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Send comments to webmaster@centralparktc.org. Week of January 31, 2006 - February 6, 2006 Masters Swimming
Best Times One week after she entered the Best 800m List in second place, Caryn Waterson grabbed the top spot with 2:10.26 at yesterday's New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory. In the same race Natalie Gingerich improved on her third-place time, but not by enough to move up. Both were overshadowed by Sam Mackenzie, who jumped from sixth to second on the Best Mile List, with a time of 4:08.84. That's a PR by Show of Hands At a post-Millrose Games party we learned that oen CPTC member has very small hands. Expatriate CPTCer Adam Newman — who is so culturally deprived down in North Carolina that he still has to read this page for his entertainment — asked us to mention that here, saying "I'll read it Monday morning and I'll smile." The CPTC member in question threatened to kill us if we included his name, so, as we happen to like being alive, we're keeping him anonymous. Another Top Marathoner Yesterday's list should have included Kevin Arlyck at No. 863. Our apologies for the omission. Nature Running
New Toy We've always wanted a bike computer that could do everything: speed, cadence, altitude, incline, heart rate, GPS, etc. So imagine how psyched we were to read in today's Times about the new Garmin Edge. We'd buy it now, but it costs almost as much as our bike is worth. America's Top Marathoners A track fan with way too much free time has compiled a list of the top marathon times in 2005 for American mens (sub-2:45) and American women (sub-3:15). We're not sure if it's a list of just U.S. citizens, or of all U.S. residents. Either way, there are a few familiar names on the list:
Are we missing anyone? Isn't Being at Swarthmore a Good Enough Reason? This week's New Yorker has what may be the best letter to the editor in history:
Millrose Games Remember, the Millrose Games will take place this Friday at Madison Square Garden. As always, lots of famous athletes will be competing, including Jen Toomey and David Krummenacker in the 800m, hurdler Gail Devers, high jumper Amy Acuff (our personal favorite), and Kenenisa Bekele and new father Bernard Lagat closing out the meet in the Wanamaker Mile. But more important that all that are the first two events of the evening, the Men's and Women's Masters 4x400m Relays. While the names there may not be as familiar to the rest of the world, they're a little more important to our reaers:
Our teams consist of:
Doors open at 5:30, and tickets can be purchased either at the box office, by calling 212-307-7171, or through Ticketmaster's website. Remember to show up early, and of course to wear your orange jackets, shirts, hats, etc. Notice We are saddened to report of the passing of Ralph Balsamo, long-time partner of former CPTC President Betty Marolla. Ralph was well-known to many CPTCers over the years thanks to long-runs, parties, and bus-rides that we shared together. In addition to Betty, Ralph's other claim to fame was that he worked at the same accounting firm as former CPTC nemesis Larry Torella. Best Times The results from last Thursday Night at the Races are in, and they've caused even more shake-up on the Best Times lists. John Roberts is now eighth on the 1500m list, with 4:03.9. That's good, because he lost his spot on the 3000m/2-mile list thanks to Will Berriel, who's 8:49.2 scored him sixth place on that list. But the biggest changes came on the women's 3000m list, where Lauren Esposito grabbed the nubmer four spot (10:00.7), Sarah Alaei took eighth (10:27.7), and Katy Masselam moved up to sixth (10:11.8). Their Next Resolution Will Be Against People Using Rollerblades to Finish Faster From the Road Runners Club of America:
Week of January 24, 2006 - January 30, 2006 Armory Closed Tomorrow The Armory will be closed tomorrow, January 31, for painting of the lanes (didn't they just do that last month?). Coach Tony's distance group will meet at the statue of Daniel Webster at 7:00 pm. Info on Coach Devon's middle distance workouts will be posted soon. NYC Triathlon Early regitration for the New York City Triathlon ends tomorrow night. After that the price goes up $25, so people planning to participate should sign up now. Boston's Best Big doings on the track in Beantown yesterday. Allison McCabe improved on her best time in the 800m — she ran 2:17.83 — and still dropped from sixth to seventh on the Best Times list. That's because Caryn Waterson ran 2:12.25 to grab second place on the list. Natalie Gingerich was just behind her in 2:13.64, which moves her up from fifth to third. Idiotarod Remember, the Idiotarod, everyone's favorite race where five people run with a shopping cart, is tomorrow afternoon. Registration is just $5, and the race includes two mandatory stops at bars. Their website isn't working so well today, so anyone who wants more info should contact the race director at jstark@nonsensenyc.com or 718.288.8970. Thursday Night at the Races Work kept us away from the Armory last night, so we don't have any results from Thursday Night at the Races yet, though we have learned that Lauren Esposito, Katy Masselam, Sarah Alaei, Kathy King, Andrea Costella, Felice Kelly and John Roberts all ran PRs. Also Sue Pearsall was up there with her camera, and has posted 395 photos (not all of CPTC) on her site. Roland on the BBC Having somehow failed to become famous with this site, Roland Soong has finally gotten his due recognition with EastSouthWestNorth. Yesterday he was featured in a BBC News article about Google agreeing to censor its search engine in China:
We Always Thought That Was the Best Part, Too From The Onion:
That's a Sticky Wicket! It turns out that Roland Soong hasn't been in Australia in 35 years:
Actually it's not nostalgia or bitternes, but jealousy. We wish we could write about something that our readers are too ignorant of to notice any errors we might make, or any foolish opinions we may hold. But no matter how far afield we stray from writing about running, some reader always emails us to point out just how much we don't know what we're talking about. Don't worry, though; we'll find something none of you care about soon enough. Well, There It Is Today is the 250th anniversay of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. That gets a special logo on Google:
Oddly, the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth last week (January 17), got no recognition. CPTC Named Elite Development Club From today's mail:
A little background for those not familiar with the concept, courtesy of USATF:
CPTC is one of just 33 teams to be designated as an elite development club, and it means we get to put this logo on our website:
Marathoning By the Numbers Ever wonder how many people run marathons? Or which month has the most marathons? Or maybe how few people finish in under 3:00? You can find all that and more at Marathon Guide's 2005 Overview. Thanks to Alan Ruben for the link. G'Day! We'd like to wish Roland Soong — and any other readers we may have from Down Under — a Happy Australia Day. Bike Gone Micah Adriani has found a good home for her bicycle. Bike Available From Micah Adriani:
The Logical Follow-Up to the Nike Free Nike Debuts the First All-Air Shoe Week of January 17, 2006 - January 23, 2006 Member in the News From Masterstrack.com:
What a Day! According to Dr. Cliff Arnall, today was the most depressing day of the year. According to Dr. Kathleen Hall, the real most depressing day is tomorrow. Wednesday should be fine, though. Best Times Congratulations to Allison McCabe, who cut 10 seconds off her 3000m time at the Greater Boston Track Club Invitational Today. That solidifies her hold on the number four spot on the Best 3K list. And congratulations to Coach Devon, who gets back on the 3k list without even running a race. It's all thanks to Stuart Calderwood, who has given us a brand-new Best Women's 2-Mile list. Interestingly, while six women appear on both the mile and 1500m lists, Sarah Rivlin is the only name on both the 3k and 2 mile lists. Made It, Ma! Top of the World! We're trying to get official results — or at least a complete list — but we can report two race winners from yesterday's Nike Run the Rock stair climb in Rockefeller Center. Ramon Bermo was first up the 69 flights of stairs in 8:51.05, followed by George Robertson and Stuart Calderwood. Then when the results were tallied, it turned out that Chris Solarz, who had been seeded in the sixth heat, had finished in 8:51.95, giving him second place. Michael Rosenthal was 12th, and would have been 3rd in his age group if there had been age-group awards. Ken Winfield rounded out the CPTC men's field. On the women's side, Stacy Creamer won easily — and finished in the top 10 overall — with a time of 9:47. Mary Rosado was the only other CPTC woman there. Club Night NYRR's Club Night is Thursday, March 2 at the Hilton. Drinks are at 6:30, with a sit-down dinner afterward. Come celebrate CPTC age-group award nominees and dance the night away with fellow runners! Tickets are $65.00 for club members, but we can get a discounted price of $58.50 if we purchase tickets by the table (10 per table) before February 1. Please contact Stacy Creamer at screamer@randomhouse.com as soon as possible if you're interested. No checks now, please; just email if you'd like to commit to going. (If you're bringing a guest who is not an NYRR club member, they qualify for that $58.50 rate).
Notice We are saddened to report that David Pullman's mother passed away this week. Memorial services will be held this Sunday:
Shiva will be held later Sunday afternoon. For further information, contact David at 310-770-1695 or dpullman@pullmanbonds.com, or call Ginger at 310-597-0609. Member Services Believe it or not, most our members have lives and jobs outside of running. And while people like us have jobs that offer no benefit to our friends — or society in general — other members can actually offer goods and services to their teammates. In fact, we have a whole page for that called, creatively, the "Goods and Services" page. Here are two new entries on it. First from Michael Trunkes:
And from Paul Stuart-Smith:
Department of Corrections Margot Sheehan writes:
Our apologies. We should have realized the paper's true name from how it appears throughout The Stranger's website. We included Seattle in the title because we wanted to convey where the newspaper is based. The proper way to do that would have been to cite the paper as "The Stranger (Seattle)." This is the kind of sloppiness we are constantly criticizing journalists for, so there is no excuse for our being guilty of the same crime. The Truth Shall Make You Free Michiko Kakutani has a good article in the Times today criticizing Doubleday and Oprah Winfrey for their defense of James Frey after The Smoking Gun exposed that important parts of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, are "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished." Nice to see that somebody in the arts section still cares about the truth, since our good friend Alessandra Stanley clearly has no interest in it. Just see the start of her latest review:
This isn't the kind of thing the Times prints corrections for, which means that Stanley's error rate is even higher than the numbers reflect. So far this year she's written nine articles, with one correction appended, and one that should be forthcoming. Throw in a demonstrably wrong comparison in her review of "24" and the above nonsense, and she's running at a 44.4% error rate. And for anyone who thinks that maybe the truth isn't any more important in criticism than Oprah thinks it is in memoirs, check out this awesome correction from the
The quiz is too long to print here, but it's definitely worth taking and then reading Kiley's answers. Correction: Our reference to the Seattle Stranger was incorrect. The newspaper in question is known simply as The Stranger. National Cross-Country Championships The national cross country championships are but five weeks away, the weekend of Feb. 18-19. Held in Van Cortlandt Park this year, the event features Men's Open 4k and 12k, Women's Open 4k and 8k, Junior Men's 8k, Junior Women's 6k, and Men's and Women's Masters 8k races.
Armory Photos Sue Pearsall has posted some photos from Thursday night's track meet. We were trying out a new camera at the meet, and while we haven't examined all of the results — we were out of town over the weekend — a preliminary check suggests that we need a bit more practice with our new gadget. If enough of them are salvageable we'll post them, but don't hold your breath. Boston Marathon Changes From Runner's World:
Screamingly Slow Felice Kelly shares some thoughts on getting ready for a run:
In related news, the full article is now on the web, for those who subscribe to the British Journal of Sports Medicine or who are willing to pay $12 for it. For the rest of you, here's the abstract:
Week of January 10, 2006 - January 16, 2006 Upcoming Events The Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, and New York City Marathons are teaming up to create the World Marathon Majors series. Full details to be announced on January 23, but it will probably involve a lot of money for the elites, and not much difference for you. Also, NYRR is giving out $50,000 in prize money at the USA Cross Country Championships in Van Cortlandt Park on Febuary 18-19. Best Times A strong showing last night by what one announcer jokingly referred to as "The Orange Menace." At least, we think he was joking. Anyway, Natalie Gingerich got fifth place on the Best 800m list with 2:17.1. Lauren Esposito grabbed sixth place on the 3K list, with 11:02.6 for the 2-miler (that's 10:17.6 for 3000m). And Sam Mackenzie took sixth on the mile in 4:16.4. Anything to Win We didn't hear any advance buzz about this, but the Game Show Network debuted a new show last night called "Anything to Win." Yesterday's episode focused on Rosie Ruiz and the 1980 Boston Marathon. The show will be rerun Thursday at 10:00 p.m., Saturday at 10:00 p.m., Sunday at 6:00 p.m. The folks at Let's Run split on whether the show is worth watching, but we figure it's probably worth checking out. Thursday Night at the Races Remember, NYRR's Thursday Night at the Races series kicks off tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (registration from 6:15 p.m.) at the Armory. They optimistically predict that the meet will end at 10:00 p.m., but we wouldn't put any money on that. Tomorrow's events are:
The relay is on the list thanks largely to Coach Devon Martin, so y'all better run it. Also, some members have suggested we split the 3k/2M Best Times lists in two. That'd be a lot easier to justify if we had more results for the 2-Mile, so the more of you who run this race, the more likely we are to create a separate list for it. Screamingly Fast From the Times of London courtesy of John Kerner:
The January issue of the BJSM isn't online yet, but we suspect the relevant article is "Effects of Brief Yoga Exercises and Motivational Preparatory Interventions in Distance Runners: Results of a Controlled Trial" by Brad Donohue, Abigail Miller, Monica Beisecker, Dennis Houser, Robert Valdez, Sundi Tiller, Tia Taymar (Br J Sports Med 2006;40:1:60-63). We'll try to remember to post a link once that shows up. The Times article also mentions an interesting competition: The Thongs of Praise contest. The British coaching group Trainsmart has decided to have a bit of "cheeky fun" (that's funnier if you're British) by searching for the best bum in sports: This contest is open to anyone, male or female, and everyone who enters will receive some sort of prize. Entries are due by January 15, so get those photos taken now, and email them to info@trainsmart.com. More Books We don't just have editors on this team, we also have authors, including Jon Cane, whose Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training Illustrated, 3rd Edition was published in December. Any other writers out there? 2006 Scoring Races Here is the list of NYRR scoring races for 2006:
The Central Park Track Club will once again be actively participating in this series, and we strongly encourage all our members to incorporate as many of these races as possible into your competitive plans for the year. New Year; Same Stanley After her record setting level of errors last year, we wondered what Alessandra Stanley would do this year. One week into the new year, we're pleased to report that she's not simply resting on her laurels. First there was her incredibly condescending review of "Rollergirls." (Sure, we think people who are obsessed with their roller derby careers are a little weird, but they probably think people who are obsessed with running are nuts.) Then she barely bothered to conceal her disdain of the fact that the new sitcom "Four Kings" is, well, a sitcom. (An idea here: if you don't like TV, get a job that doesn't involve watching it.) But it wasn't until yesterday's review of "Emily's Reasons Why Not" that she got back into full form. In the first sentence alone she managed to misspell the name of the heroine of "Vanity Fair," and make the strangest analogy we've seen in months:
As noted above, that should have been Becky Sharp, not Sharpe. But more importantly, what the hell does that phrase mean? Has anyone heard of the "Dragonball Z generation" before? A Google search brings up only a few anime geeks noting when they became fans of Japanese cartoons. It's possible that Stanley was trying to put a clever twist on terms like Generation X and Generation Y, but that only makes things worse, since Graham (born 1970) is not only a member of Generation X, but was 19 years old and already a professional actor when Dragonball Z debuted in the United States. And while we're no expert on Locklear's oeuvre, we don't recall her appearing in many comedies before she joined Spin City in 1999. So what we've got here is an irrelevant comparison that includes a clear error and an imaginary demographic. Is Stanley, despite her job, completely ignorant of culture and society? Or, as a commenter on Gawker put it: "does 'Heather Locklear of the Dragonball Z generation' equal 'I don't know what the fuck I am talking about'? The answer to both, we fear, is yes. Books of the Year You're probably not surprised to learn that we're big fans of the Times' Public Editor. Not that we're always happy with Byron Calame — or Daniel Okrent before him — but surely you've noticed by now that we're often just as interested in what goes into a news story as we are in the story itself. And then we post long diatribes on this page about the stories. But you didn't really think we'd limit ourself to that, did you? Of course not! We also post our comments on the Times forums, and send them to Mr. Calame. And for reasons we still can't fathom, he decided to print one of them yesterday:
For the record, we barely made it through the excerpts from Friedman's The World is Flat and Dowd's Are Men Necessary?, and couldn't imagine reading either book in full. But Friedman's book was number six on the 2005 bestseller list, and Dowd's has sold a lot of copies, too, so there must be a large group of people out there who think these books are good. Still, we don't think the Times can really be objective in rating books by their own employees, any more than we could be objective in rating books by our members. Which brings us to our own book list. Not the best books of the year, or even the best new books we read last year — Tom Reiss's incredible book, The Orientalist, wins that contest in a rout, with E.L. Doctrow's The March tops among novels — but the best books that CPTC runners were involved in. We're sure this isn't complete, so if any of you wrote, edited, designed the cover for, or in any other way helped to create a book in 2005, and would like to be listed here, please send us the info, and we'll list it here. And if you worked on any books in 2004 or earlier, send us the info as well, and we'll include them on a new page later on. Stacy Creamer's 2005 Books:
Laura Ford's 2005 Books:
Week of January 3, 2006 - January 9, 2006 Robberies in Central Park From the Times:
At Least It Won't Be Humid NY Road Runners has decided to kick off the Half-Marathon Series early this year, scheduling the Manhattan Half for Saturday, January 28. The race also counts as part of the Winter Classic Series, so not only will you get your shirt for running the race, but you'll be on your way to a path and two other special gifts. None of which convinces us that there's any advantage to running this race instead of the Idiotarod on the same day. In the Publishers' Defense, Who Reads Naipaul These Days, Anyway? From The Times:
We'd Like to Thank the Academy for Trying to Get Us to Watch This Year, But We're Still Not Wasting Our Time Jon Stewart has been announced as the host of this year's Oscars. Said Stewart about his new gig, "As an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice." And as an avid watcher of The Daily Show, we can't help but be a little disappointed with his acceptance of the job. Stewart spends four nights each week pricking the egos of politicians and celebrities. Now he's going to go out to Hollywood and reinflate those egos? And these aren't any oversize egos; these are the egos of a group that's so pompous that they insist on being called "The Academy"? And what do the self-styled Academics get out of this? Gil Cates, the show's producer, says "Jon is the epitome of a perfect host – smart, engaging, irreverent and funny." But if the experiences of David Letterman and Chris Rock have taught us anything, it's that the people in the audience really don't want the host to be irreverent, and their not all that big on smart, either. People watching from home want smart and irreverent, but the glitterati just want to be told how great they are. That's the biggest problem with the Oscars, surpassing the endless length, boring speeches, tacky musical numbers and general aura of self-congratulation. And as much as a host may try to appeal to the television audience, it's the physical audience in front of him who pay his salary and provide the applause. And until that audience develops a sense of humor, the ever-decreasing number of people who watch at home will continue to be disappointed. Now They Must Really Regret Printing This From today's Times:
The Wrongest Woman Speaking of the Times and corrections, you didn't think we'd missed Gawker's mathematical proof that Alessandra Stanley is the sloppiest critic at the Times, did you? Her 15% error rate in 2005 is not only the highest among Times critics, but is also an all-time high for her. If she keeps on this pace, by next January she won't even be able to spell her own name correctly. See, Ultramarathoners Really Are Crazy From Ananova:
MAC Results and Best Times We don't know what's going on with the MAC folks, but they posted the results of the Holiday Classic today. What will we do if we can't criticize them for being so lax about updating their website? (We'd gripe about them taking four days to get the results up, but that would be highly hypocritical, since we don't work weekends, either.) Among the results is Katy Masselam's 10:28.10 for the 3k, which gets her sixth place on the Best Times list. And Kathy King's time (10:50.77) would get her 11th place if the list went that far. Thursday Night at the Races It's not just the training that's more expensive at the Armory this year. Thursday Night at the Races will now cost $10 for NYRR members, and $12 for non-members, though it's still free for those who dropped the big bucks for a season of training. Thanks to lobbying from our own Coach Devon, the first meet, on January 12, will now include a 4x400 relay. Full schedule:
It's Not Like It Was Funny the First Time, Either From yesterday's Metropolitan Diary:
From the May 20, 2002, Metropolitan Diary:
If they'd just give their own editors access to TimesSelect, embarrassing reruns like this could be avoided. Happy Birthday Coach Devon had a birthday yesterday. As our gift to her, we're not revealing her age here. The Return We're fine, thanks for asking. Oh, wait; none of you asked. We don't update the site for a week, and not one of you even bothers to complain, let alone inquire as to why we're MIA. As it happens, we had family stuff and then we were sick and then there was New Year's, but for all you knew we could have been kidnapped, or lying in a ditch, or who knows what else. And then who would rant about the New York Times for you? Think of that next time. |
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