An interview with David Monti by George Banker

Race Results Weekly (RRW) provides a valuable service to coaches, agents, race organizers, athletes and other journalists through its weekly, comprehensive report on running events from around the world, via a weekly e-mail to its subscribers. Race reports are accurate and timely. RRW also covers specific events through articles and photography. David and Jane Monti have been doing RRW for 30 years, 51 weeks year, for their subscribers.

Runner’s Gazette’s George Banker reached out to David, who pressed the pause button to answer a few questions for our readers. Read on for Q&A.

What was your attraction to the sport?

I was a gymnast in high school and college. When I got out of college, I had no sport to do. I missed training, setting goals, and competing. Living in Manhattan right on the NYC Marathon course, I found inspiration from former stars like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Joan Benoit.  I took up running, and although I had no talent, I really loved it.

Did you take part in organized sports growing up?

I did. Besides gymnastics, I played little league baseball, football, and also played ice hockey in high school.

How did you come up with the concept of Race Results Weekly (RRW)?

I was working in a financial control function at Citibank in 1994 and the company had just unveiled their internal email system, Citimail. I converted a paper report to e-mail, and I saw it was possible to reach a wide audience cheaply with either fax or e-mail. I started RRW as a fax service in November 1994 from my bedroom in Manhattan. We had the results from three events, including the NYC marathon. Five people received it as test subscribers. In 1995, I migrated it to e-mail.

Is there a philosophy for the publication and what it is going to provide?

Running is a global sport, so it’s hard to follow because there is action everywhere. I wanted to make that easier for people by bringing everything they needed into one place once a week. Even with the advent of on-line results, I still think we provide a great service, because it would take someone hours and hours to find all the results we publish.

How did you determine that there was a need for the information?

Honestly, it was a guess. There was a need among industry people, but not really the general population. That’s still the case.

Was there any risk which you thought about if it was going to be successful?

I did RRW part time for four years while I kept working at Citibank, then went full time in 1998 after I got a severance package. To my surprise, I could keep the business going. Remember, the publication was only part of what we do: I also developed a good event consulting business which was responsible for about two-thirds of our revenue.

At the time there were other running publications (Runner’s World, Running Times, and The Runner). Did you think they would affect what your vision was?

I cooperated with all of them, and I think that was important. Runner’s World sponsored RRW for 20 years and we still provide content for them. I wrote several stories for the Running Times, which was a great publication.

At the onset, did you ever think about how long the publication would be around?

Not at all. When it reached a year, it shocked me. We are now in our 30th year. It’s hard to believe.

How has the reporting of race results changed over the years?

There are more events, and there is more data available. However, a lot of the data is still a mess. Part of our service is cleaning it up for our subscribers.

If you had to make any recommendation, what could you pass along to event organizers as it relates to race results?

If you have an elite field, double and triple-check that all of your elite athlete data is 100% correct. I see misspelled names, wrong ages, and wrong affiliations all the time. Also, be sure to list both gun times and net times for each athlete and put your results list in gun time order.

How do you think organizers and athletes receive the publication?

It’s a niche publication. Our readers love it, but there will never be legions of them. That’s OK with me.

Where do you see the publication in the next three years?

Eventually, I have to stop working 7 days a week, 51 weeks a year. Not sure when that will happen, though.

Has your approach changed over the years when you think about Race Results Weekly?

We have added a lot of editorial material and have expanded our reach by syndicating our work to various websites. That has given us a bigger voice.

Is there anything personal that you had to give up along the way, such as challenges or barriers to getting off the ground?

Sure. I have given up over 1100 weekends to work (so far) and for years made a lot less money than I did in my corporate life. I never got in it for money and was honest with myself about that from the start.

What have been three of the high points thus far and three low points since the publication has existed?

Highs:
1) I’ve worked at 7 Olympic Games; 2) I organized the elite fields for 19 New York City Marathons; 3) I have gotten to travel the world (over a million miles of flying), often with my wife.

Lows:
1) I’ve missed countless family gatherings because I was working; 2) I had to do RRW once in the hospital room where my father was in a coma and eventually died; 3) Trying to cover anything during the COVID pandemic when events were cancelled.

What do you want the reader to know about David and Jane Monti?

We love working for our subscribers, and we only answer to them. We don’t take any sponsorship money from running shoe companies, so our coverage is free from bias.

Comments from others in the business.

Kathrine Switzer:

“I first met David Monti in the 1980s and early 90s when I worked for ABC TV doing commentary for major marathons and track and field events.  He was hired by ABC to assist some of the other commentators with stats, but not me.  I had to do it on my own. Meow. So, I didn’t get to know him well then.

“But later, in the 90s, hanging out especially in the elite athletes’ suite at the New York City marathon, I got to know David better when he was managing these incoming elite runners and their agents. There were a million things he had to do. These agents pushed especially hard, and the athletes had a million problems. David wisely brought Jane, his wife, in to help. She was fun, efficient, and can-do tireless. Lost luggage? No problem. Lost shoes? We’ll fix that. Upset tummy? Here—drink this.  They were a fabulous team, and I never saw them get flustered with any problem, and you cannot even imagine the variety of them, especially when top guns from Russia or Africa were denied visas at the last moment and were stranded at a foreign airport. The Montis’ job was to get them to that starting line!

“Media technically, were not allowed into that suite, but somehow my own ‘runner’ status allowed me to drift in and out and get some inside scoop talking to athletes and their coaches directly. Also, I was a race director myself, having organized the global Avon International Running Circuit.

“In the late 90s, when runners suddenly were allowed prize money, I needed an elite athlete recruiter as we wanted the top women runners in the world for our major Avon championships.  I turned to the Montis and offered them as a twosome to take on the job of recruiting the field, then coming to the event, and managing them from arrival to press conferences to hospitality to start line . . . and then, the big extra help—the wrap up report. I had a package deal and two super-pleasant self-sufficient pros in the Montis to travel with us. It was such a win-win. And they were great company; we wanted them with us socially at all the events, too.

“David began writing his reports more and more, and this developed into the invaluable Race Results Weekly. And suddenly Jane, who is good at everything, began taking the photos—first with her phone, and then she got serious with a pro camera and now she lives in a plastic neon vest that says OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER on it. At about 4 ft 11 and weighing in at about 95 pounds, trust me that Jane can hold her own when the other photogs get pushy at the finish line.

“I’ve been a subscriber to RRW since the get go.  Want the facts and spelled correctly too? Don’t worry, they are all there.

“Best of all, David and Jane are great company. Interested in everything, memories like elephants, passionate about running, they are a delight to be around. And hey, as we all get older, how great is it we can gossip like crazy about old what’s his name, ‘remember that time when,’ exult in how far our sport has come, and speculate on where it’s going. Best of all is sharing the total love and understanding of what running means to us without boring anyone.”

Roger Robinson:

“One of the great partnerships in the sport, David and Jane Monti, contribute an amazing range of skills and knowledge. David simply knows the sport, especially at the elite level, as well as anyone in the industry. To his work in recruiting and race consultancy, he brings expertise, human judgment, diplomacy, budgetary skills, and absolute integrity. He is a meticulous and articulate journalist, and the reliability and comprehensive coverage of RRW has made it an indispensable resource. Jane has in recent years added top-level action photography to a portfolio that already made her the best hospitality manager in the business, with polymath skills from nutritionist to psychologist, from travel agent to tantrum-soother. By the way, they are two of our favorite dinner companions.”  

Dave McGillivary:

“The drive and the passion David Monti and his wife Jane have for our sport has always fascinated and inspired me. They seem to be everywhere reporting on road races, cross country meets, track events and trail races.  The volume of data is mindboggling, and the accuracy is spot on.  The information they provide is impeccable and the result reporting is extensive and flawless.  Also, given the speed with which they provide race results, it actually seems as if they have written their column before the race even happens! 

“I always look forward to getting David’s Race Results Weekly reports. He also supports the industry in so many other worthwhile ways and has become an icon in our sport who so many of us look up to and admire.”

Phil Stewart

“David Monti revolutionized timely electronic access to race results from around the world when he launched Race Results Weekly as a Monday morning email each week back in the late 1990s. RRW remains a weekly must-read for anyone following the top end of the sport, some 25 years later. In the process of tirelessly compiling results from thousands of races, David has become an indispensable fountain of knowledge about elite racing.”

Categories: Features

Tags: 2024, featured