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Week of February 24, 2004 - March 1, 2004 Vote
Early, Vote Often Actually, we'd prefer it if you only voted once, but please, do vote tomorrow. New Yorkers haven't had the chance to cast a meaningful vote in a presidential primary since 1992, and while the pundits have all but awarded the nomination to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, there is still a race on between him and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina (Ohio Rep. Denis Kucinich and Rev. Al Sharpton are also still running, but have no chance of winning). Neither CPTC nor this page makes a habit of endorsing individual candidates. Rather, we simply urge all registered Democrats to perform their civic duty tomorrow. There is no Republican primary, but if our readership is in any way represenative of the overall NYC population, there aren't that many Republicans reading this. Our readership is probably over-representative of non-American citizens, who are no doubt thankful that their candidates for prime minister are generally chosen in smoke-filled back rooms, thus sparing them most of the silliness inherent in our primary system. More Photos! The photos never stop. Thanks to Isaya Okwiya, we now have photos from the men's portion fo the Snowflake 4-Miler, as well as additional photos of the women. And if that's not enough, he even sent along two photos from the USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships.
No, we don't know what "Dictator Pajamas" are, and frankly, we're a little scared to even ask. So That's
Why They Call It a Runway The Times reports on the difficulties facing high school sports in Alaska. Small schools, costly travel, and the following:
Reminds us how lucky we are to have the East River Park Track, minor bumps and all. Sign
of the Times Despite the beautiful weather over the weekend, the Times showed some restraint, and declined to publish an article on runners, cyclists, etc. returning to the roads due to the warmth. We'd like to think that this is due to the Gray Lady's discovery that many athletes train in all kinds of weather (the abovementioned Alaskan athletes often compete in temperatures as low as -15ºF), but we suspect the real reason is that they just didn't have as much free space to fill this week. Plus Sizes A recently-completed survey called SizeUSA has found out just what the average American's body looks like, and it's not a pretty site. The Times (yes, we cite them for everything) reports on the new shape of America, and ends with our favorite line: "Asked for their perception of how much they weighed, 51 percent of men and 38 percent of women said they were 'about the right weight.'Ten percent of men said they were 'quite a bit overweight'; among women, 21 percent said the same." Actual number of Americans who are overweight: men, 67.2%, women, 61.9%. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem. So would the 57% of men and 40% of women who are overweight but think they aren't please head over to the Weight Watchers/American Cancer Society Weigh-In this Wednesday, and start getting healthy. That and
a Token Will Get You, Well, Nothing Anymore The last bastion of token usage, the Roosevelt Island Tram, has now switched over to the Metrocard. Tokens are still available in chocolate form, and also as cufflinks, charm bracelets, key rings and money clips. Missing
Photo Dave Blackstone writes: "I was disappointed not to see Michael Konig's photo highlighted among the photo array for the NYRRC Gala. Michael, an original CPTC member and one of our fastest ever roadracers, was among the honorees Saturday night and he was seated with CPTC!" Michael was honored for his 30 NYC Marathon finishes, which is the most by a local athlete. Nineteen of those finishes were sub-3:00, including a best of 2:28:20 in 1976. Michael is in the group shot here, but we have no photo of him being honored. Also missing are any photos at all of former member Katherine Switzer, who was honored for her 1974 win. Unfortunately, our photographer can be easily distracted from his duties by shiny objects, chocolate desserts and women in fancy dresses, so he sometimes misses some important shots. Best Times Congratulations to Margaret Schotte and Alexandra Horowitz for making it onto the Best of Times list for Women's 4-Miler on Saturday. At this point it looks like we'll just have to update the Best of Times lists every time Alex runs a race. You Want
Pictures? We Got Pictures! Pictures are up from the Snowflake 4-Miler, the Post-Snowflake Party and Club Night. The Snowflake photos are only of the women's race, because our photographer at that event was busy running during the men's race. The Club Night photos include a number of non-members who happened to look good, because our photographer at that event is a very shallow person. Also, he was drinking a lot of some blue alcoholic drink, so he couldn't always remember who was on the team and who wasn't. Awards There's more to Club Night than just drinking and dancing, there's also awards! CPTC took home awards for 3rd Place Open Men, 2nd Place Open Women, 2nd Place Masters Men and 1st Place Masters Women. In addition, Margaret Angell (F20-29), Alayne Adams (F40-44) and Alan Ruben (M45-49) won Runner of the Year honors for their age groups. Congratulations to all, although we'd like to see the men do a little better next time. Of course, plenty of other awards were handed out this weekend. The New York Flyers websute was named one of RRCA's Large Club Sites of the Year. Maybe we ought to enter that one next year. But the big awards this weekend were for the movies, and, as expected Gigli won 6 Golden Raspberry awards, sweeping all the top categories (Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Screenplay, Worst Director and Worst Picture). Other movies "honored" with a Razzie were Charlie's Angels 2, The Cat in the Hat, Spy Kids 3-D and From Justin to Kelly. We understand that some other movie awards were handed out today, but they didn't look all that important. Steroid
Summit The Washington Post reports that the White House is trying to organize a summit of representatives from the major sports leagues and the USOC to discuss steroid use by athletes. Commisioners from the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, plus representatives of the USOC, have all tentatively agreed to attend the meeting, but — big surprise! — the baseball players' union is reluctant to attend. Union head Gene Orza said "The debate is not about the end, which is the elimination of steroids. Everyone is committed to that. It is about what are appropriate means for achieving that end." So far the union's view has been that the only appropriate means to eliminating steroid use among baseball players is to ask them nicely to stop doing it. A rare thumbs up to the White House for actually following through on what appeared to be empty rhetoric in the State of the Union address, but we can't shake the feeling that there are more important commissioners they should be meeting with. Snowflake
4-Miler Thanks to nearly-perfect weather and the fact that his was the first scoring race of the year, we had 54 runners turn out for this morning's 4-Miler. The men's team was third overall (led by Alan Ruben, Josh Feldman, John Roberts, Toby Tanser and Kevin Arlyck), 2nd Masters (Alan again, with Peter Allen and Stuart Calderwood), and 3rd Senior Masters (Alston Brown, Bob Holliday and Sid Howard). The women were second overall (Margarets Angell and Schotte, Alexandra Horowitz, Amy Sheeran and Stacy Creamer) and 4th Masters (Stacy, Mary Diver and Electa Varnish). Last year our over-50 crew finished fifth, despite competing in only 7 of the 11 scoring races. Look for them to be up on the podium with the rest of the team at the 2005 Club Night. Also, age group wins for Alan, Alston and Maraget A. Results like this call for a party, and luckily we're on our way to one now. If you're reading this before 5 pm on Saturday, turn off your computer and get your lazy butt over to The Parlour on W.86th and Broadway for our annual post-Snowflake Party. And when you get there, be prepared to explain why, on such a beautiful day, you were sitting in front of your computer. More Pictures Pictures from the February 12th Thursday Night at the Races and from last weekend's Cherry Tree 10-Miler are now up. Plus, we've worked through all of our computer issues, so any and all photos from tomorrow's events (race, post-race party and Club Night) will be posted promptly. Wild Cards A lawyer for accused steroid distributor Greg Anderson issued a denial that Barry Bonds has taken steroids. The lawyer said that Bonds was offered THG, but turned it down. Just like Nancy Reagan told us all to do! Anderson has apparently admitted to the feds that he gave steroids to several professional baseball players, but no names have been made public yet. Meanwhile, a Times article on bridge mentions that:
The bridge federation uses the IOC's list of banned substances for their tests, although we're really perplexed as to how bulking up can help at bridge. Then we got more confused when we read the reason the bridge federation is testing in the first place: they are hoping to be admitted as an Olympic sport, and drug-testing is what of the criteria that aspiring sports need to meet. Say what????? We like bridge, but it's not a sport, it has no physical or athletic component, and it doesn't translate well to television (not an official Olympic requirement, but certainly a plus). There is no way bridge is going to be featured in the Olympics. What the bridge federation should do is try to set up an alternative Olympics, one that focuses only on high-skill, non-athletic games like bridge, chess, Scrabble, etc. Many cities would line up to host such an event, since it would bring in tourists but require no expensive construction. Birthday
Record To celebrate his 65th birthday, Sid Howard broke the American record M65-69 for the indoor 800m tonight by about five seconds with his 2:19.3 (unofficial), and he ran it in a crowded race in which he had to pass many runners, sometimes on turns. He was rabbited by Yves-Marc Courtines, who also acted as a bodyguard. The race was recalled after about 100 meters when four men fell, one of them Yves-Marc, who was reported to have shielded Sidney from danger by diving sideways after being shoved, selflessly sacrificing some patches of skin. Yves-Marc got up and took his marks for the re-start, and then executed his rabbit duties flawlessly, running three laps at the prescribed record pace before being outkicked by Sidney, but hanging on for a remarkable and little-noticed personal best of his own. Sid has a history of setting records on his birthday; five years ago he set a world age-group record for the indoor 800m on this very day. Pictures! Thanks to Mike Rosenthal, we have some pictures of Sid's record breaking race. Picture from the rest of the meet will follow soon. Pictures from the prior Thursday night race and last weekend's Cherry Tree 10-Miler will be posted tomorrow (we've been having some computer trouble, so just getting these six photos of Sid up took quite a while, but it's almost solved now). More Records Sid's race gets him into the record books (again), but he's not the only one. Andrea Haver and Alexandra Horowitz made CPTC's Best of Times list for the 1500m at the MAC Relay Carnival on Sunday. Also, our club historians have discovered results from the 1982 Brooklyn Half that cause a couple of changes to the Best Men's Half Marathon list. The Armory The Times discovers the Armory. Apparently they have a lot of races up there, and that's a good thing. Steroid Ban British sprinter Dwain Chambers became the first athlete to be punished for using THG yesterday. Chambers, who was ranked fifth in the world in the 100m, was suspended from competition for two years by UK Athletics. Under British Olympic Association rules, the suspension also bars him from the Olympics for life. Chambers coach, Remi Korchmeny, was one of the four men indicted for earlier this month on charges of illegally distributing steroids and other performance-enhancing substances. UK Athletics' chief executive, David Moorecroft, said "It's an exceptionally sad day for Dwain and an exceptionally painful day for the sport. But it is absolutely a price worth paying." He's right about that, but let's hope that other athletes are paying attention to the consequences of cheating so we won't have to pay this price too often. Until
the Cows Come Home Remember those silly cows that were all over Manhattan a couple of years ago? They're back, sort of. This time we'll have all sorts of apples around town. To quote from NY1: "Local and international artists will decorate hundreds of oversized 4x4’ apple sculptures to be placed in various locations throughout the city." Apples have more of a connection to NYC than cows do, so this has to count as some sort of improvement. The apples will be on display from August 15 to October 15. Correction Margart Angell sent in the following correction: "Thanks for posting my result, but I think there has to be a serious asterisk next to it, as the course was definitely short. I have no idea by how much, but a coach out there whom I trust said I should probably add approximately one minute to my time. I don't think that it is fair to count the result on the all time list, since I want to get there fair and square." Depending on how approximate that minute is, Margaret may still have been on pace to run the best half marathon in team history, and was definitely on a PR pace, but we'll defer to her wishes and add the asterisk. Trivial
Matters Think Trivial Pursuit covers too many subjects? Try the New York City Trivia Game instead. You can check out a few sample questions at their website, but be warned that one of them is wrong. On the fourth card they ask "Which revered public high school in NYC is named after the city's first mayor?" and give the answer as "The Stuyvesant School." First of all, the school in question is called "Stuyvesant High School," not "The Stuyvesant School." And second, Stuyvesant High School is named after Peter Stuyvesant, who was the last governor of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam. The first mayor of New York City was Thomas Willett, who was appointed to the position in 1665 after the British seized the city from the Dutch. Befitting the low importance that mayors of the time had, there is no school named after him. We're tempted to pick up a copy of the game just to see how many other mistakes we can find. No More
Atkins? CNN
suggests that low-carb diets may lose popularity, in favor of using
a more balanced diet to lose weight. We've mentioned this before,
but we'll repeat it here: If you take in fewer calories than you
burn off, you will lose weight, regardless of the source of those
calories. Low-carb and low-fat are not as important as low calorie,
although too much fat and cholesterol (often found in the Atkins
diet) can cause other health problems. Regardless of what the latest
trend in diets is, the best way to lose weight (or to stay at a
healthy weight) is to eat a balanced diet, not overeat, and get
enough exercise. Basically the lifestyle followed by most of our
readers already. Week of February 17, 2004 - February 23, 2004 California
Dream Congrats to Margaret Angell, who won yesterday's Palm Springs Half Marathon in a blisteringly fast 1:16:02. Not only was she five minutes ahead of the second woman, she was also the ninth finisher overall. And she set a new PR and moved into first place on the CPTC Best of Times list. She probably got a nice t-shirt for finishing the race, as well. Drink
Up! The annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards were handed out this weekend. The top five tap waters in all the land? Desert Hot Springs, CA; Daytona Beach, FL; Kent, OH; San Francisco, CA; and Dubuque, IA. Desert Hot Springs also won in 1999, plus finished 3rd last year and 2nd in 2001. Supposedly New York City used to win these sorts of competitions at some point, but we can't find any evidence of it right now. Not that we're complaining about New York's tap water, which we drink all the time. The only award winning water we've sampled is San Fransisco's, although we don't remember it being anything special. Of course, next time we're in any of these cities we'll be sure to conduct our own taste test. Except for Dubuque. If we ever have the misfortune to find ourself in Dubuque, we'll be drinking something much stronger than water. Records
Were Made To Be Broken Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia set a new world indoor record in the men's 5K on Friday, with a time of 12:49.60 (4:08/mile). Then, on Sunday, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova cleared 15' 11" for a new indoor pole vault record. Sounds like a good lead in for Sid Howard's shot at the record in his new age group this Thursday. Congrats! Marvin Cabrera became a father on Wednesday. Zarif Humberto Cabrera was born at 11:58pm at 7 lbs, 6 oz. and 20 in. long. Mom, son and Marvin are all doing well. Ultimate
Triathlon Store New CPTC member and president of Ultimate Triathlon, Christophe Vandaele, sent us the following blurb for his store:
Ulitmate Triatlon is located at 155 West 46th Street on the 3rd Floor. Cherry
Tree Recap While the official times from today's Cherry Tree 10-Miler haven't been posted yet, we can report that CPTC picked up an boxful of trophies. Alan Ruben and Susan Strazza were both first overall and we had age group winners in M55-59 (Fred Trilli, 1st M55-59), M25-29 (Michael Rymer,1st, Brad Weiss, 3rd), and a sweep of the M30-34 age group (Kevan Huston, Bill Haskins and John Kerner). Since most of these folks fled back to Manhattan before the awards ceremony, we ended up with in possession of a lot of extra trophies. The solution? Put them in a box (hence the use of the word "boxful" in the first sentence), and give the box to Fred Trilli. Email him at Trackft@aol.com to get your trophy. Snowflake
Party Our traditional post-Snowflake party will be held at The Parlour (250 West 86th, between Broadway and West End), on Saturday, February 28, from 1-5 pm. As that's just after the Snowflake 4-Miler, and just before Club Night, we expect to see a nice mix of running clothes, formal wear and everything in between. Whatever your fashion sense, this will clearly be the place to be for good food, good beer, and great fun with your teammates. Adding
Injury to Insult From Toby's website:
Triathlon
Stories We received the following today, and thought some of our triathlete members might be interested. Not that any of you ever write stories for this page...
Next Week
at the Armory The Armory will be closed next Tuesday, so both the middle-distance workout (6:30pm) and the distance group workout (8:00pm) will be held on Wednesday. Tuesday
Night Armory Workout Report Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but too many coaches don't spoil the workout. That, at least, is the lesson from yesterday's early workout, where Coach Tony, Coach Mindy and Asst. Coach Stuart were among the 26 runners present, but none interfered with Coach Devon's iron-fisted rule. Well, Stuart did lead the group in some drills before the intervals started, but that's hardly a threat to the reign of our (mostly) benevolent dictator. Three groups this time (milers, 800m people and "base work" runners), meant three different workouts (800s and 400s, 400s and 200s, and 1000s, respectively), which turned into about seven different workouts after a few runners opted to make some modifications. Basically your usual level of confusion, which continued on even after the workout, as there was some disagreement as to which direction people should run in the balcony for their cool down. Normally everyone runs clockwise, but for some reason one large group of non-CPTC runners decided to run counterclockwise last night. Eventually everyone else switched to the "wrong" direction, except for Alexandra Horowitz, who refused, commenting "I'm officially a pain in the ass." We skipped the late workout in favor of dinner, so all we can report is that they ran 400m intervals, and that they had an excess of timers, including Sid Howard, Jim Aneshansely and Shane Clarke. We could report on our dinner, but we don't think you really care much about it. Another
Apartment Wanted Laura Ford is looking for a studio in the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Fort Greene, or Prospect Heights for $1,000-$1,050/month, starting May 1. Email her at LFord@randomhouse.com with any leads. Around
the World Update #15 - Northwestern Thailand Dear all, We have just finished a 12-day long loop in North West Thailand. We started -and finished- in the heavily touristed city of Chang Mai, where we could see, by chance, the flower festival. Huge trailers, like in the Rio Carnaval or the Macy's Parade, all made with flowers, were displayed in the city. All the other destinations (Pai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang and Mae Sot) were far from the tourist paths and had similar things to offer: quiet guesthouses/bungalows close to/on the river, access to picturesque hilltribes (Lisu, Akha, Karen -see below), beautiful wats (Buddhist temples) to visit, tasty street vendors food and nice bicycle rides. Sukhotai's attractions are different, with its ruins from the Sukhotai Kingdom which, taking advantage from the declining Angkor civilization (see former e-mail on Angkor), expanded well into Laos, and overtook Malaysia. We spent a couple of days there, bicycling from one ruin to another, with almost no tourist in site. Near Mae Hong
Son, we visited a "long-neck" Karen village. They are
from the Padaung tribe, whose characteristic is the metallic coil
around the women's neck, which depresses the collarbone and part
of the rib cage, artificially lengthening their neck. Although we
had seen many pictures of these women in the past, seeing them for
real was a shock. They move very slowly, visibly annoyed by the
coil (although they would not admit it). Their head looks abnormally
small at the top of their neck, and their posture is very bizarre,
with their rounded back and their belly sticking out. On top of
that, they wear huge bracelets and even their knees are covered
with coils. These women have kept the tradition alive partly for
the foreign tourists whose visits provide a moderate source of income
(entrance fee and sales of handicraft). Next to this
village was another refugee camp of Red-Karen minority. We spent
a whole afternoon with people from that camp (the Child Center headmaster
and some orphans), listening to their stories, the events in Burma,
the reason for their fleeing, and their daily life in the camp.
We were interested in their opinion on foreign tourists visiting
Burma. Their answer was clear: these visits bring well-needed US
dollars to local people, through accomodation, guides, food, private
transport, and enhance the overall awareness of what is happening
in Burma. "Embargoes are not a good thing since the government
doesn't need foreign countries; it has rubbies, tek and opium to
trade and earn money from".
Kicking
the Habit U.S. shot-put champion Kevin Toth announced his retirement yesterday, just after the USOC announced that he faced a possible two year suspension after testing positive for THG and modafinil at the national championships last summer. Despite his retirement, Toth is appealing his positive test, as are John McEwen and Melissa Price, who tested positive at the same meet. The fourth American caught at nationals, Regina Jacobs, is currently challenging the appeals process. Happy
Birthday McSorley's Old Ale House turns 150 today. We wish we'd known about this early enough to stop by, although the line outside probably stretched for a few blocks. We haven't actually been there in five years, but it's hard to imagine that anything has changed since our last visit, or, indeed, since the place opened in 1854 (except that they didn't allow women in back then). We did read that prices have gone up, to the point that it's now a whopping $2/beer, instead of the low $1.50/beer that we remember, but that's still a pretty good deal. Definitely one of those New York places everyone should check out at least once, so the next time you find yourself on East 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, consider stopping in for a drink. Just avoid the weekends, when the place is a zoo. Week of February 10, 2004 - February 16, 2004 More
on the Cherry Tree 10 Miler All you spring marathoners, don't forget this month's featured race on Saturday, February 21st, at 10:00 am in Prospect Park. The winter chill has cleared out a lot of those pesky baby strollers, bladers, and cyclists, much of the loop was repaved last year, and the mile markers have already been spray-painted on the road -- in ORANGE. What better omen do you need than that? If you have not already done so, you can regisiter here. Make sure you specify your team affiliation on your application (that's C-P-T-C). As an added incentive, it should be noted that Terrace Bagels, the recommended post-race refueling point, fashions some of the finest bagels in the five boroughs, according to both locals in the know AND the Paper of Record (see the NYT article). You want the best, you gotta come to Brooklyn! (We're kind of partial to La Bagel Delight ourself, but either one is far better than the bagels you get at Manhattan races.) Questions, comments, and complaints, about the race or the bagels, should be kept to yourself. Or you can send them to Kevin Arlyck at chillwizzard@mindspring.com, and he'll respond when he's good and ready. Ultra
Results No official results from the Kurt Steiner 50K yet, but Stacy Creamer has a preliminary report: "Bill Haskins came in second in his ultra debut yesterday in the 50K in Central Park. His time was 3:36:32 and he looked as though he was finishing a 10K when he powered through the finish line at 90th Street. Dan Sack finished third and Harry Morales was sixth." Apartment
Wanted Vram Malek
is looking for a studio or 1-bedroom in or around the lower east-west
side/downtown or in Park Slope for a maximum of $1050/month, starting
May 1, 2004. You can email him at vmalek@dbarch.net
if you have any leads. Valentine's
Victory Woody Allen wrote once that "eighty percent of success is showing up." While some of us thought it was too cold to race this morning, Chris Solarz and Kevin Arlyck showed up at the Brooklyn Road Runners Club's Valentine's 5K this morning, and were rewarded with a 1-2 finish. Okay, the fact that they both ran really fast helped them, too, but we guess that's part of the other 20% of succeess. Boston
Marathon Following the lead of cities like New York City and London, the Boston Marathon will now inlcude a separate start for elite women. Roughly 25-40 women will start their race at 11:35 am, with the rest of the field departing Hopkinton at the traditional noon starting time. Dopes Steroids are back in the news, as a grand jury indictmed Victor Conte, president and CEO of BALCO; James J. Valente, BALCO's vice president; personal trainer Greg Anderson and track coach Remi Korchemny for distributing steroids to various athletes in baseball, football, track and field and other sports. BALCO is believed to be the source of tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a new designer steroid that was undetectable until a few months ago. In addition to THG, Conte and Valente are charged with distributing human growth hormone, EPO, testosterone, modafinil and other banned substances, as well as distributing persrciption drugs without a license. The athletes invovled have not been identified by name yet, only as "a professional baseball player, "a profressional football player," or "a track and field athlete," though some of the track and field athletes are further described as "world record holder" or "United States champion in his event." Several athletes coached by Korchemny have failed drug tests in the past, including Kelli White (modafinil) and British sprinter Dwain Chambers (THG). Four other track and field athletes, including Regina Jacobs, and four members of the Oakland Raiders have also tested positive for THG. USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee have been criticized in the past for protecting drug cheats, but new, harsher pentalties proposed by USATF have been seen as a sign that they have gotten serious about doping. Not so with baseball. Major League Baseball is only now beginning random drug testing, after between 5 and 7% of the players failed anonymous test during spring training last year. Still, with five positive tests required before a player earn a one-year suspension, it is hard to believe that this will have a major impact on steroid use in the big leagues. Not surprisingly, that's where the biggest suspects are found, including Barry Bonds, who started working with Conte and Anderson before the 2001 season. Bonds hit a record 73 home runs that year, and has repeatedly credited the two men with keeping him in shape. While MLB remains unwilling to out any cheaters, the grand jury may do it for them. The grand jury has subpoeaned the results of last year's drug tests, and the anonymous tests could become public as part of any trials for Conte, et al. In a rare example of harmony, MLB and the players union are teaming up in an attempt to quash the subpoena, arguing that, since the players only agreed to the testing becasue it was to be confidential, the names of those who failed the test should not be released. Never mind that those caught doping were not only cheating, but were also breaking the law. Never mind that owners are committing millions of dollars to players who are ingesting dangerous substances with harmful side effects. Never mind that Anderson was a regular in the San Francisco Giants locker room. Both management and the union seem content to bury their heads in the sand until — and maybe even after — top players start showing up on witnesses stands or in the next wave of indictments. But if baseball won't institute real testing on its own, and even the threat of criminal sanctions can't move the sport, is there any hope? Maybe, if enough of the fans get outraged. Alas, even though most fans believe drug use is rampant in professional sports, they seem happy to ignore it. Even some journalists aren't bothered by illegal drug use among players. On Tuesday, Murray Chass wrote in the Times:
Yes, Chass actually argued that the players have the right to cheat and break the law. He did back down slighlty in yesterday's column, though he still claimed that 75 steroid users in baseball "didn't seem to represent a large number" and argued on behalf of the privacy rights of the dopers. (His complaint about "self-appointed" critics was notably absent, perhpas because he realized that that term didn't apply well to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.) Of course, the right to privacy doesn't include the right to break the law, and even if it did, athletes shouldn't be entitled to that much privacy. At the heart of all sports is the idea of an honest competition, a contest between the skills of two athletes playing by the same rules. If we can't trust that the game is fair, then sports are just another form of entertainment, no different from professional wrestling. Athletes who take steroids are cheating just as much as those who use corked bats or take the subway in the middle of a marathon. A "large number" of athletes on steroids is one. Five in the world is unacceptable. Seventy-five in one sport is an epidemic. The indictments handed down this week are only against the middlemen. No action is being taken yet against the creators of the steroids or their users. We may never know the identities of the former, but we'll soon learn the names of the latter. These people have no place in sports. As fans and particpants we need to make it clear to the athletes and to the executives that cheating will not be tolerated. The baseball season starts in six weeks; the Olympics in six months. Right now they're both starting under a cloud of suspicion, but they don't have to end that way. Hopefully, with enlightened leadership, some prodding from the feds and zero tolerance from the fans, we'll once again be able to focus on what athletes do with their muscles, not how they got them. Funny
Runners Wanted You're all used to having your fellow runners laugh at you for your fashion sense, training regimen, and recent race results, but wouldn't it be great if they'd laugh at your jokes instead? Here's your chance! The New York Road Runners Foundation present "Comic Relay" on Wednesday, April 21 at Comic Strip Live, where three local runners will get the chance to perform alongside some of New York City's top comedians. Click here for an application. Thursday
Night at the Races Some nice runs at the track tonight, but they were all deservedly overshadowed by Alston Brown's World Record in the 800m. He smashed the 55-59 year old indoor record (formerly 2:08.15) by over 5 seconds, running a superb 2:03.00, with splits of approx. 29, 59, 1:30, and finishing strong. Having turned 55 recently, we expect even more from him, as he does from himself. Results for most of the events are now posted. None of the web staff stayed long enough to collect results for the 2 Miler or the 8x200m relay. Ian Brooks claims that the full results will be available on Tuesday, so look for them to be updated here that evening. Also, if you have any splits you'd like us to post (especially from the relays), please send them to us. March
Featured Races NYRR
8000 This one was a no-brainer as the March pick for short and mid-distance runners. Just imagine powering to a brand-new PR (how often do you run an 8K?) as a vertiable army of elite athletes cheer you on. OK, they'll probably be too busy warming up for the US 8K Championship held immediately after, but the buzz created by a race featuring the top male runners in the US guarantees that this event will continue to be a highlight of the New York running calendar. Big-game jitters and excitement, right in our own backyard, and a chance to track the top-flight competition on your cool-down run. Who wants to miss all that? New
Bedford Half-Marathon New Bedford is not only the March focus for CPTC spring marathoners, but it's a great race in its own right: fast, competitive (14 finishers under 1:15 in 2003), and well-organized. It's also one of Runner's World's top 25 half-marathons. Any CPTC runner planning on running New Bedford should get in touch with Kevan Huston (khuston1@yahoo.com) as soon as possible. Kevan is the official contact person for the race (and not only because he's a 1:11 half-marathoner). He will be working to coordinate transportation to the race, either in private vehicles or a club-subsidized van (if there are enough takers). Information about accomodations can be found here. If you have not signed up yet, you can do so on the race website. CPTC will not be formally entering as a team, since only USATF-New England teams can officially compete. But for all you runners of a certain age, the race is the USA National Masters (age 40+) Championship, and for the others, just a damn fine event. So contact Kevan, get signed up, and be part of the tremendous, stupendous Orange traveling road show! Tuesday
Night Armory Workouts Reports Another Thursday Night at the Races this week, which means another light workout for the early group. Not that any of you read these reports to hear about running. Do you really care that 23 people ran a few 200s or 400s to get ready for their races tomorrow? No, you're more interested in the fact that Sid Howard doesn't like the picture of him that we put on the home page this week. (Don't worry, Sid, it's gone now.) Noah Perlis didn't like the picture either, but we've thought his opinion counts for much. Stuart Calderwood tried to talk Jessica Reifer into doing the Empire State Building Run Up next year. That might be why Jessica kept asking "Is there a backdoor to this building that I can sneak out of?" (Upon information and belief, yes, there is a back door, but nobody seems to know where it actually is.) Or maybe she just wants to be able to make a quick escape after the DMR this Friday (see below). The distance runners were there, too. Twenty-eight of them (plus Henrietta, who skipped the first few intervals while she finished her homework), with Stuart, Sid, Coach T and ourself as the timers. The Coach graciously answered all of Margaret Angell's questions about the upcoming Marathon Olympic Trials: "Are these good marathon shoes? What sort of outfit should I wear? Which shoe should I put on first, the left or the right?" Coach goes for the right shoe, which has always worked well for us, too. We don't think she needs to worry too much, since that third leg should give her more than enough speed.
In other news, the Armory staff finally found a way to make sure people don't run in Lane 1. We think it's a little extreme, but it certainly is effective.
Armory
Collegiate Invitational Come cheer on your teammates at the Armory this weekend. Friday at 6:45 pm is the women's DMR, with our team of Andrea Haver, Alex Horowitz, Jessica Reifer and Catherine Stone-Borkowski. On Saturday at 5:10 pm, catch Amerigo Rossi and Clinton Bell in the Men's Elite Mile. Two More
Wins Our win total for 2003 is now at 65, thanks to Paul Groce's win in the first ever Baghdad Camel Trot and Margaret Scotte's win in the Canadian National Duathlon Championships. Margaret was originally listed as finishing second, but the race organizers have now concluded that the first place woman missed one lap of the bike course, and that Margaret's was indeed the fastest time. Paul's victory was one of the few results to elude the Global Surveillance System. Even we have limits, and a race without a website, held in another country, is beyond our abilities to track down. This does not mean that the rest of you should start running obscure races on other contintents just to try to beat they GSS.. Millrose
Games Report Toby Tanser recaps the Millrose Games for MetroSports. Sports Illustrated takes notice of it as well, though they allot just one page, and almost all of that is devoted to Marion Jones. For those who want to check it out anyway, it's in the issue that has a St. Joseph's basketball player on the cover, not the one that has Veronic Varekova clad in half a swimsuit. Marion's not in that issue, and currently trails in Page 2's Hottest Female Athlete poll, despite finishing second in ESPN's World's Sexiest Athletes competition a few years back. As usual, Anna Kournikova is leading the field, even though she doesn't really qualify as an athlete these days. Hong Kong
Marathon This past Sunday, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon took place with a total of 24,000 runners (note: there were three events: marathon, half-marathon and 10K). Since the reports say that it was an unmitigated disaster, our correspondent decided to let his teammates know how lucky they are in having a year-round professional organization to operate the races in New York City. First of all, our Hong Kong correspondent confesses to being stone asleep in his warm bed at home when the starting gun went off. The starting time for the first race was 6:45 am and the temperature was around 50 degrees in a place without indoor heating. Only fools would be out there. Therefore, this is going to be second-hard information gleamed from news reports. There were two major problems. The first problem affected everyone except for the people in the front row. This happened to be the first year that the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon deployed the famous Championshipchp for timing. Given their worldwide experience, this should be easy, right? Wrong. Everybody received their clock time as their final time! All the complaints were directed at the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association and Championchip. Guess what? In an incredible case of incestuous relationships, the chairman of the HKAA and Championchip is the one and same William Ko, who therefore could not be pointing fingers at the other party. At first, Mr. Ko said that the complaints from the runners were isolated incidents that will be addressed. Shortly after, he had to call the newspapers to admit that there had been an embarrassing systematic mistake. "It was an error. The 'official' times were the gun times. The format on the website only shows the gun times. We accidentally used the same format for the web results as we did last year. We realised our mistake and we are working on it. We used another company to do the uploading and that company simply used last year's format." We will take a commercial break to remind our readers that our site sponsor Walrus would never ever make that kind of amateur mistake when they upload the New York City Marathon results. The second problem occured at the baggage trucks. William Ko was also forced to apologise for a mix-up in transporting runners' personal effects from the Tsimshatsui start area to the finishing line at the Wan Chai Sports Ground. The apology carried little weight with runners, forced to wait for hours in 'freezing' conditions. "It was muddy, raining and people were freezing cold. Some of the men were only wearing sleeveless shirts. It was horrible. I don't think I'll ever enter again. We waited 15 minutes in the freezing cold with no extra clothes to wear. I hopped in a cab, went home, got showered and changed and went back. It still took another half an hour to get my bag. I finished the race at 8:15 and left the lane with my luggage at noon. It's a great charity event, but people should know how badly it was run. They charge 24,000 people around US$40. They should have done a better job than that. There were so many people there not doing anything. They could have got people from the other trucks to help. It was so slow and so disorganised it was ridiculous." We will take another commercial break to remind our readers that the UPS trucks at the New York City Marathon would never ever cause these kinds of problems. The coldest race in the history of the race saw 13 people taken to the hospital for treatment. By the way, the race winners were a Kenyan male and a Danish female. Atkins
Diet An article in the Wall Street Journal (you can read about it on CNN if you don't subscribe to the WSJ) says that low-carb diet guru Robert Atkins weighed 258 pounds when he died, and also had a history of heart disease. Atkins was six feet tall, so that would translate to a body mass index of 35, making him obese. Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, says that the Atkins' heart disease was unrelated to his diet, and that Atkins weighed only 195 at the time of his fall, with the additional 63 pounds resulting from water retention while Atkins was in a coma. A weight of 195 pounds would still give Atkins a BMI of 26.4, which falls into the "overweight" category. (Trager asserts that "a desirable [BMI] range for people over the age of 65 is 24 to 29," but we haven't found any evidence to back that up.) We doubt this will have any affect on the popularity of the Atkins Diet. Far, Far
Away The last time we watched Sex and the City on a regular basis was about four years ago when we were dating a woman who was a fan of the show (actually, the fact that we had HBO may have been the main reason she went out with us, but that's neither here nor there). Still, with the few seconds we see while channel surfing through the seven HBOs on our satellite system, plus the endless articles that show up in even the more serious press, we have — despite our best efforts — kept up with the major plot developments, using up valuable memory cells that could better be devoted to the batting averages of the 1986 Mets. We've never understood what was so great about the show. It's not realistic (Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey suggested that the show is written by drag queens), the dialogue isn't particularly witty (using four-letter words doesn't make you more clever, despite what the Emmy voters may think), and they were already recycling plots by the third season. But all mediocre things must come to an end, and Sex and the City will do so this month, a mere three years after it jumped the shark. With only a few episodes left, the show's writers are rushing to squeeze in anything the show might have missed about sex and/or the city. How else to explain their sudden realization of the fact that New York City is more than just Manhattan? Yes, just before it ends, Sex and the City has discovered Brooklyn. It seems that Miranda, who apparently got married and had a baby (though not, we hear, in that order), has forsaken her tiny Manhattan apartment for a spacious and cheap brownstone somewhere in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, or Park Slope. The show hasn't established where, exactly, she lives, but it's somewhere in that mythical Brooklyn where brownstones are cheaper than Manhattan apartments and stay on the market for more than two hours, there are no restaurants or coffee shops, and taxis won't take you there. Yes, she's moved to 1978! We expected some ignorance on the part of the writers, but we didn't expect the mean-spiritedness we encountered when we caught the following exchange of dialogue:
So, Brooklyn is so far from Manhattan it might as well be in Europe. We've never been an expert at geography, but this didn't sound right. From the Upper East/West Side to Park Slope (the furthest neighborhood Miranda might have moved to) is under 10 miles. From Manhattan to Paris, France is 3,635 miles. But maybe they were referring to a different Paris, like the following:
Please note that all of these cities and towns are further away from Manhattan than Brooklyn is. But maybe they meant a different Brooklyn, like:
No, it couldn't be one of those, since we doubt the writers can identify any states other than New York or California. Week of February 3, 2004 - February 9, 2004 Brooklyn
Half-Marathon New York Road Runners has changed the date of the Brooklyn Half-Marathon from April 10 to April 24. No word yet on the reason for the change. Night
Moves There's Fenway Park on Patriot's Day. There are all the new stadiums with their brewpubs and sushi bars and swimming pools. There's the excitement of October baseball in almost any stadium. But the best way to see a baseball game is still to skip out of work or school on a weekday afternoon in Chicago and head over to 1060 West Addison Street, better known as Wrigley Field. Until 1988 the Cubs played all their home games during the day, giving fans ample excuses to play hookey. Even after they install lights that August, a city ordinance limited them to only 18 night games a year. However, under a new plan which is expected to be approved this week, the Cubs will be allowed 22 home games this year, and as many as 30 by 2007. The main reason for this is to make more money (naturally), although the players won't mind having fewer games in the hottest part of the day. We try to balance our "purist" views of baseball with the recogniziton that this is a business and that things must change. It's bad enough that we're stuck with the designated hitter and interleague play. Now we have more night games at Wrigley. We shudder to think what might be next. Growing
Pains We recevied the following email recently:
We've cut out the techincal nonsense, but bascially our options were either delete about 85% of the site or pay a lot more money each month. The first choice would destroy the completeness that this site is famous for, while the second option ran up against our equally-legendary cheapness. The solution was obvious — we needed a new host. Luckily we knew of a member who could help us, so, thanks to Michael Rosenthal, this site now resides virtually at Walrus Internet. Walrus is already host to the New York Road Runners site, so you may have seen their logo already. You'll be seeing a lot more of it here, since we've added it to the footer of every page. While we were at it, we also made it that clicking on the maple leaf logo at either the top or the bottom of the page will get you back to the home page. Short
and Sweet There's still one week until Valentine's Day, so those of you who are insufficiently romantic for your significant others have plenty of time to come up with an appropriate way of marking the occasion. Should you fail to come up with something on your own, you could always send a poem. The Scottish Poetry Library is offering six poems, each short enough to be sent as a text message on a mobile phone. For those of you in the UK, the SPL will even send the poem annonymously for a £1.50 fee. The rest of you will either have to type the poem in yourselves, or write your own bit of verse in under 140 characters. A few years back we actually wrote a short story that fit in the Windows scren saver. We won't be using it next week, though, since our thoughts on computers distilled to 253 letters and spaces are pretty unromantic. Men's
Marathon Qualifiers It seems that NBC's idea of showing coverage of the Olympic trials meant airing a 20-second story on who won. In case you missed it, Alan Culpepper, Meb Keflezighi and Dan Browne took the top three spots, and earned themselves a trip to Athens in August. February
Featured Races As you know, the Club has selected a series of spring races for members to focus on, split into two racing "tracks": short and mid-distance, and marathon. From now until June there is a monthly featured race for each (the entire schedule is available on the Road Racing Schedule page). Some are the familiar Central Park favorites, some are new events a bit further afield (each of the races away from Central Park will have a designated coordinator/contact person TBA). In the interest of building team camraderie, promoting personal excellence, and kicking as much butt as possible, we ask you to mark these races on your calendar and make them the focus of your spring season. Below are descriptions of the featured races for the month of February: Short and Mid-Distance Runners Snowflake
4-Miler This race is always the centerpiece of the CPTC winter roads schedule, and one of the more popular NYRR cold-weather races. You should be there — running, cheering, volunteering, whatever. One lung-busting inner loop of the park, starting and finishing at 102 on the East Side (you know you're in the homestretch when you hear Tony yelling at you to pick it up). And don't forget the most important element — party at the Parlor that afternoon. We'll see everyone there. Marathoners Cherry
Tree 10 Miler This mid-winter classic is billed as "A Race for the Hard Core," and three loops of Prospect Park can be a bit grueling (not the place to set a PR). But it's a great fitness test for spring marathoners, and just a fun, demanding race for anyone else. Plus, the Prospect Park Track Club always does a nice job, especially with the post-race refreshments. The F train deposits you right at the race start, and the registration/bag check/party facility is Bishop Ford High School, only a few blocks away (note: the F can be a bit pokey on the weekend). See the map below for important locations.
Map Key So leave Central Park to the sweatpants crowd and spend some quality racing time in the "other" park. Information and online registration available here. Contact Kevin Arlyck (chillwizzard@mindspring.com) if you need more details. Around
the World Update #14 Dear all, We came back yesterday from the Island of Ko Chang, Thailand, where we stayed for 4 days to rest from our pretty tiring travel through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Our program: enjoy our bungalow on the beach, swimming, sea-kayaking, sunbathing, seafood curries at lunch and seafood BBQ at night (no worries, we stay clear of chicken!). Nothing to complain about, to be honest. Cambodia Phnom Penh,
Battambang Tonle Sap
Lake Angkor Our favourite was the Bayon, a multi-level construction with dozens of 4-face sculpted towers. On the highest level, one actually stands in front of / next to these 2-meter high faces, characterised by their enigmatic smiles. The smooth late-afternoon light gave even more life to those Khmer faces. Angkor Wat is the largest temples of all. In spite of an extensive renovation work, it retains only a small part of its original beauty. Still, one can imagine how grandiose it must have been, if only by the 800 meters of fine bas-reflief carving on the outer wall. The Ta Phrom
temple has been left to the jungle for centuries, so the forest
has progressively recovered the site. Massive trees have grown on,
throughout, inside the temples, creating a surreal scenery of a
fight between nature and imposing man-made buildings. Back to Thailand,
another two days in Bangkok We had lunch
and dinner at her favourite street stalls and discovered what real
great Thai food tastes like. We ended our second day watching 8
Thai boxing matches amongst the local crowd betting big money throughout
the evening.
More New
Members Yesterday's list should have included Kobie Fuller and Nnamdi Okike, with points to Tom Phillips and Devon Martin. This doesn't do much to change the recuritment score. Bears
Hibernate; Runners Don't Like a desparate college student seeking to push his term paper over the 10-page minimum, the Times has resorted to recycling their old copy. In this case, they've only dug back as far as Monday's paper, as they once again report on how New Yorkers are reacting to the warmer weather:
So these runners would be different from all the runners who were suddenly back on Sunday, right? Just wait until the mercury tops 60, when suddenly every person in New York will turn into a runner and head to Central Park. (Kevan Huston notes that "if they're really just returning that makes them joggers, not runners. Furthermore, runners in Central Park have not been able to return to their principal route of choice — the bridle path — because of ice and snow cover; NOT because of the cold!") In hopes of avoiding another article like this, we would like to issue the following reminder to the writers and editors at The New York Times:
Corrections Last week we reported "Sid Howard, who is 64.9 years old, missed the 65-69 age-group record for the mile (5:26) by one second with his 5:27." We should have been more clear about the fact that we were referring to the American record (5:26.58, set by Ino Cantu of Texas when he was 66). The world record is 5:13.3, held by Earl Fee of Canada (set when he was 67). In another minor correction, when we said that Coach Tony was lecturing Elizabeth Kaicher, we meant that he was lecturing Erica Tricarico. This is what happens when we stay up past our bedtime writing these updates. Shouldn't
They Get the Medication at the Start of the Race? From Ananova:
Do we have enough time to send Sid Howard over there to show these people what "not giving up on sport" really looks like? New Members Welcome to our merry band, John Beech, Michael Dougherty (who's already had a famous saying), Jennifer Smiga and Christophe Vandaele! Recruitment points go to Sarah Gross and Quetzal Sanders, with honorable mention to Devon Martin. So far it's a seven-way tie for the recruitment lead, at 1, with Devon leading the unofficial coaches competition, also with 1. Art Show If you're not doing the workout tomorrow, you might want to check out the openings of Gregory Crane: Gardens and Vistas and Fantastical American Landscapes from 5:30 to 7:30 at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 21 East 70th Street. These shows are organized by our own Shelley Farmer. For those who can't make it tomorrow, the shows run until March 13. Hirschl & Adler Galleries is open Tuesday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Who Are
You? Christopher Farah complains in Salon about anonymous bloggers. Apparently they (we?) use "the safety and security of their secret identities to spread gossip, make accusations and levy the most vicious of insults with impunity." Then, lest you think this is merely one man's opinion, he finds someonw who agrees with him:
A few points:
Tuesday
Night Armory Workouts Report Runners come and runners go but the workouts go on. Last night it was Molly Grieg making her first appearance of the season and Jerome O'Shaugnessy making his last. Or next to last. He'll definitely be in London by next Tuesday, so that only leaves time for four or five more going away parties. Here's hoping he makes regular visits back to the Big Apple, especially when the CPTC parties roll around. This combination of old and new runners brought our attendance up to 30, making for a crowded track. And an even more crowded warmup, as the balcony was off limits to runners, the shot put area was closed off, and the pole vault lane was still occupied by the Vault Girls. (For those not familiar with them, the Vault Girls are the 2nd through 7th ranked pole vaulters in the U.S. They were at the Armory to put on a "Learn-By-Doing Pole Vault Clinic" for high school girls, before going off to Millrose on Friday where they will all lose to Stacy Dragila.) The workout was 800s, with different numbers for the different types of runners present. The turnout made the groups a little unwieldy, and the resulting crowds on the track often forced runners to take extra rest. Well, we'll work it out better next time. Of course, the distance group had a similar number of runners and, therefore, the same problem. Their's was even a bit worse, since their workout is usually longer (yesterday it was 1x100, 2x600, 4x400, 8x200) and there are more groups sharing the track in the late session. Luckily they get dedicated timers to keep everything running smoothly. Last night that role was filled by Stuart Calderwood, Otto Hoering, Sid Howard and this reporter, leaving Coach Tony free to do whatever it is he does. He certainly thinks his job is important, since he spent most of the A train ride lecturing Erica Tricarico on the importance of listening to the coach. We'd give you specific quotes, but we weren't really listening. Oh, and Henrietta, the fastest 12-year-old we know, was back at the track. So was Lindsey Scherf (WTC, doing her own workout), who, five years ago, was the fastest 12-year-old we knew. We used to lose to Lindsey in races all the time (and probably would still do so now), but five years later we think we're fast enough to beat most 12-year-olds. Unfortunately, our ego has gotten fragile enough that we probably would suffer a meltdown and quit the sport if we ever lost to a pre-teen, so, just to be on the safe side, we're going to avoid any race that Henrietta's in. The Fault
Is Not In Our Stars, But In Ourselves Sometimes — quite often, actually — other people say things so much better than we ever could. So, rather than mock the astrological analysis of all the Democratic candidates in yesterday's New York Times, we give you David Post's retort from volokh.com:
First
Win We're on the board! Last year Stacia Schlosser won a race on January 1. This year it took 33 days longer, but Michael Rosenthal won the Empire State Building Preliminary Run this morning, for our first road win. Congratulations, Mike! Camel
Trot Paul Groce, who was our lead-off leg on the American Record setting 4 x 800 relay (35-39 men) last March, has just returned from Iraq where he was proudly serving our country. (Paul was a West Point grad). He was also proudly serving our team: "I was the Overall Winner of the first-ever Baghdad Camel (Not Turkey) Trot. The trophy is the cheapest and tackiest piece of junk I've ever seen in my life, but I treasure it!"
Picture
This A disgruntled member writes: "I concur that the Webmistress did look great. How do I know that? Becuase the Flyers, unlike CPTC, ACTUALLY POST PHOTOS ON THEIR WEBSITE! I know one member took a lot of photos at Jerome's last workout and another one took photos at Thursday Night at the Races, so ... the burning question is "WHY DONT THESE GET POSTED?" There hasn't been a photo posted to the website since 12/14/03. THAT'S JUST LAME!" Well, there have been several cover photos on the site, and even one or two pictures in the journal, but we agree that that's not nearly enough. So why aren't the above-mentioned photos on the website? Because the photographers never sent them to us. If we had photos, we'd post them. (We'd take more ourself, but a variety of personal and professional obligations have kept us from attending any races this year.) We do have one photo from last Thursday to offer, courtesy of Michael Rosenthal. Hope this holds you over until the next full set.
It's More
Reliable Than Whatever Our Fund Manager Bases His Decisions On As if rodents forecasting the weather weren't enough, now we have the Super Bowl as a predictor of the stock market. The theory goes that the stock market goes up in the year after a team from the pre-merger National Football League wins, and down when a team from the old American Football League wins (which conference the team plays in now only matters for expansion teams). And how does the Super Bowl match up against Punxsutawney Phil? While the groundhog's predictions are rather subjective, the stock market is more easily quantifiable. Since Super Bowl I in 1967, the Super Bowl's forecast has been right 29 times, and wrong 8 times, for a 78% success rate. So what does that predict for this year? Well, the New England Patriots come from the AFL, so you may want to sell your stocks and hide your money under the mattress. That Explains
Why Sunday's Run Felt So Hard... Today's Runner's World Online offers the following advice: "Don't drink anything alcoholic just before you lace up your running shoes. Alcohol will dehydrate you and some drinks have caused fatal collapses during extreme exercise in hot weather. Drinking as little as 16 ounces of beer the night before a run can slow you by as much as 11 percent." Men's
Marathon Trials On TV Of course you're all going to the Garden on Friday to see the Millrose Games, but even so you may want to watch the television recap on Saturday afternoon, from 3:00 to 4:30 on NBC. That show will feature highlights from Saturday morning's Men's Olympic Marathon Trials in Birmingham, Alabama. The MSG Network may also have Millrose Games coverage as part of the Running New York program at noon, but that probably won't include any coverage of the marathon trials. |
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