Running shorts: Runner goes to the dogs
If you watched some of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show over the last two nights, you caught a glimpse of Greensboro runner Bobby Christiansen’s work.
Christiansen, 52, is one of the area’s most accomplished runners, in terms of speed and endurance. He has run in five Boston Marathons and completed 17 official marathons, bettering the Boston qualifying time in all but one (read on for those details). Christiansen has surpassed 26.2 miles in training runs maybe 30 other times as he prepared for ultramarathons, such as the Moonlight Boogie and Mountain Massacre 50-milers. his attempt to run the Western States 100 in 2008 was canceled because of wildfires, but he ran his 100 miles anyway — then he competed in the Western States last year.
The Greensboro native was in Manhattan this week as his company, MB-F, hosted the world’s most famous dog show at Madison Square Garden.
Christiansen took a few minutes to talk about the show.
You’re the president of MB-F: what does your company do?
“We are producers and managers of dog shows. It’s kinda simple. A race director, say like Scott Bassett, they produce a race. Everybody enters. Entries go to them. they set up equipment and they do timing. We’re the equivalent of that for dog shows. We do about a thousand events a year all over the country and occasionally out of the country. all of the people who want to show a dog go through us to find out where shows are. We process entries, do all the printing and catalogs, manufacture ribbons, scheduling. then we send trucks and equipment and people to town to set it up. Here at Westminster, everything you will see on TV, we did. We brought all the carpet, the flowers and signs. Backstage there are little platform wooden stalls, and every dog has a spot that’s numbered and labeled. the general public is walking through to see the dogs as they’re groomed, and we stage all of that.”
How many employees do you have?
“We have 100. about 75 of those are in Greensboro. We have some satellite offices in Florida, Philadelphia, an office in Michigan, some people in Oregon, some people in San Francisco. We stage and keep equipment in other parts of the company.”
How do you know when a show is a success?
“In some ways, if we’re somewhat invisible, that means there’s no problems. … If we’ve done our job, it’s like you don’t know we’re here. It’s the type of business that if you don’t do the job properly, everybody knows. It’d be like the Chicago Marathon, where they ran out of water; everybody knew. when a race goes off, it just happens. There’s plenty of water, plenty of port-o-lets, plenty of parking, the race started on time, you got your credentials in the mail and so on. our work would be the equivalent of you going down to run a race and everything happened the way you wanted it to happen.”
Madison Square Garden has been the home to professional sports teams, a Frazier-Ali fight, national political conventions and concerts. what is it like for you to walk into that building and help put on the most famous dog show in the world?
“It’s so cool. our office is right here with the Knicks and Rangers locker room. We’re in the bowels of Madison Square Garden. There are all of these pictures of what you just said. all right there. We’re occupying that same space. We’re putting together the flowers in the locker room. I’m looking at these lockers, wondering who was hanging their stuff there the other night. you stand there and think about the history. There are pictures of Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and all the athletes, Ali. There’s a huge hallway with tons of photographs, and there are pictures of the dog show back there. It’s pretty neat.”
What’s next on your running schedule?
“The Mount Mitchell 40-miler (Feb. 27). There’s one hill repeat: 20 miles up and 20 miles back down. they sent a picture the other day, and it’s covered with ice and snow. I’ve got Yak Tracks, and I’ve already experimented with them. you put ‘em on your feet, and honestly you can run in solid ice. then Greensboro (the North Carolina Marathon in High Point) in March and Boston in April.
“I have a goal for the North Carolina Marathon, to see if I can get most improved. I ran 3:36 last year and missed my Boston time by eight seconds — only because Charlie (Engle) slowed me down. but that was our second marathon that day. I’m only gonna run once this year and see how much faster I can be.”
North Carolina Marathon
Prices will go up Saturday on registration fees for the North Carolina Marathon on March 20 in High Point.
Entry fees of $70 for the full and $50 for the half will rise $10 each.
Sign up at ncmarathon.org
Running shorts: Runner goes to the dogs