This page is intended to immortalize the words of Central Park Track Club people. As is customary for this web site, everything is supported by factual details (dates, places, witnesses, photographs, audio-visual clips, etc.). This page will grow over time, but obviously that will depend on your contribution of new stories.
#1552: WHO: Michael Rosenthal
WHEN: March 13, 2006
WHERE: Busines Week
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
No, Thanks. I'll Take the Stairs
More people are skipping the elevator—and are racing their way to the top.
By Bremen Leak
When a massive blackout hit New York in 2003, then 35-year old Jamie Leone had no choice but to take the stairs to her 28th-floor apatment. The next day, the elevators came back to life, but Leone opted to keep on climbing—and still does, even though "my neighbors think I'm nuts," she says.
All that climbing is paying off. In the recent Empire State Building Run-up, and annual stair-climbing race at the Manhattan landmark, Leone dashed up 86 floors (1,576 steps) in 20 minutes, 40 seconds—about 10 minutes behind the winner, but a solid first time performance. Stair climbing, she says, has taught her how to reach new heights in other ares of lief, including her job at a private-equity firm in New York. "It's a physical cahllenge. You have to learn to focuse and push through mentally," she says.
In today's sedentary cubicle culture, stair climbing could save you from more than just those awkward elevator conversations—it could save your life. The American Council on Exercise recommends 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Walking up steps, says Todd GAlati, ACE research scientist, can burn as many calories in a 30-minute period as jogging at a 12-minute mile pace or cycling at 12 to 14 mph. That translates to 286 calories for a 150-lb. climber and 382 for a 200-pounder. Plus, the faster you go, the more calories you burn.
Of course it's not a holistic exercise solution. "You should include strength training and flexibility training," Galati says, "and start out slow to avoide soreness." those with a history of knew problems should consult a doctor first, he adds. Once you're in shape, you'll be ready to race.
The wintry months spanning November to April constitute the stair climbers' racing season. More than 80 major "towerthons" take place around the globe each year, according to the Web site TowerRunning.com. And with new races popping up everywher from Boston to Taipei, the number of people who bypass the eleveator is rapidly taking flight.
SECURITY CONCERNS
Just ask Pedro Ribeiro, a Portugese-born mechanical engineer who lives in Macau, south China, near Hong Kong. Ribeiro, 33, uses his vacation time to compete in stair-climbing races. He recently finished 9th out of about 1,000 at the Taipei 101, a new 91-story race at the world's tallest building in Taipei, Taiwan, and 7th out of 150 elite runners at the Empire State Building. Tower running, he says, gives him more determination in his life, not to mention prize money. He took home $300 from the Taipei 101. The top prize? Nearly $6,000.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for climbers these days is not the steps themselves—but gaining access to them. Heightened security concerns in some high-rises make stairwells off-limits even for people who work or live in these buildings. A week before the Empire State Building event, runner Michael Rosenthal, who works on the 58th floor, was barred from traiing in the stairwel by building security, citing liability reasons.
Resigned to working out in his 26-story apartment building, the 42-year-old entrepreneur has big plans for the sport. He founded the International Federation of Stair Racers and is launching a Web site, stairracing.com, that he hopes will link the thousands of stair climbers and those who sponsor the races to make buildings more accessible for training and competition. "If my organization could do anything for the sport, it would be to move it out of the category of the novelty," he says. It's a step in the right direction. Only 1,575 more to go.
#1551: WHO: Devon Martin
WHEN: February 17, 2006
WHERE: The Columbia Spectator
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Olympic Track Journey Began at Columbia
By Tarin O’Donnell
Columbia Daily Spectator
February 17, 2006
Devon Martin, CC ’90, is already preparing for the night she will be inducted into Columbia’s Athletic Hall Of Fame. This honor will be the culmination of a long and storied athletic career as a runner, which in Martin’s mind all began with a simple question posed to her by a Columbia coach in her senior year.
“Jackie Blackett was my track coach during my senior year,” Martin recalls. “She asked me one question: ‘Do you want to make it to Nationals?’ and I realized that I did, and that was it.”
As a Columbia freshman, Martin chose to specialize in the 1500 meters. She recalls that during her first three years, the team was a close-knit unit, but there was an almost surprising lack of success for the Columbia female runners due to high turnover of coaches and a lack of training consistency. It was Blackett who finally stabilized the women’s track program and pushed Martin to a higher level of performance in her senior year.
“For me, the coaching was key. We were a young, developing program, so Jackie was everything. My teammates were extremely supportive, but Jackie was the one who gave me new ideas, techniques, and goals. She was the one who helped me verbalize my dreams.”
An energized and focused Martin saw results immediately, becoming the first Columbia female athlete to compete at Division 1 Nationals in 1989 for both cross country and the 1500m. Martin recalls the intense pride she felt wearing the Light Blue when she was introduced for her events.
“They always introduced the athletes right before the events, it was all very exciting. At that moment I was very proud to be wearing the Columbia uniform, and that was a lot of fun.”
Martin parlayed her intense focus and work ethic to greater heights after Columbia, competing in a number of USA and British Indoor Nationals and USATF Nationals. Winning the silver medal at the Olympic Festival in 1991, Martin finally attained her ultimate goal of qualifing for the 1992 Olympics in the 1500 meters.
Nearly a decade later, Martin continued to excel at the Masters level. She is a co-holder of the Masters World and American Records in the 800m relay and is a World Masters Champion in both the 800m and 1500m events. In 2001, Martin was voted the USATF Masters Track Athlete of the Year.
Now her heart is focused on coaching. She now works with the elite Central Park Track Club, which is one of only 33 clubs in the nation designated by the USA national governing body of track and field (USATF).
Martin still searches for intellectual challenges in her profession as an attorney to balance out her athletic prowess. Looking back, she appreciates her hectic schedule in college, when she juggled academics, sports, and sorority life. She believes all of those experiences taught her to be successful and highly versatile in her adult life and career.
“A lot of it was about discipline and consistency...you can’t make it through Columbia without studying pretty hard. It was just trying to combine both being an athlete and a student. Now I’m doing the same thing. I am still engaged in intellectual pursuits with my law firm, working on some really interesting cases.”
Martin laughs at the idea of her being a pioneer in women’s athletics at Columbia, but there is no denying the huge impact she has had on all female athletes at Columbia. She has high hopes for the future of Columbia’s women’s sports programs, and is confident that they will continue in the traditions of success that she and her teammates helped to forge.
“Columbia is one of the best in academics.” Martin said. “As far as athletics, there is no reason why we can’t do both.”
#1550: WHO: Brad Weiss and Bonnie Host
WHEN: February 5, 2006
WHERE: Kate Irvin's brunch
WHAT THEY SAID:
Brad: "I don't think we've met."
Bonnie: "Actually, we danced."
That dancing occurred at the awards dinner in December.
#1549: WHO: Frank Handelman
WHEN: February 8, 2006
WHERE: Responding to an old-timer who asked about a race Frank ran in Central Park in the 1970s
WHAT HE SAID: "I don't remember the year, I don't remember the distance. All I remember is that I won."
#1549: WHO: Caryn Waterson
WHEN: January 12, 2006
WHERE: The Armory, after calling her parents to report a race times.
WHAT HE SAID: "They still love me, even though I'm horrible."
#1547: WHO: Kate Irvin
WHEN: October 22, 2005
WHERE: fast-women.com
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Interview with Kate Irvin
by Maureen McMurray
For many college athletes, when they toss their caps at graduation
they also have to toss in the competitive towel. For distance runners,
however, the post-collegiate possibilities are seemingly endless. The
rising popularity of 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons and the crown jewel of
them all, the marathon, has made competing after college a viable option.
But middle-distance runners face a different reality. Most 800 and 1,500
meter runners, with the exception of elite runners looking to the Olympic
Trials, either bump up to longer road racing distances, or stop competing
all together.
Kate
Irvin, a 10-time All-American at Middlebury College and one of Division
III's finest middle-distance runners, has transcended these barriers and
proven it is possible to keep at it even without the sponsorship deals.
When she graduated in 2001, her PRs stood at 10:14 for 3,000 meters, 4:34
for 1,500 meters, and 2:12 for 800 meters. Now, as a member of the New
York City-based Central Park Track Club, she has bested all of her college
times and boasts a 9:55 (3,000m), 4:26 (1,500m), and a 2:10 (800m).
She outran
the local competition at last month's Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue
Mile and won the NYRR Road Mile Championship in a time of 4:50.1. If her
recent performances are any indication, it seems her star is on the verge
of a major ascent. We joined her to talk about her transition from Division
III middle-distance racing to post-collegiate competition.
Fast-Women.com:
What were the years like after college? Did you know if you wanted to
compete?
Kate Irvin:
I ran on and off. I missed competing, but I didn't know how to get back
into it. Once I didn't have nationals to qualify for, or championship
meets to run, I had a hard time keeping myself focused. I didn't have
a team and I didn't have a plan. I think it's hard for a lot of college
runners. You graduate and you're used to running high mileage, so going
out for a four-mile run seems like you're not doing anything. I almost
had to get completely out of shape to want to run again. I actually did
get to the point where four miles felt like I was really accomplishing
something. Eventually I built back up to 50 miles per week, but it took
time.
FW: You were a successful middle-distance runner in college, how difficult
was the transition for you after college?
KI:
I actually thought I was through with competitive running when I graduated
from college. I moved to Park City, Utah, and I ran there, but inconsistently.
Some weeks I'd run 10 miles, other weeks 40 miles. Then I traveled for
six months with my sister, who is also a runner, through Southeast Asia,
Australia, and New Zealand. The first few months of traveling, we were
in Asia just taking busses around and we didn't run a step. When we got
to Australia, we started to run again.
FW:
What were your focus events in college?
KI:
I competed in cross country, and during indoor and outdoor track I always
ran a few 3,000s, but primarily I was a middle-distance runner: 800, 1,500,
4x400.
FW:
Do you have a favorite distance?
KI:
I've always thought of the 1,500 as my event. I was a miler in high school
and a 1,500 meter runner in college. What I like most about it is that
you have to train specifically for it, but can be versatile. With 1,500
training under my belt, I was always able to race a 400, 800 or a 3K if
I had to.
FW:
When did you decide that you wanted to return to competition? Was there
a particular moment when you realized this was something you wanted to
do again?
KI:
I started running seriously again when I moved to New York. I had a friend
who joined the Central Park Track Club and I went to a few practices.
As it turned out, they have a really great middle-distance program. One
instance that stands out is when I ran a mile at one of the Thursday Night
Races at the Armory [a winter all-comers series in New York]. I hadn't
really raced that distance since college, and I was doing it as a fun
thing. I was so out of shape that I didn't even know if I could break
6:00, but I ran a 5:31 and I was really happy with it. From that point
on, I just wanted to dive back into it.
FW:
There are so many running clubs in New York. Did you shop around? Why
did you choose Central Park Track Club?
KI:
After my trip, I moved back to Atlanta [where she grew up], and realized
running was an important part of my life. So one of my considerations
when moving to New York was having a community to run in. What first made
me consider Central Park Track Club is that I had college friends on the
team. I looked into other teams, but chose Central Park because they have
two structured workouts a week and a great middle-distance program.
FW:
Has team camaraderie always been important to you?
KI:
I've been fortunate that I've always been on strong teams with very supportive
coaches. I went to the Westminster Schools in Atlanta and running was
a very big deal there. Our high school was small, but the cross country
team had about 80 girls and 80 boys. Middlebury was very similar. We were
certainly competitive, but it's always been a lot of fun. So I think I
looked for that in my post-collegiate experience as well.
FW:
When did you first start running? Was there a specific point when you
realized that this was something you were good at?
KI:
I ran my first race in the second grade the kids' section of the Peachtree
Junior Road Race in Atlanta. I ran so hard that I actually threw up after
the race. I guess it was then that I realized I was a serious competitor.
But I didn't start to actually race until junior high school.
FW:
Are your goals different from what they were in college? Can you be a
middle-distance runner in New York?
KI:
New York Road Runners puts together some great indoor and outdoor track
races, and I travel to a fair amount of meets, so I can definitely be
a middle-distance runner here.
My goals
haven't really changed, but my attitude and focus are different. I chose
to run in college and I loved it. But back then, it was understood that
I was on a team and we all went to meets on weekends. Now it's a choice
I make on my own every single week. I have to decide, 'Am I going to rent
a car and drive to Boston for this race?' For me, those choices place
more importance on every race. As a result, I'm learning to run more tactically
and to focus on specific goals, rather than racing every weekend like
I did in college.
FW:
How do you set your goals now?
KI:
Usually I choose one or two meets where I want to be at my peak and then
my coach, Devon Martin, and I work backwards. For example, this year I
knew I wanted to be in top form in July for the [USATF
National Club Track & Field Championships]
at Icahn Stadium. So we worked back from there and figured out what kinds
of workouts I should do and which races I should compete in.
FW:
In college and high school, racing is broken up into three distinct seasons,
cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. How do you break up your
seasons now?
KI:
Surprisingly, that's still how I break it up. Right now, I am focusing
on the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in November. After that,
I'll shift my focus to indoor track with the end goal being the USATF
Indoor Championships, and then it's on to outdoor track. Sometimes when
I talk to my track friends from college and tell them that I'm doing three
seasons, I take a step back and say, 'Really? Am I really still doing
this?' But I love it more than ever. It's just a great way to live in
the city.
FW:
How often do you race?
KI:
I
try to race once every two weeks, sometimes every three weeks. If I race
every weekend, I get burnt out. It's a lot of traveling, and in New York
you have a busy lifestyle. Working, fitting in proper training, and racing
every weekend, it's too overwhelming.
FW:
Has your training changed much since college? What workouts do you feel
are most effective for you?
KI:
I do fewer interval workouts now, but they are more challenging. One workout
I need to do to feel like I am in good mile shape is 800 meter repeats
at mile pace. In college, I did more 400 meter repeats, and I think that
was all I could really handle back then. Now knowing that I can do 3 x
700 meters at mile pace, or sets of 800m-400m-800m with little rest, mentally
prepares me for races and has made me a more confident runner. And my
mentality is different. After work, it takes me an hour to get to the
track, so once I'm there I am serious about getting a good workout in.
FW:
What is your weekly mileage?
KI:
I never go much higher than 55 miles per week and [during the] competitive
track season it's more like 45. So it's pretty low mileage for a post-collegiate
runner.
FW:
What do you think has allowed you to break through your college times?
KI:
In college I was never as disciplined as I could have been. I never really
put in a great summer of training, so every year I was racing myself back
into shape during cross country. I could always run well by the end of
the season, but looking back, if I had been more serious about summer
training, I could have been a better runner. I think I also allowed myself
to believe that cross country just wasn't my thing, so I wound up being
mediocre.
This will
be the first year I've ever done a consistent year of training, and it's
paying off. I still don't think of myself as a cross country runner, but
I work out with our distance runners in Central Park at least once a week.
So knowing I can do a four-mile tempo run with male marathoners is certainly
a confidence booster going into the track season.
FW:
Has running on a club team in New York changed your attitudes about running?
KI:
Absolutely. Now I am running with men and women of all different ages,
and I'm around a lot of great masters. We have men on our team who are
running faster times than when they were in college and they are 40 years.
Sid Howard, a Central Park Track Club runner, is like a rock star at the
Armory. It's really inspiring to know if I wanted to, I could run competitively
for 40 or 50 more years.
I don't
think many kids in college know it exists. You either think you have to
graduate and be one of the top runners who gets the deal with Nike and
is immediately competing in the Olympic Trials, or you might as well give
it up or run marathons recreationally. And marathons are great, but if
you're an 800 runner in college it doesn't really make sense. So it's
been great to move to New York and realize that there are other options
FW:
How does the rural setting of Middlebury, Vermont compare to New York?
Do you have a preference between rural and urban training?
KI:
There are certainly times when I miss rural running. Middlebury was very
beautiful. On Sundays my team went on its 12-mile run along dirt roads
that passed by farms, and our track was at the base of the Green Mountains.
But I love Central Park. When I go home to Atlanta, before my runs I often
think, 'Which way do I want to go? Which route do I want to run?'. Now
I know I am coming to Central Park everyday. To a lot of people I guess
running the same 2.5-mile loop over and over would seem boring, but I
always run into my teammates in the Park and I never have to run alone.
I get to hear about someone's day, their love life, their frustrations
at work, so it's like meeting friends for happy hour, but we're also getting
our run in.
FW:
Do you have any future goals? Do you think you'll stick with middle distance?
KI:
I will just see where training takes me. I've already shaved off more
time from my PRs in college than I ever expected, and I think I have the
potential to run much faster. In terms of taking it to the next level,
I'm just beginning to learn what I'm capable of. But who knows. I thought
I was through with running after college and now I am breaking my college
times. I am always surprising myself.
FW:
If you decided to try to take it to the next level do you think you could
work, train, and live in New York?
KI:
New York is a great training environment because of all the clubs and
the New York Road Runner races. But with all the training, lifting, and
travel that kind of racing would entail, it would be very difficult to
have a full-time job and be an elite runner, and you wouldn't have much
of a life beyond running. I enjoy where I am right now and I'm not sure
if I am ready for that.
FW:
And the question every runner is asked, do you think you'll do the marathon?
KI: It
could be a lot of fun and I am certainly tempted. But I like what I'm
doing now, so maybe sometime farther down the road.
(Interview posted October 22, 2005)
#1546: WHO: Paul Saunders
WHEN: January 2006
WHERE: Marathon & Beyond:
WHAT HE WROTE:
Hope for Us All
Bob Deidenstein's article in the November/December Marathon & Beyond is an inspiration to us old (I am 64) folks who struggle with the marathon but still love it. I have run 21 marathons, but last year, after Paris, my knee (osteoarthritis and torn and missing ACL) and my hip (the regular kind of arthritis) hurt so much that I couldn't walk. My time was over five hours (well off my PR of 3:58), and I wrote myself a letter saying that I was through. I would do nothing more than a half-marathon again. Later that year, ignoring my letter to myself, I decided that I hadn't trained enough and that that was my problem, so I ran lots of long distances in July and August, looking ahead to New York in November. I overtrained, and, well, you know the rest of the story. My orthopedic surgeon told me to suck it up. But I didn't and I sat out New York. I was really through.
This year, I was comfortable with my decision to hang it up, and besides, my knee hurt like hell and my Generation II brace didn't help much. I did all the shorter races in Central park, but I didn't do anything more than a half. However, as New York approached, I started to think about doing it again. As Bob said, there is nothing quite like it. I hadn't really trained. Nothing more than a half (of which I did three, all very slow and painful), and I ran only a few times a week. I was quite certain that I could cover the distance, but I thought that it would hurt so much that there would be not point to it.
Then I read Bob's article, and that was all I needed. I said "What the hell, let's do it again." My wife and two sons, one of who is a doctor, thought I was nuts. On November 6, I did New York for the 12th time, and it was by far my most enjoyable (and slowest, over six hours, part of that time spent on the Queensborough Bridge helping a guy who had a heart attack).
What a blast! At my age, speed isn't everything. Covering the distance and enjoying it is what it is all about (at least at my age). Thanks to Bob, I'm back! Slower, sure, but who cares? I've just signed up for my third Paris Marathon in the spring!
Thank you, thank you!
Paul Saunders
New York, N.Y.
#1546: WHO: Jesse Lansner
WHEN: January 8, 2006
WHERE: The New York Times:
WHAT HE WROTE:
Re "The Book Review: Who Critiques Whom - and Why?" (Dec. 18):
I suspect there is another reason for the relatively high number of books by Times writers in The Times's "100 Notable Books of the Year." If you see The Times's Op-Ed page columnists as important opinion makers with an influential role in setting the national discussion, then books by Maureen Dowd and Thomas L. Friedman would almost by definition be worthy of attention and notice.
That is not to say that the inclusion of those books on the list was based on anything other than their own merit. But it is reasonable to assume that the editors would consider their colleagues' work to be worthy of attention, and therefore worthy of inclusion.
As long as the "worthy of attention" criterion exists, the editors are best served by putting books by Times authors in a separate list.
JESSE K. LANSNER
Brooklyn, Dec. 20, 2005
#1545: WHO: Stacy Creamer
WHEN: December 12, 2005
WHERE: One day after catching her her left middle finger in a garage-door hinge and really smashing it (the end-joint is currently black-purple, scraped up, and huge), Stacy was asked if she'd been able to take her usual lunchtime spin class. She said that the finger hadn't been much of a problem there, and then went on:
"...but lifting weights was pretty tough. I had to do some of it with my middle finger extended. Hope no one mistook this for an actual gesture..."
We aren't sure what gesture should be made at someone who'd attempt a weight-workout with a finger looking like that, but this is the woman who won the Urban Environmental Challenge extreme cross-country race with a strained hamstring by limping over logs, squelching through bogs, et cetera — so we'll tentatively settle for a big, fat, swollen thumbs-up.
#1544: WHO: Stuart Calderwood
WHEN: July 20, 2005
WHERE: After the Nike Run Hit Wonder, in response to a rock 'n' roll type, who was apparently miffed at being turned away from Joan Jett's post-race concert.
WHAT HE SAID:
Rock 'n' Roll Guy: "Fucking runners. They probably don't even know what CBGB is."
Stuart: "Played there twice."
#1543: WHO: Stuart Calderwood
WHEN: June 22, 2005
WHERE: Discussing the workout he did at the Columbia track while it was under construction.
WHAT HE SAID: "When life gives you a lemon,
make
lactic acid."
#1542: WHO: Peter Allen
WHEN: June 18, 2005
WHERE: The Daily Record :
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Not too many marathoners, who also do triathlons, will take a stab at becoming a miler. But that's what Peter Allen, 45, of Harding Township did last Sunday at the Garden State Athletic Club Randolph Classic track meet. He finished in a very respectable 4:56. Not bad for a man who finishes in the top 100 in the New York City and Boston marathons
Allen has been a road racer since his teens, even while he was competing at cross country and track at Pingry School.
"I was enjoying my first road races right around my senior year," he said. "I really got hooked I guess."
His first marathon was in Maine at age eighteen and he knew nothing about how to run a marathon.
"I felt a cramp coming on and I thought it was from the water I had just drunk," he said. "So I didn't drink anymore."
As Allen became dehydrated from his self-imposed ban, he slowed to a walk. When he told other marathoners around him that he hadn't been taking water they were astonished and urged him to drink up.
"I drank water and then was flying into the finish,"said Allen. "It made the marathon all the more exciting a barrier to break."
By the time Allen entered his first triathlon, he knew about water, but knowing and having water are two different things. Hitting a rough spot on the course, his water bottles went flying except for one that he saved. It was half full.
"I was totally dehydrated,"said Allen. "They didn't hand out water and I only had half a bottle of water."
Allen has plenty of experience now and has done over twenty Boston and New York City marathons. His best was done at Boston, his favorite event, in 2:31:30 at age 31.
"Those are the two most serious races of the year," said Allen. "I train for them hard and along the way I do others -- a lot of them are in Central Park and others are locally."
Once Boston is done for the year, Allen switches focus and begins to train for the Tupper Lake Half-Ironman Triathlon that is taking place next weekend on June 25th in New York state.
He fell easily into the three-event sport and thrives on the challenge of the half-ironman distances of 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. I've always liked to go for a distance swim," said Allen. "That was a natural and adding the biking -- I did that just as a summer activity."
"I take it seriously enough to back burner my running for a month or two during the preparation for the triathlon,"he said. "It gives me a break and the wind is always cool in your face."
Bugs cannot keep up with a cyclist and that is a factor for Allen who is lives within four miles of the Great Swamp. He can get in from 12-15 miles but once the bugs hit he'll go into the swamp on his bike and train.
Allen is also close to Jockey Hollow and runs on the trails in the park. In the winter, that is where he cross country skis.
"I love to be out in nature,"he said.
He also loves challenges and has now done the Tupper Lake race three times.
"You don't take it too lightly," said Allen. "It takes me just under five hours to do. For that it's kind of a special part of my year.
"Usually it's fun to have that half-ironman because the difficulty gives it a bit of a barrier breaking feeling to do it."
So why was he on the track running in a mile race? The answer is that his two sons, Matthew, who is in fifth grade and Robert who is in the seventh have been running track and dad has been participating as well.
A couple of weeks back Allen and Matthew competed in a 1,500 meter race and then did the 100 meter dash. The marathoner took a back seat to the kid in the 100, and Matthew was able to beat dad's pedestrian 16 seconds.
Allen's wife, Rhonda, also runs and all four will be at Monday night's President's Cup Night Race in Millburn.
"I won't be running very fast," said Allen. "My legs are tired from the biking and training. I'll do the best I can, but I am running in the Father's Day race in Central Park on Sunday."
Not very fast in Allen's log will be right around 17 minutes if history can predict. Someone who enjoys challenges is not likely to hold back at a race like the President's Cup, tired or not.
#1541: WHO: Alan Ruben, Nicole Sinquee, Margot Sheehan, Brian Schaffer, Allison McCabe and Audrey Kingsley
WHEN: June 16, 2005
WHERE: The New York Times:
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
How Am I Doing?
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
WHETHER you are a competitive runner or a weekend jogger, the kind of data you want your sports watch to provide is a matter of preference. Lap time and elapsed time are basic information. Pay a little more, and the watch will include a heart rate monitor, typically tuned to a chest strap, that can gauge your effort along the way. Pay even more, and the watch will also have a built-in global position system sensor that can tell you how far you have gone, how fast you traveled, and even show you the route you took.
Are they worth it? Some runners, even some serious competitors, may never think so. They eschew fancy but cumbersome hardware, preferring to rely on their own well-honed sense of how hard they're working and a trusty old watch. But many, some casual joggers included, find it useful or even motivating to monitor their progress in detail. And then they are faced with a wide choice of watches.
Competitive runners from the Central Park Track Club in New York agreed to help sort out the selection. Last week they wore some of the latest watches during their Thursday night practice and gave us their assessments.
1. Left: NIKE TRIAX SPEED 100, $79. This S-shaped watch, shown above in super size, features an interval timer to help you time alternating hard and easy segments. Records your best and average laps overall.
ROAD TEST The two things Alan Ruben, 48, appreciated most about the Triax were its ability to display both his lap time and his total time at once and its capacity to record and store 100 laps (or a mile by mile breakdown of a race). “You could keep your favorite marathon on the watch for a while,” said Mr. Ruben, the president of the Central Park Track Club.
Right: NIKE IMARA RUN $79. This sleek oval-shaped watch, which Nike says is "created by women for women," is designed for someone who doesn't want a bulky gadget. It records average and best lap times.
ROAD TEST The Imara Run is the same price as the men's Triax Speed, but records less than half as many laps (43 versus 100 for the Triax). Most of the women surveyed at track practice said it looked too "girly" for a sports watch. But it may appeal to women who want to wear their exercise watch all day.
2. GARMIN FORERUNNER 301, $324.98. This device includes not only a watch and a heart rate monitor (chest strap not shown) but also a GPS sensor to track your pace, distance and calories burned.
ROAD TEST Nicole Sinquee, 33, said she felt as if she were "running with a TV" on her arm. The mileage count was accurate, but a glitch occurred with the GPS sensor, telling her she went from a 10-minute mile to a 7:30-minute mile, when her effort remained steady. (High-rise buildings nearby might have caused the miscalculation, Garmin said.) Still, Ms. Sinquee could see getting used to a constant flow of information. "I started to get compulsive" about reading it, she said.
3. POLAR S625X SPEED AND DISTANCE, $369.95. A foot pod, right, that attaches to your shoe allows this "running computer" to track speed and distance as well as heart rate (with a chest strap, not shown).
ROAD TEST Margot Sheehan, 46, said she learned that her pace fluctuates a lot wearing S625X. "I also had no idea that I was going 10 m.p.h.," Ms Sheehan said. She doesn’t think she would wear the foot pod and heart rate monitor for every run, but for speed work, it was "very useful."
4. TIMEX IRONMAN TRIATHLON 75- LAP SLEEK OVA, $70. This watch is designed to fit on the side of the wrist, so you don’t have to turn your arm to read it when running. It stores workouts by date and up to 75 laps of history.
ROAD TEST "Not having to roll my wrist to look at it is much easier," said Brian Schaffer, 29. Allison McCabe, 23, agreed but said that since she likes to wear her workout watch all the time, she would rather have one that lies flat on top of her wrist.
5. MIOSPORT SELECT $109.99. (Shown with an interchangeable strap, pack of two, $34.99.) This heart rate monitor works without the usual chest strap. Instead MioSport tracks your heart rate from your fingertips. It also estimates calories burned.
ROAD TEST The MioSport records information only when you touch it, so its accuracy depends on whether you diligently touch it every time you significantly speed up or slow down. Audrey Kingsley, 36, found that frustrating. Also, she noted, it cannot provide an average heart rate at the end of a run.
#1540: WHO: Neil Fitzgerald
WHEN: June 11, 2005
WHERE: Devon Martin's rooftop party
WHAT HE SAID: "It's like a cheesecake bong."
#1539: WHO: Chris Solarz
WHEN: May 19, 2005
WHERE: The New York Times:
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
The Now or Never Athlete
By CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL
IF it's seriously sweltering today, you might spot 41-year-old Frank McKinney dragging an S.U.V. tire back and forth across the bridge near his oceanfront home in Delray Beach, Fla. But if it's just plain hot, he'll be in his Death Valley simulator, a room he equipped with a treadmill, scorching lights, an industrial-grade heater, a dehumidifier and massive fans to reproduce baking winds.
"You're nuts!" passing motorists yell at Mr. McKinney and his steel-belted ballast.
"No," he shouts back. "I'm just a little tired!"
He'll stop, chug an endurance drink and unclip the S.U.V. tire from the rope on his weight belt. Then he'll clip on the even larger Hummer tire he has waiting and resume speed-trudging, mouth slack and heart pounding, for a total of four hours.
In a few weeks he'll look back on this torment as downright restful, because by then he plans to be in the middle of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile run across Death Valley and up Mount Whitney known as "the world's toughest foot race."
Like Leigh Begland of Denver, a 39-year-old H.M.O. executive who signed up for a 47-mile bike race through the San Juan mountains before she owned a bike, and Sam Goldsmith, 50, of Waterford, Mich., who had barely jogged before he became obsessed with ultramarathons, Mr. McKinney is a member of a growing tribe of instant adventurers. Casual athletes, if athletes at all, they suddenly vault from a lifetime of sporadic workouts to the workout of a lifetime. The adventures vary: summiting Mount Everest, swimming the English Channel, dog-racing the Iditarod. But the instant adventurers don't; they are normal people who unexpectedly fixate on one of the world's most grueling challenges.
"This year I bet I had five people contact me who'd never done anything like this in their lives," said Lisa Smith-Batchen of Victor, Idaho, an ultramarathoner and online coach who caters to novices. She has observed such a surge in first-timers that she calls her business Dreamchasers. Despite how often their sanity is questioned, these amateurs tend to be successful, focused people who feel they have mastered every other aspect of their lives - career, relationships, parenthood - only to discover their last unconquered frontier is the one they have carried around since birth: their bodies.
"From a psychological perspective, these are actually very healthy people," said Dr. Andrew Lovy, a psychiatrist in Mesa, Ariz., who also runs in ultramarathons. "You can't wake up Monday as a novice and do the Iditarod on Tuesday. But you can wake up Monday and say, 'I think I'll start training for the Iditarod on Tuesday.' That's excellent; you're not letting someone else define your limits or capabilities."
This is not a conventional midlife crisis, Dr. Lovy said. It is more a midlife convergence of heightened confidence, disposable income and a taste for travel.
"They're at the top of their game," he said, "and what they want is an extraordinary achievement which will help define them."
Running an urban marathon isn't enough. These athletes want an epic quest, something that pits mind against muscle, with an exotic vacation thrown in. What better than Badwater, a race five times as long as a conventional 26.2-mile marathon that requires, in Mr. McKinney's case, a training binder three inches thick?
"I sell multimillion-dollar spec mansions, and I'd just had the best quarter in my life," Mr. McKinney said. "I could have been retired on a beach in Tahiti, but I always feel most alive when I'm doing something for the first time."
After Ms. Smith-Batchen took over his training and diet last September, he managed to finish a 100-mile race six weeks later by following her carefully graduated proportions of runs and recovery walks. Granted, he needed an ambulance to get to the airport, but completing the event was enough to qualify for Badwater.
Most of her new recruits, Ms. Smith-Batchen said, "tend to be in that 'magic age,' right around 40 0r 50, when they say, 'For my birthday this year, I want to do something spectacular.' "
One reason extreme challenges are becoming more popular is because of the well-publicized successes of a pair of Everymen, Dean Karnazes, 41, and Steve Fossett, 61. Mr. Fossett, now a professional adventurer, demonstrated that a mildly paunchy stockbroker from Chicago can swim the English Channel, cross-country ski 100 miles across the Rocky Mountains and fly a balloon around the world. Mr. Karnazes, whose transformation from hard-partying windsurfer into Badwater champion has landed him on both David Letterman's show and the cover of Time, has a guy-next-door quality that makes endurance races seem as manageable as 36 holes of golf.
Thanks to the Internet, which connects novices to experts, and new training methods, a weekend duffer can become an endurance athlete in less than a year, said Eric Orton, an ultradistance specialist in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Aspiring adventurers can now receive their marching orders each morning by e-mail, enabling them to train in downtown Detroit for a bike race in the Andes.
Instead of overwhelming newcomers with vast mileage, coaches like Mr. Orton and Ms. Smith-Batchen focus on low-intensity, heart rate-monitored interval training, core conditioning (toughening up their bellies and backs) and plenty of recovery time. The idea is to make them strong enough simply to finish the event.
"Everyone thinks I'm crazy because before signing up for this, I'd only done one spin class a week," said Ms. Begland, who called Mr. Orton after deciding on a whim to compete in the grueling Iron Horse Bicycle Classic on Memorial Day weekend. "But I'm amazed at how much stronger I'm feeling after just three weeks of training, and it's been much less stressful than I'd expected."
Mr. Orton's most ambitious newcomer is Sam Goldsmith, an engineer who has set his sights on the Ultraman Canada, a triple triathlon in which 35 contestants swim 6.2 miles across Skaha Lake, bike 261.4 miles over Richter Pass and run 52.4 miles.
By alternating difficult and easy workouts, it took Mr. Goldsmith less than a year to progress from huffing through a 5-mile jog to 6-hour trail runs and 100-mile bike rides.
But is it wise to try such punishing endeavors? Even the most seasoned mountaineers lose toes and even lives when attempting high summits. Adventure races, in which contestants might rock-climb, rappel, run and kayak across wild terrain, can be lethal even for an expert like Nigel Aylott, 38, who was killed last year by a shifting boulder. Broc Bebout, a 57-year-old retired engineer from Indiana who had undergone bypass surgery, died of a heart attack last month after his ride of a lifetime, a six-week bicycling trek across the United States. "We all have a list of things we like to say we did," his widow told The Associated Press. "That was right up there at the top."
Understanding when grit becomes recklessness is the key to surviving. "You have to know when to quit and try again later," said Red Sheeshe, who trained Steve Fossett for his endurance runs. "That kind of patience comes with age. That's why you're seeing older people attempting these events, and doing quite well at them."
Younger people sometimes respond to the same challenges, and for similar reasons. Chris Solarz was 23 when he decided to attempt the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, after he had been shaken up by the Sept. 11 attacks and had lost his job in the subsequent wave of Wall Street layoffs. Even though he hadn't swum since high school, he was one of eight swimmers to risk hypothermia, churning tides and riverside sewage plants in the 28.5-mile journey around the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers in 2002.
"I guess you can say that after losing my job, it was the ultimate act of defiance," said Mr. Solarz, who also admits to the subconscious desire to assert control over a city that had put him through rough times.
Sheharbano Ali, a Manhattan banker, 32 when she signed up for the Marathon des Sables, a six-day run across the Sahara. Her past associations with athletics were also darkened by misfortune. Her father had died in 1992 of a heart attack while they were jogging together, and when she resumed running seven years later, she broke both feet in freak accidents.
Rather than becoming discouraged, she became determined. "I had a friend from business school who met an 80-year-old man who'd done the Marathon des Sables in 2000," Ms. Ali said. "I was so inspired by the ability of the mind to achieve anything, to go beyond the difficult. That was the clincher for me."
She, too, signed up with Ms. Smith-Batchen, who devised a schedule that turns Ms. Ali's lunch hour into 60 minutes packed with crunches, hopping and elliptical training. In April, less than a year after her return to running, Ms. Ali completed the Marathon des Sables and won a new training partner: her mother.
Ms. Ali still has scars on her feet from the Marathon des Sables, so she will introduce her mother to the instant adventurers' tribe gently - with only a half-Ironman.
#1538: WHO: John Gleason
WHEN: May 3, 2005
WHERE: The Columbia University track, during the middle-distance group's post-speedwork isometric exercises. John approached a female teammate who was lying on her back.
WHAT HE SAID: "Put this between your legs — you'll really enjoy it."
Note: Fortunately, John was carrying a spongy, volleyball-sized sphere, which he then placed between his teammate's knees. Her enjoyment level was hard to discern.
#1537: WHO: Stacy Creamer
WHEN: April 17, 2005
WHERE: After winning the JFK Rotary Club 5K
WHAT SHE SAID: "This trophy has bigger breasts than I do."
#1536: WHO: Andrea Haver
WHEN: April 9, 2005
WHERE: In the car on the way to Penn Invitational
WHAT SHE SAID: "Googling is dangerous — there are pictures of us sweaty and half-naked all over the internet. My grandparents could see them!"
#1535. WHO: John Roberts
WHEN: February 24, 2005
WHERE: The Armory, having just collapsed into the pole-vault pit after running a personal-record 4:22.2 for the mile
WHAT HE SAID: "I'd throw up if I had the energy."
#1534. WHO: Stacy Creamer
WHEN: April 11, 2005
WHERE: U.S. News and World Report
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Not Older but faster
By Diane Cole
At 72, Ralph Swanson could barely run 100 yards without huffing and puffing. Fast-forward two years to last fall, when the 74-year-old retiree, who splits his time between Wisconsin and Texas, ran the Chicago half-marathon in two hours, 27 minutes, and 42 seconds.
Now he's training for a triathlon.
The standard wisdom is that the older you get, the slower you get. But new studies show the opposite: It's possible to get fitter, and faster, even as you age.
Swanson was among the sedentary seniors trained in a study conducted by cardiologist Benjamin Levine of the University of Texas Southwestern/Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Levine's conclusion: "Anybody, no matter how sedentary or debilitated, can, given the appropriate oversight and instruction, initiate, sustain, and progress in an exercise program."
In fact, male and female runners over 50 are increasing their speed--at a faster rate than younger runners, concludes Yale medical school orthopedist Peter Jokl, from his analysis of the 415,000 runners completing the New York City Marathon from 1983 to 1999. "They're improving at a phenomenal rate," says Jokl. Women 60 and over as a group, he adds, are shaving off nearly four minutes from their finish times every year.
But you don't have to be 60 to improve. New York publishing executive Stacy Creamer says she didn't really blossom on the track until she hit 40, after more than 15 years of running. "Almost every race post-40 has been a personal record," says Creamer, now 45. Her favorite triumph: At 43, the breast-feeding mother of a newborn, she ran a metric mile (a little less than a mile) in under five minutes.
Yes, "there is an aging process, and I don't think anyone 70 years old will break the world record," Jokl notes. Nor will elite runners who set records in their 20s surpass them in their 40s or beyond. Marathoner Frank Shorter won the Olympic gold medal in 1972 with a time of two hours, 12 minutes, 20 seconds; at 57, he clocks the 26.2 miles at the slower but still impressive clip of a bit less than three hours.
Consistency is the key for runners of any age who want to get up to speed, says Shorter, author of the newly published Running for Peak Performance (DK Publishing, $15). Some training tips for taking those first steps:
Start slow. After getting the go-ahead from your doc, start nice and easy. Especially if you've been sedentary, at first walk rather than run, and set a goal of time (say, 30 minutes out) rather than distance, advises Conrad Earnest, director of the Center for Human Performance and Nutrition Research at the Cooper Institute. "You do not have to exhaust yourself to improve your level of fitness," says Shorter. "As long as you are able to comfortably carry on a conversation, you are at the right pace."
Go easy on your joints. Whenever possible, Creamer runs on dirt rather than concrete. "Even though packed dirt is hard," she says, "it's much kinder to your joints and muscles."
Don't overdo it. " People need to understand that their cardiovascular system will adapt at a much faster pace than their orthopedic system," says Earnest. Increasing your mileage prematurely can lead to stress fractures and other aches. To be safe, add no more than 10 percent to your training time each week.
Stretch and lift. Stretching can help prevent injury, as can a strength training routine.
Try intervals. To go beyond the speed plateau most runners reach after about a year, Shorter suggests weekly interval training, alternating fast spurts (from a few seconds to three minutes) with slower recovery jogs about twice as long.
Be realistic. In his 40s, Ken Sparks, director of Cleveland State University's Human Performance Laboratory, strove to slice his running times. Now, at 60, he trains "not to get slower." But that sure beats losing the strides you've worked so hard to gain.
#1533. WHO: Devon Martin and Joe Bolster
WHEN: April 5, 2005
WHERE: Columbia Track
WHAT THEY SAID:
Devon: "You're going to be on our 4x400m team at Penn Relays "
Joe: "Great! I can pull a hamstring!"
Devon: "You'll also be doing the 4x100m."
Joe: "So, I'll pull the left hammy in the 4x1and the right in the 4x4. By the way, if I end up
on the 4x1, my baton exchanges should be videotaped and shown as a 'Don't'
to all young sprinters."
#1532. WHO: Andrea Haver and Devon Martin
WHEN: April 5, 2005
WHERE: Columbia Track
WHAT THEY SAID:
Andrea: "It wouldn't be a good idea to run these intervals naked. There'd be jiggling going on."
Devon: "By the end of the season there won't be any more jiggling."
#1531. WHO: Alberta Anderson
WHEN: April 5, 2005
WHERE: Columbia Track
WHAT SHE SAID: "That was a big word I just used. I'm very happy."
#1530. WHO: Chris Price
WHEN: April 5, 2005
WHERE: Columbia Track, addressing an overly ambitious teammate
WHAT HE SAID: "That last interval was supposed to be at your mile pace, not Kenyan mile pace."
#1529. WHO: Andrea Haver
WHEN: April 5, 2005
WHERE: Runner's World Online
WHAT SHE SAID:
A Brief Chat with
Andrea Haver
by Peter Gambaccini
Andrea Haver, 24, the Assistant to New York Road Runners President and CEO Mary Wittenberg, was 20th in the USA Women's 8K in New York on March 26 in 27:54, outrunning such heralded athletes as Briana Shook, Dana Coons, Sara Wells, and Ann Gaffigan. Haver is improving by quantum leaps; even her 5K split of 17:18 in the 8K was a personal best by about 30 seconds. Haver was the Central Park Track Club's Most Valuable Performer in 2004, and won the 2004 Fifth Avenue Mile in 4:51. Her other bests include 9:49 for 3000 meters and 23:03 for four miles (a common race distance in Manhattan, due to Central Park's configuration). Haver and her Central Park TC colleagues won an exhibition Distance Medley Relay at the 2005 USA Indoor Championships. At Claremont McKenna College in California, often competing for a combined Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps squad, she was the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champ in cross country in 1999 and in the steeplechase in 2002. After college, she was a waitress at Glacier National Park in Montana and an assistant editor at W.W. Norton before joining the NYRR staff. Haver recently profiled Katie McGregor for www.fast-women.com and interviewed Jorge Torres over the Icahn Stadium public address system after his win in the USA Men's 8K.
Runner's World Daily: In the USA 8K, you beat at least six women who have already been "Brief Chat" subjects, so we had no excuse not to talk to you.
Andrea Haver: (Laughs). Well, I do think I'm in that interesting middle realm of "you're pretty decent, but what are you going to do with that?" There are a lot of other runners at my level who love reading about the pros but also try to figure out their own running futures for themselves.
RWD: Did you feel you belonged in the USA 8K, or did you think they were doing you a hometown good deed?
AH: I appreciate in this sport that there's not a lot of subjectivity. There's some, of course. When you're coordinating an elite athlete field and bringing different people together, you have to look at the trend of how they've been running, and just because they ran a certain time two years ago doesn't mean they can run it today. I felt like I was validly in there. I've been running my best times over the last year, so I don't think I was done any favors. I knew I could be solidly midpack.
RWD: Is there an advantage for you to finally be in a race with several people running near the time you ran, including three women who finished one second behind you? Do you prefer being pulled along like that to being on your own in front?
AH: Oh definitely. This was fantastic. I felt like I didn't have a lot of pressure on me. I was just pleased to be in the race. People were looking at Deena (Kastor) and asking "are you going to get the American record?" To me, they said "wow, well, good luck, whatever happens, it's just great that you're in the race." The fact that there were people between Deena and I definitely helped. In the last 500 meters on the track, I saw my track coach and a lot of my teammates and figured "I've been working on my mile speed all winter, I definitely need to pick it up here and pass a few people." The fact that I could leapfrog a little bit to a few people in front of me was really helpful. I didn't really move position very much throughout the whole race, except in the last 800 meters, I passed a few women. Basically what was going through my mind was that a lot of these women had been training for marathons and I had been doing fast indoor track all winter, so I thought "go past them right now, they haven't been doing all these short intervals." If I had one strength at the end, it was that.
RWD: You're also close to the sport because of your job. Did you recognize some of the people you were beating?
AH: Definitely. For a lot of the race, I could see Amy Mortimer in front of me, and that was exciting. I think she was the only person in the race wearing long tights, so she was easy to spot (Mortimer finished ninth). I knew people around me were cheering for Dana Coons, and I could recognize Briana Shook. These women are like my superheroes, so I could recognize a lot of them.
RWD: Was this actually your first national roadrace?
AH: Yes. This is what my Division III college coach would call "running with the big girls." This was definitely my biggest race ever. Of course, I wanted to do well. I didn't think I was going to be upsetting Jen Rhines (who finished second to Deena Kastor) or anything like that. I was a little nervous, as you race, you gain confidence in your abilities. I really had had a lot of good races and workouts leading up to this the last few months. I felt like I just had to go out there and do it. I think it's my job as an athlete right now. I felt ready for it.
RWD: How'd you gravitate to your job at New York Road Runners?
AH: I'd been in publishing about a year and a half and realized it was probably not for me for life, for various reasons. I was always going to the New York Road Runners website getting various race results, and once clicked on "Employment Opportunities" and noticed that Mary (Wittenberg) was looking for an assistant. I didn't know Mary personally but came in to meet with her. I was a little bit hesitant at first, I wanted to check this out, but didn't know if it was the right thing, being an executive assistant. Just meeting Mary, I was so enamored with her. She's so energetic and she really draws you in, and was so inspiring talking about where New York Road Runners is going--how it's moving into the new millenium. I just figured I would take a chance and see where this went.
RWD: To keep up with someone like her, it surely helps to have cardiovascular fitness.
AH: Well, we are on the fifth floor. I'm up and down the stairs about 80 times a day. I only went up and down 50 times the day before the race. I put a limit on it.
RWD: Would you say you've made a lot of progress in a hurry lately as a runner, or is it more gradual and incremental?
AH: No, I wouldn't say it's been gradual. I took a good six months off after college. Now these women I'm meeting--I did this interview with Katie McGregor, and I've talked with Shayne Culpepper and taken others on runs in the park--they were really good in college, some were winning national championships, and people say to them "hey, maybe you should be a professional runner." Me, coming out of Division III, and I didn't even have a very stellar Division III career, it was never even in my mind that I would be more than a recreational marathoner. It's been a big surprise to me. I started running with Central Park Track Club because a friend from Norton dragged me out. That was the spring of 2003. It took me a year there to get in shape. I worked out with the longer distance crew with (Coach) Tony Ruiz, and then finally met (Coach) Devon Martin, who said "you should work on your speed." Doing two full years of track workouts with her has really made such a difference. I think my speed is my weakness and it's something I've been working on. That's been helping me throughout any race I do. If you can keep you health and add to your fitness base over a longer progression than just one season, you can see improvements. I don't know if it's the time of my life or the ten years I've been running or whatever, but in the last year, I've started to hit PRs and really get it together. Not having a college season, where you have to race all the time, I have more time to build a base. This March, I just basically ran and trained the whole time. I hadn't raced at all since indoor nationals in February.
RWD: From being around elite athletes, what have you learned that's of value for your own running?
AW: To be where they are, they have a certain level of focus that a lot of runners at my level might or might not have. A lot of us are on the fence as to whether we want to give up our social life or quit working. You can say people have talent, and they do, but they (elite runners) lead a very regimented life. Most don't work. Most get massages regularly, they run two times a day, they go to bed at 9:00 or 10:00, they've really made that jump to where running matters enough to them in their lives that they're going to be serious about it. I know that you can't really get away with a lot of things if you really want to keep improving in running.
RWD: Are you surprised at what a good running city New York is? There's every kind of racing from indoor to outdoor track to cross country, and every conceivable roadrace distance. The training venues are there. Is it easier to be a runner in New York than you expected?
AW: Oh, completely. It was such a surprise. I didn't come here considering running at all; it wasn't even a factor for me. I figured I would run on my own anywhere, but that this being the most urban city in the country, it would be difficult, and I was going to be doing some treadmill running in the winter. It's been fantastic to see the scene, the depth of my team, Central Park Track Club, and everybody else at local races. It's amazing, people's dedication to it, and having a team of all ages. People bring their kids out in strollers. People are really dedicated to improving their own running. It makes some sense, because New York is such a driven city. Running often appeals to people who have that internal drive, striving for more, striving for their personal goals. All the people around make it safer. When I was in Montana, you couldn't go running at night by yourself because there are no streetlights. There are bears around. I didn't know you could walk out of your door in New York basically any weekend of the year and run a race. That's been such an amazing discovery. To have measured courses where you can test yourself every seven days is pretty great.
#1528. WHO: Harry Lichtenstein
WHERE: International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology Newsletter - Winter 2005
WHAT HE SAID:
PERSPECTIVES
Perspectives don’t belong to lifeless void spaces. You can compare yourself to lifeless emptiness, but that comparison is your perspective.
You can’t escape having perspectives –
You are not in an empty void or dead yet… and after death, is there lifeless void?
You don’t know and you do have perspectives.
Are perspectives linked in universal consciousness?
Love, hate, morality, sin, Heaven,
beauty, and ugliness – are defined differently in different perspectives.
Do truth and reality exist only in perspectives? You exist in mine and I exist in yours.
Do Gods exist in ours and do we exist in Gods’ perspectives?
Can science…time or space…atoms and subatomic particles…energy…exist in the absence of perspectives?
Who you really are is according to you. You can be anything that you imagine. Are universes infinite and finite depending on your perspective? If you are happy and there is no suffering in the universe; then that is your perspective.
One thing can be a contradiction in terms of conflicting perspectives. I can be happy according to my perspective, but sad according to yours.
The same relationships can be loving, caring, and joyful, or loveless and sad.
Perspectives!
#1527. WHO: Chris Price
WHEN: March 28, 2005
WHERE: Riverbank Track
WHAT HE SAID: "It'll be fun. If running is your idea of fun."
#1526. WHO: Tony Ruiz and Scott Johnson
WHEN: March 15, 2005
WHERE: The Armory
WHAT THEY SAID:
Tony: "I would do anything for Yankees tickets."
Scott: "Really? How about doing a marathon?"
Tony: "Only for World Series Tickets."
#1525. WHO: Alston Brown
WHEN: March 14, 2005
WHERE: The Idaho Statesman
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
(click to englarge)
"It's not the hair," said Alston Brown. "It's just hard work and training."
Brown, 57, of New York, won the men's 800-meter run in the 55 to 59 age division Sunday morning at the USA Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Idaho Sports Center's Jacksons indoor track in Nampa. The New York City sanitation worker, who has had the long locks for almost nine years, runs for the Central Park Track Club.
Several American and world records fell during the three-day event, which brought 585 participants, ages 30 to 92, to Nampa.
"If you look from the waists down at these people, you couldn't tell their age," said competitor Jerry LaVasseur, 67, from Brunshwick, Maine. LaVasseur competed in the 3000 and 800 meter runs this weekend and also volunteered as a judge for some running events.
#1524. WHO: Stacy Creamer
WHEN: March 20, 2005
WHERE: Front Runners Track Meet at the Armory
WHAT SHE SAID: "I try to smile when I pass people in a race so they think I feel a lot better than I do."
#1523. WHO: Scott Johnson
WHEN: March 20, 2005
WHERE: Front Runners Track Meet at the Armory
WHAT HE SAID: "I want to do the 60m. You get to run fast and bang into a wall. That would do something for my manhood."
#1522. WHO: Frank Handelman
WHEN: March 10, 2005
WHERE: The Armory, upon learning that Joe Bolster has 13 younger siblings.
WHAT HE SAID: “I come from a big family, too. There were five of us. Five kids in a Jewish family is as many as 14 Catholics.”
#1521. WHO: Brad Weiss
WHEN: March 10, 2005
WHERE: Westside Brewing Company
WHAT HE SAID: “I used to be very shy. I didn’t say a word until I was six years old.”
#1520. WHO: Devon Martin and Frank Handelman
WHEN: March 8, 2005
WHERE: The Armory
WHAT THEY SAID:
Devon: "It's a good idea to take a day or two off after running a PR."
Frank: "I usually take a whole season off after running a PR."
#1519. WHO: Devon Martin
WHEN: March 8, 2005
WHERE: The Armory
WHAT SHE SAID: "I don't appear on the website enough."
Yes, it was meant sarcastically.
#1518. WHO: Rick Shaver
WHEN: Winter 2005 Issue
WHERE: New York Runner Magazine
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Marathon Streakers
Richard Shaver, 52, Manhattan
Length of Streak: 28
Marathon best: 2:43:19 (1986)
2004 time: 4:09:03
Shaver got caught up in the running boom that swept the country when Frank Shorter won the 1972 Olympic gold medal. "I had so much fun after my first New York City Marathon, I made up my mind that I would always do New York," he recalls. He realized the personal importance of his streak when he ran with a torn hamstring two years ago. "I don't know who has a longer streak than I do, but I'll outlast them."
Rick is one of three men with a streak of 28 years. Two men have run 29 straight. The longest streak is 30 years, held by 60-year-old John Kenul of Brooklyn, who also ran the first and second NYC marathons, skipped the next two, and hasn't missed one since.
#1517. WHO: Andrea Haver
WHEN: March 4, 2005
WHERE: Dallas BBQ, after the MAC Meet
WHAT SHE SAID: "A drunken 10-mile run is one thing, but a drunken marathon is a real challenge."
#1516. WHO: Audrey Kingsley
WHEN: February 26, 2005
WHERE: Central Park, after the Snowflake Run
WHAT SHE SAID: "I'm going to break three hours [in the marathon] if it's the last freaking thing I do."
#1515. WHO: Joe Bolster and Devon Martin
WHEN: February 17, 2005
WHERE: Armory Workout
WHAT THEY SAID:
Joe: "I hear that once The Gates are taken down they're going to use the material to make 75,000 bridesmaid dresses."
Devon: "That's awesome! I'd even use it for a bridal gown."
#1514. WHO: Kate Irvin
WHEN: January 4, 2005
WHERE: Armory Workout
WHAT SHE SAID: "It's painful to watch the faster group finish their workout
when I
still have another interval to go."
#1513. WHO: Andrea Haver and Kate Irvin
WHEN: December 28, 2004
WHERE: At dinner after the workout
WHAT THEY SAID:
Andrea: "Do you ever make New Year's Resolutions? "
Kate: "None that I keep."
#1512. WHO: Tony Ruiz
and Frank Handelman
WHEN: November 7, 2004
WHERE: Watching the Marathon at 89th Street in Central Park.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Tony: "If someone was having a bad race today, would you tell them to drop out and run the Philadelphia Marathon instead?"
Frank: "No. I'd tell them to drop out and become a middle distance runner."
#1511.
WHO: John Scherrer
WHEN: September 16, 2004
WHERE: His blog, Exit, Pursued by a Bear
WHAT SHE SAID: "I like to run but don't like exercise."
#1510.
WHO: Jessica Affleck
WHEN: September 14, 2004
WHERE: Talking to husband John Affleck at the Columbia track workout
WHAT SHE SAID: "Why are you running so slowly?"
After hearing this, Chris Price's commented: "You know you're having a bad day when your wife can tell how slow you are." When told that would probably make the website he raised his arms in triumph and yelled "Yes! Quote of the day!"
#1509.
WHO: JT Mann
WHEN: September 8, 2004
WHERE: The Herald News
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Broome, Mann complete successful track season
MOUNTAIN LAKES - Rich Broome, 46, a Mountain Lakes resident, earned All American status in the men's 45-49 division with his victory in the mile at the Hub Lakes track meet on Saturday, June 26, in Mountain Lakes. At that event he ran the fatest time of the day - 4:51.
Jonathan (JT) Mann, 38, Mountain lakes earned All American status (men 35-39) with his 800-meter (roughly 1/2 mile) races this summer. He won in his age group in the 800-meter run at the Randolph Track and Field Meet on June 6 in Randolph. Mann also was the overall winner in the 800-meter run at the New York Roar Runners track meet at the City College of New York on Saturday, July 25, with a time of 1:59.6.
Mann took the silver medal in his age group in the 800-meter run at the Masters Nationals Track and Field Mett on Aug. 7, in Decatur, IL, and finished seventh in his age group at the Fifth Avenue Mile race on Aug. 14 in a time of 4:37, a 14-second improvement from 2003.
Broome and Mann are regular training partners on Saturdaymornings at the Mountain Lakes track.
Mann credits Rich, Ed Hemberger, his message therapist in Boonton, and Coach Devon Martin of the Central Park Track Club with his success this summer track season
#1508.
WHO: Alan Ruben
WHEN: August 17, 2004
WHAT HE SAID: "One of the perks of being a CPTC webmaster is that you don't have to run Club Championships "
There are other perks to this job?
#1507.
WHO: Audrey Kingsley
WHEN: August 14, 2004
WHAT SHE SAID: "My job is ruining by running and my social life. Which are really one and the same."
#1506.
WHO: Neil Fitzgerald
WHEN: August 14, 2004
WHAT HE SAID: "We do more before 5:00 in the evening than some people do all day."
#1505.
WHO: Devon Martin
WHEN: August 14, 2004
SITUATION: Talking about how highly all the CPTC runners placed in the Fifth Avenue Mile
WHAT SHE SAID: "Not that I'm competitive, or anything."
#1504.
WHO: Kate Irvin
WHEN: July 11, 2004
WHERE: Devon Martin's post-track race party
SITUATION: Kate
and Andrea Haver are weighing the merits of Britney Spears vs. Enrique Iglesias
WHAT SHE SAID: "Britney speaks my language."
#1503.
WHO: Kevan Huston and Ana Echeverria Huston
WHEN: August 11, 2003
WHERE: The New York Observer
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
Ana Echeverri and Kevan Huston
Met: Dec. 9, 2001
Engaged: June 12, 2003
Projected Wedding Date: Aug. 30, 2003
Ready, set, wed: Ana Echeverri, 32, a nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan-Kettering who runs eight miles daily, is marrying Kevan Huston, 31, a librarian and researcher at UBS Securites who logs about twice that. The pair has completed 10 marathons between them, which bodes well for whatever's going on behind their bedroom door. "I think running provides an outlet for stress and tension for us," she said.
Mr. Huston is redheaded, weighs 148 pounds, has a body-mass index of 20 and hails from Canada ("but I look like a normal person," he said). Two years ago, however, the six-foot-tall hunk was tipping the scales at 207 pounds—which seems fine to us, but then again so does a 16-minute mile. "I was a whale," he said. He would hang out at pubs and smoke a pack of cigarettes per day. "Now I just run," he said. "Running has really become the center of my social world."
Indeed, he discovered his half-Colombian, half-Chinese future fiancée while loping through a group 10K organized by the Central Park Track Club. "I hate to use the word ‘exotic' to describe her, because it's kind of not politically correct," he said. "But she's gorgeous—bronzed, beautiful, warm skin. And here I am, Scotch-Irish—you can't tell when I'm wearing a white shirt."
He bore down upon her at a party for a fellow runner at Grace, a restaurant in Tribeca. "I thought he was interesting—very, very charming," Ms. Echeverri said. "But sort of awkward. He kept saying that he couldn't stay out late because he had to go out and run with a friend the next morning at 6:30. He was so focused on his training that I thought he couldn't be romantically interested in me."
Nonetheless, she agreed to accompany him for a carbo load at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown the next week, followed by tiramisu in Little Italy for her (Mr. Huston—we're concerned to say—abstained).
Soon after, they enjoyed that hollow-eyed swingers' rite of passage, the New Year's Eve midnight run in Central Park. He was falling fast. "She has the most amazing smile," he gushed. "It's radiant. It's the cause of global warming."
They tend to complete their daily slogs alone, at different paces (though they're about the same level if you adjust for generic gender differences). "When we get together after a run, we're both in a good space," Ms. Echeverri said.
Eight months and Lord knows how many miles after meeting, they moved into a one-bedroom off Central Park West, where his habit of using the same knife in both the peanut butter and the jelly has caused them to resort to his-and-her jars.
But everything else has gone well, and after a 5K cross-country contest in Van Cortlandt—she came in third in the ladies' division; he kindly brought up the rear—they began discussing that other M-word. "It was very egalitarian," Mr. Huston said. "We got home after the race and the whole idea just started gaining traction." And so he bought a white-gold ring with a Toronto-purchased, Canadian-mined diamond. At just under one carat, it's not gonna slow down his Atalanta.
Better bring Neosporin to the nuptials: Their ceremony, to be held in Alberta, will be preceded by an optional two-mile road race.
#1502.
WHO: John Scherrer
WHEN: July 30, 2004
WHERE: His blog, Exit, Pursued by a Bear
WHAT HE WROTE:
"Can you imagine life without the CPTC Web site? How would we know what's going on in the world? However, we must lament the horrible death of the Famous People, Famous Sayings section. Less running, more quoting! If you're desperate for material, feel free to repost quote #1291--it's still pretty accurate. As is #1203.
Another shameless attempt to get an entry on our Famous Quotes page. Surely you all know by now that these never work...
#1501. WHO: Margaret
Angell
WHEN: May 2004
WHERE: New
England Runner Magazine
WHAT THE ARTICLE SAID:
'Two athletes with large upsides on the day were
Margaret Angell, 27, of NYC and the BAA's Cathi Campbell,
36, of Allston, MA. Training with the Central Park Track Club
former Harvard track captain Angell's effort paid off in a PR
2:44:05 with the most even splits of the day - 1:21:58 out, 1:22:07
in.
"I felt that the key to my training was to make a 6:10 per
minute mile pace comfortable for a very long run," explained
Angell. "On race day I wanted to go out between 6:10 and
6:15 pace, run relaxed yet focused, and then try to push as hard
as I could in the last 10K. At the halfway mark I was exactly
where I wanted to be. I felt comfortable and I focused on maintaining
my pace through 20 miles. After the half way point the other competitors
started coming back to me. I focused my attention on the next
runner, then the next runner, the next, etc.
"My coach and I talk a lot about finishing a race with dignity.
It's our philosophy that in the last 10K, a marathoner should
have one aggressive move left, I chose mile 23 in the long stretch
along the edge of the park. I ran a 6:07 mile and passed about
7-10 women. After that I just focused on the finish line. I was
a little surprised at how even the splits were, but I think it
was because I was not too aggressive early and then focused on
performing in the last 10K."
#1500. WHO: Kate
Irvin
WHEN: May 18, 2004
WHERE: Columbia Track
WHAT SHE SAID: "I just love getting shorter and faster."
#1499. WHO: Alan
Ruben
WHEN: May 6, 2004
WHERE: One-mile race at the Armory
SITUATION: Asked by a teammate why he wasn't running in the first
heat.
WHAT HE SAID: "Give me a break. I just ran two marathons."
#1498. WHO: Sid
Howard and Catherine Stone-Borkowski
WHEN: March, 28-29 2004
WHERE: The Boston Herald
WHAT THE ARTICLES SAID:
CANADIAN POSTS MIRACULOUS MILE
By Joe Reardon/ Track Notebook
Monday, March 29, 2004
...
Howard still on run
Sid Howard has no intention of slowing
down any time soon either. The 65-year-old Howard has been on
a tear of late, breaking American age-group records in the 800-meter
run (2:19.4), 1,500 meters (4:56.36) and the mile (5:23.1).
The soft-spoken Plainfield, N.J., resident's
60-year-old mark of 2:12.71 in the 800 is still the fastest ever
run.
Howard is still on a high from the recent World
Masters Indoor Track Championships in Sindlefingen, Germany. Racing
against some of the best Master athletes in the world, Howard
used his deadly kick to take home the gold medal in the 800 and
1,500.
"The Lord blessed me with this gift and
I'm sharing my gratitude," Howard said matter of factly.
"I hope when they call for all the guys 100 and over to the
starting line, I'll be one of those guys."
Howard wasn't about to share first place on the
Reggie Lewis track. Racing in the 65-69 800, Howard got off to
a strong start and was never challenged as he crossed the line
in 2:23.79, nearly three seconds ahead of Mack Stewart
of Katy, Texas (2:26.36).
Howard plans to rest up over the next few weeks
and focus on August, when he'll be competing at the nationals
in Decatur, Ill., and the North American Championships in Puerto
Rico.
Howard hopes his achievements on the track inspire
both his peers and younger athletes. "If anybody can see
me and take a benefit from anything I've achieved, that's important
to me," he said.
Martin wins 800
Middle-distance aces Catherine Stone-Borkowski
of Ringwood, N.J., and Kathy Martin of Northport, N.Y.,
wrapped up phenomenal weekends on the track as both captured wins
in the 800.
Stone-Borkowski used her dominant kick over the
final 200 meters for a 2:25.26 win in the 40-44 division. The
win was her second after copping the gold in Saturday's mile.
Martin showed no ill effects from her American-record
win in Friday night's 3,000-meter run and Saturday's mile victory
in the 50-54 age group by falling just one second short of the
world record with a 2:28.07.
"I felt strong," said Martin. "I
just miscalculated the first lap. I was going for the world record
and I just missed it."
Said Stone-Borkowski, "I was hoping someone
would take it out. I didn't go for time today, just the win."
Steve Sergeant of Charlestown ran away
from the field in the 800 in 2:00.77 and Boston's Everad Samuels
won the 45-49 200-meter dash in 22.88.
RUNAWAY VICTORY: Champion rolls on in mile
By Joe Reardon/ Notebook
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Defending 800-meter champion Catherine Stone-Borkowski
of Ringwood, N.J., warmed up for today's 40-44-year-old group
race by using her blazing kick to take the mile in 5:18.85 yesterday
at the National Masters Indoor Championships at the Reggie Lewis
Track and Athletic Center.
The former University of Arkansas All-American
defeated runner-up Mary Beth Evans of Scarsdale, N.Y.,
by almost seven seconds.
Stone-Borkowski, a national body-building champion,
took a 10-year hiatus from track to concentrate on bodybuilding
and only recently returned to the oval, toned and 20 pounds heavier.
"I took the time and completely changed
the look of my body," said Stone-Borkowski. "I used
to be really thin. I feel a lot stronger now. It helps me a lot."
Stone-Borkowski captured the cross-country nationals
in the 40-44 division last fall in Holmdel, N.J.
"I was really surprised," said Stone-Borkowski.
"I had only run one cross-country race prior to that in 20
years."
Despite her uncontested win in the mile, Stone-Borkowski
wasn't totally pleased. She hoped to conserve a little more energy
for the 800 race. "Unfortunately, I kicked harder than I
wanted but I'll be all right for tomorrow," she said.
Stone-Borkowski hasn't ruled out a run at her
personal best time she accomplished during her college years.
She has recently run 2:19. Today, though, she'll be going for
the win.
"My best was 2:13 and I don't think that's
out of my range," Stone-Borkowski said. "We'll just
see what this race holds. I really want to win here and worry
about time later."
#1497. WHO: Stefani
Jackenthal
WHEN: May 2003
WHERE: Attaché
Magazine
WHAT SHE WROTE:
ROCKS AND ROLLS
An intrepid triathlete wages an uphill battle
with the rugged terrain of the Catskills.
By STEFANI JACKENTHAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT PRECISELY 9 a.m., someone yelled, Go!
Like elephants charging a peanut factory, 182 pairs of feet funneled
across the narrow wooden bridge and scattered up the first of
many steep ascents. Civilization would not be seen for hours.
It was just like every third Sunday in July for the last quarter
of a century. This was the 26th annual 30K (18.6-mile) Escarpment
Trail Run race. No award. No fancy categories. In
fact, the only thing race director Dick Vincent did give out (besides
a terrific spread of bagels and fruit at the end) is the broken
bones pin to the finisher with the best injury. Busted bones
aren't necessarybruises, scrapes, and gashes will do.
Billed as for mountain goats only,
the rocky, ankle-biting course in New York's Catskills has
nearly 10,000 vertical feet of elevation change, slippery rocks,
hidden roots, extremely steep downhills, and narrow cliffs. And
racers can't get enough. Each year the coveted 200 slots
sell out months in advance, with runners coming from as far away
as Michigan, Iowa, and Canada. This year I was one of them.
Why would I want to do something so tormenting?
I'd like to say that it's all my friend Eric's
fault. He'd been fired up for the Run since last summer.
And because his wife was now pregnant, I, by default, became his
adventure partner. In May, we got so lost in an orienteering race
that little kids and senior citizens were passing us. Two weeks
later, in a three-person adventure race, I royally rolled my ankle
and looked for the next three weeks as if I was wearing a violet
sock. As I signed the Escarpment race application, which clearly
stated, You are responsible for your own medical costs,
including the cost incurred if an evacuation is necessary,
I was filled with both dread and excitement.
When Sunday arrived, Eric picked me up in front
of my Manhattan apartment at the ungodly hour of 4:45 a.m. Three
hours later, with the mercury already pushing 90 degrees and the
humidity hovering at 100 percent, we loaded onto the yellow school
bus that took us to the starting line in the town of Windham.
For the next 45 minutes, I nervously nibbled a Power Bar while
seasoned veterans lent advice and spun tales about past races.
Did you hear about the swarm of bees in 1987? Don't
leave it all on the first hill. Just remember at the
top of Blackhead, you're only halfway there. Unlike
other races, there is no sag wagon or bailout point. Once you
start, the only way to reach the finish is by footor rescue
chopper.
As I stood fidgeting anxiously with my Camelbak
hydration system at the start line, amongst the crowd of sinewy
runners, Eric shook his head, saying, What did we get ourselves
into? Exactly what I was thinking. We exchanged sympathetic,
sweaty high-fives and were off. One hundred and eighty-two competitors
squeezed through the tight bridge, no wider than a swimming-pool
lane. Casual chatting evaporated, and heavy breathing filled the
bloated mountain air as the rock-peppered trail turned upward.
I dodged and weaved through the school of struggling
Lycra-clad racers. I lost Eric. The frantic pace settled into
a tempo trot for some, a power walk for others. I silently repeated
my mantra: An object in motion stays in motion. My
head hung heavy, while I constantly scanned for safe footing.
The pack broke up and six fit, lean guys tapped
their way up the rock-strewn path. Among them was Peter Allen,
a 42-yearold sculptor from New Jersey. Four years earlier the
seasoned veteran placed second, finishing in a scorching 3:01.
This year was the first time I crashed hard, Allen
told me a few days after the race. Midway on a steep descent he
mistakenly put his foot down where there was nothing but three
feet of air. After freefalling past several trees, he stopped
abruptly by sliding headfirst into a rocky ledge, but not before
slicing open his shin on a jutting rock. I was going to
just ignore the episode and remember to brag about it later,
he explained. But it required leaving immediately after
the race for ten stitches. (He had finished in fifth place.)
While Allen aimed to crack three hours, I was
keen to break four. Finishing sans serious injury was my primary
goal. I tagged along with a group moving at a brisk but manageable
pace. My arms pumped like pistons as we snaked up the sheer ridgeline.
Sweat stung my eyes.
The path narrowed and we followed the blue trail
markers to the top of the first arduous climb. The guys skipped
across the slick rocks as I followed anxiously. My head swam from
focusing on every step. I tentatively stepped over the slippery
softball-sized rocks and prayed for flatness, every once in a
while remembering to breathe. Just when I was getting into the
groove, my toe caught a hidden root and I launched
forward. My arms shot out and barely saved my face from smashing
into a pointed shard of rock. I hit the ground hard. You
OK? a bearded man casually asked as he scurried past me.
I wearily nodded my head yes, snapped to my feet, and staggered
after him. Once I stopped shaking, I took inventory of my injuries.
A purple knob appeared on my left kneecap, my palms were scraped
raw, and my nails looked as if I had been digging for night crawlers.
To make matters worse, it started raining, making the footing
slick.
We hit the first major downhill and that was when
I said adieu to my new best friends. As a competitive triathlete,
I had the fitness to hang with the boys on the 40-minute ascent,
but like Spiderman, they plummeted down gnarly, narrow, clifflined
trails and launched off lofty ledges. My Spidey senses warned
me to obey my inner weeniness. I sucked up my ego and cherry-picked
through the reckless rock garden, flopping onto my bum at sketchy
points and scootching over rock ledges.
I was alone for the first time that morning. An
hour into the race, I finally noticed the lovely damp pine smell,
melodic chirping birds, and rain tapping on the tree canopies
overhead. Wet spruce branches tickled my bare arms with their
rain-soaked pointy pods. It was magical.
But the moment was fleeting. I was soon numb to
the spitting rain. The cool, wet boulders soothed my scraped hands
as I clawed my way hand-over-fist up the muddy rock face. Progress
was slow and scary. At the top, orange ribbon lined the route
to a crew of cheering volunteers at the rest stop. They had schlepped
hundreds of gallons of water, Gatorade, and goodies up the mountainside.
I sloshed down some water, munched a handful of
mini-pretzels and the tastiest M&Ms ever, then started down
the wicked steep descent that had claimed Peter Allen. Sitting
back on my heels, I slalomed between trees to cut speed. I fluttered
my arms and desperately grabbed twigs and boulders for balance,
longing for the forgotten gloves I had left at home.
Some time later, without warning, the scree-strewn
trail spilled onto a grassy field and I tumbled across the finish
line. My watch beamed a teasing 4:00:10. I thought of five places
I could have saved ten seconds, but it didn't matterbruised,
scraped, and exhausted, I was exhilarated. As Vincent said, Sore
ribs, skinned hands, and all that jazz is reason to rejoice.
I sipped an icy-cold Coke and eased slowly toward
the mound of mouthwatering melon piled high next to the overflowing
bowl of bagels and containers of cream cheese covering the folding
table. My legs felt as wobbly as a sailor stepping on land after
a month at sea. I dropped onto the grass with a relieved sigh
and traded war stories with fellow racers, all the while watching
for Eric. A half-hour later, looking as frazzled as I felt, he
flopped across the finish line. We embraced in victory and relief.
My stiff body ached all over, and I knew that the next day my
insides would feel as shaken as a dry martini. But right then
I felt as happily buzzed as if I had just finished one.
STEFANI JACKENTHAL resides in Manhattan. Her next
challenge is an urban-adventure romp through New York City.
#1496. WHO: Devon
Martin and Jessica Reifer
WHEN: March 21, 2004
WHERE: At the Armory race
WHAT THEY SAID:
Devon: Coaching this group can be stressful
sometimes.
Jessica: Not because of me. I'm the perfect
athlete.
Devon did not respond to this, but we imagine that
she was thinking all sorts of unprintable things.
#1495. WHO: Jonathan
Cane and Jesse Lansner
WHEN: March 20, 2004
WHERE: At dinner, wondering whether it was a good idea to order
another round of drinks before an 8:00 am group run the next morning.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Jonathan: We can't lead a group run hungover.
Jesse: Laura [a member of the group] is
still here, so we won't be the only ones who don't feel well tomorrow.
Jonathan: No, because
she's just drinking water.
Jesse: I guess she's
smarter than we are.
Jonathan: The water
she's drinking is smarter than we are.
#1494. WHO: Otto
Hoering
WHEN: March 8, 2004
WHERE: New
York Daily News
WHAT HE WROTE:
MIA
Manhattan: President Bush wants us to remember
the leadership he displayed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. I do remember. I remember that he stood on the smoldering
ruins of the World Trade Center and proclaimed that he would find
those responsible for knocking the towers down. So why isn't he
using images of a captured Osama Bin Laden in his reelection campaign
commercials? Otto Hoering
#1493. WHO: John
Gleason
WHEN: March 2, 2004
WHERE: At the Armory workout
WHAT HE SAID: "You're a diamond in the rough. But only time
will tell if the emphasis is on 'diamond' or 'rough.'"
#1492. WHO: Devon
Martin and Jessica Reifer
WHEN: March 2, 2004
WHERE: At the start of the Armory workout
WHAT THEY SAID:
Devon: Jess, here's
the workout.
Jessica: Um--
Devon: Shush!! I don't want to hear it!
#1491. WHO: Kate
Irvin and Andrea Haver
WHEN: February 29, 2004
WHERE: Reacting to the tunes played in the van on the ride
home
WHAT THEY SAID:
Kate: What CD are
you guys playing? Those are strange tunes
Andrea: I think what we are dealing with
is a major generation gap
#1490. WHO: Andrea
Haver
WHEN: February 29, 2004
WHERE: During a speedy ride from Boston to NYC after the track
meet with D'Money on the wheel - making it back in record time.
WHAT SHE SAID: "Devon, you're the man!"
#1489. WHO: Tony
Ruiz
WHEN: February 28, 2004
WHERE: Observing the following photo at Club Night
WHAT HE SAID: "I came over to ask you to take a photo, but
instead I just want to take your place here."
#1488. WHO: Tony
Ruiz and Margaret Angell
WHEN: February 10, 2004
WHERE: On the way home from the Armory
WHAT THEY SAID:
Tony: I've been doing
50 push-ups first thing every morning since I was 18.
Margaret: How do the women in your life
feel about this?
Tony: Why do you think I'm divorced?
#1487. WHO: Mike
Dougherty
WHEN: January 27, 2004
WHERE: Coogan's
WHAT HE SAID: "I'm going to look you up on the internet,
but in a good way."
As Chris Price replied, "Aren't they
all good ways?"
#1486. WHO: Jerome
O'Shaugnessy
WHEN: January 27, 2004
WHERE: The Armory
SETTING: A fellow member commends Jerome for still trying to recruit
members, even at his last workout.
WHAT HE SAID: "I'm still going to be recruiting new members
at the airport."
#1485. WHO: Frank
Handelman
WHEN: January 20, 2004
WHERE: The Armory.
WHAT HE SAID: "My father and his brothers all lived into
their 90s. My wife's fear that I'll be 85 and still running the
800m. My fear is that Sid Howard will still be running better
age-graded times in the same race."
#1484. WHO: Joe
Glickman
WHERE: Metrosports
Magainze
WHAT HE WROTE:
Three women, three countries, three sports. The
common thread: they're all New York City endurance athletes who
excel on a local, regional and national level. Helen Havam, a
27-year-old from Estonia who didn't lace on in-line racing skates
until 1997, now competes against the best in the world. Stefani
Jackenthal, a 37-year-old native New Yorker with a long and eclectic
athletic resume, is a sub-3:00 marathoner (2:59:59 to be exact)
who has competed at the elite level as a cyclist, triathlete and
adventure racer. And duathlete Margaret Schotte, a 27-year-old
Canadian and Harvard grad, has in just two seasons become one
of the top run/bike/run specialists in North America. All three
"wonder women" live in Manhattan, train in Central Park and race
internationally. Read their stories, but prepare to suffer if
you try to keep up with them in a race.
She'll Tri Anything
Name: Stefani Jackenthal
Age: 37
Home: Manhattan
Sport: Triathlete, Cyclist, Adventure
Racer
Full-time job: Journalist, entrepreneur
How's this for a novel personal ad: White Jewish
female, 5 feet, 6.5 inches, 115 pounds, former professional cyclist,
rises at 5 a.m. to swim, bike and/or run. Trains 16 to 18 hours
a week, enjoys sushi, gourmet coffee (black with sugar), yoga,
weight training, low-fat frozen yogurt, fine wine and running
across the Grand Canyon. Seeking like-minded athlete willing to
climb 20,000-foot mountains, swim leech-infested rivers and rappel
sheer granite cliffs. No drugs or meat eaters please. Meet Stefani
Jackenthal, all-around athlete extraordinaire.
Jackenthal's career as a multi-day adventure
racer started innocently enough. A varsity lacrosse player at
SUNY Cortland, Jackenthal began cycling between her sophomore
and junior years to rehab a leg injury. After graduating from
business school in 1991, she cycled through Scandinavia and enjoyed
it so much that she got her racing license when she returned.
Though the first few races scared the sushi out of her, Jackenthal
hung tough, secured a sponsor, and began shining on the national
stage. In 1994 she finished a surprising second during a stage
of a prestigious pro race in Killington, Vt., proving that she
could hang with the top sprinters in the sport. But after damaging
her hip in a pileup in 1995, her umpteenth serious crash, she'd
had enough. After a six-month layoff, Jackenthal started swim
training.
A triathlete was born. By 2001 she earned All-America
Triathlon honors at the Olympic distance. That same year Jackenthal
won the inaugural New York City Triathlon and qualified for the
World Champs in Hawaii at Ironman Lake Placid. How tough is this
petite woman from the Upper West Side? Despite "vomiting her guts
out" in the heat of Hawaii from mile 80 on the bike to mile 20
on the run, she willed herself to carry on and finish. "It was
such a primal experience," she says. "It wasn't pretty but it
showed me how deep I could dig."
In fact, until Jackenthal agreed this year to
be part of a four-person relay team that set out to break the
coed record for cycling across America, she'd planned on qualifying
for Kona a second time to "do it right." Though her team crossed
the country in six days and 16 hours, narrowly missing the record,
Jackenthal raised $15,000, to be split between the American Cancer
Society and the American Lung Association. Her mother, who joined
Jackenthal at the end of her ride, recently endured surgery and
chemotherapy for breast cancer. Despite sleeping about three hours
a night for six days in June, Jackenthal loved the experience.
"One night I was riding in Missouri at 2 a.m., cranking along
while listening to the B52's blaring from the speakers duct-taped
on top of our support vehicle," she says. "The headlights barely
penetrated the mist in the mountains; it was an eerie and strangely
beautiful landscape. I felt part of something larger."
So what's next for this peripatetic jock/journalist/wine
connoisseur who's raced and reported on adventure races all over
the world? "I dunno," she says. "Maybe a cool half-Ironman this
fall; although my running stinks right now. I'm really getting
into videography-filming adventure races with a mini DVD player.
Did I mention in September I'm headed to Primal Quest in Lake
Tahoe ."
Fastest Female on Five Wheels
Name: Helen Havam
Age: 27
Home: Manhattan
Sport: In-line skating
Full-time job: Administrative assistant
Born and raised in Estonia (a small country
between Latvia and Russia that gained its independence in 1991),
Helen Havam was a national junior champ in the heptathlon with
Olympic aspirations. Made up of seven track and field events,
the heptathlon is the female equivalent of the decathlon. After
high school, however, Havam stopped training and started working
at the Foreign Ministry. In 1996, she came to New York for a two-year
stint at the Estonian Consulate; she's been here ever since.
A year after arriving in the Big Apple, Havam
bought a pair of recreational skates. Every day after work she
and a co-worker headed to Central Park to do a lap as fast as
they could. One evening, she blew by accomplished local racer
Bobby Piedra, who stared in disbelief at the 5-foot, 3-inch woman
whizzing by on four wheels. Much to her dismay, he took up the
chase, attempting to fraternize with her all the way around the
park. By the time they finished the 6.2-mile lap, Piedra asked
if she'd like to log another lap, something she'd never done before.
In the months that followed, Piedra had Helen on the faster five-wheel
skates and began teaching her the nuances of the technically demanding
sport. In October, he convinced her to check out a "fun" race
in Georgia called the Athens to Atlanta. She finished the 86 undulating
miles in 5:21, third in her age group. Though her back ached for
weeks, she eventually married her in-line mentor and vowed to
learn all she could about her new sport.
In 1999, Havam finished in the money in a prominent
pro race out West. In 2002, she made the U.S. National Team and
qualified for the World Marathon Champs, although she couldn't
compete because she's not a U.S. citizen. Earlier this year, however,
Havam represented Estonia at the European Championships in Italy.
"It's the biggest race of my career," she says. Havam competed
in eight events, finishing fourth in the 500-meter sprint and
13th in the 26.2-mile marathon.
Havam trains six days a week, two to three hours
a day. Though she's the dominant skater in the East, she still
considers herself a "new skater" compared to the international
competitors who've been racing for a decade or more. Getting her
to brag about her accomplishments is nearly as difficult as defeating
her on the road. "Every race gives you more experience," she says.
"I'm still learning. I just love the feeling of pushing hard and
doing my best. If my best isn't good enough to win, I'll train
harder and go again next year."
A Two-Sport Terror
Name: Margaret Schotte
Age: 27
Home: Manhattan
Sport: Duathlon
Full-time job: Rare book dealer
Ask Ontario native Margaret Schotte, the former
captain of the cross-country and track teams at Harvard University,
what her best 10K time is and she equivocates like an elected
official. "Well, it's not that fast."
How fast?
"Well, just 37:05," she says. "I should be able
to go faster."
In elementary school, Schotte (pronounced Scotty,
as in "Beam me up") gravitated to running because, she says in
her wry, self-effacing style, "I had absolutely no coordination
to do anything else." Under the rigorous coaching she enjoyed
(and endured) in high school, Schotte was the Canadian national
champ at 3,000 meters. At Harvard, where she majored in history
and literature, she focused more on the rich social and academic
world of Cambridge, Mass., and less on running. "I was faster
in high school than I was in college," she says. "There was so
much going on, not to mention all the junk food I consumed."
In 1999 she moved to Manhattan, got a job as
a rare-book dealer on 55th and Park Avenue and joined the Central
Park Track Club. Schotte found the camaraderie and laid-back attitude
a "good environment to recharge my running batteries," she says.
In 2001, she began cycling to soothe her ailing hamstrings. After
completing the 325-mile New York-to-Boston AIDS ride, Schotte
continued training on two wheels throughout the winter. Last fall,
she tried her first duathlon and was the second woman and eighth
overall. She won her next race, the Central Park Biathlon. "My
strength as a cross-country runner came through on the bike,"
Schotte says.
Last winter, Jonathan Cane, a personal trainer
and competitive cyclist whom she met during speed workouts in
Central Park, hooked her up with Kirk Whiteman, a spinning instructor
and elite track cyclist. "Kirk turned my sluggish distance-runner
legs into decent biking legs," she says. This spring Schotte eyed
the duathlon race calendar like a book dealer would a first edition
of Boswell. "I was chomping at the bit to race," she says.
In 2003 Schotte crushed the field in each of
the four duathlons she's done. At the Canadian Nationals this
July, the 5-foot, 7-inch, 140-pound bookworm won the 10K/40K/5K
race comfortably. "I had a smile on my face the whole race," she
says.
#1483. WHO: Stacia
Schlosser
WHEN: November 2, 2003
WHERE: The post-marathon party at The Parlour.
WHAT SHE SAID: "I don't care what you write on the website
as long as it doesn't mention me. Of course, now you'll probably
put that on the site."
Well, if you insist...
#1482. WHO: John
Prather and Stuart Calderwood
WHEN: November 2, 2003
WHERE: The post-marathon party at The Parlour.
WHAT THEY SAID:
John: "From now on I want you
introduce me just as 'John who used to run with CPTC and now lives
in Arizona' and not add anything else."
Stuart: "Sure."
John: "Thanks."
Stuart: (turning to the person next to him): "This
is John. He once ran a 10k in 30 minutes."
#1481. WHO: Yves-Marc
Courtines and Alexandra Horowitz
WHEN: October 23, 2003
THE SETTING: Yves-Marc had just made a hooting sound during
the workout.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Yves-Marc: "That sound means
to start the pickup."
Alex: "So all those construction workers
are actually telling me to run faster!"
#1480. WHO: Margaret
Angell and Kevan Huston
WHEN: October 23, 2003
THE SETTING: The recently married Kevan was pushing Kieran
Calderwood's baby jogger during the workout.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Margaret: "Are you running with
that baby jogger for practice?"
Kevan: "No. Why, do you know something
I don't?"
#1479. WHO: Marty
Levine
WHEN: October 14, 2003
WHAT HE SAID: "The only thing worse than being a Yankees
fan in Boston this weekend was being beat by Trot Nixon and Mike
Timlin's wives by almost six minutes in the Boston Half Marathon."
According to the race
website, "Included in the field were Red Sox wives Dawn
Timlin (wife of Mike), who placed 1001st (1:50:55); and Kathryn
Nixon (wife of Trot) who placed 1002nd (1:50:56). Both
were running as part of the Dana-Farber team of runners, who competed
and fundraised to fight cancer. More than 400 Dana-Farber
Runners were among the field." Marty finished in 1:52:30.
#1478. WHO: Yves-Marc
Courtines
TO: Mark Sowa
WHEN: October 5, 2003, during Grete's Great Gallop
WHAT HE SAID: "There are only two women ahead of you!"
Hearing this, the runner next to Mark asked him:
"What race are you running, anyway?"
#1477. WHO: Kim
Mannen
TO: Jessica Reifer
WHEN: September 7, 2003, after Jessica finished the Fifth
Avenue Mile
WHAT SHE SAID: "Come here. I want to spank you!"
#1476. WHO: Sid
Howard
WHERE: RunnersWorld.com,
A Brief Chat with Sid Howard by Peter Gambaccini,
September 5, 2003
Sid Howard, 64, a
great-grandfather from New Jersey, won the 1500 meters gold medal
in 5:04.19 for the 60-64 age group at the World Masters Athletics
Championships in Puerto Rico in July. In August, he won
the 1500 in 4:57.97 and the 800 in 2:21.94 at the USA Masters
Championships in Eugene. On his 60th birthday, Howard, who
competes for the Central Park Track Club, had set a 60 and over
indoor world record of 2:12.75 for 800 meters. At age 59,
he received his B.S.W. degree from Kean University if New Jersey
Runner's World Daily: Is this 1500
your first individual world championship?
Sid Howard: It is. Twenty
years ago in the same place, Puerto Rico, I ran the World Games
and I didn't make the finals of the 800 or the 1500. A friend
of mine was running the marathon and said "why don't you
run 20 miles of the marathon with me?" I was only running
after five years at that time. We got to the 20-mile mark,
and instead of me stopping, he stopped. I ran the whole
marathon in 2:46:47. Someone said "Sid, they're looking
for you, you got third place." But I wasn't legally
entered into the marathon.
The next time I ran the World meet was 1989, when
I was 50. I got sixth place in the 800 and seventh place
in the 1500. I finally made the finals. In '95, in
Buffalo, I got my first medal, a second place in the 800.
In '99, I got a bronze medal but I broke the American record (60
and over) with a 2:12.71 in the 800. Two years later in
Australia, I got the silver medal in the 800 and still got fourth
place in the 1500. So I never even won a medal in the 1500
until this year.
RWD: Was this 1500 a close race?
SH: It was close until the
last lap. We had 16 people in the race because we didn't
have a prelim. Nobody wanted to take the lead. Nobody
wanted to sacrifice themselves. It was more of a tactical
race; I actually ran seven seconds faster at the Nationals.
My closest competitor was a guy from Norway, and the third guy
was from Great Britain. I led with a lap to go. It
was pretty close until the last 120 meters, and I had a nice finishing
kick.
RWD: You've set world records and
relay records and won lots of national championships. Is
this your happiest running achievement?
SH: I love the team golds more
than anything. I love relay records more than individual.
But for individual accomplishment, I can't get higher than this.
I set world records, and records are made to be broken, and no
one can ever take away the fact that I won the 2003 world championship
in the 1500 for men 60 to 64.
RWD: There was a large Central Park
Track Club contingent in Puerto Rico. You've meant a lot
to them, leading by example, but it must work both ways. They
keep you interested.
SH: It was good to have my
teammates there in Puerto Rico to cheer me on. That had
to help me tremendously. Without the team, my succcess would
not be what it is today. I have to give the team a lot of
credit. Training by myself is never the same as when I train
with the team. When I'm by myself and I set out to do eight
quarters (400s), when I get to the fifth one, I say "oh,
I think I've had enough." When I'm with the team and
I know I'm tired and I look over at my teammates and they're still
going at it, that helps me tremendously. Nothing's better
than team camaraderie.
RWD: Were your 800 and 1500 wins
in Eugene pretty convincing?
SH: They were exciting races,
especially the 1500. On the last lap, I took the lead.
I wanted to have those guys chase me down the backstretch and
pass me, which they did. I know that in the 1500, you only
have the opportunity to make one quick move. I wanted those
guys to make their move on the backstretch so I could save mine
for 150 to go. That's when I started my kick.
RWD: You're been running great in
age groups for over 20 years. Physically, how do you keep
it going at that level?
SH: I don't run on the roads
and do roadracing as much as I used to. I don't do any road
workouts with the team if I can help it. I think a lot of
it has to do with my diet, that I've been a vegetarian for over
25 years. I don't do a lot of quantity; I do a lot of quality.
I think that has helped me maintain my speed and my fitness.
I do 400 sit-ups in the morning, five days a week, and try to
stretch as well as I can. I take two days off a week now;
I took no days off when I was younger.
RWD: In December you do the Pete
McArdle 15-K cross country in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx,
with three laps of those difficult back hills. That's unusual
for an 800/1500 guy.
SH: I will always do that Pete
McArdle. He was one of my idols. That basically sets
me up for indoor track. Whenver I can do those three times
around, that gives me a lot of confidence that I'm going to have
a good indoor season. That's the longest distance (15-K)
that I run, and it helps me out tremendously.
RWD: Do you figure you'll be racing
well into your 70s?
SH: I was hoping I would be
one of the first men at the age of 100 to actually not jog but
run. Next year, I'm going into a new age group. Every
age group gives you something to motivate you. I'm doing
to continue hitting age groups until three digits, one-zero-zero.
#1475. WHO: Isaya
Okwiya and Devon Martin
WHEN: August 16, 2003
WHERE: Post-softball game dinner on Devon's rooftop deck
WHAT THEY SAID:
Isaya: "Breasts are nice, but
I prefer legs."
Devon: "Of course you do; you're a runner."
Isaya: "I thought we were talking about the
chicken."
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