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Week of March 29, 2005 - April 4, 2005 More Photos Photos from the Intrasquad Relay are now posted. We couldn't remember the name of one runner in this picture, but if you know who it is — or if you spot any other unidentified people — please let us know. The same goes for all those Club Night photos. Meanwhile we're still working on the roughly 750 photos we have from the last four track races (about half of those are from Sue Pearsall) . They won't all make it up here, but a lot of them will, and it will take a little more time. Attack of the Robots They're not taking over yet, but Slate explains how robots may soon beat human at sports. Margaret Schotte Usually when our members win something we can count on them to tell us about it. But there are a few people on the team who refrain from any immodest self-promotion. Like Margaret Schotte, who for some reason didn't trumpet the fact that she earned All American honors and was ranked first duathlete F25-29 by USA Triathlon, and was named Triathlon Canada's Female Age-Group Duathlete of the Year. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. Of Course, To Really Impress the Ladies, You Need a Six-Pack We've always been a fan of two-fisted drinking, but we tend to limit ourself to one drink per hand. Toby Tansershows us a better way to do it, over at the Westchester Track Club site. As if Microsoft Doesn't Cause Enough Misery Already "Getting rid of Office wasn't an option. You can't run a war without PowerPoint."
[Link via The Volokh Conspiracy] Photos Okay, so we totally thought we would get these done tonight, but then we remembered that we had to do our fantasy baseball draft after the game, and by the time that was done it was too late to finish the photos. We'll definitely post some on Tuesday, and we might even get them up tomorrow if we don't get stuck at work. Street Shoes for Africa One of my non-running activities is to organize photography exhibitions at the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation). One of the photographers whose work we are currently exhibiting, Stephen Shames began a foundation to help AIDS orphans, street kids, working children, and other vulnerable youngsters in Africa where he visits regularly. He told me that when he asked the kids what they needed most for him to bring them, they replied, "Shoes." Immediately, I thought of Toby Tanser's terrific Shoe4Africa project and told him we can probably help. His foundation is called Outside the Dream and they pay school fees for the kids and food, books, pens, paper and medical care but they need decent street shoes as well. They don't have to be new. If you want to learn more see: www.outsidethedream.org The children are between the ages of 9 and 19 so a variety of sizes would be suitable. If you want to help, please send shoes to:
Call or email Mike to let him know the shoes are coming. Money to purchase shoes should be sent to Stephen. (He is going there in May):
Make checks to: Outside the Dream Foundation. Thanks,
Urban Environmental Challenge From our correspondent on the spot:
Teaser Photos We're working on lots of photos here, and we've put up the smallet set — pictures from Club Night — to hold you until we post the rest. We should finish a few more sets during the commercials of tonight's baseball game. Scotland Run A loyal reader suggested on Friday that we remind you all to set your clocks ahead last night. And we would have, but we didn't have time to get to the website. We're glad to see that enough of you remembered on your own for the women to win the race and the men to take second. And we're pretty psyched to see Stacia Schlosser's name in the results for the first time in a while. Hokey Spokes We can't decide if these iluminated light blades for bike wheels are the dorkiest (hokiest?) thing ever, or if they might actually be cool. The dorky side is easy to see just by looking at the website (especially the demo videos). The potentially cool part? Your bike wheels could constantly flash a message like "CPTC RULES" or "I'M BEATING YOU," and even do it in orange. Supposedly these are for safety and increased visibility while riding at night, but we wonder if drivers wouldn't be more likely to run over someone whose wheels are flashing some of these patterns. [Link via Gizmodo] Fooled Again We doubt anyone was actually fooled by this, but the site for new Google Gulp Beta energy drinks is a great parody of Google, energy drinks, the new economy, viral marketing, etc. Nice to see the folks at Google can still laugh at themselves. Won't Get Fooled Again So, usually we do something silly with the site on April Fool's Day, like rename it the Canadian Pacific Track Club, or the South Park Track Club. But, thanks to various events this week, we didn't have the time to make up a new logo, or even to write any fake posts (we were thinking of claiming to be on the New York Press' 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers list, but realized that too many people might actually believe it). But you can still get your fill of April Foolery over at Westchester Track Club and MetroTri.com. Even the Times gets into the spirit of the day, albeit from a distance, as they examine the history of Sidd Finch, whome George Plimpton created as an April Fool's hoax for Sports Illustrated 20 years ago. Heck, even the Weather Channel is making stuff up, and claiming that it will be in the high 50s today. Wait, that's real? Forget this site, we're going outside to play! Club Night Congratulations to Alan Ruben, Alston Brown and Sid Howard, who all won awards at Club Night. We Try Our Best, But No Matter How Shrewdly We Pick Our Examples, the Times' Arts Writers Still Look Like Idiots
We'll just briefly note that the examples here are pathetic. Actors of all colors have been appearing in classic plays for decades now without it being an issue. Hell, Denzel's been doing Shakespeare for almost 20 years now without anyone commenting on his skin color. And, while the characters on "Friends" may not have mentioned that Aisha Tyler was black, we're pretty sure the people who still watched the show at that point noticed, as Tyler was the first major black character in the show's 10-year run. But what really got us in this article was that Caryn James admits in the first sentence that the "trend" she's writing about doesn't really exist, but rather is the result of using only selective examples. We've always felt these articles were based on flimsy evidence, but we never thought we'd see the Times admit it. So why do we keep reading these articles if they annoy us so much? Well, because the crossword puzzle is in the Arts section, so we can't avoid it. And we'd stop reading the Times altogether, but as Gawker points out, the other options are even worse. Outdoor Track Workouts From April to October the Tuesday night CPTC workouts for Tony's
distance group are held on an outdoor track. We have used the East 6th Street
track by the East River for the past 15+ years but we are now
considering using the Columbia University track at 218th Street. Travel options
ADVANTAGES OF EAST 6TH STREET TRACK
ADVANTAGES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TRACK
The results of this survey will affect our decision. Please email your personal preference by this Friday, April 1st to alan@montran.com as follows:
*** Only use STONGLY PREFER if you would not attend the workouts (or most of them) at the other venue. *** Feel free to add any comments. He's Not a Doctor, But He Plays One at Congressional Hearings Okay, so that's an exaggeration. Elliot J. Pellman is a doctor. He's also the team doctor for the Jets and the Islanders, and a medical advisor to Major League Baseball who testified at the Congressional hearings two weeks ago. But Dr. Pellman's been doing some exaggerating of his own, and it's on his resume. Just little things, like where he got his Medical Degree, what his rank is at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and what honors he's received from the American College of Physicians. And it's not like he's been lying for two decades or anything. Well, except for his claim to have an MD from SUNY Stony Brook — it's actually from the NY state education department, and most of his schooling was in Guadalajara — which dates back to the late 1980s. But he's only been wrongly claiming to be a Fellow of the American College of Physicians for six years. And his claim to being an Associate Clinical Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine — he's actually an Assistant Clinical Professor, which is just an honorary position — dates back just a few months. And he's got an explanation for everything. The MD? Blame the Jets, who made the made the mistake when they wrote a bio of him around 1988, and which Pellman either didn't notice or, in his own words, "trivialized the importance of." He also never bothered to correct it, even though the team updates his bio every year. That rank of Associate? Well, it's pending, which Pellman now notes on his resume. Just not the resume he submitted to Congress, for which he blames his secretary. And that rank of fellow? He did have it, until he stopped paying his membership dues six years go, and he never bothered with the rule that fellows can only use their title if their membership is current. There's no evidence that Pellman is in any way a bad doctor, or unqualified to offer medical advice to Major League Baseball. But that doesn't matter much right now. Baseball's biggest problem when it comes to steroids is not the weak policies the owners and players keep coming up with, but the fact that few people believe that either side is serious about stopping steroid use. The already-shaky credibility of the game's executives was further battered in the Congressional hearings when it turned out they had misrepresented the penalties included in the new testing policy, and when people like Commissioner Bud Selig claimed to have barely heard of steroids — let alone suspected they might be used in baseball — before 1998. Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president, said, "I don't see why it should impact his credibility, I really don't." It's that kind of cluelessness that has gotten baseball into this mess. If Selig and Co. ever want us to believe they're serious about combating steroids, then baseball's doctor, like Caesar's wife, but be above suspicion. Elliot Pellman should resign, and if he won't, baseball has to fire him. Lost and Found Anyone leave a pair of white-and-red Brooks Racer STs, men's size 11, at the Armory last night? No? Nevertheless, I have them. Going to Africa...going...going...
Andrea Haver You know you're having a good weekend when you run the second fastest 8K/5M time in club history and it isn't even the most exciting thing that happens. Such was the case for Andrea Haver, who writes:
For those wondering, that Nebraskan's name is Scott Bowen. Congratulations to both of them. Photos Photos from the Randall's Island 5K are now posted. Our big thanks to Katie Golden of the Westchester Track Club for taking all but one of the photos. Final Four No, not the NCAA basketball pool again (for the record, we're somehow in first right now, but with almost no chance of actually winning), but Page 2's Invitational Tournament. We still have absolutely no idea what we're supposed to be voting for here, but the final matchups pit Anna Benson (wife of Mets pitcher Kris Benson) against Elin Nordegren (wife of Tiger Woods) and Jon Stewart (host of The Daily Show, and voice of a generation) against Paris Hilton (general leech upon society, and possible sign of the apocalypse). We don't really care about the first match-up, but please, everyone, go vote for Jon Stewart in the second one. The fate of the world depends on it. Fund Raiser
Week of March 22, 2005 - March 28, 2005 More on the Randall's Island Course
The Great Outdoors With spring finally here and the weather warming up, the middle distance group is moving outside. While regular workouts will still be at the Columbia University track on 218th Street, this Tuesday's workout will be at Riverbank track, at Riverside Drive and 140th Street. Take the 1 or 9 train to 137th Street or 145th Street, and walk west. Marathon Grand Prix ING tried to set up a marathon grand prix series with little success, but it sounds like this idea could work better, not least becasue the directors of the London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Berlin Marathons are the ones pushing it. Wedding Bells After being together for several years and taking a trip around the world together (from which they sent regular updates to this site), Olivier Baillet and Anne Lavandon finally tied the knot on March 19. Congratulations! Randall's Island After all those great indoor times our member ran (see below), we were worried they might be thrown off by the bright sunshine and wide open spaces of Randall's Island. We needn't have worried, as the mighty orange and blue dominated the race, with both the men (Joe Tumbarello, Sean Fortune, Toby Tanser, Stuart Calderwood and Otto Hoering) and women (Kate Irvin, Andrea Costella, Stacy Creamer, Felice Kelly and Anna Fyodorova) winning the team awards, Sean, Otto and Kate running PRs. Oh yeah, Kate also won the women's race, and earned a third place spot on the Best Times list. And then, an hour later, Andrea Haver finished 20th in the USA 8K Women's Championships, in an amazing time of 27:53.4 (2nd on the Best Times list). In the last lap she outkicked three of her opponents, including Briana Shook, who holds the American record for the 3000m steeplechase. We're sure lots of photos of Dre will be available soon, but so far we've seen this one on NYRR's race page, and these two at Westchester Track Club's site (where you can also see lots of orange jacekts and hats in the background of other photos). We didn't get any photos of our own, so if any of you were out there with cameras we'd appreciate you sending anything you have to us, whether from the 5K or the 8K. We have a few 5K photos from WTC that we'll post in the next day or two. For an explanation as to why the mile markers were misplace, see here. For a bizarre conspiracy theory regarding Deena Kastor missing the American 8K record by three seconds, see here. Recap of the 2005 Indoor Season Some highlights of the 2005 Indoor Season for the Middle Distance & Sprint
Group Performances on the CPTC all-time lists: 400m 800m Mile 3000m LIFETIME PR John Affleck Glen Carnes Andrea Costella Sean Fortune Andrea Haver Otto Hoering Kate Irvin Jesse Lansner Roger Lieberman Sue Pearsall Chris Potter John Roberts SEASON PR Micah Adriani Jim Aneshansley John Affleck Brian Barry Anthony Baker Alan Bautista Joe Bolster Alston Brown Leon Brown Steve Burgess Jeremy Busch Stuart Calderwood Stacy Creamer Laura Ford Sean Fortune Wendi Glassman Frank Handelman Sid Howard Kobie Fuller John Gleason Scott Johnson Gladstone Jones Felice Kelly Ardian Krasniqi Allison McCabe Chris Neuhoff Yuri Nosenko Armando Oliveira Victor Osayi Chris Price Chris Potter Sarah Rivlin Amerigo Rossi Mike Trunkes Colgate Games USATF Masters Indoor National Championship GOLD MEDAL SILVER MEDAL Placed in the top 3 at Masters Nationals, but couldn't take a medal because
non-US citizen 2nd Place 3rd Place USA Indoor National (Open) 2nd Place - Filip Jagodzinski, Kobie Fuller, Yuri Nosenko, Amerigo Rossi Looking forward to outdoors! Great job, everyone! Caught Stealing From Ananova:
Botanical Gardens 5K Here's one time where you definitely shouldn't stop and smell the flowers: during the MINT 5K in the New York Botanical Gardens on Sunday, April 24. The race is a fundraiser for MINT: Mental Health Initiative and the proceeds will go towards research in mental health. Nike Runs Nike is sponsoring a series of Saturday morning group runs leading up to the Niketown Run for the Parks 4-Miler on April 17. The Greenbelt Run- March 26th Flushing Meadow-Corona Park Run-April 2nd Pelham Bay Run- April 9th Prospect Park Run-April 16th Run For The Parks, April 17th Correction Sean Fortune's time in the 800m on Tuesday was 2:10.44. Anything you read yesterday suggesting it was 2:19.44 was a dirty lie. Or maybe a typo. It's so hard to tell those two things apart. For the record 2:10.44 is the fastest 800m split in CPTC Intrasquad history. And 24.0 is the fastest 200m split in Intrasquad history, but that's less exciting because Ardian Krasniqi already held the record with 24.68 two years ago. Restaurant Review During our first quarter-century on this planet we spent Christmas in the suburbs of Chicago. Anyone who's been to Chicago in December knows that it can be bitterly cold, and anyone who's been in the suburbs ever knows that there's really nothing to do there. So, after a few years we began lobbying the family to gather somewhere else, like some nice, warm Caribbean island. Or, failing that, New York City. We're still working on doing Christmas in the Caribbean, but we have gotten everyone to spend the holiday in New York where the weather is (marginally) better and the cultural options are far superior. Unfortunately, moving Christmas to New York has deprived us of our favorite holiday tradition: ordering in deep-dish pizza from Giordano’s on Christmas Eve. Why bring this up three months later? Because John Scherrer has submitted a review of sorts of Giordano's. This is the first restaurant review on this site in almost two years. Hopefully this will be the start of a new wave of reviews, but that will depend mostly on you guys submitting them, as we rarely eat out at any interesting places. Intrasquad Relays Congratulations to Team A, winners of the 2005 CPTC Intrasquad Relays. Sean Fortune grabbed the lead with a blistering 2:10.44 800m, and Tony Baker, John Affleck, Allison McCabe and Jesse Lansner kept pushing through the 200m, 400m, 1200m and 1600m legs to finish in 12:19.48. This is the second fastest time in Intrasquad relay history, behind last year's 12:07.13 from Team F. John Affleck ran the 1200m leg for that team, making him the first CPTC member to run on two winning intrasquad relay teams. The fastest splits for each leg were:
We'll figure out where all these times rank in club history tomorrow, unless somebody beats us to it. And then photos, and maybe even videos. Until then, thanks for everyone who came out to run, and special tahnks to Stuart Alexander, Alberta Anderson, Glen Carnes, Yves-Marc Courtines, Gladstone Jones and Frank Morton for timing the relay, and Coach Tony for organizing everything, and Coach Deovn for getting everyone over to Dallas BBQ for food and Texas-sized drinks. Week of March 15, 2005 - March 21, 2005 Ultramarathoner Ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes, who once ran 226.2 miles without stopping, will be interviewed on WNYC Tuesday afternoon about his new book Ultra Marathon: Confessions of an All-night Runner. The interview will be on the Leonard Lopate Show, which airs from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on 93.9 FM, 820 AM and wnyc.com. Quotes Usually we let the quotes on the Famous Quotes page stand on their own, but we felt the need to draw attention to Alston Brown's appearance in The Idaho Statesman. Not for his quote ("It's not the hair. It's just hard work and training."), amusing as it is, but for Jerry LaVasseur of Maine, who said "If you look from the waists down at these people, you couldn't tell their age." Yeah, we're not going to touch that one. Lost Hat Felice Kelly lost her CPTC hat at the Armory race yesterday. If you found an extra orange hat up there, plese email her at fkelly@mail.rockefeller.edu. Bracket Busting We knew it was a bad idea to start this NCAA pool. We also knew it was probably a bad idea to pick Syracuse to win it all, although we didn't know how bad an idea it would turn out to be. We're not out of it yet, but after the first two rounds, our Crushed Oranges are stuck in third (also known as "last") place, with 360 points. That's 70 points behind John Affleck's Land O' Gates Saffronistas. But John's total isn't quite good enough, as Alan Ruben — who has the least creative name with New York alanruben — leads the pack with 440 points. Steroids After facing harsh questioning from Congress regarding the new steroid policy, Major League Baseball has announced that it will amend its new steroid policy to eliminate the option of fining players caught doping, rather than suspending them. Baseball Vice President Rob Manfred said "There were some concerns — quite frankly I can't figure out why — that the agreement wasn't going to operate the way the parties described it." Those concerns probably stemmed from the fact that the agreement actually didn't operate the way the parties described it. Yes, Commissioner Bud Selig said that he would never exercise the fine option, but relying on that demands that we both ignore the fact that Selig will not be in charge for ever (though we worry that he has no plans to ever step down) and also pretend that baseball has any sort of credibility when it comes to steroids. The fact that Manfred still wonders why we're more likely to believe the actual rules as opposed to baseball's patronizing assurances shows how far the sport still has to go in dealing with drugs. Running Photos Photos from the Brooklyn Half-Marathon and the Cherry Tree 10-Miler are now posted. Coming soon, more track photos than you could possibly imagine. Running Strong How strong is our master's men's track team? Well, at last week's indoor nationals, they finished in 8th place for combined men and women, despite having only six men and no women at the meet. Thanks to Frank Morton for alerting us. Running Gag CPTC's own Joe Bolster will be performing at the Comic Strip (1568 2nd Avenue, between 81st and 82nd) tomorrow night. The show starts at 8:30, and he'll probably go on at 8:45. Admission is $14, with a two drink minimum, and reservations are recommended. And, despite our heading, there probably won't be many jokes about running. Running Movie Screening of 5,000 Meters/Chris Lear book signing Meet author Chris Lear for an in-store book signing/Q&A, and a special screening of the movie 5,000 Meters: Nothing Comes Easy. Chris Lear – author of Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher and the University of Colorado Cross-Country Team and Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile. 5,000 Meters: Nothing Comes Easy – Every four years the world of track and field focuses on one event, and in 2004, the focus was on Athens. Across the U.S. runners dreamed of representing their country, competing against the best, and being an Olympian. 5,000 Meters: Nothing Comes Easy chronicles the quest of nine runners attempting to make the U.S. Olympic team in the 5k. Refreshments to follow the screening of the movie. A $5 donation for the filmmakers is requested as entry for the night. For more information please call 1-212-823-9626 or email nyrunco@juno.com Trading Spaces
We've always wanted to go on a show like Trading Spaces. Not that our apartment is bad; we just like the idea of a free makeover. Enough so that we'd even waive our objection to ever appearing on a TV show. We'd given up on getting said makeover because these sorts of shows never seem to deal with urban apartments, but we're glad to see that's changing. Alas, we don't meet their qualifications for this episode (we like to think we're cultured, and maybe even cosmopolitan, but, despite our constant use of the first person plural, we cannot claim to be part of a couple). But if one of you gets on the show, please tell us all about it so we can live vicariously through your redecoration. Apartment Wanted Those of you who've been following the adventures of Ligaya Mishan over at blogwallah might have wondered when she's going to get back to New York and running. We're glad to report that she'll be back here in May, and she and husband Ahrin are looking for a place to stay when they return. If you or anyone you know is looking to sublet or rent a place starting in May or June, please email her at lmishan@mac.com. Interviews Andrea Haver has taken on new responsibilities at Road Runners, and is now interviewing runners for the NYRR websites. Or, as she puts is, "shamelessly pestering elite athletes in order to further my career." Her first interview, with Katie McGregor, is on fast-women.com. George Kennan George F. Kennan, who helped formulate the Cold War policy of containment, passed away on Thursday at age 101. In the diplomatic world, Kennan is best known as the author of the famous 1946 "long telegram" he sent from Moscow advising the State Department on how to deal with the Soviet Union. In the CPTC world, he's also known as the father of Chris Kennan, who ran with us a few years ago. Brain the Size of a Planet, and We Post This Nonsense Okay, we started to panic a bit when the first Hitchhiker's Guide trailer was released online, and it just didn't look that great. Thankfully, there's a second trailer out now, and it's both funny and true to the original tone of the book. And Alan Rickman sounds perfect as the voice of Marvin, the Paranoid Android. Why bring this up again? Because we think the true question of life, the universe and everything is "How many days until the movie comes out?" 42. Steroids The House Committtee on Government Reform hearings into steroids in baseball dragged on for 11 hours today. We watched a few minutes towards the end, but we're going to have to slog our way through the transcript to get the full story. In the meantime, listen to Frank Shorter on NPR. The Jets and the Sharks The poor New York Jets. All they want to do is rip-off the taxpayers for about a billion dollars to build a monstrosity of a stadium on the west side of Manhattan which will block the river, tie up traffic on the West Side Highway every Sunday, and dissatisfy all the Jets season ticket holders who will no longer be able to be able to have tailgate parties, and what do they get for their trouble? They get Cablevision trying to block them at every step. Sure, there are numerous civic groups and a large number of public officials fighting the stadium, and two of the three people whose votes are essential to the project (Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno) want to put off a decision for a few months. But all the obstacles to the stadium obviously come from Cablevision, and so the Jets have done the only thing they could do in this situation — they've sued Cablevision. Ordinarily we'd tell you what the Jets's legal argument is for bringing the lawsuit, but we've read through their complaint and, even though most of what they accuse Cablevision of sounds true, we still don't have the foggiest notion of what the Jets are trying to prove here. Yes, Cablevision opposes the stadium, partly — or maybe entirely — because they think it will create competition for Madison Square Garden. So what? You have to do a little better than this claim:
The Jets' right to a home field? What part of the Constitution is that in? And even if they do have a right to a stadium, there's no reason it has to be in Manhattan, where the Jets haven't played for four decades.Even assuming the "hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue" will materialize — which we doubt — Cablevision can still oppose the plan. It may be bad public policy, but it's not illegal. The complaint gets more fun as it goes on. The Jets claim that Cablevision's refusal to show pro-stadium ads has "prevented Plaintiffs from communicating their views on the Sports and Convention Center to Jets' season ticket holders and other consumers." How awful. If only the Jets had some sort of list with the names, addresses and phone numbers of all their season ticket holders, they might be able to communicate their views a little better. Finally, the Jets accuse Cablevision of engaging in "baseless litigation" (unlike this suit, naturally), and then break out the unnecessary quotations marks:
Why not put quotes around purchase, residential or February? That would make as much sense as the quotes around bid and $600 Million (and why is million capitalized?). But do the Jets really want to argue that Cablevision engaged in anticompetitive behavior by competiing with them? What about Transgas, who bid $700 million bid for the site? Are the Jets going to sue them, too? Or, as Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler asked, "What are the Jets going to do next, sue every one of the millions and millions of New Yorkers who oppose their attempt to grab more than one billion tax dollars to build themselves a stadium?" The funny thing about all this is that most New Yorkers probably hate Cablevision just as much as the Jets do. But Cablevision happens to be on the right side in this case. Things to Do Today Other Than Watch the Parade So far, not one person has signed up for our NCAA Tournament pool. You have until noon to do so, otherwise we are the automatic CPTC champion. (You can also check out the utterly nonsensical Page 2 Invitational Tournament. Our favorite matchup: The New York Times vs. Blogs.) A few other things you can do today, if you're not feeling the March Madness:
Complaining About the Times Is to Us as Breathing Is to Everyone Else Those who pay attention to the SAT may have heard that the test is adding a writing section and removing all the questions regarding analogies from the existing English section. We're glad to learn that colleges are finally demanding that their students know how to write, especially since so few institutions of higher education teach writing skills these days. But, as a Times editorial points out, "Intentionally misleading comparisons are becoming the dominant mode of public discourse. The ability to tell true analogies from false ones has never been more important." Luckily, the Times provides proof of this, in an article by Ian Urbina on the little annoyances of modern life. After summarizing the trials and tribulations of modern life — junk mail, cellphones, and Starbucks insistence upon calling a medium coffee a "grande" — Urbina compares the often childish ways that people have found to voice their frustration to resisting Communist governments in Eastern Europe:
That's not as bad as some of the examples provided in the editorial, but it's quite a stretch to compare Wesley A. Williams — a middle school science teacher in Melrose, NY, who places cut-up magazines, heavy bond paper, and small strips of sheet metal into the business reply envelopes he receives with his junk mail — to Lech Walesa. So, yes, bring back analogies. Or at least keep teaching them. But don't leave out writing. Let's try to get back to the days when a writer looking to explain how good things can come from bad situations would write this:
Instead of this:
Note: We just noticed the following on Gothamist:
We're working on a letter about how annoying the Times is. Points Races Reading through the forums on the Flyers site, we noticed that the Tom Labrecque 4-Miler, which is a points race, is scheduled for the first day of Passover (you'd think we would have noticed this on our own, but you'd be wrong). This might cause problems for some people who are planning to go out of town to visit relatives. We don't know if this will affect enough runners that it's a problem (we'll probably be out of town, but we weren't planning to run the race in the first place), but if it does affect you, you might want to contact Road Runners about it. On another points-related topic, we're glad to see that there's a scoring race outside of Central Park that isn't a half-marathon — the Run to Home Plate 5K. Sure, it's in Queens, it's on a course that is rather bland until the awesome finish inside Shea Stadium, and it's always brutally hot (a problem that will afflict any points race in late July), but we're still grateful for the change of scenery. We're Number Eight! Think the U.S. is getting overweight? A new report from the International Obesity Task Force says that we may be only the eighth fattest country. Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta and Slovakia all have higher percentages of overweight men, and most have more overweight women, too. Greece leads the pack with three-quarters of both men and women weighing too much. Tuesday Night Armory Workouts Report Once again there were no CPTC women at the track when the early workout started. Not even Coach Devon was there this time, since she's on vacation. So the 17 men who showed up had to run on their own, which actually led to the workout getting started quicker. It turns out that it's harder to delay things when there's no authority figure present. Although Kate, Dre and Allison managed to delay their start until everyone else had finished, mostly by all staying late at work. They still did the full workout, since Firechief John alerted them to the webcam Devon had set up to spy on everyone. We stayed around for the late workout this time, and watched 22 more CPTCers zip around the track, after listening to Coach Tony congratulate all our stars from Masters Nationals, most of whom weren't there for the announcements. Which is okay, since they get these nice photos below:
Week of March 8, 2005 - March 14, 2005 Photos! We've posted three sets of photos: USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, the Post-Snowflake Party and the Colon Cancer Challenge. Thanks to Andrea Haver for the first set and Richard Brounstein of the New York Flyers for the last one. Naturally the middle set — from a bar — are our own. Coming soon: the Cherry Tree 10-Miler and three track meets. Hopefully Wednesday for the Cherry Tree, but the track photos may have to wait a little longer, as we're still waiting of a few more photos to be sent to us. Brief Chat Runner's World has a Brief Chat with former CPTCer Anselm LeBourne. We Only Picked Them Because They Wear Orange Clearly nobody in the ESPN March Madness pool has any imagination, since they're all picking Illinois to win the title. Not us. Years of filling out these brackets have taught us that we don't know a damn thing about who will win, so now we just go with our first guess on each game (just like Malcolm Gladwell says we should). And somehow we ended up with Syracuse winning it all. Still, we have them beating Illinois in the final game, with Louisville and UNC as our other Final Four picks, so we can't be said to have much imagination here either. We've set up our own group on ESPN.com, and you're all welcome to join and prove just how bad we are at these predictions. Click here to fill out a bracket and join the group. If you already have an entry, click here, otherwise go here to creat an account. To keep things simple, the group name is "CPTC" and the password is "cptc". There are no real prizes, but we'll be sure to give a nice mention on this page to whoever wins. Sound Mind, Sound Body New York City schools will begin testing students for fitness, according to the Daily News:
Masters Nationals Sundays racers brought our runners two more gold medals, three silvers, and one bronze. Here's the rest of the results:
Masters Nationals We haven't seen any results from today's races yet, but so far the CPTC men are tearing up the track in Idaho, with two golds and two silvers yesterday. Full results when we get them, but here's what we have so far:
Best Time One week after runing 1:57.47 for the 800m leg of the DMR at Indoor Nationals, Yuri Nosenko dropped his time down to 1:55.08, and moved up from 10th to 6th on the Best Times list. Best Running Team Websites Thanks to whoever posted as “Orange Rules!!” on Let’s Run. Not everyone thinks so highly of this site, though. A poster who goes by the username 5Ker writes:
A few clarifications: We took over this site two years ago, not four, though it feels like it was much longer ago that this was merely our favorite site to read, rather than something we spend hours updating. In fact, Roland was still involved with the site on a daily basis until May 2003. Yes, we frequently post on issues that are "off-topic to running," but we're not sure that we do so any more often than Roland wrote about cricket. Our guess is that 5Ker — like most of us — is remembering the site as being even better than it actually was. On the other hand, it's true that we're not as timely as Roland was. We'd like to be, but right now we can't update the site from work, and we're often not home enough on weekend days to post quick updates. And we've had no luck with our photos at track races. We're hoping to figure out how to take better photos of people running fast indoors, but for now we seem to be stuck taking blurry photos. But we don't see the problem with our photos of outdoor races. As for us being "too-sophmoric and opinionated," well, we don't think that's the case (though we don't see any problem with expressing opinions here), but this is something on which reasonable people disagree. We try to avoid too many personal posts, but they do slip through. And while we try to resist the title of "blog," we are guilty of aboug 30 of the "tired cliches" of blogging identified on lindsayism (particularly "Blogging in the first-person plural" and "Making fun of how the New York Times is always behind on every trend"). As it happens, we're at the beginning of a full overhaul of this site. When we're done it will be much easier for us to update the site and much easier for all of you to find things. It will also be easier to add new features. So, here's your chance to let us know what you think we should do to the site. We'll take suggestions as to design, function, and features. Suggestions regarding content will be met with our usual response: "Great idea! Why don't you write something about that for the site?" We Thought Dan Rather’s Resignation Put an End to Metaphors Like This “The iguana weighed its options with all the urgency of an overweight cabbie on a smoking break.” Thursday Night Armory Workout Report – Where My Girls At? We wanted to call this report “Hey, Where the White Women At?”, because that’s a much better pop-culture reference, but we didn’t want anyone to get the impression that we discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, height, fashion sense or favorite sports team (although we’d like to institute some standards for that last one), or that there were no women at all at the Armory last Thursday. There were plenty of women training there, but we're only concerned with CPTC women, and there were none of those among the 17 people who showed up for the early workout, other than Coach Devon (who we’re sure enjoyed having her own stable for the evening), so we went with that we're concerned with with the 702 song for the title. For the record, Allison McCabe managed to finally get out of work in time for her warm-up to coincide with everyone else’s cool-down, but she wasn’t there when the workout started at 7:22, so she doesn’t count for purposes of this report. For those who are convinced that a group of men tempered by just the barest influence of femininity would behave in typical boorish male behavior, we are sorry to disappoint you. There was no talk of strippers; no lewd and lascivious comments directed at the few other women doing their own workout; no farting or belching contests; not even a discussion of NASCAR or professional wrestling. Instead, prompted by Chris Price’s copy of Jared Diamond’s new book Collapse: The Fate of Human Societies, the discussion started on the extent to which Diamond’s analysis of island societies can be extended to the planet as a whole (as Chris pointed out, to a certain extent the Earth itself is one big island in the cosmos), before moving on to the viability and practicality of hydrogen fuel cells; whether or not life expectancy figures for the Middle Ages factor in infant and juvenile mortality rates, and, if not, what the actual difference in life expectancy is between those who survived to adulthood half a millennium ago and those born today; which Rockefeller biography is more interesting – Ron Chernow’s Titan, on the life of John D., or Cary Reich's Life of Nelson Rockefeller; which states and countries were represented by all the flags hanging along the wall, and why one of them still featured the Confederate Stars and Bars; and whether or not Runner’s World is worth the paper it’s printed on. And that was all before we ran the workout of 200m, 300m, 200m, 300m, 200m, 300m, in which the two groups managed not to run over any other runners or get run over themselves while starting an interval. Rather impressive, given that there were enough out-of-towners there than the Armory staff felt the need to announce all the rules for the first time in months. We were especially worried that Noah Perlis would be involved in a collision, since he ran the entire workout with his cellphone. But it turned out that this was not to make any important calls while running, but because he’d forgotten his watch and was using his phone to time his intervals. (Can anyone else’s phone do this?) After the workout, talk turned to a more common subject: what races people have planned for the rest of indoor season, which at this point is only two weeks. Excitement ran high for the CTPC Intrasquad Relays on Tuesday, March 22, but several runners worried that the wouldn’t be recovered from running in the Front Runners Meet on Sunday, March 20, including John Affleck, who said, “I’ll decide on Sunday at 4:00 pm [the end of the Front Runners Meet] whether I’m running in the relay or not. Or maybe I’ll wait until 9:00 pm to decide. If I’m still at Coogan’s then, I’m not running.” And what would talk of future races be if we didn't take a moment to reflect on the past? Brian Barry brought up the matter of the 2003 NYC Marathon, where he had made bets with several people on his ability to run under 3:45. He finished with a gun time of 3:46:27, and a chip time of 3:44:48. Most of his friends agreed that the chip time should count, and they dutifully paid up. But two gamblers claimed that the data was inconclusive and refused to pay (though they have not claimed that Brian owes them any money). Who's right in all this? Well, if chip times are good enough for the Boston Marathon, they should be good enough for casual bets. And then it was time to find out just where our girls were at. Turns out they all went to the road workout, and then headed over to Westside Brewing Company. At least, that's what Andrea "Dreidel" Haver, Kate "Swervin" Irvin and Andrea "Abbot" Costella did. They were joined at the bar by a dozen other CPTCers and one Olympian (John Henwood, who's run sub-28:00 for the 10K and had the fastest time around the Central Park Reservoir last month). Unlike the workout count, this one is not official, since people kept arriving and leaving, and we had better things to do than count them all. LIke listen to Brad Weiss tell amusing stories about dating (none of which he'll let us repeat, even though most of them weren't embarassing), and hear Neil Brennr talk about his double life as a professor and runner:
A half-dozen of us hung around until closing time, which is not really recommended after a hard workout, especially for those who have to work the next morning (which was most of us). But given how rarely the team gets to socialize, it's no surprise people were unwilling to leave. There's a movement afoot to change that, and maybe even make these post-workout get-togethers a weekly event. With big races for both sprinters and roadies this weekend, that may not happen until next week, but we'll keep you posted. Backpedaling Lance Armstrong now says “If I were on the [Olympic] selection committee, I would be rolling for New York City.” Whatever. We still think Paris is going to win, and that that’s probably for the best. Armstrong also said "New York is the greatest city in the world. Everybody agrees on that." Well, not everybody agress on that, but he's right about the first part. Best Running Club Website A reader on Let's Run wants to know what the Best Running Club Website is. We try to shy away from too much shameless self-promotion, so we didn't mention this site. But if any of you want to put in a good word for us, we'd appreciate it. Thanks. Scoring Races Here is the list of NYRR scoring races for 2005: 2/26 - Snowflake 4M The Central Park Track Club will be actively participating in this series, and we strongly encourage all members to incorporate as many of these races as possible into your competitive plans for the year. Please contact Tony if you need guidance in setting up a racing plan for the year, or your team rep if you have any questions or comments. Post-Workout Drinks All CPTCers and friends are invited to gather at Westside Brewery (corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 76th Street) for drinks and dinner after the workouts tonight. By a lucky coincidence, both the outdoor long distance workout (Coach Tony’s group) and the indoor middle distance workout (Coach Devon’s group) end in time for runners to get to the pub at about 8:30, so that’s when we’ll be meeting there. No RSVP necessary; just follow Kate Irvin and Andrea Haver if you’re at the outdoor workout, or join everyone else on the subway if you’re coming from the Armory. Tuesday Night Armory Workout Report In the winter, it snows. Some years there’s a lot of snow, and some years very little, but every winter there is some snow in New York City. And every winter people forget how to cope with the snow, and half the city shuts down during the first snow fall, no matter how mild. Usually the populace adjusts, and by February even the biggest blizzard is just shrugged off as just another minor inconvenience. Not this year, it seems. Somehow people who weren’t fazed by two feet of snow at the end of January couldn’t even make it out the front door when faced with a few inches last Monday and yesterday. Even many members of the hardy running community couldn’t make it to the Armory last night to train, leaving the track practically deserted. Which was fine with us, since it left more room for CPTC runners, who are not scared off by a little thing like snow. Twenty-three of our runners showed up for the early workout, most of them — despite the fact that mass transit was nowhere near being on or even close to schedule — arriving In time to start the workout at 7:20. Alas, this reporter was not one of them, though our own tardiness was due to work issues, and not transportation problems. So we got to watch the workout while doing our warmup, and were able to kenly observe the looks of sheer agony on the faces of our teammates as they finished each interval. Not surprising, given all the great times these people ran on Friday. Also, it seems that the workout was tough, since even John Affleck — who remarked "I probably didn't run hard enough at the MAC Meet, since I felt fine running nine miles the next morning" — had that same look of agony. Alas, since we only close enough to the group to see and not to hear for most of the evening, we have nothing else to report. At least, nothing that we can report without getting into trouble. We'll Always Have Paris Lance Armstrong says Paris should get the 2012 Olympics. Kevin Arlyck wonders if Lance is just sucking up to the Frenchies in advance of the Tour." We wonder if he's just mad at New York because his ex-wife ran the marathon here. Eric Boucher CPTC's Eric Boucher — who was a fine 10,000-meter runner in his college days — had somehow managed to be a runner in New York all these years without entering a marathon. At least, he managed it until last week's Los Angeles race. After running last month’s Al Gordon 15K as a tune-up, Eric was heard to say that he'd be satisfied with a sub-3:00 in his first try. Apparently the old competitive instincts kicked in while on the West Coast, and Eric went through the half in 1:24, before he found out what many great trackmen have found out about the ends of marathons. But his chip time makes his prediction look very impressive, and we hope he's true to his word about being satisfied with it: 2:59:46. CPTC Relays Our annual Intrasquad Relays will take place on Tuesday, March 22, up at the Armory. This is a great chance to race against your friends in the long distance, middle distance and sprint groups. For those of you who haven' t participated before, we divide the group into teams of five runners. Those teams then decide amongst themselves who will run each leg of a 200m-400m-800m-1200m-1600m relay. Then we run! As everyone who's done them in the past knows, the relays are always lots of fun, as seen in these photos from 2004 and 2002. And for even more fun, the team will once again be repairing to Dallas BBQ on Broadway and 166th Street for ribs, chicken, shrimp, and Texas-sized drinks. If that's not enough relay racing for you, the Thursday Night at the Races Relay Carnival has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 24. Brooklyn Half-Marathon Brunch All CPTC members running or watching the Brooklyn Half-Marathon next Saturday are invited to a post-race brunch at our apartment, convienently located at about mile 8.5 on the marathon course (a little over one mile from the finish line). More specifically:
Come by any time after the race for gatorade, coffee, bagels, and assorted goodies from Eric Goetze's Blue Sky Bakery. Members who just want to watch the race are welcome to come by for that, too. RSVP appreciated, so we know how much food to buy. Directions from the Finish Line or from the F Train (Ft. Hamilton Parkway station):
Another Award Norb Sander and Ian Brooks of The Armory Track & Field Center presented Peter Gambaccini with an ornate plaque at last week's Eastern States Championships "In Recognition Of And Appreciation For Your Contribution To The Sport Of Track & Field And Running." The accomplishments they were speaking about were journalistic, not athletic. A genuinely touched and visibly out of shape Gambaccini was later heard exclaiming "this almost makes up for losing that NYRR Subvet of the Year Award to Larry Torella in 1983." Top Website Congratulations to the New York Flyers, who were named RRCA's Top Website of 2005. We know the Webmistress, Richard and Ed put in a lot of work over there, and they deserve the honor. Especially after being named runner-up to a vastly inferior site last year. Not to sound jealous, but we looked at the other top sites and couldn't figure out how they all beat us. Then we noticed the following "judging criteria":
Taking those in order:
Seriously, congratulations again, guys. Rick Shaver's Streak As I have pointed out to Rick Shaver many times, he and I together have run all of the five-borough NYC marathons. I ran the first two, in 1976 and 1977; Rick started in 1977 and has run each one since. He and I met reading the results on the wall at the West Side Y on 63rd Street, a few days after the race — that was how you learned your official time and place back then. On the spot I recruited him for the CPTC. He was obviously a quality recruit, so I want my recruitment points now. And thank God, that was my last marathon.
Week of March 1, 2005 - March 7, 2005 MAC Championships Since Friday's MAC meet didn't end until about 11:15 (only about 90 minutes behind schedule, as they skipped the 4x400m relay, and really, in the context of Armory meets, not bad at all) and Dallas BBQ stops seating people at midnight, we didn't have time to write down all the results. More precisely, we didn't have time to write down any results. Luckily Coach Devon got a few of them.
Also running: Victor Osayi, Felice Kelly, Armando Oliveira, Alston Brown. Full results as soon as they're posted. Also, photos. Other Races If you'd like more info on Leatherman's Loop than the 15 words we devoted to it last week, check out Toby Tanser's latest article on The World Beyond Central Park. We're glad to see he doesn't mention any of the races where we're hoping the low attendence will make it easy for us to pick up some hardware. For those of you who prefer exotic track races, we've had suggestions for both a team beer mile and a nude 400m run. Men's DMR Splits Despite what the below post may suggest, we actually do care about men. At least, when they're members and the run a good race. Which is why we're glad to finally have the splits for the men's DMR at last weekend's Indoor Nationals:
Yuri's time puts him in 10th place on the Best Times list. Hottest Male Athlete We spent Thursday night painting our roommate's room, and then the weekend engaged in our usual mix of debauchery and sloth, so we're a little late with our update on Page 2's Hottest Male Athlete contest. Along we suspect that none of you care that much, since the number of people voting dropped for each round, and even our faithful correspondent Sarah Rivlin couldn't get excited about the David Beckham-Andy Roddick finals:
In the end, Becks won 54% of the 3,415 votes cast. That's less than half the number cast so far in Page 2's "Who would you like to see take Martha Stewart's place behind bars?" poll (Jose Canseco and George Steinbrenner are neck and neck right now), and a mere 2% of the 157,387 votes cast in the Hottest Female Athlete final. Do that few women read Page 2? (Possibly) Are women just less shallow than men? (Not really) Or is it just that the men in this poll did little to excite the voters? (Probably) We'd ponder the issue a little more, but we just found Amanda Beard's website, and a video of her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue photo shoot. Blogwallah After a three-week hiatus, Ligaya Mishan is updating her blog again. Check out her comments on photos from Myanmar/Burma, a nation that bans most internet access, and also visits by our cousin Tom, who wrote some news articles that angered the junta. Friday Night Track Meet and Dallas BBQ We're still hopeful that the Thursday Night "Relay Carnival" will be rescheduled. In the meantime, there's a MAC meet this Friday, starting at 7:00.
And when it's all done, a slew of CPTC runners will be heading over to Dallas BBQ on Broadway and 166th Street for chicken, ribs, tempura and texas-size margaritas. As always, you dont have to run to join us at the restaurant. Sign of Spring Anyone who felt the wind today would be forgiven for thinking that spring must be months away. In fact, the official start of spring is just 18 days away, and one of the first signs was visible today. That's right, baseball's back. Okay, so it's just spring training, and half the games pitted major league squads against college teams, but we'll take whatever we can get. The Gates Not sure what to think of The Gates, now that they're gone? Mister Snitch details the six main reactions to the installation. [Link via Gawker] Leatherman's Loop This year's Leatherman's Loop will take place on April 24. Online registration is now open. Thursday Night at the Races From NYRR:
Hottest Athletes The voters have spoken, and this year's Hottest Female Athlete is Amanda Beard. One person who disagreed with that assessment is Beard herself, who chose her fellow finalist Lokelani McMichael as the most beautiful woman on the list. Beard is the third Olympic gold medalist to win this coveted title, joining Jennie Finch (softball) and Heather Mitts (soccer). The other winner was, not surprisingly, Anna Kournikova, back when she still qualified as an athlete. Over on the men's side, the competition has moved into the semifinals, and once again, here's Sarah Rivlin to share her thoughts on David Beckham, David Carr, Javy Lopez and Andy Roddick:
Tennis cooler than baseball? We don't agree with that. But if coolness is a factor, we think that should give Beckham the edge over Carr. We love football, but soccer is still cooler. And Beckham plays for one of the best teams in the world, while Carr plays for a team that has yet to have a winning season. There's still time to vote, and your vote in this race is worth more than it was last week, since the men's poll is attracting only about one-tenth of the 250,000 people who voted for the women. Though we doubt anyone who's read Page 2 is shocked to learn that the site's readership is overwhelmingly male. Best Time The listkeeper (a.k.a. Stuart Calderwood) writes:
We're sure that John will be claiming his spot on the mile list soon enough, but for now he can enjoy his spot on the metric list. Steroids Padres General Manager Kevin Towers says that he knew Ken Caminiti was taking steroids while Caminiti played for San Diego, but did nothing about it:
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