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FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (12-Oct) -- John Conley of the AT&T Austin Marathon and Jim Marino of the Blue Cross Broad Street Run were jointly named MarathonFoto/Road Race Management Race Directors of the Year at the Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting which opened here today. The award was presented by Running Times magazine.
According Phil Stewart, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter Road Race Management which organizes the meeting, it was the first time that the award was presented to two winners.
"As race directors we have to be prepared for the unexpected," said Stewart who explained that his selection committee could not break the tie between Conley and Marino even though they went to a second round of voting.
Under Conley, the AT&T Austin Marathon has grown to the 16th largest in the United States with 5,654 finishers in the 2006 edition last February. His event also has a half-marathon with 4,064 finishers. Conley, a former army medic, is best known for a detail-oriented management style and developing innovative strategies to keep his event competitive on the elite end, despite having a relatively modest budget. For instance, in 2006 a financial incentive program which offered $500 and $250 cash bonuses for American athletes to achieve U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying standards resulted in 16 men and 9 women qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathons and generating a windfall of media attention.
"We only thought we'd get about ten," Conley said after receiving the award.
The Blue Cross Broad Street Run, held last May in Philadelphia, has grown to be the second-largest ten mile race in the United States with 13,550 finishers. Marino has succeeded in nearly doubling the number of finishers in the last five years; only 7,157 athletes crossed the finish line in 2001 edition of the event. The event's main draw is the exceptionally fast, point-to-point course which loses three meters per kilometer of race distance.
The meeting continues here tomorrow with presentations on medical planning and management, using the internet to manage and promote events, post-race sponsorship reporting, a detailed analysis of the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon, and a highly anticipated open forum on trying to rid the sport of performance enhancing drugs.
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