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+--- Thread: Carmen Douma-Hussar, Steve and Sara Slattery to Celebrate the Countdown to 2008 (/Thread-Carmen-Douma-Hussar-Steve-and-Sara-Slattery-to-Celebrate-the-Countdown-to-2008)
Carmen Douma-Hussar, Steve and Sara Slattery to Celebrate the Countdown to 2008 - admin - 28-12-2007
NEW YORK - Canadian Olympian Carmen Douma-Hussar, Americans Steve and Sara Slattery and defending champions Thomas Morgan and Aziza Aliyu lead a competitive professional field that will ring in the New Year at the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run on Monday, December 31 in Central Park, it was announced by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg.
As a special companion to this year's event, more than 200 service members stationed in Al Asad, Iraq, will run their own version of the Midnight Run at the stroke of midnight - an eight-hour time difference from New York. This is the first time NYRR has staged this race outside New York. The idea came from Staff Sergeant Jacqueline Caputi of San Diego, who ran in the Midnight Run in 2000 when she lived in Brooklyn and saw it as one of the best ways to start the New Year "with new shoes and fresh soles" underneath her.
A Central Park tradition since 1979, the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run is a fun, healthy way to start the New Year and an inexpensive option for New Yorkers looking to celebrate the holiday without fighting the crowds in Times Square. For the first time ever in New York, the final 10-second countdown to midnight will have an extra boom: Fireworks by Grucci will produce a special display to conclude 2007.
"The Emerald Nuts Midnight Run is a quintessential New York City event open to runners from around the world looking to start the year off right," Wittenberg said. "Whether your goal is to get started, to get faster, to get fitter or just to have a lot of fun, it's the first and best running party of the year."
The New York event kicks off with a dance party, light show and costume contest and parade. At the stroke of midnight, immediately following the 10-second fireworks countdown, a spectacular 17-minute Grucci fireworks show choreographed to music will accompany runners as they participate in a non-scored four-mile fun run. For runners who want to toast the New Year en route, there will be a (non-alcoholic) champagne station near mile two.
Douma-Hussar found recent success on the roads of New York City with a victory in the famed Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in September, her second title in that event. She will be tested by Aliyu, who won last year's race in 21:56. The Slatterys, the only husband-wife duo in the professional field, will also challenge for the women's and men's titles. Sara Slattery earned gold in the 10,000 meters at this summer's Pan American Games, and Steve Slattery was the 2003 USA steeplechase champion. On the men's side, Steve Slattery will face two Midnight Run veterans in Morgan, the 2007 champion, and Christian Hesch, the course record-holder (18:28, 2004).
"This race continues to serve as an important kick-off for many of our top runners, and we welcome all of them," Wittenberg said. "What better way to start the Olympic year than by racing at the stroke of midnight?"
New York Road Runners will offer a prize purse of $2000, including $500 apiece to the first male and female runners who cross the finish line. Emerald Nuts will also award $1200 in prizes (in the form of American Express gift cards) to the top three male and female finishers. source RunningUSA