#800. WHO: Stacy Creamer
SUBJECT: The ROI (return on investment) on her track spikes (see photo)
WHEN: "Every time I run another race, the cost per race comes down."

#799. WHO: Jim Olson
SUBJECT: His 12:12 time at the two-mile race at the Armory on January 17, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "They were giving me my lap times.  They would say, 'You're one second behind' and I would feel good because I wasn't losing that much time.  Unfortunately, one second per lap for sixteen laps adds up to 16 seconds in total.  By the end of the race, it was too much to make up in order to go under 12 minutes."

#798. WHO: Luca Trovato
WHEN: February 17th, 2000, one night before the MAC Indoor Track & Field Championships
WHERE: At the Armory Track & Field Center, where those championships will be held
WHAT HE SAID: "I have been trying to get my steps right.  But it seems that no matter where I start, I always end up with my right foot near the tape when my left foot is my take-off foot."
UNPROFESSIONAL SUGGESTION: "Why not just take off with your left foot no matter where it is?"  Answer (in Italian): (unpublishable).
POSTSCRIPT: We can joke about this, but the fact was that Luca Trovato did become the MAC indoor long jump champion with a leap of 16'0", beating all comers that night.

#797. WHO: Eric Aldrich
SUBJECT: Valentine's Day 5K, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "It was cold out there and I was underdressed.  I ran as fast as I could, because I thought that the sooner I finish, the sooner I can get warm clothes on."

#796. WHO: Tony Ruiz
SUBJECT: The dance-off between Sid Howard and him at the 2000 Club Night Gala
WHAT HE SAID: "I would say that we came out even, like we always do.  Thankfully, nobody ever really win or lose those things."

#795. WHO: Brian Barry
TO WHOM: Frank Schiro
SUBJECT: Post-workout fatigue
WHAT HE ASKED: "Do you feel stiff the next morning?"
COMMENT FROM AN EAVESDROPPER: (after a  period of silence pregnant with meaning) "Ahem ... you really ought to think about what you just said" even as Frank shook his head, rolled his eyes and wagged his finger ...

#794. WHO: Scott Willett
WHERE: Jerusalem Post, December 20th, 1999
SUBJECT: What he said at the end of the bike segment of the Israel Ironman
WHAT HE SAID: "My legs are still attached."

#793. WHO: John Scherrer
WHEN: On the occasion of the inauguration of the Central Park Track Club Food Critics page
WHAT HE WROTE: "A friend of mine got me The Physiology of Taste as a Christmas gift. I would love to contribute to the "Food Critic" board, but I'm probably a bit annoyed at how badly my submissions get butchered by the webmaster.  Free John Scherrer!"

#792 WHO: Jim Olson
SUBJECT: Upon finishing fourth and second in his first two road races of the year 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "My problem is that I am 59.9 years old right now.  In three weeks' time, I'll be 60 years old.  Then, if Sid Howard doesn't show up, I should be able to win something outright."

#791. WHO: Noah Perlis
SITUATION: For the description of the February 8th, 2000 workout, his photo appears with the legend, "Bienvenu, mes amis!  
Nous nous parlons français ici."  To eliminate any suspicion that is yet another one of our  egregious malapropisms, Noah has offered some explanation.

WHAT HE WROTE:
"For your information,
(1) According to my birth certificate, I was born in Paris, France.
(2) My correct name is Noë Perlis.
(3) This t-shirt with the letters "Paris" cost me $2,000, for sending my oldest daughter on her European trip when she was in high school 5 years ago, and the shirt was what she brought back for me."

WHAT ELSE HE WROTE: "Could you airbrush my hair into place on the photo?"
COMMENT: Ce mec est un emmerdeur de premier ordre ...

#790. WHO: Michele Tagliati
WHEN: Valentine's Day 5K, 2000
WHAT HE ASKED: "Will there be any special art effects on the race photos?"
ANSWER: See photo album cover (fresco effect)

#789. WHO: Roland Soong (who does not race)
TO WHOM: Sylvie Kimché (who lives in Ohio)
WHEN: Upon being handed fliers for an out-of-town race
WHAT HE SAID: "I don't think that we are their best prospects for entering the race."
COMMENT: ...make that "any race" ...

#788. WHO: Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City
WHAT HE USED TO SAY: "How am I doing?"

SUBJECT: The progress of Stuart Calderwood

PUBLISHED DATA:

• Gridiron Classic 5K (1/24/1999), 16:22
• Gridiron Classic 5K (1/30/2000), 16:22

ADDITIONAL FACTOIDS:

1. In 2000, Stuart caromed off a bouncing steel barricade at the 200-meter mark.  He may have lost some time, but gained some distance.
2. In 2000, the race was scored by computer chip.  Our collective experience is that there is a two second loss across the board for everybody, but this is unproven.  Other things being equal, he may have been faster this year.  But then again, it was popular belief in the pre-chip days that you always got stiffed for a couple of seconds.
3. In 1999, Stuart was 5th overall and 1st master; in 2000, he was 25th overall and 4th master.  This shows what some people would do for a few hundred dollars in prize money.  But this has no bearing on his individual performance.
4. The 1999 race carried no prize money.  The top three masters in the 2000 race received $300, $200 and $100 respectively.  The top master finisher in this race, Jerry Macari, was not registered as a NYRRC member at the time, and so Stuart got $100.  When Stuart thanked Jerry afterwards, the latter said, "No biggie."  Moneywise, Stuart is $100 ahead of last year.  But this has no bearing on his time.
5. In 1999, in the absence of our photographers, Stuart was first finisher for the Central Park Track Club, ahead of none other than Michael Trunkes.  In 2000, when our photographers were present en masse, he was sixth finisher for the club.  This shows what some people would do for a few photo ops and line mentions.  But this has no bearing on his individual performance.
6. In 2000, Stuart is one year older.  According to age-graded results, he is relatively faster.  But this has no bearing on the absolute level of this individual performance.
7. In 1999, the race time conditions were 60 degrees and rainy; in 2000, the race time conditions were 31 degrees, breezy and cloudy.  Both races were run under non-ideal, but different, conditions.
8. Fritz Mueller once ran three consecutive marathons within three seconds of each other.  Stuart hit his time right on the nose in two shorter races one year apart.  But what has this got to do with anything ... ?

CONCLUSION (by Lewis Carroll): "You see, here it takes all the running you can do, just to stay in the same place!"
VARIATION: "You see, here it takes all the micro-analyses you can do, just to come to no definitive conclusion."

#787. WHO: Alan Ruben
WHEN: February 10th, 2000 Thursday road workout
IN RESPONSE TO A QUERY FROM Stuart Calderwood, "How fast are you going to run the first mile?"
WHAT HE SAID: "Oh ... just half a second faster than the leader."
UNKNOWN: The number of people who split their sides when they heard that.

#786. WHO: Audrey Kingsley
WHEN: February 10th, 2000 Thursday road workout, when she showed up in shorts and froze
WHAT SHE SAID: "I won't wear shorts again until July!"

#785.  WHO: Chip Olson
WHEN: February 10th, 2000 Thursday road workout
WHAT HE SAID: "I got on one of those # 6 trains that seem to pause 10 minutes at every station.  I thought that there was no way that I was going to be early this time.  Unfortunately, I was still early since we did not head out until after 7:30."
COMMENT: Pray for that broken water main ...

#784. WHO: Bola Awofeso

Bola shows us his reading material
for the subway ride to the Armory

SUBJECT: Moses Tanui's pre-marathon training program, as documented in the book Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way by Toby Tanser.
WHAT HE SAID: "One day, he ran 22 kilometers straight up a mountain in 1:28, he came back down and then he ran up the mountain again.  I would die in my sleep if I tried that workout in my dream."
COMMENT: ... more unabashed promotion for that book ... sooner or later, it is going to kill us all.

#783. WHO: Raphael Devallee
TO WHOM: The Central Park Track Club web photographer
WHEN: Track workout, Tuesday, February 9th, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "I think I know why you came here today --- you want to get a photo of me in my bright yellow tights!"
COMMENT: That is entirely possible.

#782. WHO: Sid Howard
TO WHOM: The Central Park Track Club website race result compiler
WHAT HE SAID: "When I saw that you did not have my result at the year 2000 CJRR Hangover Run, I thought, 'I sure won't let him know!'"
QUESTION: Why does he sound as if this was a greater accomplishment than setting a world record?

#781. TOPIC: How the Snowflake 4 Miler became so significant for the Central Park Track Club
SOURCE: Central Park Track Club Newsletter, April 1995
WHAT WAS WRITTEN: "With a half mile to go in the February of the 1981 race, a fresh-out-of-college Dan Glickenhaus found himself at the head of this race with four other very fast and very hungry guys.  A nervous and excited Caryl Hudson, who was then editor of CPTC's Reservoir Ramblings newsletter, sat in the lead car.  

Caryl would later write, 'The lead changed about a dozen times in the first two miles as a pack of ten runners stuck close together.  But, on the west side downhill, Dan Glickenhaus broke away and held a 15-yard until Andy's Hill, where the pack caught up with him.'  Not known as one with a great kick, bets weren't on him as the group sped towards the finish.  But fear and desperation (the expressions seen on Dan's face) help us pull off great feats sometimes, and with 300 meters left, the man became the best kicker on the block, and won the race by less than a second.  His time was 19:39.9.

Only some four seconds separated the first five male finishers in that highly competitive race.  Gerry McCarthy, our #2 finisher, managed 'only' 14th with his 20:28.  Fritz Mueller and Sid Howard ran 21:05 and 21:37 for 30th and 44th overall.  In all, 30 CPTC men and women finished the 1980 Snowflake.  That day Dan led them all, but little did he know that his victory would inspire the new coach George Wisniewski to give this race his blessings as 'our' very own Club Team Championships."

P.S.  In case you were wondering, the Central Park Track Club men's team won the 1995 Snowflake Run and the women's team was second.  You will not be shocked to learn that the men were led by ... yes, Alan Ruben.  The women were led by Claudia Malley.

#780. WHO: Eric Aldrich
SUBJECT: The reason why he was one of the few people who saw a news item that appeared very briefly for a couple of hours on this website
WHAT HE SAID: "You are supposed to check the website every hour, just in case."
COMMENT: As it turns out, more and more people are claiming every day that they saw it too ...

#779. WHO: Betty Marolla, former president of Central Park Track Club
TO WHOM: John Kenney, current president of Central Park Track Club
WHEN: February, 2000
SUBJECT: The trials and tribulations of the job
WHAT SHE SAID: "There is life after you step down from the job."
COMMENT: Maybe John's question was really whether or there is life while you're on the job?

#778. WHO: Roland Soong
TO WHOM: Mark Birkey, newly accepted member
WHEN:  February 3, 2000 road workout
WHAT HE SAID: "You must be the famous Mark Birkey?  You know, it's kinda hard to identify you in the dark, especially since you don't have your trombone with you."
REPLY FROM MARK: "If I am famous, it would be thanks to the website." (See The Gutter Poets)

#777. WHO: Yves-Marc Courtines

SUBJECT: The photo of him in a sprint duel with teammate Theo Spilka at the finish of the Chicken Soup Loop 10K, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "I figured it was an EMERGENCY, as Stuart Calderwood likes to say." (reference: Famous Saying #699)
COMMENT: It is such a pleasure to see that young people actually learn things.

#776. WHO: Scott Willett, observer at the Thursday workout, February 3, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "At the moment, I am not running, I am not swimming and I am not cycling."
COMMENT: We are really confused now.  On one hand, we say that people who train all the time have no life and so this should mean that Scott has finally got a life.  On the other hand, we know that Scott has no life outside of triathlons.  So does he have a life, or not?

#775. WHO: Brian Marchese
TO WHOM: Ramon Bermo
WHAT HE ASKED: "Do you have a license for those quads?"
CAUTION: This is a very thick joke.
CAUTION: This is a very thin joke.

FOLLOWUP (Brian): "How come every time that I get quoted, there is always one keyword that is wrong?  I said 'calves', not 'quads'."
COMMENT: Check out the guy's quads ... you would be asking the same question.

#774. WHO: Max Schinder + chorus
WHEN: Thursday road workout, February 3, 2000, in the snow
IN RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION: "Max, what are you doing here?  Shouldn't you be nice and warm in Tampa running the Gasprilla 15K?"
WHAT HE SAID: "Yes, that would be next week.  But I don't know which is worse --- running in 80 degree heat or running on snow."
WHAT THE CHORUS SAID, IN UNISON: "Eighty degrees!"

#773. WHO: Jim Aneshansley, volunteer timer at a Tuesday track workout at the Armory
WHAT HE SAID: "I feel really tired today.  I don't know if I can do the entire workout."

#772. WHO: Doug Kabbash
SUBJECT: Race report for Gridiron Classic 5K, 2000
WHAT HE WROTE: "I've had shin splints and a sore back since the race.  Hopefully I will be okay for the next race or I'm taking up shuffleboard in Florida."
COMMENT: Yes, we agree.  The weather is so much nicer down there.

#771. SUBJECT: FAME
PREAMBLE: A measure of WWW fame is the number of links that you get when your name is typed into a search engine.  The table below shows what we found on www.alltheweb.com circa February 1, 2000.  Please note that we only checked a list of Central Park Track Club people whom we suspect to show up a lot.  If you think that there is some deserving person (but he/she has to be a Central Park Track Club member), please let us know by all means.

#770.  WHO: Craig Chilton
SUBJECT: Chicago Marathon 1998
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Craig Chilton, 2:52:01, 286th place overall; Rae Baymiller, 2:52:14, 289th place overall, world record time for women 55-59
WHAT HE SAID: "At the time, I did not know who Rae Baymiller was.  I would join the Central Park Track Club one month after that race.  I passed a woman late in the race, and I was feeling good about being able to pass an elite woman.  I guess I would not have felt as good if I knew she was 55 years old." 

#769. WHO: Bola Awofeso
WHEN: After the 2000 Gridiron Classic 5K, which he warmed up for by running 6 miles
WHAT HE SAID: "I wonder if I am tired from my earlier run."
FOLLOWUP: He ran another 6 miles after the race, with this explanation --- "When you are training for a marathon, you have to get your miles in."

#768a. WHO: Eve Kaplan
SUBJECT: Atonement and redemption
WHEN: After setting a personal worst by over a minute at the 2000 Gridiron Classic 5K, she did an 18 mile run immediately afterwards.
WHAT SHE SAID: "I felt really great."

#768b. WHO: Tyronne Culpepper
SUBJECT: Misery loves company
WHAT HE WROTE: "I'm sure this will make Eve feel better.  I had a double PW --- in the 5K (by almost 3 minutes) and the football throw (by about 20 yards).  So I did get a double, but not the one I was looking for."

#767.  WHO: Stacy Creamer
TO WHOM: David Pullman, famous for showing up late at workouts
WHEN: Indoor track workout, February 1st, 2000
WHAT SHE SAID: "Hey, David, the workout is not yet half over and you are here already!"

#766. WHO: Jim Olson
WHAT HE SAID: "It's funny how one responds to the question, 'How was your race?'  with 'Oh, I had a good race --- I felt terrible throughout.'"
COMMENT: This is infinitely better than 'Oh, I had a terrible race.  I felt terrible throughout.'

#765. WHO: Paul Stuart-Smith
WHEN: Gridiron Classic 5K, January 30th, 2000, being a scoring race
TO WHOM: The web photographer
WHAT HE SAID: "I've been racing throughout this month and I did not see your in any of the previous races."
COMMENT: Do you see a pattern?  Do you see a deliberate design to get you to come out for the scoring races?

#764.  WHO: Yves-Marc Courtines
TO WHOM: Complaint Department, Central Park Track Club
SUBJECT: Thursday (1/27/00) road workout in Central Park, when the temperature was in the teens and the wind chill was sub-zero
WHAT HE WROTE: "Having arrived, as usual, just in time (approx. 7:14pm - 7:16pm) for the workout, I was dismayed to see that our namby-pamby group of runners had decided to start things EARLY simply because it was a little cold out."

WHO: Complaint Department, Central Park Track Club
TO WHOM: Complaint Department, Central Park Track Club
WHAT WAS WRITTEN:  "We are dismayed to see that a namby-pamby sub-group of runners methodically show up late simply because it was a little cold out and they don't want to hang out and socialize with the rest of us."

#763.  WHO: Thomas Pennell
WHERE:  Wired News (6/22/99)
NEWS STORY TITLE: Seeking Angel Capital in NYC
WHAT HE SAID: "If you don't have a friend or a friend of a friend who can write a US$250,000 check, then you're nothing,"
COMMENT:  "In that case, I'm nothing."

WHAT ELSE HE SAID: "It's OK to have 10 jobs in five years."
COMMENT: "In that case, I'm not OK."

#762. WHO: Blair Boyer
INSPIRATION: The fact that Alan Ruben's sentimental favorite restaurant was Josie's (see Famous Saying # 758)
SUBJECT: Odds calculation
WHAT HE SAID: "What are the odds that

1. Stuart Calderwood and Stacy Creamer went out for their first dinner date at Josie's
2. ... which they re-visited on the occasion of the surprise party for Stacy's 39th birthday
3. Now this restaurant Josie's is named after a dog ...
4. ... owned by a man named Louie Lanza
5. ... who is a friend of Blair Boyer (who plays the role of the center of the universe in this story)
6. Now Louie once ran the New York City Marathon in 4:34 on only 3 days' training
7. ... with his best friend, Dr. Gary Prince
8. ... who owns Prescriptive Health Associates on West 54th Street
9. ... where Dr. Randall Ehrlich has an office?

#761.  WHO: Roland Soong
SUBJECT: How NOT to run the Gridiron Classic 5K
WHAT HE SAID: "My mile splits for the 5K on the same course in 1993 were: 5:30, 6:10, 6:20 for a final time of 18:34.  There is an easier (and quite obvious) way to do this."
ADDENDUM: "I felt as if I was pushing a grand piano uphill on the last mile ..."

#760. WHO: Ramon Bermo
SUBJECT: Esprit de corps
WHEN: Three days before the Gridiron Classic 5K in January 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "Will you guys have five bodies in the race?  Good.  Then I'm not running."

#759.  WHO: Our website ad sales manager
SUBJECT: Positioning this website in a sales pitch to an internet advertising agency
WHAT HE WROTE: "Better than a daytime soap opera!"
COMMENT #1: Who can doubt that?
COMMENT #2: What?  No credit to celebrity endorser Joe LeMay?

#758.  WHO: Alan Ruben
SUBJECT: His culinary tastes, as reported in the Jan/Feb 2000 issue of New York Runner
WHAT WAS WRITTEN: "Alan Ruben was 64th male in the 1999 New York City Marathon, won the 50K in March and did a PR 26:09 in the Club Team Championships in August.  Ruben is particularly fond of Flor de Mayo (101st and Broadway), favoring the Peruvian Chicken with yellow rice and black beans.  Sometimes, Ruben grabs this after this Tuesday night Central Park Track Club workouts.  Hunan Park II (96th and Columbus) has several reliable dishes, including shrimp with walnuts, Hunan lamb and the chicken with four flavours (he's British).  Typically, Ruben will eat almost anything, but not the night before a race, when he restricts himself to pasta and veggies only.  The Metro Diner (100th and Broadway) has exceptional angel hair primavera with olive oil and herbs.  But perhaps the place closest to his heart is Josie's (300 Amsterdam and 74th).  Not only does Josie's showcase free-range, organic food but the reception of his wedding to Gordon Bakoulis was held there."

#757. WHO: Jim Olson
WHEN: The Tuesday (1/25/00) workout at the Armory, being his debut as a timer
WHAT HE SAID: "I need someone to train me.  I have never done this before."

#756. WHO: Eden Weiss
SUBJECT: Temporary insanity plea
WHEN: The Tuesday (1/25/00) workout at the Armory, in which he ran the 12 sets of 400m's progressively faster, all the way down to 86 seconds for the last two.
WHAT HE EXCLAIMED: "I'm out of my mind!"

#755. WHO: Mary Rosado
WHEN: The Tuesday (1/25/00) workout at the Armory, in which she tried running the 12 sets of 400m's at a variety of pace
WHAT SHE SAID: "I think I know how to run a long race now.  All I have to do is run slow."

#754.  WHO: Sue Krogstad-Hill
SUBJECT: A Public Service Announcement
WHAT SHE SAID: "Last week, right after the Thursday night at the Armory meet, a group of us went to Coogan's Restaurant.  Amazingly, Isaya Okwiya got carded!  Since he did not have any proof of age, he went home while we went in."
MORAL OF THE LESSON: Remember to bring your ID's.

#753.  WHO: Bola Awofeso
SUBJECT: The effect of his teammates' cheers in his two-mile race at the Armory Track
WHAT HE SAID: "One person was telling to lift my knees, another person was telling to pump my arms, yet another one was telling me to pick up around the bend.  I just tried to ignore them and keep running."

#752.  WHO: Blair Boyer
WHAT HE ASKED: "What are the odds of the followings things happening to me when I was on jury duty recently?"

#751.  SHELDON KARLIN --- IN MEMORIAM

David & Lynn Blackstone sent in this message:

We were advised at 2 pm today, January 16, 2000, that Sheldon Karlin, one of our greatest distance runners, died today of a heart attack, while walking near his home in Livingston, New Jersey.  He was fifty years of age and had a heart condition.  He leaves his wife Donna, and three children, Ian, age 16, Sarah, age 13, and Matthew, age 11.

Most recently, as you remember, Shelly with his son Ian participated in the 1999 Club Championship in August (see photo).

Shelly won the NYC Marathon in 1972 (see link) in 2:27:52 when he was twenty-two years old and the race was four Central Park loops.  He ran in the 1980 United States Olympic Trials in 2:27:29 (see link), and his personal record for the marathon is 2:21 flat.

The following item appeared in Runner's World Daily:

Sheldon Karlin, 1950-2000: Sheldon Karlin, the 1972 men's champion of the New York City Marathon, died Sunday of a heart attack while walking near his home in Livingston, New Jersey. Karlin, who'd quit his University of Maryland cross-country team because he refused to cut his hair or move out of a coed dormitory, traveled to what he believed was "a good local marathon to get into" and won the four-lap race in Central Park in 2:27:52. Back at college, he discovered "I was a celebrity for a day" when his exploits made the pages of the Washington Post and Washington Star. Karlin, whose career best marathon was 2:21, competed in the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, placing 103rd in 2:27:29.

The following e-mail from Richard Engelhart was posted at Runner's World:

Sheldon Karlin and I were roommates briefly in the mid-seventies and friends for the rest of his life. We last saw each other on New Year's Day.

When Peter Gambaccini's anniversary book about the New York City Marathon came out, it included the story about Shelly leaving the University of Maryland team rather than agreeing to a haircut or to a move out of the coed dorm. He told me several times that he left the team at Maryland because he had been promised a full scholarship if he was one of the first seven runners on the cross country team. He reached that level in his first season but the school didn't follow through with the promised scholarship. It also bothered him that Maryland runners at the time were pressured heavily to train while injured.

While he would have preferred to avoid a haircut and dorm relocation, those were secondary issues. If he'd been given his promised scholarship, he told me, he'd have stayed on the team, cut his hair and moved. He might even have done so without a scholarship if he didn't feel that injured runners were being overworked.

It bothered him that the "haircut" story seemed to be his main legacy in the running world. I'd hate to see it follow him around in death.

The following story appeared at Runner's World Daily on 1/24/00:

A New Theory of Heart Attacks

     Sheldon Karlin, the 1972 winner of the New York City Marathon, died on January 16 while on a Sunday walk through his Livingston, New Jersey, neighborhood. At 49, this experienced runner (PR 2:21) apparently succumbed to a heart attack.

     Karlin noticed chest pain during a run several years ago, had the problem checked out and learned that he had extensive arterial blockage. He received treatment that included medication and a restricted diet. He had low cholesterol. He continued to run until the chest pain and fatigue returned two months ago. Karlin then considered bypass surgery and consulted with five physicians. Two recommended the bypass; the other three told him he didn't need it.

     Each year about 1.5 million Americans have heart attacks and about one million die of heart disease. Approximately one-third of heart attack victims have none of the known risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking. Now doctors have more information about heart disease in people who seem otherwise healthy and follow healthful lifestyles.

     New research suggests that coronary problems begin with an irritation to the inner wall of the artery. The injured cells attract immune system cells to repair the damage, and the inflammation subsides. But if repeated irritations occur over time - from smoking or high-cholesterol foods - a plaque will form on the artery wall. The plaque is a cholesterol-filled deposit of cells with a fibrous cap.

     Everyone has arterial plaques, and also has a set of immune-system cells called macrophages, which recognize, swallow and destroy foreign cells. Macrophages can clean up cholesterol, unless there is so much cholesterol that the macrophages become over-loaded and die. When macrophages die, they not only add to the mess on the arterial walls, they release toxic substances. These toxins may cause the plaque to rupture and may increase the tendency of the blood to clot. The clot fills the artery and causes a heart attack.

     Researchers are looking at drugs that will neutralize the substances released by macrophages, and check the clotting mechanism. They are developing blood tests for proteins that indicate a predisposition to clotting and therefore a predisposition to heart attacks. And they are investigating the properties of a number of agents, from regular aspirin to COX-2 inhibitors, which have anti-inflammatory behaviors.

     All of this new information in no way contradicts the advice people have received for years; in fact, it confirms it. Don't smoke, control your blood pressure and the amount of fat in your diet and get plenty of physical exercise.

The following eulogy by Peter Gambaccini appeared in NY Runner (March / April 2000):

Sheldon Karlin worked his way up from third place on the last of four six-mile loops of Central Park to take first in the 1972 New York City Marathon by almost five minutes in 2:27:52.

Karlin would always be best-remembered for that come-from-behind victory in the Marathon's third year, but lngtime Central Park Track Club teammate Frank Handelman asserts, "In our club's 30-year history, to my belief, he was the best athlete we ever had, a brilliant, brilliant runner who could get rolling at distances of 15 kilometers and up.  He was just ungodly.  He had a rhythm and a style.  Like Bill Rodgers, we had that fluidity.

Karlin, only 49, died while walking near his home in Livingston, New Jersey, on January 16.  He was known to have arteriosclerosis, and had suffered a mild heart attack in December.  But as recently as August, he had completed the NYRRC's Club Championship 5K in 28:52.  He leaves a wife, Donna, and three children, Ian, Sarah and Matthew.

Karlin was born in Newark and raised in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where he became captain of his high school cross country team and a conference champion in track.  At the University of Marland, he ascended to the number two spot on the cross country squad, but subsequently left the team.  Issues of hair length and Karlin's residence in a coed dorm were sometimes cited, but his former roommate and lifelong friend Richard Engelhart insists Karlin actually quit when he was not given a promised scholarship and was concerned that injured teammates were being overworked.

The upshot was that on October 1, 1972, Sheldon Karlin was free to journey to what he thought would be "a good local marathon to get into."  The arduous course included four trips up Central Park's grueling northern hills.  Karlin found "the first it went very easy.  The second time, it was a little more difficult.  On the fourth time, I was pushing with all my might to get up (the hill).  I was aware that it was all downhill from there."

After clinching his marathon win, Karlin discovered he was "a celebrity fro a day.  It made the Washington Post and the Washington Star.  People knew about it when I got back to my dorm."

In New Jersey, Karlin, a social worker, could often be seen training in the woods of the South Orange Reservatoin near Millburn.  He once ran 50:12 for ten miles in Central Park, and covered the Mike Hannon 20-Miler in 1:45 for second place in 1980.  His career marathon best was 2:21:00, and he competed in the 1980 US Olympic Trials, placing 103rd in 2:27:59.  He completed the five-borough New York City marathon in 2:26:28 in 1979.

"His death has been a real shock to me," stated Engelhart.  "I'm glad that the running world remembers him."  Central Park Track Club founding member David Blackstone recalls his close friend Karlin as "an intellectual and a very well-read guy and a very devoted family man," and Handelman cherished Karlin as "a warm and very wonderful and self-effacing guy, a sweet, sincere, altruistic kind of person who, despite that, was a great competitor."

#750.  WHO: Harry Morales
SUBJECT: Teammate Rick Shaver, at the Frostbite 10 Miler, January 16th, 2000
WHAT HE SAID: "I was running a few seconds behind Rick the whole race, so I got to watch him for a long time.  Rick runs as if he is guided by a rail.  His head and shoulders move forward in a straight line, without moving an inch to the side."

#749. WHO: Sarah Gross
SUBJECT: Running in the cold, Frostbite 10 Miler, January 2000
WHAT SHE SAID: "I was running with Adam (Bleifeld) and Rich (Piccirillo).  Somewhere in the second loop, my right toe and my left ankle were numb from the cold, but I didn't want to say anything.  And then Adam said, 'Oh, my right toe is killing me!'  Can you believe that?"

#748.  WHO: Brian Marchese
WHEN: Thursday night workout, January 20th, 2000, when snow was falling
WHAT HE SAID: "I grew up in Minnesota.  (pause).  I was obviously not into running at the time."

#747.  WHO: Roland Soong
SUBJECT: Deductive reasoning, or "How this website was able to track down a one-year-old race result"
WHAT HE WROTE: "I thought it would be insightful for our readers to understand how our spider crawls around the web.  In early December, Eric Aldrich informed us that he won the Baltimore Road Runners Club Cross Country Championship 5K in 17:17 on November 27th, 1999.  Since this race was out of town, it would have been nearly (but not totally) impossible to locate on our own.  But we noted that this occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday, which is a traditional date for families to get together.  As there is a strong likelihood that this is a recurrent event, we proceeded to look at race results in the Baltimore area for the previous year around Thanksgiving.  Indeed, we were able to discover that Eric ran the Towson YMCA Turkey Trot 5K on November 26th, 1998 in a time of 17:56."
COMMENT (Julia Casals): "You are a spy!"

#746. WHO: Sandra Olivo
HER DILEMMA: As a nominee for the age group award, the New York Road Runners Club requested her to submit an action photo of herself.
WHAT SHE SAID: "But I have no photos of myself.  There is one of me with Kim Mannen (see photo), but I'd have to cut her out."
OUR SOLUTION:  Sandra, if you submit this photo, we are sure that they'll have to give you the award because you just broke the world record.  You may have to submit yourself to a sex test, though.

#745. WHO: Gordon Bakoulis
WHEN: Her acceptance speech for Runner of the Year at the 4th Annual NYRRC Club Night, February 11th, 1995
WHAT SHE SAID: "I thank the women of Moving Comfort, whom I coach, and the Central Park Track Club, whom I train with."

BACKGROUND HISTORY:  In December 1994, at the Annual Club Awards Dinner of the Central Park Track Club, an Award of Dubious Distinction was given out with this explanation from co-emcees Marty Stanton and Pat Tuz --- 

"Who can't see a good-looking suit or a pair of Nikes?  And when the product is the Central Park Track Club, how can someone not be enticed by its sheer size, the diversity of its talent, the color of its uniforms and its prestigious past?  And, if nothing else, that we actually welcome indigent running personalities --- like Karel and Nathan --- to become members?

But our next winner has really failed the Club as one of its sales people.  Picture our accomplished club, and one of our most accomplished male runners. Picture him dating New York City's top female runner for over a year.  Picture him wooing, convincing, prodding, poking, cajoling her to join our ranks.  Picture coach George huddling with him over another Guinness late on a Thursday night, dispensing a different type of coaching advice.

But no, it's not to be.  Wish as we may, this ambassador to the club has failed to achieve the rank of salesman.  Even used car salesman.  So to mark our disappointment and perhaps get him to pick up a Dale Carnegie 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' motivational tape, we presented the Worst Salesmanship Skills Award to Alan Ruben."

P.S.  For those who have been living on another planet, Gordon Bakoulis is now the wife of Alan Ruben, and they now have two lovely children: Joey and Sammy.  But she is still not a member of the Central Park Track Club.  That's okay, because in this life, you can't win every time, but you will do well by winning the ones that really count ...

#744.  WHO: Stuart Calderwood
SITUATION: During the second week of January 2000, the following news item appeared on our website:

TOP PERFORMANCES:  Here is a page that lists the top masters track & field performances of 1999  As you expect, you will find the names of people like Sid Howard and Val Barnwell.  But, since the list was compiled from a limited number of races, you will also find the names like Paul Stuart-Smith and Stuart Calderwood.  So, are you in there too?

M40 Mile Run (WR 4:02.53) (WR 3:58.15 indoors)

4:16.1 Steve Plascencia
4:21.54 Steve Scott
4:25.71 Colin Corkery
4:26.8 Donald DiDonato
4:27.64 Bob Carroll
4:28.93 Roberto Castillo
4:29.70 Jerry Kooymans
4:32.75 Chris Harkins
4:33 Ken Laibach
4:33.72 Tony Rodiez
4:34.6 Stuart Calderwood

WHAT HE WROTE:  "Hey, what's this about a 'limited number of meets' that they pulled the Top Masters Times from?! They had the World Championships, didn't they? And the USA Nationals, and the national championships for Finland, Canada, Spain, and Denmark...and those are just the recent additions! And they obviously went down to little tiny meets like the Front Runners Indoor Games, or whatever it was called, where I ran my World-Ranked performance --- only 13 seconds behind my old college teammate Steve Scott! 'Limited number?!' How's THAT going to look when I tell everyone I've ever known in my life to go to our web site and find my name on that list? Ah, I can give them only the web site for the Masters lists! (Who has to know that they don't run the mile in any of those meets or countries?)"

#743. WHO: Tony Ruiz / Roland Soong
WHEN: Road workout, January 13th, 2000
WITNESSES: Ramon Bermo, Jesus Montero
WHAT TONY SAID:  "There was one year when the club sent a really strong relay team to the National Track & Field Championships at Eugene.  Unfortunately, one of our guys did not have a TAC number and a team from California filed a protest.  Well, this was quite ridiculous because our guy, Graydon Pihlaja, was a 3:59 miler at the University of Oregon.  It wasn't as if they did not know who he was.  Here he was coming back to his home stadium for the Nationals, and they were going to disqualify him and his team!  Anyway, we did get  in the race.  I was so pumped up that I told my anchor leg that, by the time he receives the baton, he can afford to walk home because he will have a big lead.  We won that race by a wide margin and we set a new national record.  Roland, do you remember that?"
WHAT ROLAND SAID: "(pause)  No.  I am not that old, you know."
POSTSCRIPT: All four people present agreed afterwards that the response constituted a low blow.  But then, that's just so typical.

Afterwards, one of our fact-checkers sent in the following note, suggesting that there may be an error in the circumstances:

According to the records, at the National Masters Championships at Eugene, Oregon on August 14th, 1994:

4 x 800 M30: 8:04.50 (1st place)

Leadoff: Tony Ruiz, 1:58
2nd leg, Rich Joseph, 2:01
3rd leg, Graydon Pihlaja, 2:06
4th leg: Sal Allah, 1:56

But it was also noted that an Award of Dubious Distinction was given out at the year-end Club Awards Dinner with this speech, "Our winner quaffed a half pitcher of Bud, consumed a cheeseburger platter and then when the club needed him to fill in for the TAC-less Mike Trunkes in the 4x800m at the Nationals, responded to the call and ran a sub-2:10 800m to help the club win the race.  For gutting it out, keeping it down and winning in true fast-food style, we present the Greased for Speed Award to Graydon Pihlaja."

#742.  WHO: Monica Bonamego
WHEN: Road workout, January 13th, 2000, when the wind-chill was sub-zero out there
WHAT SHE SAID WHILE WAITING AROUND: "I've got to learn to arrive later than 7pm."
HINT: Practice, practice, practice ...

#741. WHO: Blair Boyer / Stacy Creamer
Situation: Blair and Stacy were recently shopping for racing flats at Super Runners on Amsterdam Avenue. Blair, known to be a very close student of running equipment (rivaled perhaps only by Audrey Kingsley, who can identify a shoe by brand, model, year, and running-magazine rating while she and the shoe are traveling at 6:00 per mile in opposite directions), noticed a familiar-looking shoe on display.
WHAT HE SAID: "Hey, this is the shoe Kim Griffin races in."
WHAT SHE SAID:  "You KNOW what shoe Kim Griffin races in? I hardly know what I race in!"

BONUS QUIZ: Stacy did several one-square-block trial runs in various pairs of racing flats.  Did she count the mileage? 
ANSWER: Does John the Fireman park in the woods?

#740.  WHO: Mary V. Rosado
SUBJECT: The sprinters' rest time between sets during the workouts
WHAT SHE SAID: "The rest was so long that people put on their warm-up clothes.  I thought they were getting ready to leave.  Then they took their warm-ups off to run another set."

#739.  WHO: Jonathan Federman
SITUATION: The following provocation appeared under this 2000 Fred Lebow Classic photo: "This is the only photo of Jonathan Federman today, since this old singlet is unidentifiable out there.  How about investing in a new one, huh?"
WHAT HE SAID: "Invest?  Who do you think I am?  David Pullman?  Besides, I like passing people and hear them ask, 'What part of Canada are  you from?'"

#738.  WHO:  Casey Yamazaki
SITUATION: Recently, Alan Ruben became the talk of the town with his Excel spreadsheets of 1999 road race performances.  We should point out that it was Casey Yamazaki --- yes, the guy who once marked every lamppost on the Central Park loops on his hand-drawn map of the Park --- who came up with the first Excel spreadsheet that was published in the January-April 1996 Club Newsletter.  For all you nostalgia buffs, here are the original Yamazaki©®T  tables.

OPEN WOMEN'S TEAM, 1995 NYRRC 2nd place team

OPEN MEN'S TEAM, 1995 NYRRC 2nd place team

Note: The last entry in the spreadsheet is incontrovertible proof that anyone can score for the team.  According to our records, this was the one (and only) open team scoring occasion for him.  How did it happen?  He said, "I don't know for sure.  I think I got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, and decided to run a race."

#737.  WHO: Jim Olson
SUBJECT: A special request
WHAT HE SAID: "I need someone old whom I can beat up on during the workouts."
COMMENT: What is the joy in that?

#736. WHO: William Shakespeare
OPUS: Two Gentlemen of Verona
WHAT: Valentine's speech, Act III, Scene I, better known now as the audition speech of Thomas Kent (Viola De Lesseps) in the movie Shakespeare in Love
WHAT HE WROTE:
"What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? "

A MODERN ADAPTATION: During the first week of January 2000, the above picture of Jackie Cortes and Sylvie Kimché from the post-NYC Marathon party in the basement of the Parlor appeared on our home page with these words:
"What light is light, if Sylvie be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Jackie be not by?"

COMMENTARY: Shakespeare in Love is a series of insider gags.  That, of course, is the essence of the Central Park Track Club website ...

#735.  WHO: Bob Glover
WHERE: NY Running News, October 1995
SUBJECT: Blair Boyer, a member of his Advanced Competitive Class, asking, "In past years, I feel I overtrained for the marathon.  Can I run better with less training?"

WHAT HE WROTE: "Boyer admits to have been a chronic overtrainer.  Preparing for past marathons, he ran as much as 85 miles per week, which was more than necessary for his level of running.  High mileage is not beneficial if it has the effect of fatiguing, rather than building endurance.  Furthermore, Boyer has been training too quickly.  He was running eight-minute-mile pace or better for all runs, including his long runs.  An additional problem was that in years past, he raced almost every weekend.

It is recommended that training pace remain approximately one and a half to two minutes slower than 10K race pace, and at about 70 percent of maximum heart rate.  For Boyer, this meant slowing down to 8:30-9:00 minute-per-mile pace.

This year, Boyer cut his mileage back to 50-60 miles per week, and he limited himself to one race per month or less.  Does running less mileage at a slower pace mean he won't be prepared for a good marathon?  On the contrary, Boyer feels much stronger and fresher as Marathon Day approaches.  Each runner will get to a certain point, after which more mileage and faster mileage will lead to losses in fitness, rather than gains.  Overtraining is responsible for as many poor marathon times as undertraining.  Train within sensible limits for your body, taper well, and start the race at a sensible pace.  Like most overtrainers, Boyer has yet to run a marathon time that reflects his ability.  This year, he aims to prove that less is often better than more."

#734. WHO: Collective voice
QUESTION: "Why is there not a collage of photos of Audrey Kingsley?"
ANSWER: "Considering the fact that she is the single most photographed person on this club (for example, see Famous Saying # 675), this is indeed incomprehensible and unforgivable.  So, in response to popular demand, here is the first installment of the Audrey album."

ADDENDUM:  A question begets another question, "Why are there so many photos of Audrey Kingsley?"  Our regular photographer said, in genuine puzzlement, "I don't know.  It's a mystery.  It just seems that every time I look into the view finder, Audrey appears."

#733. WHO: Aubin Sullivan
SUBJECT: The Ocean City polar bear swim, January 1st, 2000
WHAT SHE SAID: "I went down to the beach in a swimming suit to use the jacuzzi.  I ended up sprinting into the ocean while screaming my head off all the way."
COMMENT: She also said, "Oh, this is not worthy of being published on the web site."

#732.  WHO:  Miki Shiraki
WHEN: September 12th, through October 1st, 1994
SUBJECT: The Sri Chinmoy Ultimate Ultra (goal: running 1000 miles over 15 days)
OUTCOME: In his first attempt at this event, he hit 800 miles by logging these daily mileages: 108, 83, 68, 32, 58, 53, 49, 56, 48, 40, 45, 40, 33, 39 and 48 miles over 15 consecutive days.
WHAT HE SAID: "This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  How can I make you understand?  You cannot imagine what it's like to wake up every day and your knees are painful and as big as this.  And then you have to run."
COMMENT: Now, dear Reader, where did you say you spent your two-week vacation ...?

#731. WHO: Karel Matousek
SUBJECT: Millennial greetings (???) from Prague
WHAT HE WROTE: "Occasional auto-eroticism beats constant interneting."

#730. WHO: John Scherrer
SITUATION: Upon being told that he was NOT the leader in terms of the number of hits on the website
WHAT HE SAID: "Who can possibly have more hits than I do?"
COMMENT: Actually, he is running against web spiders and bots (e.g. www.alltheweb.com, www.ip3000.com and www.lycos.com ).

#729. WHO: Audrey Kingsley
WHAT SHE ASKED: "Did you notice a drop in the number of visits to the website ever since I started school in September?"
COMMENT: Au contraire, according to our web logs:

Technical note: These are the total page views from ALL our visitors.  They are NOT Audrey's personal daily totals.

#728.  WHO: Brian Marchese
SUBJECT: Tip on how to win the "Most Improved Performer" award on the club
WHAT HE SAID: "First, you need a few years of mediocre racing that is obviously below your potential."

#727.  WHO: Michele Tagliati
SUBJECT: A photo from the 1999 Joe Kleinerman 10K, taken by his friend Serge and forwarded to this website for publication.
WHAT HE SAID: "Please be benign with the comments ..."
COMMENT: None from us.  Please regard the photo and form your own speculations.

#726.  WHO: Stacy Creamer
SUBJECT: Travel tip
WHAT SHE SAID: "You know how frustrating it is to have the subway doors shut in your face just when you get there.  However, you should know that Stuart Calderwood has the magic touch in that situation --- it seems that all he has to do is wave at the train conductor and the doors reopen without fail."
COMMENT: This has been a public service announcement from your favorite web site.

#725.  WHO:  Eric Aldrich
WHEN: December 28th, 1999
SITUATION:  At the Armory Track, runners are advised to warm up outside as they are not permitted to enter the track area until their session begins.  On this night, it was sub-freezing outside.
WHAT HE SAID: "Can you look after my stuff while I go outside to warm up ... eh, I mean ... cool down?"

#724.  WHO: Roland Soong
WHAT HE SAID: "It is truly pathetic to look at the article 'Pain Relief' in the February 2000 issue of Runner's World and realize that I am  intimately familiar with all of the six listed common running injuries --- Achilles pain, hamstring pain, iliotibial band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, runner's knee and shin splints."

#723. WHO: Audrey Kingsley
SITUATION: While running on the track, some people need to focus on some object in front of them to pull them on.
WHAT SHE SAID TO A TEAMMATE: "I was reading the sponsorship list on the back of your t-shirt from the Fight Against Prostate Cancer 5K.  I didn't realize that Yahoo was a sponsor of that race."
COMMENT: We don't think that she should be practicing how to read the letters on the back of someone's shirt.  How about focusing instead on showing someone the back of her heels?

#722. WHO: Craig Chilton / Aubin Sullivan
SUBJECT: The basic training routes in Central Park revolve around the six mile loop, which means that there are many opportunities to come across acquaintances
CRAIG: "Aubin, you must have the most consistent training regimen that I know of, because I see you every day in the Park."
AUBIN: "If you see me every day, what does that say about yourself?"

#721.  WHO: Bola Awofeso
SUBJECT: The Central Park is a large park of several hundred acres, going almost three miles along the north-south axis.  Just because you live 'next to the park' does not mean that you are close to home, since it all depends on where you are located at the moment.
WHEN: After a particularly brutal workout on December 23rd, 1999, ending at the Daniel Webster statue
WHAT HE SAID: "I am going to have to take the subway home, because I don't think I will be able to run the 2.5 miles to get home."
MORAL OF THE LESSON: Always bring a subway token, also sprach Tyronne Culpepper.

#720. WHO: Brian Marchese
SUBJECT: The 1999 Individual Team Scoring Spreadsheet prepared by Alan Ruben (see link)
WHAT HE WROTE: "All I can say is that we should applaud Alan for his single-minded dedication to our craft and we should also acknowledge that he's an addict and needs professional help."
COMMENT #1: As far as post-marathon recovery routines go, some people go fishing while others run 60K races.  In the case of Alan, he compiled the spreadsheet.  Amen.
COMMENT #2: The guy who ran the 60K as part of his post-marathon recovery needs more help than Alan does ...

#719. WHO: The late Bill Bowerman, legendary athletic coach at the University of Oregon and a Nike founder
TO WHOM: Graydon Pihlaja, one-time University of Oregon runner and Central Park Track Club runner
SITUATION: Bowerman always insisted that his runners follow his instructions exactly.  At one particular workout, he told them to run 60 second quarters.  When Graydon came around, it was clear to Bowerman that he would finish one or two seconds faster.  The legend has it that Bowerman stuck his foot out and tripped Graydon, who staggered to the line.
WHAT HE SAID: "Now that was a sixty-second quarter!"

UPDATE: Are you wondering what Graydon is up to these days?  Among other things, he is a rocket scientist (see link) ...

#718.  WHO: Tony Ruiz
SUBJECT: Standards of excellence
WHAT HE SAID: "I ran my first marathon when I was sixteen years old.  I ran a time of 2:48.  More importantly, only two women (Miki Gorman and Kathrine Switzer) finished in front of me."
ADDENDUM: "What save my running career was that my coach George Wisniewski convinced me not to run any more marathons after 1981."

#717. WHO:  Various characters in Shakespeare in Love
TO WHOM: All the people who have received unexpected team medals, who have questions like "What team?  I didn't even think we had five people out there!"  "What?  I thought I was just doing a training run."  "Are you getting me mixed up with one of the fast guys?"  "How is this possible?  There must be a mistake."
WHAT THEY SAID: "I don't know.  It's a mystery."
SPECIAL OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS: Since we don't know how it works, we obviously cannot write a 50-page instruction booklet in broken English.  However, you only need to remember this one rule:  Just make sure that you write down your team affiliation on the race entry form (and race bib too, if applicable!) whenever you run a race.  It will all end well.  How will it?  I don't know.  It's a mystery ...

#716. WHO: Brian Denman
WHEN: Workout at the Armory, December 21st, 1999
TOPIC: Coaching instructions to the group of four runners ready to run a 200m in single file
WHAT HE SAID: "Okay, you're standing too far apart.  I want you to bunch up close to each other.  Alright.  Now I want you to turn your faces towards me.  Finally, I want all of you to smile!"
COMMENT: It's not for the running --- it's for the photo!

#715. WHO: Alan Bautista
WHAT HE HELD IN THIS HAND (?) (see photo): Hand-written pages containing many, many repeated lines of 'I must pay attention during the workout' 
COMMENT: Crime and Punishment

#714. WHO: John Scherrer
TOPIC: How this miler ended up leading the team to a first-place finish at the 1999 Holiday 15K
WHAT HE SAID: "I thought the race was for 1.5K.  When I got there, I was surprised to find that it was going to be 9.3 miles.  I was in fifth place at the 10K mark, but I slowed down in the last 5K to finish tenth.  The last (and only) time that I ran this far was a ten miler when I ran six minute mile pace as a high school sophomore."

#713. WHO: Susan Sontag, writer, critic, playwright, director, etc
WHERE:  The book On Photography, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux
SUBJECT: Why some people feel the compulsion to take photographs, which may explain why we have over 2,700 photos on this website at the end of 1999
WHAT SHE WROTE: "A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it --- by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting the experience into an image, a souvenir.  ...  Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter.  Unsure of other responses, they take a picture.  This gives shape to experience: stop, take a photograph, and move on.  The method especially appeals to people handicapped by a ruthless work ethic --- German, Japanese and Americans.  Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun.  They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures."
COMMENT: ... and so it is that we lay claim to be the first postmodernist running club in the world ...

#712. WHO: Roland Soong
SUBJECT: Those 2,700 photographs on the website at the end of 1999
WHAT HE WROTE: "We are the victims of our own success, as we combat the ennui that inevitably follows from photography in assembly line mode.  I mean, how many more photographs of Alan Ruben coming down the straightway do we want to see?  So, in case you have not noticed, the photographs from the last two Central Park races (1999 Joe Kleinerman 10K and 1999 Holiday 4 Mile / 15K) have drifted to focus on people's shoes and chips."
COMMENT: The answer to the rhetorical question about how many more photographs of Alan Ruben are needed is, "Until you get it right."  It's all about quality, stupid, not quantity!

#711. WHO: (name withheld, for blackmail purposes)
WHAT HE SAID: "I think I am about 10 to 15 pounds over my running weight, and I can't seem to take them off.  I eat like a pig, though."
COMMENT: Effect-and-cause?

Central Park Track Club team, summer of 1973

#710.  WHO: Frank Handelman (wearing shades in the photo)
TOPIC: "Fred Back Then" written in memory of Fred Lebow after he passed away and published in the November 1994 issue of the Central Park Track Club newsletter
WHAT HE WROTE: 

Fred Lebow always wore those little hats.  In fact, if you look at the club photograph from the summer of 1973, it seems that Fred changed not at all.  Jack Brennan (to Fred's left in the picture) lost his beard.  Dave Blackstone, on the far right, lost his Prince Valiant, and is that a wig I'm wearing? But Fred looks the same.  For those with long memories, behind Fred and Jack is Andy Maslow, still an active marathoner with the club.  In the middle is Kathy Switzer, one of the true pioneers of women's distance running.  Second from the right is Lynn Blackstone, with her husband Dave, an original founder of the club.  Both Blackstones are still members of the club and still actively training at the Reservoir.

When I joined in 1969, the New York Road Runners really was a club, a circle of 150 or so, almost all men and ranging in age from their mid-20's to their 40's.  During that era of no age group awards, no racewalkers and no prize money, you knew everybody and how they ran.  Before a race started, you could look around the registration table or locker room and know where you would finish.  At first Fred was just there, a back-of-the-pack runner.

In 1971, Vince Chiapetti, a longtime Millrose star, was president of the Road Runners.  I found an entry in my training diary for July of that year for a race at C.W. Post College on Long Island, a one-hour run against the clock on the Post track.  I picked up Vince and this guy Fred, to give them a ride.  Vince and I chatted all the way out about our training, his teaching at N.Y.U., my plans to start law school that fall and who might show up at the race.  In the race, which had 27 runners, Fred was one of the guys we kept lapping.  On that day, Fred struck me as a quiet, unassuming fellow who was happy to spend his Saturday running around a track.

But wait.  History tells us that the New York City Marathon was founded in 1970, the year before, and had been Fred's inspiration.  Yet during the whole day with Vince and me, Fred didn't say a word about it.  I don't think I was aware in those days that Fred was involved in originating the marathon, although I was to run the second edition of the race that fall.

I am sure Fred had something to do with all the road races moving to Central Park in 1972, the year the Central Park Track Club was founded.  The first "winter series" six miler in December had an unprecedented field of 99.  The races previously had been at two main sites.  One course began at Yankee Stadium and went up and down Sedgewick Avenue along the Harlem River.  At Van Cortlandt Park, repeat loops in a 30-kilometer race cover the stadium track, the cross-country course, trails through people's backyards, long stretches on roads and sidewalks, and numerous flights of concrete steps.  But for Fred and a few others, we might still be running in relative obscurity through The Bronx.

Historians tell us that distance running in the United States took off after Frank Shorter's victory in the 1972 Olympic Marathon.  I think it began, in New York, and therefore the world, with the move to Central Park.  First came the Marathon, then the winter series races, then in 1973, the local championships --- the 20- and 30-kilometer --- and the other major races, like the Bob Preston Five-Mile every March.  Previously, the Bob Preston Five had been eleven laps around Yankee Stadium.  Ask your coach (George Wisniewski) --- he won there.

Fred never played a pivotal role in the development of the Central Park Track Club, but his influence was felt indirectly.  Fred's energy and vision were focused on the organization of the sport.  He helped bring the  multitudes to running, and the Central Park Track Club and other local teams grew accordingly.  From those runners came much of the leadership that has carried the Central Park Track Club forward and provided the continuity that has helped us thrive.

From the beginning, the Central Park Track Club was a racing team organized and directed by competitive athletes.  Although a founder of our team, Fred was never really a competitive runner.  He just loved to run, and envisioned the sport as one of mass participation.  That mass participation, with all the social phenomena and health benefits it has generated, is, to me, Fred's true legacy.

#709.  WHO: George Wisniewski
SITUATION: In a 1968 track meet, young George Wisniewski broke a record for the mile that had been on the NYU books for years.  His outstanding 4:03 performance was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that he was seventh in the race.  When his coach and teammates rushed over to congratulate him, George could only utter:
WHAT HE SAID: "Well, then what did they do?"

#708. WHO: (An unidentified person sitting on the ground at the Armory)
WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAYING (unfortunately our audio recorder was turned off): "No, officer sir, I am not a homeless person.  I am employed as an investment banker.  I am just waiting until 745pm exactly to be admitted onto the Armory track.  They won't let me in a minute earlier.  Here is my photo ID.  Please don't throw me into jail, or my wife will be really upset!"

ENDORSEMENT (Ross Galitsky): "Very clever."

#707. WHO: Mary Rosado
SITUATION: To help the masters women team move up to third place for 1999, Mary had to run the last scoring race of the season, the Joe Kleinerman 10K
WHAT SHE SAID: "Anything longer than 5K is a marathon for me."
COMMENT: We recall this same Mary Rosado being told by her doctor to run a marathon because it would be "good" for her ...

#706. WHO: Phil Carpenter-Lee
SUBJECT: Projected workout attendance during the Christmas-New Year period, 1999
WHAT HE SAID: "One could surmise that the Holiday season may impact attendance, but we all know that practice is an essential part of the Holidays!"
COMMENT: Eat, drink, make merry and pay for your sins ...

#705. WHO: Ross Galitsky
SITUATION: Once upon a time, Tyronne Culpepper swapped his Michael Trunkes-imprint team singlet/shorts with a Russian runner at a race.  He had no idea what the Cyrillic letters on his Russian singlet/shorts mean.  Finally, at the 12/14/99 indoor workout, he wore them for Ross Galitsky to translate for him.

WHAT HE SAID: "In the front, it reads, 'Mo Aeroport.'  I have never heard of the place.  I think you are missing a few letters."
COMMENT: Hmm, we wonder how that lucky Russian is making out with similar tattered letters on his Central Park Track Club singlet (see sample)?

#704. WHO: Sandra Olivo
TO WHOM: Aubin Sullivan
SITUATION: At the 12/14/99 indoor track out, the group of nine runners was reduced to down to just Jim Olson and Aubin Sullivan as the others dropped out due to breathing problems.
WHAT SHE SAID: "Aubin, you've got to finish.  You are the only woman left and you've got to do it for us."
COMMENT: When has the workout become a battle of the sexes?  Or ... didn't we use to see people swing elbows at each other irrespective of gender?

#703. WHO: Margaret Angell
SUBJECT: Why she couldn't be at the 1999 Joe Kleinerman 10K, a team scoring race
WHAT SHE SAID: "The list of scoring races was not posted on our website when I booked the plane ticket."
COMMENT:  It is alright to have a life outside of this running club.  Really.  We mean it.  (see, for example, Famous Saying # 687)

#702. WHO: Victor Osayi
SITUATION: Victor had finished close behind teammate Noel Comess at the New York City Marathon, the Hot Chocolate 10 Miler and the Joe Kleinerman 10K in 1999.  Victor does not know Noel, who had been running without team colors.
WHAT HE SAID:  "Who is Noel Comess?  What does he look like?  If I knew who that was, I would have tried to stay with him ..."
COMMENT: It seems odd that he should want to key on a teammate, as opposed to someone from another team.  We can imagine Tony Ruiz saying something like, "I don't care which team you are with --- if I can see you with half a mile left to go, you are meat!"
PRE-HISTORY: Actually, Victor Osayi and Noel Comess have come across each other, perhaps not in person, but in a Photo from the 1997 Hot Chocalate 10 Miler.

#701. WHO: Roland Soong
TO WHOM: Yves-Marc Courtines, who had just crossed the finish line at the 1999 Joe Kleinerman 10K and saw the clock showing 39:58
WHAT HE SAID: "Watch, they'll stiff you with a 40:01."
POSTSCRIPT: Wrong!  They stiffed him with a 40:00.
SIDE NOTE: In the same race, Stacy Creamer crossed the line in 37:57 but was stiffed with 38:01.  She was too happy with her big 1:29 PR to complain.