Last year, I started as one of the pacers for the New York Road Runners. There are over 200 people on the larger team. Given how many races and training runs they host throughout the year (it's not just the NYC Marathon that they put on), it's a good thing they have that many people available to pull from to fill however many pacer slots they have for each run.
Until recently, NYRR pacers used the same thing that most race pacers do in the U.S.: small signs atop simple wooden dowel poles that are held by the pacers. Starting with their 12-mile training run next month (which I will be pacing), they are permanently ditching the handheld signs for the "backpack" flags.
We just got an e-mail providing us some details about the new system. It will be interesting to see and wear the system, because we will be wearing a vest of sorts, that effectively looks like a sports bra with a pole sticking up from the back on which the pace flag will be placed, which will be underneath our pacer singlet. Hmmm... hopefully it's reasonably comfortable and not too bad to put on and take off.
No comments:
Post a Comment