so, we have observed the increasing globalization of our runners.  Whereas twenty-years ago, we seemed to be a homogeneous group of most young educated professionals, we are now from many nations with many backgrounds.  Globalization is not unidirectional; it is about interchanging of ideas and experiences.  Toby Tanser is a tremendous store of information about the global running scene, best known for his book on the Kenyan runners, his extensive network of personal contacts among elite runners and coaches all over the world and his encyclopedic knowledge of running facts.  He has served as an elite host for the New York City Marathon and the Women's Mini-Marathon.  His website Tanser.org is also frequently visited by his friends across the globe.  We do not see any other nominee with this type of qualification. 
 
Third, Toby Tanser is a professional elite athlete who has competed at the top level.  As the old saying goes, he is our 'teammate who rides in the other bus' to the starting line.  The elite athletes are the people who get media attention and are therefore important for the visibility of the sport, but they also have unique needs and conditions.  We believe that having a professional elite athlete on the NYRR Board of Directors should be a requirement.  We do not see any other nominee with this type of credentials.
 
Fourth, Toby Tanser is also a personal running coach to individual runners.  It is physically demanding to have several clients per day, but it is also mentally demanding as this is a client-focused job that has to be tailored to the psychological make-up of the individuals.  Although elite athletes get media attention, the race events still derive their revenues from mass participation, which will in turn attract major advertising and sponsorship.  We believe that it is important to have someone who has a track record of being in tune with the middle- and back-of-the-pack runners.
 
Obviously, we wrote all of this because we believe and we want to tell you what we believe.  Now it is up to you.  Voting is easy --- check the names the nominees of your choice, sign your name, enter the date and mail it back.

(8/22/2002)

ENDORSEMENT BY 
JOHN PRATHER

I don't know that much about New York running.  I come from a land far far away, commonly known as Arizona (you know, "It's a dry heat").  Nevertheless, I have been called "an out-of-towner who is in touch," which is much better than "an out-of-toucher who is in town," I guess.  So with such a ringing endorsement, I take great pleasure in offering my own endorsement of Toby Tanser for NYRRC Board of Directors

 

I had a blast being a runner in New York this summer, with its strong club system, its vibrant racing schedule, and its myriad special events.  The city offers so much for so many runners, as must NYRRC.  It seems to me that Toby is a rare individual with his finger on the pulses of both the elite and the back-of-the-pack runner.  Both are vital to the sport, to its survival and to providing it with its beauty.  I used and then deleted the word "egalitarianism," because clearly the fast and slow aren't equal in winning awards.  But they are indeed equal in making the sport as charming and wonderful as it is, one which brings together people of all ages, nationalities, occupations, interests, and talents.  Our sport must never lose that.  And anyone who knows Toby -- even if only from his website -- knows that he is uniquely capable of transcending all distinctions and doing what's best for the most people.

 

For me, Toby's greatest quality may be the sense ethics he brings to the sport.  As an athlete, coach, agent, event manager, journalist, announcer, official, and fan in the sport for 30 years, I love our sport in the most idealistic sense.  I abhor cheating, I love seeing kids and their voyage of self-discovery, I am inspired by older runners whose competitive fires never waned, I am awed by people running as fast as I once could but never will again, and I am humbled by those determined to do something very hard very well.  All are equally vital parts of the New York running landscape.  Like me, Toby respects each and every runner for who they are, and for who they might become.

 

In his own way, Toby has become New York running for many people, for those who keep abreast of the stories on his website, and for those who took their first running steps as a result of his tutelage.

 

I don't believe I can say it any more eloquently than Roland did on the CPTC website, so if you haven't read his endorsement, I strongly urge you to do so.  Meanwhile, I'll conclude with this thought:  I've been in the sport since dinosaurs ran the stopwatches, and Toby epitomizes all that is good with running.  His experience and his idealism are most needed.

(Note:  John Prather is a a member of NYRR, a national-level masters elite runner, a high school running coach and an out-of-town member of the Central Park Track Club)

(8/23/2002)

ENDORSEMENT BY 
DIANE KENNA

You can't spell New York Road Running without Toby Tanser. Well okay, you actually can but that's beside the point. Toby has, in just a few years, made quite an impact on the local running scene.  His exceptional talent, commitment to the sport and individuality (have you seen some of those outfits?!) make him uniquely qualified to serve on the Board of Directors of the New York Road Runners club.

In a sport which is quite often overlooked by local and international media, it is refreshing to meet someone with so much knowledge, enthusiasm and appreciation for running. Toby is a wealth of information regarding runner statistics and race results. His writing is informative, entertaining and inspiring. He has been able to immerse himself in the running community, befriending local teams, elite athletes and novices alike. His coaching is top-notch and he motivates runners of all abilities to strive toward the highest level of achievement. Toby's work with beginner runners through the NIKE Run NYC clinics and other volunteer clinics is a wonderful boost for our sport. He can take a beginner runner and turn them into a running addict overnight.

From his international running experience, Toby has been a member in many running clubs throughout the world. This provides him a unique insight into what can make a successful running organization.  I think Toby would be a refreshing addition to the Board, able to come up with creative, practical solutions to some of the problems facing our club, while maintaining the love and enthusiasm for the sport that is inspirational to us all.

(Note:  Diane Kenna is a member of the New York Harriers)

(8/27/2002)

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ENDORSEMENT BY 
DAN CAPIELLO (The Reservoir Dogs)

By now everyone should have received their NYRRC proxy form to vote for the board of directors. Most of you will recognize a name on that list - Toby Tanser.  He is running for the board of directors and will be great for NY running if elected.  Obviously Toby knows the running scene in NY and as such can make changes that are beneficial to us - the runners.  He has helped many of us achieve our personal goals and can make a difference to all runners in this position.  I urge you all to vote for him.  Rarely do I try to persuade anyone's opinion, but I do feel strongly that Toby can make a difference if elected.

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ENDORSEMENT BY 
RAMON BERMO (Team In Training)

Those of you that are members of the NYRRC will be getting or already gotten a proxy for the election of NYRRC board of directors. A good friend of mine, Toby Tanser, is running (no pun intended) and I urge you to vote for him and not just because he is my friend (most of you probably know him as well from seeing him in the park,).  Anyway, he is a runner that can bring great things to the organization.  I could give many reasons why you should vote for him, but I don't want you to spend your day reading when you could be running. Just trust me, if you want things to improve in the running community, he is a person that can do that. And if you are still not convinced, just do it as favor to me!