WEEK OF MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2002

• WEB ACCESS STATISTICS FOR MARCH 2002:  We have the highest hit totals for any month in our history, but the analysts would have nitpicked that our daily averages were not as good as the preceding month of February which has 28 days compared to the 31 days in March.  Oh, yes, we did choose the 'verb' nitpick,didn't we ... ?  This journal page was initiated in early March, and has now soared to the number three spot.  Yet we must say that we are profoundly disappointed at its performance so far --- at 2,335 page views for the month, it is only 2335 / 31 = 75 page views per day.  We would have thought that many more than that number of people should be worrying about being written about on these pages.  So we will renew our efforts to write about any and all sorts of unimaginable people and things in the future, and it could be about YOU!  Happy reading!
    

• THE YOUNG ATHLETE:  Reading through the 2002 Members Benefits Directory from the New York Road Runners, we found under Physicians & Surgeons - Sports Medicine

Jordan Metzl, M.D.
Sports Medicine
519 East 72nd Street, Suite 206
New York, NY     10021
Tel: (212) 606-1678

Harvard University Sports Fellowship Trained Sports Medicine M.D.
Dedicated to keeping you running safely; prevention of stress fractures and healthy running for life.  Have run: 7 Bostons, 3 New Yorks, 1 Marine Corps, 1 Jungfrau, and counting.  By appointment.  For NYRR Members: 20% fee reduction with initial evaluation.

Most of you must be wondering why we are hyping Dr. Metzl?  Because even after so many marathons, Dr. Metzl has still not learned to fill out the club affiliation box on the NYRR road race entry forms!  With this piece of invaluable free airtime, Dr. Metzl now owes us big time so he will have to make sure that he does that correctly in the future.  To be more precise about our instructions --- it is not Dr. Metzl's entry forms that we are concerned about, it's those of Shula Sarner who has unfairly earned the title of Asterisk Girl.

As a further incentive, we will trumpet the fact that Dr. Metzl has just published a book about being the parent of an athletic child, The Young Athlete: A Sport Doctor's Complete Guide for Parents.  Writer Tom ("The Bonfire of the Vanities") Wolfe contributed this blurb: "This book is good medicine for those unsung, underestimated, high-strung, over-fixated competitors, the athlete's parents."  The book is due out early next week and Dr. Metzl will be promoting the book on TV and radio stations around the country (including the CBS Early Show Thursday-Saturday).  If there are people on the club (or anyone who is just reading this entry) who have athletic kids or work with athletic kids, he will be having a promotional party where anyone interested could meet him and ask questions etc.  If anyone would be interested in finding out more or meeting Jordan, please contact Shula Sarner.  Of course, you can also click on the book and purchase it at Amazon.com. In case you don't know Shula, here is a picture of her with Dr. Metzl (#4672) following.  Of course, we are still bitter about Shula being asterisked as not scoring in this race ...

• THE REAL APRIL'S FOOLS:  It must have come as a deep disappointment for those of you coming to look for some piece of foolishness on April 1st.  In past years, we have done things like changing the site logo to reach "Canadian Pacific Triathlon Club" (and, given that this name seems to reflect the predominant composition of the club, why shouldn't we?).  Even on one August 1st, we turned the site into the Gramercy Park Track Club.  But, of course, we know that that was then and this is now.  We are older, wiser and infinitely more mature.  Right?  So the real April's fools are all those people who came looking and went away disappointed ... (Are you reading this, Audrey ... ?)
    

• REST WEEK:  Inevitably, the question comes up about why we are taking the week off before the Queens Half/5K scoring races.  Taking off the workouts simply means that you are rested and ready for the race itself.  If you were racing that weekend, you would have been told to go home on Thursday anyway!  So please do not interprete a rest week as the permission to get getting fat, lazy and slow ...
   

• BACKWARDS MILE:  We had two certifiable nutcases at this race: Toby Tanser and Jonathan Cane.  All we can say is --- it is NOT normal for people to run backwards  ...
    

• CORPORATE RACE SPONSORSHIP:  We maintain a road race schedule, which we compiled by consulting various sources and typing their names, dates, locations and links into the table.  Corporate sponsorship is regarded as a good thing because the funding enables the events to be held.  Unfortunately, the sponsored titles get too long sometimes.  Here is our list of a dozen (non-)favorites (because we have to type them in!), in decreasing title length:
    
  - JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championships
  - UPMC Health System/City of Pittsburgh Marathon
  - Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run
  - Charlotte Obeserver Marathon Run for Peace
  - Mercury Interactive Silicon Valley Marathon
  - Bank of America Gasparilla Distance Classic
  - Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run
  - adidas Vancouver International Marathon
  - Brooks Pharmacy Ocean State Marathon
  - Nokia Sugar Bowl Mardi Gras Marathon
  - Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon
  - Standard Chartered Marathon 2002
   
  On that last one, we challenge anyone to identify the location (without cheating!).  Hint: We knew where it was INSTANTANEOUSLY and it is NOT in Australia!
   
  Hard to believe, but there are some competitors who would rise up to any challenge:
  --- Toby Tanser: "Sounds South African?"
  --- Kevan Huston: "That's a tough one. While they're headquartered in London and quoted on the LSE, given the strength of their franchise in South East Asia I would have to say it's : Singapore. (50/50 that or Hong Kong, but I'll stick with SG.)  Just hope Morgan Stanley Dean Witter isn't bought by JP Morgan Chase in the near future (no, this is *not* a stock tip!)."
    
  This is a marathon in Hong Kong.  We grew up in Hong Kong, where some of the local currency is issued by the Chartered Bank of Hong Kong, which meant that we grew up handling their ten dollars bills with the picture of their headquarters building.  Therefore we immediately recognized the name ...
     

• QUEENS HALF MARATHON MARATHON/5K RACE:  Historically, this month of the year is our weakest race in the competitive sense, due to the spring marathons.  There are years when we could not even field enough people to score in some divisions.  This year, we will have about twenty runners in the Boston Marathon, and they will be our fittest runners right now.  So the rest of the team will have to step in and pick up the slack, especially the masters men who are at the top of the club council standings.  On the women's side, we expect to see a good turnout on the shorter 5K race, as we may even get to see Amy Sheeran and Sonja Ellmann for the first time this year. 
     

• URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE:  On the race calendar is this little gem of a trail race in Van Cortlandt Park.  Last year, Tom Phillips and Stuart Calderwood finished 1-2 on the men's side while Stacy Creamer won the women's race in a record time.  While this race is not quite yet a wilderness adventure race, it is still considered challenging (and an obvious way of ruining one's own spring marathon preparations!).
     

• CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB RELAY PHOTOS:  We have structured the photo album as a narrative because this is the story of how the indoor season ended (and the outdoor season is about to begin).
    

• USATF NATIONAL MASTERS INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS:  The long-awaited photo album has finally been posted.  Why was this long-awaited and much-anticipated?  Because it was known that there were some highly controversial photos that could lead to lawsuits and/or bodily harm ...!  Of course, we come down firmly on the principle that the people have the right to know ...  By the way, this thank-you note came from Herbie Medina: "I just want to say thank you for posting my photo (the Nike ad) on the web site...It's people like you and your track club that have motivated me throughout the years to keep on running for as long as I have (20 years).  Thank you again -- and may you have a great running year!"
    
  Missing from the list of results is Rich Hamner's 'DQ' mark in the Men's 55-59.  Rich finished first in that race, just barely edging the legendary Roger Pierce.  Unfortunately, he was disqualified for the dreaded 'stepping on the line.'  As silly or tragic as that sounds, it has happened to the best, namely Sid Howard (see Famous Saying #1051).
    

• RUMOR MILL GRIST #1:  The talk of the town at the Thursday workout was the number of people who were DQ'd at the Sunday race for having committed an offense against the quality of life in New York.  Remember, you were forewarned by us with this note: "Public Urination: The Parks Department is planning a crackdown on racers who opt for the bushes instead of the port-o-sans-so be forewarned. "  Obviously, there were divided opinions on this matter, including those who believe that they have the inalienable 'constitutional' right to 'water the lawn.'  Still, one has presumably inalienable rights to many other things (which we won't enumerate here because this is a family-friendly website), but which one does not exercise in public in deference to others.
   

• RUMOR MILL GRIST #2:  A reliable source informs us that a very special person has obtained a special assignment at the White House ...  We cannot elaborate any further because we will be LYNCHED for disclosing the details!!!  We will simply say this --- it couldn't happen to a nicer person ...
    

• DISTANCE RUNNERS WORKOUT SCHEDULE:
   
  Tuesday, April 2nd, The Armory, 8pm
  Thursday, April 4th, Daniel Webster statue, Central Park, 7pm
    
  Tuesday, April 9th, no workout.  Rest week.
  Thursday, April 11th, no workout.  Rest week.
   
  Tuesday, April 16th, East River park track, 7pm
  Thursday, April 18th, Daniel Webster statue, Central Park, 7pm
   
  Of  course, nobody reads these things anyway, so we'll have to repeat this over and over again over the next couple of weeks, and it will be completely and totally your fault if you show up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
    

• THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT:  Another late winter/early spring night which was impossible to gauge how to dress for.  But it would have made no real difference, because it was a true In Der Stille Der Nacht, with a full moon watching over the windless reservoir.

Forty-six people showed up at the workout tonight, not counting their bicycling escorts of Sylvie Burlot, Ross Galitsky and Aubin Sullivan.  We note that Sylvie had just completed the Washington DC Marathon on Sunday in 3:08:39, with a chilled, slow final 10K.  Since she has only been with us with only a few months, her best races should be ahead of her.  Unfortunately, she will be returning to France in June.  Over our thirty years, people have come and gone, but the organization (and a few life-timers) has always been there.  We hope that we have made all those people happy for the time that they were with us ...
 
On a lighter note, we don't know if we ought to thank Aubin Sullivan, who was reading off the speedometer on her bike: "Hey, you are going at a speed of two miles an hour!  I'm not kidding!  You really are!"  DUH!
  
Ross Galitsky has been quite inconsistent with respect to his demands while perched on his bike: several weeks ago, he was yelling "Hey!  This is a running club, and you shouldn't be going so slow!" and this week, he was yelling, "Hey!  Slow down!  You are running too fast!"  Make up your mind!
 
In case you are wondering, the northern hill loop was covered by Stuart Calderwood, Josh Feldman and Kevan Huston in 7:36.  Stuart will tell you solemnly, "No, we were NOT racing!"  Fair dinkum.
  
Seen at the road workout tonight was Craig Plummer.  What was on the occasion?  He just made up his mind last week that he would indeed run the Boston Marathon, so now is the time to start training.  Please do not try this yourself ...
 
The workout description stated that the total distance was 6.4 miles, but John Gleason pointed out the actual distance was 7.9 miles.  
 
Shelley Farmer finished all eight miles tonight, and reflected, "Every year, I take some time off.  Obviously, it is always difficult when I come back again.  So I promised myself that I would not take so much time off in the future.  Unfortunately, this year was the worst ever!"  Fit or not fit, Shelley was a member of the first place 4 person co-ed team at the Powerbar 20 mile relay, with Tyronne Culpepper, Sarah Gross and Jesus Montero.

• BIATHLON DEBUTS:  At the March Madness Biathlon this weekend, Jerome O'Shaughnessy and Toby Tanser made their debuts in this sport.  Jerome said, "It was a really strange experience going into the transition from the bike to the run.  I did not feel that my legs belong to me.  The only way I could tell that I was actually running was by the sight of the landscape moving ..."  Toby finished a good 6th place overall, not realizing that his bike would have qualified for the 'fat tire' division which he would have easily won ...  Next question: will we see them rowing boats at the Spring Couples Relay?
   

• BOSTON UPDATE:  The latest addition to the list of participants is Craig Plummer.  When Craig asked Jeff Wilson as to how many Central Park Track Club members are in that race, Jeff said, "Oh, about twenty ... but how accurate can that list be when they've got me listed!"  So we will clarify by stating that the list on the home page is just a list of people who are listed in the entrants' database, and they may or may not be there on race day.
   

• 2002 CPTC DUES DUE: The official due date for the 2002 CPTC dues is March 31st, 2002. We would like to thank the large number of people who have promptly paid their annual dues. For those people who have not yet paid, here is the renewal information: Regular $75, Sponsor $100+, Couple $125, Student $25, Out-of-town $25, Inactive $25, Hardship $25.  Send checks to Central Park Track Club, c/o Richard Kixmiller, 14 East 96th Street, Apt 14, NY 10128.
   

• CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB RELAYS:  It was a zoo out there with nine 5-person relay teams.  Injury report: none (that we know of).  

Organized chaos ...

The winning team consisted of Bola Awofeso, Chris Potter, Norman Goluskin, Zeb Nelessen and Isaya Okwiya.  Detailed results are on the result page.  Please don't take those recorded times too seriously, because they were self-reported.  More photos to follow ...

Norman Goluskin, Bola Awofeso, Isaya Okwiya, Zeb Nelessen, Chris Potter

All runners write their names on a tag that is put into a hat.  There were enough people for nine 5-person teams.  The coaches appointed team captains for Teams A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I.  Each captain then dip into the hat and pull out four random names for their teams.  The team then meet on their own to decide on who runs which leg on their own.  In the case of the winning captain Isaya Okwiya, he drew the names and then told his four guys: "I have to go and try to warm up to see how my leg feels.  You guys have to figure out on your own who wants to run where."  When he came back, his teammates informed him that he had been elected to run THE MILE!  You should see his shocked and sad look!  Still, fit or not, he took the lead during that mile to win for his team.

• NEXT WEEK'S TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT:  Message to the distance runners --- one more week at least at the Armory.  If you were out there tonight, you would definitely not wish that you had to run outdoors in the cold rain.  This is the first of many times that we will repeat this message to you, but we are sure that somewhere some of you will have missed it all and show up outdoors!

WEEK OF MARCH 19-MARCH 25, 2002
 

• USATF NATIONAL MASTERS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:  We regret to say that Alston Brown is still a Jamaican national, and therefore was not eligible for the national title.  We have informed the race organizers about the situation, and we apologise to the medal winners in the two races in which he was 1st (400m) and 2nd (800m).
   

• POWERBAR 20 MILE RELAY PHOTOS:  It looks like all four members of our masters co-ed team got their pictures onto the NYRR photo gallery, including the ebullient Alayne Adams  breaking the tape.  Of course, their own team photographer was snoring in his bed at that moment ...
    

• CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB INTRA-TEAM RELAYS:  Each year, at the end of the indoor track season, the team holds an intra-team indoor track relay.  This year, the scheduled date is March 26th at 7pm (BEWARE OF THE TIME!  DON'T SHOW UP AT 8pm) at the Armory (which requires a pass to enter).  The rules are very simple: on that day, we will see how many people show up and we will randomly (literally, by pulling names out of a hat) divide them into teams of four or five or however many.  Each team will designate people to run relay legs from 200m up to the mile.  And off we go ... This relay is an opportunity for the entire team to come together --- sprinters, middle distance and long distance runners.
   
  We will also need to issue a word of warning about taking care, as you may not have done a relay in your entire life.  The key is always, Safety First.  We remind you that Blair Boyer broke his shoulder last year in a collision in that relay!
    

• NEW WORLD MASTERS ATHLETICS WEBSITE:  The header of the home page says "Willkommen bei www.world-masters-athletics.org ..."  Well, actually, they have just hired a new professional webmaster (at $500 per month) who will be working on it.  The man is from Switzerland, which explains why that new user page is in German.  As for how much the Central Park Track Club webmaster gets paid, that's another story ...
   

• DO SOMETHING FOR US:  This is the periodic reminder that the link on our home page to The Hunger Site is there to be clicked upon.  Every click increases the funding for projects to help those in need all over the world.
    

• 2002 OUTDOOR TRACK SEASON SCHEDULE:  The national indoor track championships marks the end of the indoor season.  All this means is that the outdoor season has just begun.  Isaya Okwiya has prepared the outdoor track seaons schedule for you all, although we have unfortunately assigned the page name 'indoor.htm.'  
   
  Please note the following deadlines
  - Penn Relays, due by mail-in on April 5, 2002 for Open/Olympic development; masters TBA
  - Columbia Invitational, due by e-mail on April 8, 2002, 5pm.
    

• USATF NATIONAL MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS (SUNDAY RESULTS):  The Central Park Track Club picked up two more national titles today, Sid Howard (M60-64) and Kim Mannen (W35-39) in the mile.
     

• USATF NATIONAL MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS (SATURDAY RESULTS):  The Central Park Track Club has three national champions today, Sid Howard (M60-64), and Sue Pearsall (W35-39) in the mile, and Alston Brown (M50-54) in the 400m.  
    
  In other local news, Kim Griffin (WS) went under the 5:00 mark (at 4:59.78) to win the women 40-44 indoor mile, ahead of another local favorite Alicia Kelly (in 5:07.13).  The American record was 4:59.9h, set at the Armory by Madelyn Noe-Schlentz (Asics East) in February 2001.  The world record is still held by Patty Blanchard (Canada, 1999) at 4:57.71.  
    
  In the Women 50-54 age group, Kathryn Martin (Northport Runners Club) set the American record for the 800m at 2:27.42, the American and World records for the mile in 5:22.74 and the American record for the 3000m at 10:36.41.
    

• ESPN COVERAGE:  The following screen shot was taken from the ESPN program for the USATF National Indoor Track & Field Championships three weeks ago.

• WE TOLD YOU SO ... :  One week after the Front Runners Track Meet, the official results have not appeared yet.  Based upon last year's experience, we were ready this time and we got the results of most of our members recorded before they kicked us out of the building.  We also had the splits on those record-setting relays as well as selected others.  Are we well-organized, or what?
    

• ACHILLES MARATHON:  Laura Dwork, who has worked tirelessly for this event, wrote to the various running clubs after the Club Council meeting: 
   
  I just want to say it was a pleasure to meet you at the NYRRC meeting on Monday. Thank you for your interested in the Achilles Marathon on April 28th, Prospect Park, Brooklyn (start time 10:30 am).  I would like to remind everyone to sign up soon and take advantage of the low entry price.

  Single person (running the full 26.2 miles) is $40. After March 31st it goes up to $50.
  FIRST PLACE MALE AND FEMALE IS $1,000.

  Relay teams of 4 or 8 people is $80. After March 31st it goes up to $90.
  FIRST PLACE FOR 4 PERSON RELAY MALE AND FEMALE IS $1000.

  8-person team is a fun run.

  FYI, the Team Captain for the relay team can sign up now and go back and fill in team member's names at a later date. Please note that you can register on line at www.achillesmarathon.com.  Also, we have a great kids race 50 - 500 meters, and it is free - tons of fun there will be clowns and lots of great events - bring the whole family!
   

• USATF MASTERS/SUB-MASTERS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:  The last big indoor meet of the season will take place Friday-Sunday.  For those who cannot attend in person, you will be happy to note that the meet website has been historically very reliable in reporting the results.  Of course, we will publish them on this website as we find them.  The list of our entrants include Craig Chilton (800m, mile), Erik Goetze (3000m, mile), Alan Bautista (200m, 400m), Chris Potter (800m), Bola Awofeso (800m, mile), Craig Plummer (Pentathlon, 800m, mile), Luca Trovato (200m, 400m), Pat Lewis (400m, 800m), Marty Levine (800m, mile), Tom Hartshorne (800m), Julio Rodriguez (200m), Alston Brown (400m, 800m), Rich Hamner (400m, 800m), Frank Handelman (400m, 800m), Norman Goluskin (800m), Dan Hamner (400m, 800m), Sid Howard (800m, mile), Bob Laufer, (mile), Jim Aneshansley (800m), Lauren Eckhart (800m, mile), Devon Sargent (800m, mile), Julia Casals (400m, 800m), Kim Mannen (800m), Sue Pearsall (800m), Mary Diver (800m), Denise Whittaker-Crain (400m, 800m), Mary V. Rosado (400m, 800m, mile), Sylvie Kimché (400m, 800m, mile).  This has to be one of our largest representations.
   
  It is unfortunate that this meet is restricted to 30-or-more year olds, thus excluding our very strong 20-29 year olds.  But, if we had to choose, we would rather be young ...
   

• THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT: Without resorting to inferences about divine intervention, we will simply state that the fifty-two people finished the workout before the wind and rain arrived at 850pm.
   
  The most annoying person on the team notched it up even more today.  In addition to the keys and coin change that he jangles in his pocket, he even carried a videotape tonight.  Of course, he is still not the most annoying person in Central Park, because Audrey Kingsley has awarded that title to the person who carried TicTac for the 20 miler.
    
  Upon hearing someone say, "It was easy for me tonight --- I took the short cut!", Sonja Ellmann said, "Hey, you gotta tell me about how to do that!"
   

• SOY PREVIEW #2: Over the weekend, we ran down East River Park to the Williamsburg Bridge and then back uptown.  We thought that it would be a good idea to check out Etsuko Kizawa's restaurant on the way back.  When we got there, she was not there.  Since we didn't have a dime on us, we could not sample the food.  So we stood outside reading the menu.  A couple came by and the woman said to her friend, "Have you been here yet?  It's REALLY amazing!"  Of course, this is legally just hearsay and does not constitute a formal review according to our very exacting standards ...
   

• THE NERVE!:  From the electronic mail in-box, among the junk mail for Viagra samples, assistance for money transfers from Nigerian politicians, junk mail lists for sale, etc, was this message: "Hi, please consider adding a link to Running World at http://www.running-world.net."  Not that we particularly care one way or the other, but if you are going to ask a free favor from someone, could you please make sure that you (as a portal that claims to contain the most complete information) should have made sure that you have the other party already linked by you?  (Especially because the other party can really whine, not just back to you but to the general public ...)
    

• NEWSPAPER DELIVERY:  We apologize for the slowdown in torrent of words in this page during the last two days, as we were preoccupied with our other lives.  This much we can say --- we go to sleep every morning when we hear the newspaper being dropped outside our door.  Of course, we are promptly at the office at 9am again.  So, the question for you is, "Do you know when The Wall Street Journal gets delivered every morning?"  This Ironman training schedule was not for playing the Grand Theft Auto 3 video game on our Sony Playstation 2, but we were actually plotting on another coup like the one in Venice last year.  We are pleased to say that we shall have a good showing this year in Cannes.  
   
  Of course, this slowdown is not necessarily a bad thing.  This is the beginning of the third week of our journals.  At the end of the first week, we were astonished how many words we could write on so few things.  The second week was just as bad.  We asked for a descriptor, and the suggestion was "logorrhea", which is defined in Merriam-Webster as "excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness."  It would seem that 'excessive talkativeness or wordiness' is okay, but 'often incoherent' is hopefully not true.
    
  Is it the case that nothing exciting has been happening recently?  Far from it, as we mourn the exits of AS Roma and Arsenal from the Champions League.  This leaves our only survivor as Deportivo La Coruña.  Eurosport.com wrote: "Arsenal crashed out, losing 1-0 at Juventus, but the real heroes were Bayer Leverkusen who won 3-1 in Spain to steal the group leadership from a disgraceful Deportivo who fielded a weakened side and showed no inclination to win the game. Depor's reward is a quarter-final against one of the group winners."
   

• TITLE CONFUSION: Now you may not know this, but the main business of this writer (for this week, at least) is in the measurement of magazine audiences.  Regardless of the specific details, this is about asking a sample of people if they have read a list of magazine titles.  A major problem is that people get confused among similar titles (e.g. Running Times-Runners World, PC Magazine-PC Week-PC User-PC World, Golf Digest-Golf Magazine-Golf Illustrated, etc).  You would think that these things average out, but it is actually not true.  Imagine that the confusion rate is 10% (that is, 10% of the readers of publication AAAAA thought that they read publication AAAAAA and vice versa).  If publication AAAAA has 10 million readers, then 1 million of them would claim erronenously that they read the other publication.  If the smaller publication AAAAAA has 1 million readers, then 100,000 of them would claim erronenously that read the other publication.  Net result: Publication AAAAA has 9 million + 100,000  = 9.1 million readers while publication AAAAAA has 900,000 + 1 million = 1.9 million readers.  This is not a fair exchange.
   
  Why are we telling you this?  In the NYRR club races, people are supposed to put down their team codes on their application forms.  Occasionally, the data entry people will make mistakes, especially if we consider that they have to choose among the similar looking CJTC, CPTC, CRRC and CPRR.  The consequence is that a club may occasionally get scored for runners from other clubs, as was the case this past weekend.  The magazine title confusion paradigm is actually not operating here, because the runners are not confused about which club they belong to; rather, the problem is with the small number of data entry operators making a very small number of errors.  We suspect (but we have no proof) that the situation would favor the club that has more runners, because they are in the top-of-mind awareness of the data entry operators.
   
  Now that we have stated a problem, do we have a solution?  Yes, how about a chip implant to code your club?  Remember that we mentioned it here first, and that any subsequent product development by others would be a violation of our intellectual property ...
   
  Addendum: It would seem that we were too late on this new product idea.  Toby Tanser advises us: "If you own your own chip and register online,  then the team automatically pops up on the fill-out form.  At my last but one race, I entered ten minutes before the start and put down only my chip number and "Toby", yet a full printout of the name etc came in the results... "  This means that you had better be damn sure to tell NYRR if you change clubs!
     

• NYRR CLUB COUNCIL NEWS:  From our club council rep Stacy Creamer:  

Volunteer Drivers Needed April 3, 4, and 5 for Men's National Championship 8K

The NYRR is looking for volunteer drivers to pick up arriving elite male runners at local airports when they come in to compete in the Men's National Championship 8K on April 6.  If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Jonni Lord at the NYRR: 212-423-2207.

ACHILLES MARATHON RELAY

The Achilles Marathon and Marathon Relay will be held in Prospect Park on April 28.  Achilles is hoping that each of the local running clubs will field at least one relay team.  If anyone on CPTC would like to organize a team, please post a notice about it on the website through Roland.  Achilles is also looking for both running and non-running volunteers for the event.  If you're interested, you may contact them through Achilles Marathon. 

COMING THIS SUMMER: TUESDAY NIGHT AT THE RACES!

Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of the Thursday Night at the Races series held at the Armory, the NYRR is sponsoring a series of four outdoor track races this summer.  The races will be held at the CCNY track at 138^th Street and Convent Avenue.  Races will range from the 200 to 5,000.  The dates for the races are: June 18, July 2, July 16, and July 30.  (FYI: The 5,000 will be held at the July 16 race). 

QUEENS HALF DRY RUN

Quantum Feet, College Point, Alley Pond, and Hell's Gate track clubs are sponsoring a run of the Queen's Half course on April 7 at 9:00 AM.  The course is two loops; the plan is to run the loop once.  Refreshments will be served afterward.  If you're interested, please call Dominic at 718-454-3338.  There may also be a run of the 5Kcourse; check with Dominic for details.  N.B.: The Queens Half, scheduled for April 14, is a men's scoring race.  It is paired with the Skaggs-Walsh 5K, which is a women's scoring race.   

ANNUAL RACE SUMMARIES

There was a problem with the NYRR's March mailing.  If you are a member of the NYRR and did not receive your annual race summary, please contact Tom Kelley at 212-423-2247 or email him at tkelley@nyrrc.org. 

RACE ETIQUETTE UNDER SCRUTINY

The NYRR is receiving pressure from the Parks Department on two race-related fronts:

(1)   Public Urination: The Parks Department is planning a crackdown on racers who opt for the bushes instead of the port-o-sans-so be forewarned.  The NYRR is trying to offer optimal runner-to-port-o-san ratios at its races.  The public restrooms at the Central Park Tennis Courts and the North Meadow Field House are other options.  Don't be the third CPTC member to be ticketed for a "noxious liquid" offense!  (Okay trivia buffs: Name two CPTCers who have been written up for this.)

(2)   Roadway Clog: Too much of the roadway is being taken up by racers.  This problem involves the back-of-the-packers more than local team members.  The NYRR is considering wave starts to solve the problem.  In the meantime, look for increased policing of every race course. 

TEAM SCORING SCHEDULE-HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Under the auspices of the Club Council, a committee headed by the NY Harriers' Douglas Hegley is being formed to come up with a race schedule alternative to the plans that have been adopted over the last ten plus years.  One of the committee's chief aims is to devise a schedule that will make more sense in terms of training and peaking.  The committee will come up with suggestions for a new system or schedule of races, then present those suggestions to the Club Council as a whole. Any changes that are decided upon by the Club Council will not affect the 2002 scoring race schedule and will become effective no sooner than 2003.  CPTC will be represented on this committee by Stacy Creamer and Stuart Calderwood.  If you have any suggestions for this body, please convey them to Stacy or Stuart.

WEEK OF MARCH 12-MARCH 18, 2002

• TRAFFIC DRIVER:  Key fact --- website traffic rockets when new athletic records are set (and amply documented).  Shocking, ain't it?
   
• REACH THE BEACH RELAY:  From Erik Goetze: "Reach The Beach Relay is the longest running relay race in the country.  Run each year during peak foliage season in New Hampshire from Bretton Woods to Hampton Beach, it is scheduled this year for FRI-SAT SEPT 27-28.  Tom Phillips has already put together a masters team.  I'm putting this message out to see if there's interest in doing an open team.  Check out the Reach The Beach Relay website: http://www.rtbrelay.com/details.html and get back to me at boycoton@aol.com -Erik G"
   
• MORE ABOUT THE RECORD SETTING RELAY TEAMS:  At the Front Runners Track Meet on Saturday (March 17, 2002) at the Armory.

  
  Norman Goluskin, Dan Hamner, Sid Howard, Jim Aneshansley
  Central Park Track Club Men 60-69 4x800m relay team
  World Record, 9:58.0

  
  Devon Sargent, Denise Whittaker-Crain, Kim Mannen, Sue Pearsall
  Central Park Track Club Women 30-39 4x800m relay team
  American record, 10:20.5

  This is not a story about how fortune fell down from heaven upon a lucky few.  Instead, we want to consider the various things that led to these records.
    
  THE PEOPLE:  A relay team consists of four people, and the success of the team depends on four people, not one, not two, not three.  How did these particular people got together now to do this?
   
  In the case of the men 60-69 team, we have four people who have been with the team for a long time, some of them for over twenty years.  So this is not a hastily assembled record-attempt group, which would have gone against our philosophy.  People join our team because they like the people and the environment, and not just to get some publicity or financial assistance.  While these four people had been with the team for years, it was only this year that they made the concerted effort to go after that record that they knew about.  So the point is that all four people have to be healthy and ready at the same time.  In this regard, we have to mention that the names of Bob Laufer and Jim Olson, who might have stepped in under the right circumstances.
   
  In the case of the women 30-39 team, our middle distance group had just grown from half a dozen people to workouts that are regularly attended by more than 30 people.  It became possible to field competitive relay teams in a variety of age-group events.  During this season, we have also fielded open men's 4x800m teams, open women's distance medley relays and masters women's 4x400m teams at major events such as the Boston Terrier Classic, the Millrose Games and the USATF National Indoor Track & Field Championships.  
   
  THE RECORDS:  A record is a best performance at some moments in time.  Some records are soft, some records are solid and some records are considered impossible to breach (and we don't even just mean the drug-assisted ones).  It so happens that there were two records that were within reach of the personnel that we have at this particular moment in time.  
   
  THE PROCESS:  Just because the right personnel appears to be present on paper does not guarantee that the process will be smooth.
   
  In the case of the men 60-69 team, they had set the previous record in January this year.  On that occasion, Norman Goluskin had a muscle pull earlier in the week, and his appearance in the line-up was a last-minute, post-warmup decision.  Fortunately, we had Bob Laufer ready to come in as a replacement, if needed.  On this past Sunday, there were in fact two other strong men 60-69 teams in the same field --- Tendonitis AC and Shore AC, which held the record before us.  Through the first three legs, Tendonitis AC stayed right with us.  On the last leg, Sid Howard started off with a 30.91-second lap to break contact.  In the end, the men broke their own record by 17 seconds.  Tendonitis AC also came under the previous record.
   
  In the case of the women 30-39 team, they had set the previous record in January this year, with one veteran (Kim Mannen), two rookies (Sue Pearsall and Julia Casals) and another veteran (Devon Sargent) just back from medical leave.  The order consisted of the two veterans running at what was significantly faster than the record pace, thus relieving the pressure on the rookies.  On this past Sunday, Julia was unavailable due to recent illness and Kim had been out for five weeks due to an injury.  So the lineup was juggled around, leading off with Sue running 7 seconds faster, Kim holding her same time, replacement Denise Whittaker-Crain moving up from her 400m specialty to run 800m and Devon closing 8 seconds faster.  They ended up breaking their own record by 12 seconds.
   
  THE AFTERMATH:  Considering these circumstances, it is entirely possible that they could improve on those records even further in the future.  But somewhere, sooner or (hopefully, much) later, another record attempt will fail.  But we do not live or die by breaking records.  Sometimes, records form a way of creating a clear focus, but they do not represent the be-all, end-all .  It is the process that provides the challenge, excitement and fulfillment.
   
  THE REST OF US:  Only eight people were running on those teams last Sunday.  For the rest of us, it was a privilege to be able to watch these friends of ours, not just on this particular occasion but their cumulative efforts of preparation over the years.
     

• NYRR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS CURRENT STANDINGS:
   
    Open men, 1st place
    Masters men, 1st place
    Veteran men, 8th place
   
    Open women, 1st place (tied)
    Masters women, 2nd place
    Veteran women, 5th place

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY:  To Stuart Calderwood, shown above stretching before his mile race at the Front Runners Track Meet on Saturday.  His presence up there destroyed the surprise party that was originally arranged to 'accidentally' run into him at Starbucks ...  Where are the accidents when you need them?  And why do they always show up when you don't need them?

• SOY PRE-REVIEW:  The review in NewYorkMetro.com is further among the journal entries of this week.  Bola Awofeso said: "I went there at lunch time during the week, but the place was not open for business!  It turns out that the restaurant is open from 5pm to 11pm.  But I looked through the window and saw Etsuko (Kizawa) in the back, so I went in to talk to her.  She was cooking and she said that this was hard work!  Anyway, I'll be back there soon ..."
   
  Travel instructions:  Delancey Street is the main thoroughfare going up the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan.  If you head east on Delancey Street, then Suffolk Street is a couple of streets on the left before you hit the bridge.  There is a sleek-looking Burger King right at that corner.  Do not go in for a whopper.  Just go up that street and Soy is on the right.  
   

• CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB INTRA-SQUAD RELAYS:  Each year, at the end of the indoor track season, the team holds an intra-team indoor track relay.  This year, the scheduled date is March 26th (time of day is unspecified as yet) at the Armory (which requires a pass to enter).  The rules are very simple: on that day, we will see how many people show up and we will randomly (literally, by pulling names out of a hat) divide them into teams of four or five or whatever.  Each team will designate people to run relay legs from 200m up to the mile.  And off we go ... This relay is an opportunity for the entire team to come together --- sprinters, middle distance and long distance runners.
     

• BOSTON TOTALS:  We don't know how we could have missed Peter Allen from our list of Boston Marathon runners.  This will be his eighteenth time, more than anyone else on the team.
   

• COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:
  Q: "What is this rubbish about the Champions League?  This is a running website, for crying out loud!"
  A: "To quote Steve Paddock, ' In the U.K., you may be good at something but unless it is football, it counts for NOTHING!'  So what are you good at?  I hope it's not just running ..."
   

• THE MYSTERY OF NINE:  Okay, someone is losing sleep at night because he was not able to come up with nine matches from eight descriptors and eight persons in the photograph of our two women's distance medley relay teams (see last week's journal entry further down this page).  The answer should have been obvious --- there are two Ivy League All-Academic cross country runners in that photo!  The Evil One has struck again ...
    

• PHYSICAL THERAPY:  From John Kenney: "Running injuries can certainly be challenging, and physio-therapy can often be the best approach to getting back on the road and the track.  Maggie Bradley is a friend of ours who has a thriving physiotherapy practice. Their office is located conveniently near Columbus Circle and offers extended hours for treatment.   She has helped put The Kenney Family and Monsieur Stéphane Bois back together again after injuries and is highly recommended. Maggie is also a starting defender on the infamous Parlor Moms soccer team who actually likes runners."  For details, please see our health & wellness page.
   
  Editor's note:  We are not sure if putting Monsieur Bois back together is so great for our team ... 
    

• OUR OWN ALL-AMERICAN:  Each year, USA Triathlon ranks age-group triathletes based upon their performances in a number of USA Triathlon races, with points being awarded based upon the quality and depth of the field.  Performances outside of that list of races will count for nought.  At the end of the year, All-American status is accorded a small number of triathletes and some more are given honorable mentions.  In year 2001, our own Shelley Farmer has been named an All American for Women 30-34.  She participated in four qualifying races, winning her age group in the two local races (Montauk Triathlon and New York City Triathlon), was seventh in the USA National Championships and fifth US finisher in the World Championships.  Her performance at the Canadian National Championships counted for nought.  In case you are wondering, she has dual citizenship.  She said, "I still have my Canadian passport and I can always go back to Canada if I don't like it here."  Yes, there is plenty not to like about here, such as this past winter not being cold enough ...
  P.S.  We note that the last person to make the All-American cutoff in that age group is none other than Christine Dunnery of the NYU Tri Club.  For a long time, it has been a mystery to us why she is not a member of the Central Park Track Club ... got an answer for us, Ramon?
   

• FAN MAIL:  From Bernie Cooper (NYRR Board) :"Just spent an hour or so enjoying your CPTC Web Site and simply wanted to tell you I found it very interesting and upbeat."  Stuart Calderwood also noted, "All of a sudden, there is a lot more on the website now."  For several years now, we have been content just trudging along, minding our own business.  The death of our founder Jack Brennan in February all of a sudden thrust us as the organization for the various tributes and events, leading to a surge in website visits as well changes in content.  Whereas these journal entries used to be buried three levels deep in the workout descriptions for the long distance runners, they are now the primary home page feature.  We are now receiving much more information from others to be posted here.  We hope the journal entries from the past two weeks show that this is going to be more than a CPTC-centric spot.  So if you have a race, or  a cause, or a restaurant, or a soccer team, that you want to tell the world about, we will be happy to try to oblige.
   
  Understand that we do not lay claim to the throne at the center of the local running scene.  There are other interesting websites, and we would recommend www.tanser.org as our favorite.  At this particular moment in time, though, we seemed to have drifted into a position where we are meeting certain needs for quick and broad communication to the local running community.
      

• THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT:  Speaking about not being cold enough, it was verily spring-like today.  Fifty-two people showed up at the workout (oops, forgot to count the late arriving Margaret Schotte, who must have read her email to be able to intercept us from the right direction in the right place).  Here are some noteworthy things:
  --- That picture of Michelle Santomassino further down this page  is actually misleading because we saw the real person tonight --- she has a sunburn!
  --- Showing up for her first road workout is Sonja Ellmann, who says "The track has not been kind to me because I keep getting injured.  I think I will take up road running now."
  --- After finishing three loops of the workout tonight, Shelley Farmer said, "Yes, that was my longest run of the year!  I am back!"
  --- And the winner of the largest belly on the club right now is ... well, who would you choose between Stacy Creamer and George Wisniewski?  The winning margin was sizeable.
  --- Alan Ruben was not here today, either because he was recovering whatever it was that struck him at the Brooklyn Half Marathon or because he is still celebrating his birthday, but he was represented by Gordon Bakoulis.  Ooops!  Bad news for the guys!  You'll all going to have to work hard tonight.
  --- More Brooklyn facts emerged:  personal records were also set by Graeme Reid, Joe Tumbarello and David Smith, while Stephanie Gould just missed by one measly second.
  --- Question:  "How are we going to set American records when all we have are Canadians on this team?"  At this moment, in fact, it would seem that we have a better chance of setting a Canadian national relay record ...
    

• THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE:  What makes us unique individuals is the fact that we have our own priorities, so what is important to one person may be different for another.  Midway through the Thursday road workout, a cell phone rang and this conversation took place: "Please, I don't want any patients calling me while I am running in the workout.  Could you please hold my call for forty minutes?  Just forty minutes.  But if there is an organ donation, you can page me immediately ..."
   

• ORTEGA FOREST:  From David Howard, "This attached picture was taken in Jacksonville following the River Run, and the race party. The setting is my old neighborhood of Ortega Forest (in Jax, Ortega is pronounced OR TIG UH, not Or tay guh)."  The picture was taken by David's grandfather.  Of greater significance to us is that Michelle Santomassino has now been spotted wearing a Central Park Track Club singlet.  When last seen in a New York City race, she was wearing a light yellow shirt and saying that she is very particular about her clothing.  So her standards must be going down ... ?  Whatever.  Michelle, please make sure that you wear that next time in a Central Park race?

• TRANSLATION NEEDED:  Apparently, not everyone reads Spanish around here (shame on you, George Wisniewski!), so here is the translation of Famous Saying #1401 from the article in the Puerto Rican newspaper.

Tanser, the author of the book "Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way" and an expert in the Kenyan training method, says that going to the Kenyan mountains does not necessarily make someone a better athlete.  Hard work is surely the key.

One can spend several months in Kenya and claim that one went to train in Kenya, but if one does not work as hard as the Kenyans, run with them and follow their discipline, one gains nothing.  To go there in order to follow the same routine that one does in one's own country makes no sense, he says.

• ST PATRICK'S DAY 10K/2M RACES:  FDR State Park, NY.  March 17, 2002.  This year this day  is dedicated to Jack Brennan.  The race is organized by the Taconic Road Runners Club, many of whom were Jack's friends.  The t-shirt design is a copy of the memorial card given out the day of Jack's funeral (see below).  Anyone who is interested in running this race, please note that Jack Brennan (of the Taconic Road Runners Club) is offering to pick up people at the Metro North train station in Katonah.  Please contact brennanphoto@attglobal.net .  Jack will also guarantee early entry fee for you.

• IT'S NEVER TOO LATE:  If you read Famous Saying #1403 carefully enough, you will note that Gail Waesche Kislevitz's book covers the life and times of one Sid Howard.  It's never too late, but you gotta keep the jog alive ...
    

• CENTRAL PARK JOGGER:  This month's Oprah Magazine has an article of the Oprah Winfrey interview with the most famous Central Park runner of all time.
    

• SOY  From the recently unseen Etsuko Kizawa:  "I just opened my little restaurant SOY.  It's a casual take-out joint.  Perhaps you want to come by for your review?"  Hmmm ... with reviewers like us, who needs enemies?

From NewYorkMetro.com: "In a three-block radius, there's every kind of fast food," says Etsuko Kizawa, an erstwhile designer determined to offer her Lower East Side neighborhood a healthier alternative to KFC and Burger King. So last month, she converted her handbag boutique into Soy, a minuscule, honeydew-green bastion of soybeans in every form, from edamame and tofu to roasted-soybean snacks, green-tea soy smoothies, even soy coffee. And for expert assistance in preparing "classic Japanese mama's dishes" like beef-and-potato stew and curry rice, Kizawa imported two temps from Japan: her parents.   102 Suffolk Street 212-253-1158

• NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT RUNNING CLUB:  From Jonathan Cane: "While I doubt that anyone really cares, I noticed that you have an old link for the NYPD running club at the running links page.  The new URL is www.nypdrunningclub.com.  The page is still primitive and I swear I had nothing to do with the mind-numbing music, but it does have a short strength training article that I wrote and hopefully I'll have some photos of Jackie Cortes up there one day soon."  With an introduction like this, how could you refrain from clicking through to the link and listen to that music?  We guarantee to you that it is infinitely better than the MIDI version of the theme from The Godfather ...
   

• CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:  Roma tied Galatasaray 1-1 at Stadio Olimpico.  Never mind the game itself, but there was a wild brawl between the two teams and the Italian riot police after the game was over.  One more round left to play, and any of the four teams in the group can still advance.  Roma plays Liverpool next week.
   

• JACK BRENNAN:  From Gary Harrity, a fellow student and teammate at the University of Scranton: "Please pass along my condolences to his friends and family. I knew Jack as a fellow student and team member at the University of Scranton. We spent many an hour running the surrounding hillsides discussing the problems of the world and life. While I lost track of him after graduation I never forgot his amazing abilities as a runner and his basic decency as a man. He will be missed. Attached are a few lunch time reminiscences of my time with Jack."
   

• WORKOUT ATTENDANCE:  The distance runners' workout on Tuesday was attended only by thirty-two people.  This week's workout is bookended by the half marathon this past Sunday and the track meet this coming Sunday, so a light attendance might be expected.  This is further compounded by the stomach virus and/or flu that has affected several people on the team, including the coaches.
   

• MORE ABOUT BROOKLYN: 
  - Kevan Huston's 1:16:12 was a personal best by 10 minutes.  When the margin is so great, there really ought to be another term other than 'personal best' or 'personal record'.
  - Ana Echeverri's 1:38:58 was a major breakthrough.  At the finish line, Kevan Huston was wondering if anyone has seen her yet and got this answer: "She finished eight minutes ago at around 1:38!  You better go to the baggage check area to look for her."
  - Brian Barry's 1:48:58 was also listed as a personal best, causing someone to call him up at home to find out how much slower his previous time was.  The fact is that he is a middle distance runner who has never run a race this long in this life before.  Technically, this is a debut (and therefore automatic) PR.
  - Kate Crowley's 1:27:14 was also a debut PR and also the longest race on her life, and drew this comment: "She looks like as if she is just jogging easily through this race.  I wonder what she will be like if she races for real?"

                               O teammate, where art thou? 

• ANSWER & QUESTION:
  From John Affleck: "I am so glad to make it to front page this week."
  To John Affleck: "What were you guys looking for?"
     

• 9 P.M. FIRE DRILL:  We must admit that we missed that 9 p.m. fire drill at the Armory for the past several weeks, but it came back on Tuesday night.  Oh, the lovely sound of the alarm bell and the wondrous sight of the flashing lights!  The strange thing is that the P.A. system also says that it is the building next door that is holding the drill when all the bells and lights went off inside the Armory.  What is in the building next door?
   

• ARSENAL!  Another Brit, Steve Paddock, was polled about his preferences tonight: "Arsenal!  Actually, I am from Swindon but their team is really not very good.  I just learned today that they have not paid their team players for three months."
   
  So it was that on this same day, Arsenal was beaten 2-0 by Deportivo La Coruña in Highbury.  This puts Deportivo in first place in Group D of the Champions League, and Arsenal tied in second place with some German team (note: we know exactly what their name is but they have no known fans on our club, so the hell with them!).
   
  The very same Steve Paddock also made this observation with respect to whether someone was a good student athlete runner: "In the U.K., you may be good at something but unless it is football, it counts for NOTHING!"
   

• TRACK IS REALLY BACK:  This is almost the end of the winter indoor track season and along comes the New York Runner magazine with an article (p.26-29, March/April 2002) by Stuart Calderwood about the Armory Track & Field Center.  The author's credentials are presented in this single sentence, "Stuart Calderwood 's claim that he can break 60 seconds for a quarter will be tested at the Armory this spring."  Well, he has one more meet left to do that.
   

• QUEEN'S RANSOM:  Last week, we asked if anyone had a tape of the ESPN program that contains the Central Park Track Club women's distance medley teams.  We have received one response so far with asking price unspecified so far.  We ask, is it fair to make unreasonable profits from your teammates' needs?
   

• DIARRHEA?:  As we move into the second week of the journal, we looked back at what we wrote for the first week.   Now someone who talks too much is said to have diarrhea of the mouth.  What about someone who writes too much ... ?  
   
  Jeff Wilson's suggestion: "logorrhea"
   

• Q:  "Why did you have a photo of a Warren Street runner first in the Brooklyn Half Marathon photo album?"
  A:  "For a good reason.  Besides, we gotta do something, don't we?" 

WEEK OF MARCH 5-MARCH 11, 2002

• 4th ANNUAL FRONT RUNNERS MEET:  This Sunday (3/17), this track meet will mark the end of the local winter track season.  This is a USATF sanctioned meet, and the Central Park Track Club will be represented by several people who have a realistic shot at setting American/World records --- Alston Brown in the 60m sprint and the 400m, and the women's 4x800m relay team.  What this meet is not good at is publishing their results, as we have never been able to find last year's results.  But, as a team, we are a most enterprising and enthusiastic group, so we will be out there with our own timers (are you reading this, Jeff Wilson?) and photographers.  One way or the other, the world will hear about us.
   

• 2002 CLUB DUES NOTICE:  The club dues notices were mailed out last week.  Our annual dues are the same $75 as last year.  What do you get?  Among other things, you get two coached workouts per week through the entire year, with a choice of sprinting, middle distance or road running.  Comparison shopping would show that this can only be said to be ludicrously low in the city.  The dues also provide travel stipends for our athletes, subsidies for indoor track fees, team entry fees and other projects.  
   
  Although the annual dues are listed at $75 per person, there is in fact a tiered structure.  Historically, we have been tagged as the 'rich people's team' because we 'seem' to have a surfeit of professionals (doctors, lawyers, Wall Street traders, etc).  But just as in the real world, we are not all equal.  Depending on their means, our members pay different rates as sponsors, regulars, students, hardships, inactive and out-of-town.  Even though we would like to acknowledge our sponsors individually, they have so far shown no interest in seeking publicity.  But we will say that many of our projects would not have been possible without their generous contributions.
    
  The club dues notices were mailed to the last known addresses.  If you do not receive this letter with the orange-colored sender's address label soon, please email Roland to follow up.
     

• DON DIXON: Over the weekend, local runner Don Dixon died after falling on the same trail that Jack Brennan used to run on.  Don was the brother of Bunny Franco, a member of the Central Park Track Club.  When Don was 50 years old, he ran the 1977 New York City Marathon in a time of 2:39:57 and then two years later  he ran 2:39:38 in Boston.  Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Don.
    

• DEATH OF THE WORKOUT PAGE:  Apparently, one of the most annoying pages on this website was the Workouts page that you have to click through from the home page in order to reach either the long distance runners' or middle distance runners' workout pages.  Supposedly, this page serves no purpose.  Well, if we had an ad salesperson on our staff, we could have gotten two cents for each page view.  Do you think that is absurd to collect toll in this fashion?  Far from it, because that is exactly how Yahoo.com and others structure their websites.  But the real reason that we had the workout page was to provide a bridge among our various groups, providing common information such as announcements and travel directions to the track.  We wanted to avoid the club from splintering into non-communicating groups.  With the coming of these journal entries, that intermediate workout page is now dead.  You can now reach the workouts directly from the home page.  Goodness gracious.
   
  From what we can tell so far, these journal entries are functioning.  At the very least, there are people who tell us that they never read the old workout descriptions before but are now reading the journal.  While we are not necessarily saying anything different or new, we are now reaching more people.
     

• FAMOUS SAYING #1402: This was scanned directly from the 1982 New York City Marathon spectator guide.  That was a time when the marathon was still small enough that it was feasible for the sponsor Manufacturers Hanover to print a small booklet that shows the course map, the mile markers as well as features on elite local runners.  Back then, the marathon had more of a hometown flavor than today's international festival.  The borough championships were serious matters, as opposed to the commercial shell of what passes for it today.  We note that George Wisniewski won the Bronx championship with times of 2:30:56 in 1979, 2:25:57 in 1980 and 2:23:58 in 1981.  Another Central Park Track Club name on the champions' list was Fritz Mueller, who was the 1978 Manhattan champion in a time of 2:25:24.  Of all his New York City Marathons, George seems to prefer talking about the one in which he was passed by 'that Norwegian woman' just after Columbus Circle when he was left sucking the dust kicked up by her entourage of motorcycle cops.
   
  As a technical note, the orange color in the background of the scanned page was original and not added by us as you might be cynically inclined to believe. 
   

• NOW IT'S THE SPURS:  From Charles Allard Jr.: "I noticed that Shula Sarner gave a rousing cheer for the Arsenal football club after some nonsense about north Londoners. Obviously a proper North Londoner with any sense would be rooting for the Tottenham Hotspur.  But then again Arsenal did beat the Germans which is a good thing...sometimes. You see that is the problem with European football, so many animosities and old scores that you can hardly keep track of them. Track is so much simpler. Just root for the fast guys."
   
  Apart from old scores, there are also recent scores.  Today on the Tottenham Hotspur website, the weekend result was: Manchester United 4, Spurs 0.  Hehehe ...
    
  Here are the all-important dates of the matches that matter in the UEFA Champions League:
  -- Group D, March 12, Arsenal vs. Deportivo La Coruña
  -- Group B, March 13, Roma vs. Galatasaray
   

• RACE PACE:  Frank Schneiger ponders: "I ran three races this year --- the Gridiron Classic 5K, the Valentine's Day 10K and the Al Gordon 15K.  They were all at effectively the same 8 minute mile pace.  Does this mean that I am getting faster?  Or else that I can't run at any other pace?"

• GO NAOMI!  Another race result is the third-place finish by Naomi Reynolds at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships Girls 5000m in a time 18:58.  A sophomore at Stuyvesant High downtown, Naomi represented the Central Park Track Club at the USATF National Indoor Championships by running a 2:29 800m leg in the women's distance medley relay last week.
   

• 7,000 STRONG AND COUNTING:  As of today, this website has 6,995 jpeg files and 207 gif files.  Thank god for digital cameras, or else the costs of film and processing would have been murderous.
   

• HILLTOP SPOTTER: For the Brooklyn Half Marathon, we did warn you that this was not the same course as last year.  Instead of two loops inside Prospect Park last year, there is only one loop this year.  What we did not tell you was that the race did not stop at the same point.  While the 12 mile marker would have told you that you have some more distance to go, you probably did not expect --- a long uphill finish!  Of course, your photographers were posted at the top of the hill looking down at the runners.  It is a pity that we did not record the comments ... 
   
  In any case, all you Brooklyn racers should count your blessing that this race did not take place on Sunday, when there was a 50mph cold northwesterly head wind.  You would have died out there!

Bill Haskins, Kevin Arlyck, Tony Ruiz in Prospect Park

• BROOKLYN HALF MARATHON WRAP-UP:
   
  Our women's team won this race with a 3-6-8 placing.  For the season, we are tied for first place with Moving Comfort New York after two races.  Our first two runners (Margaret Angell and Alayne Adams) have been our franchise runners, so their high placings were expected.  Margaret's time of 1:22:40 should be taken in light of the fact that she was running the mile for the women's distance medley rely just one week ago.  Alayne's time of 1:24:35 should be taken in light of the fact that she started out conservatively to test her fitness, and maintained a good pace.  Stephanie Gould's 1:25:22 was a pleasant surprise --- two weeks ago before the Snowflake Four Miler, we asked her if she was racing that one and she laughed at the suggestion, saying that she had not run a race since the New  York Marathon and therefore in no shape whatsoever.  Yeah, right, you can't trust anyone around here ... Insurance was provided by Kate Crowley with a 1:27:14 in her first half marathon and longest race ever.
   
  Our men's team finished in second place after West Side Runners.  For the season, we are now in first place after three races.  Various bad things happened to us, including losing our two local Brooklyn runners Kevin Arlyck to illness before the race and Richie Borrero to an injury during the race plus other people feeling various forms and degrees of discomfort during the race.  In the end, we had the depth to get a team score that probably had the same result as we would have gotten at full strength.  Among other accomplishments, we note that Chris Kennan's 1:31:47 (PR) is an automatic Men 50-54 qualifying time for the New York City Marathon.
   
  By the way, our men's masters won again, although West Side Runners made it closer than usual.
   
  Other sayings: 
  G'mo Rojas: "I was wearing a white NYU Triathlon Club singlet, so you missed me."  Question: And that is a victory of some sort?
  Eve Bois: "This French person told me to take the D train to get to the finish where I can watch ... imagine me running around the upper west side looking for a D train to Brooklyn!"
  Tony Ruiz: "I'll have to ask Eve Bois what she did last night and then I'll tell her never to do that again!"
  Steve Paddock: "You know the thing about me being a middle distance runner and not a long distance runner?  You are right.  From now on, it's just 5K's!"
    

• WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:  The new members accepted in February are
      Kate Crowley
      Heidi Newell  
      Ken Shatzer
  In brief, Ken is a New Jerseyan introduced by Josh Feldman; Kate and Heidi are young fast women from Georgetown U and Smith College respectively.  Three new members only this month is actually not a bad thing, since we were having a hard time trying to figure who is who ...
   
• FRANZISKA:  Franziska Rochat-Moser of Switzerland, the winner of the 1997 New York City Marathon, died after a fall during a snow slide in the Swiss Alps.   Rochat-Moser was trained as a lawyer, but gave up her career to run a five-star restaurant.  Of course, she was also an international elite runner.  Our memory of her includes this photo from the 1997 New York City Marathon, where she is shown leading the race in Brooklyn ahead of Franca Fiaccone, Colleen de Reuck, and Tegla Loroupe and ... our own Alan Ruben.

• SPECIAL NOTICE:  From Kevin Arlyck: "Dear CPTC, Unfortunately, due to a sudden, violent, stomach ailment, I have to postpone the bagel breakfast tomorrow. Even if I make it to the race, I'm in no shape to be the delightful host I so wanted to be. So please accept my apologies, and I look forward to having everyone over on May 18th, after the You Gotta Have Park 5 miler (men's scoring race). Regretfully, Kevin"

• REMINDER NOTICE ABOUT THOSE BAGELS IN BROOKLYN  From Kevin Arlyck: "All members (and friends) of the Orange Army are cordially invited to celebrate our anticipated triumphs, both personal and collective, after the conclusion of the Brooklyn Half-Marathon on March 9th. If you can manage to tear yourself away from that tension-filled airline-ticket drawing, come feast on delicious Brooklyn bagels and regale your teammates with tales of the race. Hey, if you're going to take that ungodly subway ride anyway, you might as well get the most out of it...  From 10:00 until whenever 392-406 St. John's Place #4E (about a mile from the race finish).  For all you reluctant Manhattanites, my apartment is close to the 1/2 trains."  At the Thursday roadwork, a show of hands among the thirty or so people present suggests that eight of them would be at the party.  Please note that the Brooklyn Half Marathon racers are most likely NOT to be at the workout, which means that we can anticipate to have at least twenty people creating a public nuisance in Kevin's neighborhood ...

  

• FINAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BROOKLYN HALF MARATHON: Now that we have covered the important issue of the post-race party, we should really talk about the race itself.  Is that too much to ask?
   
  (1)  The course: This is not the same course as last year, because we won't have the icy conditions on the boardwalk now.  Roughly, the race will consist of two miles on the Coney Island boardwalk, which may not be the most natural surface to run and requires some extra attention; and then about seven miles on the long, flat Ocean Parkway (which could be tough if there is a strong northwest wind) and then over three hilly miles inside Prospect Park.  This means that the first half of the race may feel very easy, but the true test is going to be how fast you can finish (and try not to have to crawl in).  So you are advised not to start out too fast even though it seemed easy to do so (but we also plead with one very special person not to start out TOO slow!).  
   
  (2) Transportation:  You are traveling to the other end of the universe, so please plan carefully.  Craig Chilton recommends: "I have take a car service and I have taken the subway.  I actually think that the subway was a better ride."  More leg room perhaps?  In any case, the theoretical duration of that train ride from Manhattan is over an hour, but that depends on jumping on a train the moment you arrive at the station.  So please plan your schedule carefully.
   
  (3) YOU:  Long-windedness is actually a virtue for a half marathon, so we will reiterate the following commandments.  The half marathon is not a short distance race; many things can happens.  If this is the first half marathon that you are running, if you have social obligations the night before, if you have been recovering from the cold/flu, if your training is not where you think you should be, if there are a thousand other things, then you don't have to run this race or you can run this race easy.  You will run this race because you are ready and you want to, not because you think that the team needs you.  The triathlete says, "It's about me!"  We agree, though not necessarily for the same reasons.  We say it's about you and it's about your enjoying the Central Park Track Club experience.
   
• METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS:
  (1)  Tuesday workout, sub-freezing temperatures.  Glenis Frank: "I loosened my pony tail and let my hair down before I exited the Armory building, because I needed my hair to protect me against the cold blast."
  (2)  Thursday workout, mid-sixty-degree temperatures.  Jerome O'Shaughnessy: "I am not the only one in shorts tonight."
    
• BOSTON MARATHON:  From the entrants' database, we harvested these names: Peter Allen, Stuart Calderwood, Patrick Cowden, David D'Adamo, Ana Echeverri, Anna Fyodorova, Gordon Holmes, Audrey Kingsley, Bill Komaroff, Jessica Merritt, Kate Nash, Matthew Newman, Derek O'Connor, Andrea Ostrowski, Craig Plummer, Kellie Quinones, Clodagh Rafferty, Alan Ruben, Shula Sarner, Charlie Stark, Fred Trilli, Joe Tumbarello, Jeff Wilson.  Not all of them will be at the starting line on April 15th (e.g. Jeff Wilson whose present training consists of pressing buttons on his timekeeper's watch), but all their names are listed here for one moment in the spotlight.  At the very least, we know that they qualified for Boston.  P.S.  We note that Jessica Merritt is now listed as a resident of Bakersfield, California and that is why we have not seen her in some time.
    

• FAST WOMEN:  Finally, our photos of the meet have been posted.  As you know, we only have cheap digital camera equipment and so our track race photos do not always come out perfect.  The best photos are the last three group portraits (#51, #52, #53), where we had no qualms about using soft edges to highlight the people.  These photos are for all-time memories.
    

• THE REAL FAST WOMEN:  In case you have not yet seen the best photos in town, please proceed to FastWomen.com.  For the USATF National Indoor Championships, they have some wonderful photos taken by Alison Wade (of NYRR and Warren Street).  On pages four and five of that photo album, there are astonishingly clear and beautiful  photos of Lee Shearer, Naomi Reynolds and the two Margarets together.  O Alison, we are not worthy ... we are not worthy ...  now if only you can fix up that picture of Devon Sargent (#85), please?
   
  Of course, we must not forget our fast man Isaya Okwiya who can be found at MensRacing.com.
   

• FRITZ'S TRIBUTE:  The central piece of the written record that Jack Brennan left us was in the 'interview' of Fritz Mueller.  Obviously, he would not have gone through all the trouble if he was not genuinely fond of Fritz.  On the day of Jack's funeral service, Fritz was able to make an appearance before rushing off to the airport to catch a plane to Germany.  So his tribute has appeared belatedly, but the sentiments are no less powerful.
   

• REPORT CARD - A "C" ON THE "A":  On the "A" train home from the Tuesday workout, our MTA employee said, "I didn't spill anything on the train tonight.  Don't you think I am good?"  Unfortunately, the official grader only gave him a very tepid "C" with this explanation, "You are being graded as an MTA employee.  On those two previous trips, you got an "F" for the spills because you should have done better as an MTA employee.  Tonight, you get a "C" because you are only doing what you are supposed to do as an MTA employee.  Any non-MTA employee might have gotten a "B" instead.  To get an "A", you will have to earn extra credits.  Use your imagination!"  So will he bring a mop to the workout next time?
    

• TEAM AFFILIATION:  Given the continual confusion on this subject, we will re-print the NYRR policy statement "To declare your team, put your team name on your race application. Even if you indicated your team with your NYRRC Membership information, you still need to declare your team on your application. If you are unsure whether you declared your team on your application, check the printed tag on your race number when you pick it up. Your team code should appear below your name. Changes and edits can be made at registration anytime prior to the start of the race. Changes to your team affiliation cannot be made AFTER the race has started. If you are currently a member of one team and are changing to another team, contact us (NYRRC) to let us know that a change is taking place.  USATF rules state that when changing teams, you must run as unattached for 90 days before you can compete for a new team.  If you compete for a new team prior to this 90 day period, you run the risk of disqualifying your new team."  
   
  The official USATF statement of the 90 day rule is in Regulation #7.C.2 "Transfers between clubs/organizations: To transfer representation from one club/organization to another, an athlete must serve ninety (90) days in "unattached" status from the date of the last competition in which the athlete represented a club/organization ..."
   
  Knowing these basic facts will help you from being asterisked in the next race for not putting down your team affiliation correctly.  This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.  Have you read this, Shula Sarner (or we should say Jordan Metzl)?
   

• CPTC POLICY ON ACCEPTING MEMBERS FROM OTHER TEAMS:  All members of the Central Park Track Club should be aware of the club's policy concerning recruiting people from other local running clubs.
    
  No one should try to encourage anyone from any other local running club to leave that club and to join the Central Park Track Club. However, if for whatever reason a person has left or intends to leave their club and is interested in joining CPTC, then it is OK to talk to them about what our club offers and the procedure for joining CPTC. The important distinction here is that the initial approach must NOT come from us.
    
  If CPTC receives a membership application from someone who is leaving, or has left their team, we will contact the applicant to ensure that they have informed their team. We will also contact their team leader to make sure that they are aware of the situation. If that leader objects to that person joining CPTC and we determine that unfair recruiting has taken place we will not accept their application at that time. We will not reconsider a subsequent application from that person until at least three months has elapsed from the date of the initial application.
    
  Let's remember that we are one of the larger running teams in the New York area and it is not in our interests to expand by recruiting people from other smaller teams. We welcome a large number of vibrant, active teams in the area in order to enhance the level of team competition and inter-club rivalry.
   

• WHY SHOULD ANYONE JOIN A TEAM?  You can run by your lonesome self if that is what you want, or you can run with a whole group of wonderful people (see picture below) ... what's it going to be?  We did make it easy for you, didn't we?
   
  Beyond the subject of running, this photo shows an eclectic collection of eight New Yorkers --- can you mix and match these descriptors with the correct persons? A current Stuyvesant High student, a United Nations-posted British diplomat, a Canadian national high school 3000m champion, a Bronxville (NY) recording-setting sprint star, an NYU law school student, a power attorney-at-law, a Canadian triathlete and an Ivy League All-Academic cross country runner.  Now, did you get nine (yes, that is nine) matches like we did?

Margaret Schotte, Lauren Eckhart, Lee Shearer, Melissa Tidwell, Margaret Angell, Charlotte Cutler, Naomi Reynolds, Devon Sargent
2002 USATF National Indoor Track & Field Championships, Women's Distance Medley Relay teams
(photo credit: Bola Awofeso)

• TEAM APPRECIATION NIGHT: At the Tuesday night track workout, coach Tony Ruiz described why the USATF National Indoor Championships had been so special: "This is the first time that I have ever seen the Central Park Track Club featured on ESPN!"  By the way, does anyone out there have that program taped in VHS?  If so, will you please arrange to lend Roland that copy to convert into digital file for the web?
   
  It is also special because of the eight shining stars of the Central Park Track Club (see picture above).  There are about fifty photos in total from this meet, which we need a little bit more time to process.  Our photographer Bola Awofeso was quite worried about the outcome of this particular photo: "To take this picture, I had to get down on the track where I was told that I would be forcibly ejected because I did not have a floor pass.  I couldn't care less because this picture was too important.  When I got home, I tried to check the photo via the viewer.  I could not open it!  Devon will kill me!  I just hope that our graphic designer could work some miracles to salvage this photo ..."  No problem.  The rest of the photos will appear soon.
   
• ESCALATION CLAUSE:  First, at the Boston Terrier Classic, we had a photo of the four members of our women's DMR team.  Now, we have a photo of the eight members of our two DMR teams.  We could easily have fielded a third women's DMR team.  How about Sonja Ellmann-Helene Sisti-Kim Mannen-Kate Crowley?  Just as fast and just as drop-dead gorgeous!  Now, what about that fourth women's DMR team ... ?
    
• THE NEW CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB T-SHIRT: The first sale session was held at the Snowflake party.  Since we had one week break from the indoor track, this Tuesday was the first time that people wore the new t-shirt at the Armory.  Helene Sisti said to one of the wearers, "Oh, what a nice t-shirt!" when she in fact was wearing one herself.  Norman Goluskin winced and said, "Oh, no, another one-of-its-kind team gear", thus lumping this officially sanctioned t-shirt with that infamous one-and-only-one green/white jacket.
    
• COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT: Directed to the New York Road Runners website about his photo at the Coogan's 5K, Isaya Okwiya said, "They should not be allowed to publish pictures of Kenyans dying at the end of a race ..."
   
• METEOROLOGIST NOT FOR HIRE:  Marty Levine reports: "I asked this teammate who lives in Stuyvesant Town if he would be at the Coogan's 5K.  The response was, 'If it doesn't rain hard, I'll be there.'  So I looked for him on this very sunny morning, but he was nowhere to be found.  I guess he is not a meteorologist."
   
• EXTRA TIMER'S WATCH FOR SALE:  The same Marty Levine also reports: "I bought a timer's watch several weeks ago.  For the Tuesday workout, I did an avalanche search of my home and this watch was nowhere to be found.  So I ended up buying another watch.  When I got to the Armory, I took out my running shoes and there was a watch inside one shoe ..."
    
• BROOKLYN HALF MARATHON:  The race starts at 8am on the Coney Island boardwalk and it is a long trip out there from Manhattan.  Here is the course description: "Start on the Coney Island Boardwalk at West 5th Street, head west to a turnaround located at West 37th Street. Proceed onto West 10th Street. Exit off West 10th Street to Surf Avenue. Follow on Surf to Ocean Parkway. Left on Ocean Parkway to Prospect Expressway. Prospect Expressway to Park Circle. Enter Prospect Park at Park Circle onto South Lake Drive. Head east on the South Lake Drive. Follow to East Drive around the northern end of the Park, and then head south on the West Drive. Left onto Hill Drive to East Drive. Left onto East Drive to Central Drive. Left on Central Drive. Finish in Prospect Park, on Central Drive."  For those of who ran last year, this is a different course because the boardwalk section was omitted due to icy conditions last year.  Don't forget about the party at Kevin Arlyck's place (see below for details).
   
• PRIZE MONEY:  Lest we forget to mention, the second place finish by the men at the Coogan's 5K earned us $200.  When is the next party?
   
• LIFE IN THE MOB:  From a long-time teammate Marty Stanton: "LifeInTheMob is a web-based interactive game based on the Mob, priced at $19.95 per year (18 and older).  We created a Flash animation - click on 'the Real story of the Three Little Pigs' - to introduce the game, get people to forward the message, preview the game, and hopefully join.  Let me know if you have any questions; people can contact me at two2beamup@yahoo.com."

 Amanda Bermo, aka Big Foot?

• FAVORITE QUOTE ABOUT AMANDA:   A certain CPTC member said, "It depresses me to visit the Bermo home --- that child already has more hair than I do right now ..."
   
• WURTSBORO MOUNTAIN 30K ROAD RACE:  From Brian Cavanagh:  "Could you please spread the word about the following new 30km race by including it in your race calendar and sharing this info with fellow club members?  I am the founder of the 100km Catskill Mountain Road Relay for 5 & 10 person teams which has been held annually since 1992 and have created a new race to stimulate in interest in long distance running, a hilly woods and wetlands road course in southeastern NY state. Years ago, Betty Marolla, Ralph Balsamo and others from your club ran my relay race and loved it.  Thanks!

  Wurtsboro Mountain 30k Road Run (70 miles NW of NYC)
  Saturday, March 30, 2002
  RD: Brian Cavanagh 845-791-6149 before 8:00pm
  http://www.catskill.net/abcav/30k.htm 
  Drawings for watches, post-race buffet, medals for all finishers, 30Km T-shirts to first 100, sixty-two competitive awards, challenging single loop road course, USATF Certified Course #NY01046AM; aid stations every mile (water, Gatorade, gels, split timing). Great spring marathon tune-up!
    

• COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT: "Why does the section heading read 'Week of March 5-March 11, 2002' when the page appeared on March 3?"  The canned template response says, "GET A LIFE!!!"
     
• PLAY AND REST:  This week, our open men's team finished second at the Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrock 5K.  This means that we are tied at the top with Warren Street after two races.  Actually, we were more pleased by the list of scorers.  Two weeks ago, at the Al Gordon 15K, our top five runners were Alan Ruben, Josh Feldman, Richie Borrero, Craig Chilton and Kevin Arlyck.  This week, our top five runners were Erik Goetze, Isaya Okwiya, Josh Feldman, Alan Ruben and Steve Paddock.   Three of them are middle distance runners (actually, the first two because Steve doesn't know it yet ... ).  So we did not have to run the same five guys again and again (unless they feel that they can do so).  Next week, at the Brooklyn Half Marathon, we presume that we will get Richie, Craig and Kevin back.  And how about Roane Carey running in his own backyard?
    
  As for the older guys, this week we had Alan Ruben (1st M40-44), Tom Phillips (2nd M45-49) and Ricardo Granados (3rd M45-49) to win comfortably again.  
     
  The principle is this --- we are a big and competitive club with many runners and we will have a good showing at any race regardless.  If sometimes the race schedule does not seem sensible, we don't have to live by it.  In our thirty years, we have won too many championships to count.  We want our people to enjoy running and not be pressured into doing things that they don't want to do.  In fact, over the last four weeks, we have gone overboard by emphasizing to people not to run all these races --- people now have to be defensive about wanting to race!
    
  As for race photos, we have none.  On this day, one of our photographers ran the race and the other one woke up at 12:30pm just in time to read the results.  Again, we operated on the same principle --- we won't do anything that we don't want to.  But we do well and we enjoy ourselves.
    
• USATF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:  At the USATF National Indoor Championships, our two women's distance medley relay teams improved significantly on their season's bests.  All our "A" team runners set personal bests for this season; the "B" ran their fastest time too even with some illnesses and injuries.  This is the first year that we have assembled relay teams that compete regularly.  Unfortunately, just when they are getting better and better (and they still have lots of room left before they approach their all-time personal bests), the indoor season is near an end.  Of course, this means that the outdoor season will begin ...
   
  We were watching the women's distance medley relay from the comfort of our living room via the Armory webcam.  To get maximum view, we set the image to full-screen.  Of course, the resolution is rough and the sound was mostly inaudible.  But we could clearly identify Charlotte Cutler with the swirling hair, Lee Shearer with the quick turnover and arm motion, Devon Sargent with the high arm carry and Margaret Angell with the lifting leg motion.  The public announcement system was mostly garbled, but we could hear 'Central Park Track Club' mentioned over and over again during the first half of the race.  And was that James Siegel's voice yelling "Go, Margaret"?  Of course, he had to yell twice as loud because we had Margaret A. and Margaret S. in the race at the same time.
    
  There were some photos taken at the USATF National Indoor Championships but we don't have them yet.  The photos will be handed over to us in a clandestine meeting at the Tuesday workout ... 
   
  We were represented at the USATF National Indoor Championships by our two women's DMR teams.  There are a couple of other teammates who should have been in the limelight too.  First, Sue Krogstad-Hill was invited to run in the women's masters 400m race.  Unfortunately, she pulled a muscle at the MAC Indoor Championships a week ago and had to missed this one.  Second, we imagined that John Prather should have belonged right in the men's masters mile.  We promise you that we will review the legend of John Prather someday (soon).
    
•  MISSING RACE RESULT:  From the Coogan's 5K, we note that Hakan Durantas finished in a time of 23:37 for 379th overall and 144th age group.  Hakan is a member of the Achilles Track Club, and his running guide today was none other than Toby Tanser.  Within our club, many members are ATC running guides (Yves-Marc Courtines, Jeff English, Shelley Farmer, ...).  If you are interested, check out www.achillestrackclub.org.  By the way, you do know that they are organizing a marathon inside Prospect Park on April 28th?
     

• TOP SECRET PHOTOS:  Last week, we published this note: "A perennial complaint around here is that there are never photos of one particular individual.  Well, some other website has apparently scored a scoop with two revealing photos about what that particular individual really does while on overseas work assignment ..."
   
  Although we thought that we were performing a public service, we could not believe how much grief we got as a result.  First of all, there are the paranoid ravings: "And thanks for posting the blank pdf document as pictures of yourself.  That's exactly how I remember you."  For the record, this is an occasional glitch associated with Adobe pdf documents --- sometimes, you have to download the document first (Right click on the link and choose 'Save As') and then open it from your hard drive.  Here is the rest of the whining: 
   
  Q&A

  Photo 1
  Q:  "Who is she?"  A: "This is my boss and a Central Park runner who hates orange people that hog up the whole roadway!"
  Q: "Will you please keep your hands off her?"  A:  "Please look carefully.  No touching occurred."
   
  Photo 2
  Q: "How many bottles of beer are there on the wall?"  A: "Are you blind?  There are five bottles and one glass of beer on the table."
  Q: "Where do you have room in your body to store the beer ?"  A: "See that bottle of Pelligrino?  That's mine.  The beer belonged to someone else ... obviously."
  Q: "Hoof and mouth disease = running too little + eating and drinking too much?"  A: "%#=@*^!" 

• TRUTH OR DARE:   Last Thursday's road workout, George Wisniewski said, "I'm listening to Highway 61 Revisited on my Walkman and you can't publish that."  Really ... ?
   

• QUOTE:  Attributed to E. Stacy Creamer: "'There is no such thing as genius; anyone can write if they approach the craft with an open heart and a dedication to the task. Even the greatest writers of our time have to keep at it and at it, and if they don't, their work will fall short."
   
  Not as good as this quote also attributed to the same Stacy Creamer: "Jeho autobiografie odhali velmi soukromou stranku verejne zname a fascinujici osobnosti."  What was that?  Paging Karel Matouskek ... paging Karel Matousek ...
   

• SCRANTON MEMORIAL EVENTS:  This Sunday, Scranton remembers Jack Brennan with these events:

  Saturday, March 9 at 2PM - Memorial Mass - Chapel Church, Taylor & Gibson, Scranton, PA  
  (There is also a St. Pat's Day  5K run that Saturday morning at 11:25 am, before the parade.  Info can be found at www.stpatparade.com (5k race entry form).)
    
  Sunday, March 10 at 11AM - Memorial Run - Lake Scranton 3.5 miles - 
  Open run led by Michael Brennan.  All are welcome.
    

• WEB ACCESS STATISTICS:  The passing of our founder Jack Brennan brought many visitors to our website in February.  Compared to our previous best month (January 2002), our user sessions jumped from 881 to 1100 per day and our page views jumped from 1,339 to 1,601 per day. 

• YET ANOTHER FAKE PHOTO:  This is a photo of Jack Brennan seemingly running at the southern end of the Central Park reservoir, with the Mount Sinai Medical Center in the far background.  Denizens of the park will recognize immediately that this is an impossible situation because the reservoir is surrounded by a tall chain-link fence.  Still, we found it hard to accept the fact that all we have are photos of Jack running on tar-surfaced roadways with non-descript backdrops when he has in fact spent so many hours in this lovely urban retreat.  Therefore, a simple application of Adobe Photoshop did the trick.  Of course, as the person who once gave himself the award of the most valuable runner on the club, he would appreciate this malappropriation.
   

• WHAT NOT TO AWARD:  ... a statue of a topless mermaid to the female winner of the first (and last!) Central Park Track Club swim meet some years ago.  Even though this had the handprints of Jack Brennan all over it, he didn't do it.  Really.
   

• PRESS RELEASE:  This following press release was composed by Noah Perlis, obvioulsy using some canned template.

  ***PRESS RELEASE***

  FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION AND PUBLICATION, NO RIGHTS RESERVED.

  TO: ALL MEDIA TYCOONS AND TYPHOONS

  The Central Park Track Club Official "Unofficial" Website, located at http://centralparktc.org/, which would be a multiple award-winning website if awards for this category were given, has bowed to immense private pressure to launch a new section authored and collated/edited by its volunteer unpaid and partly unsung solo editor, Roland Soong, veteran world-traveler, statistician par excellence, cunning linguist, raconteur, merciless food critic, former running competitor, possible future competitor in this or another lifetime to come, and photographic hound and renaissance man, to be title "Journal."

  This new page, much awaited, deserving, and soon to be heralded, states the modest Mr. Soong (known to his legions of fans as Mr. Roland, Sir Roland, Roland, or "hey you"), will be a frequently-updated compilation of various running related and unrelated snippets of information and comments. It promises to be educational, inspirational, arcane, inane, dull, and exciting, all at the same time. "Something for everyone" states the usually reserved Mr. Soong.  Inquiries will only be accepted for the modest private fee schedule for inclusions and exclusions on the Journal and other web pages.

  Please address all other inquiries of whatever kind, especially if unkind, to anyone else on the CPTC who is habitually late for the practice starts and late with their dues payments, and especially not Mr. Soong, who has no patience and little tolerance for inquiries, especially if unsolicited.

  *****************************************************

• JOURNAL:  For some time, we have been mulling over setting up a different section.  For the gossip, if you will.  A few weeks ago, we changed the 'Workout' menu item on the home page to 'Workout Journal.'  Now Noah Perlis has this suggestion:

I, and I am sure most if not all others, find your "journal section" to be many wonderful things, including insightful, inciteful, enlightening, engaging, reflective, refractive, and just plain good.  However (you knew there would be a "however"), it does not deserve to be on the long distance runners page where it will go unseen by many, and also detracts somewhat away from the purist masochism/sadism which pervades and underscore the workout descriptions, even for the road voyeurs among us, myself included.

Please seriously consider my request to immediately create and chronicle/archive a new permanent web page for your "Journal entries" to properly give them the place, and historical/hysterical reference they deserve, or do not deserve.

Your committed (or to be committed, or should be committed) running gadfly,

Noah

So it is that this journal page begins this week.  The general rules are
 
(1) The journal page is updated continuously.  Entries will be in the order of latest item on the top.
 
(2) The journal page is NOT the official history of the Central Park Track Club.  It is an unsystematic collection of things that would have disappeared into the dustbin of history if someone did not gather them into one place.  It is NOT the history as seen by one person either.
 
(3) The journal page is divided into weekly sections, following the middle distance runner' convention of beginning every 'week' on Tuesday.  Why do we do that?  Because Monday is the Day of Rest, or so coach Devon Sargent has decreed.
 
(4)  All previous 'journal' entries can still be accessed through the Road Runners Workout Archive, and there are megabytes of stuff there.