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WEEK OF APRIL 30-MAY 06, 2002
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RIDGEWOOD
RACES: Each year on Memorial Day (Monday,
May 27th this year), a series of races are held in Ridgewood,
New Jersey. The events are scheduled such that you can
run the mile, the 5K as well as the 10K! Let Sylvie
Kimché (Sylvie_Kimche@abercrombie.com)
know if you are going.
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WEEKEND RACE RESULTS:
Just in case there are still people out there who doesn't understand
the rules, this is how you play your weekend race results:
(1) you run your race and you keep your mouth shut; don't tell
anyone, especially your best friend
(2) on Monday morning, you check the website to see if you were
caught
(3) if yes to (2), you lose again; if no to (2), then you write
in and you win for a change ...
This explains why our visit counts dips on the weekend, picks
up to 500+ on Monday and even higher on Tuesday. The real
winners do not emerge until Tuesday!
P.S. And then there are those people who think that they
got away with something. Well, sooner or later, we will
catch you (see example: Mount
Penn Mudfest).
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WORLD MASTERS ATHLETICS WEBSITE:
If you've not been to the new website yet, here is the URL ---
http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/
. Notwithstanding the scathing review
in MasterTrack.com, we are willing to reserve our opinion.
We believe that website building is an endurance event.
After all, the Central Park Track Club website began in 1996
with this home page and one linked
page. Big difference between now and then, huh?
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VIRUS ALERT DOWNGRADED:
For the past few days, we had to shut our outbound mail service
down because we were receiving returned mail that indicated
that mail that we sent were infected. Although we had
not sent anything out since then, those returned mail continued
to come in. At this time, we conclude that our machine
was clean as our Norton Anti Virus program said it was.
What must be happening is that there are people out there whose
machines are infected by the W32.Klez
worm which has the ability to spoof the emails: "It chooses
at random an address that it finds on an infected computer
as the "From:" address that it uses when it performs
its mass-mailing routine. Numerous cases have been reported
in which users of uninfected computers receive complaints
that they have sent an infected message to someone else.
For example, Linda Anderson is using a computer that is infected
with W32.Klez.E@mm; Linda is not using a antivirus program or
does not have current virus definitions. When W32.Klez.gen@mm
performs its emailing routine, it finds the email address of
Harold Logan. It inserts Harold's email address into the "From:"
line of an infected email that it then sends to Janet Bishop.
Janet then contacts Harold and complains that he sent her infected
email, but when Harold scans his computer, Norton AntiVirus
does not find anything--as would be expected--because his computer
is not infected." So, as always, the quesiton is:
Is YOUR COMPUTER fully protected?
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FA CUP: ...
goes to Shula Sarner and Arsenal by 2-0 over rival London
club Chelsea. It wasn't close at the end, but the first
goal was not scored until the 70th minute. On Wednesday,
Arsenal goes for the FA Cup-League double against Manchester
United. A draw will do it for the Gunners.
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A NOTE FROM AN ANGEL(L):
Dear runners, friends, teammates, coaches, family ...
So as many of you know, for the last few years the Angell family
has run a small fundraising operation called THE MARATHON TEAM
to raise money for ALS research. Back in the summer of
1999, we set out to find a few people that could run, contribute
and "do something" about this horrible disease. Three
years, four marathons, and over $500,000 donated later, I am
asking you for your help ONE LAST TIME.
We want to pull together one last team. But, as usual,
I cannot do it without your help. I need your help recruiting
runners.
The basic requirements for a runner:
* Wants to run the most exciting marathon in the world on November
3, 2002
* Wants to raise money for an excellent cause. (We ask
that each runner aim to raise $3,000 but we do not have a minimum
or a maximum level.)
* Wants to be part of a team of over 20 runners all trying to
reach the same goal - 26.2 miles and a total amount raised of
$150,000.
* Wants a coach. Toby Tanser is ours. http://www.tanser.org/
If you or a firend/relative/cousin/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/etc.
is interested, please ask them to email me (magsangell@aol.com)
and register for the lottery at: http://www.nyrrc.org/nyrrc/mar01/info/howto2002.html
As an added bonus, each year I get 12 numbers for people that
don't make it into the race through the lottery. If you
or your friends commit to running for the team now, and don't
get in through the lottery, I will put you at the top of the
list to get one of the 12 automatic entries.
If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, ideas, please
don't hesitate to email me ( Magsangell@aol.com
)or call me at (917) 951-6100.
Thanks for everything!
Margaret Angell
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A CENTRAL PARK WILDIN' INCIDENT:
On Wednesday, a male member of the Central Park Track Club was
attacked by three individuals around East 86th Street at 830pm.
Fortunately, some Warren Street runners saw what was happening
and came to his assistance. One of the individuals was
arrested but the other two escaped. An NYPD detective
has been assigned to the case to apprehend the other two perps.
Our teammate did not suffer serious injuries, although his jaw
is hurting from a blow.
Statistically, the Central Park precinct has one of the lowest
crime rates in the city. But low does not mean zero; and
just because it is low in the past does not mean that it will
never ever happen to you. This incident occurred in an
area with members of the public being around, and therefore
had no rational logic. So we remind everyone to exercise
commonsense and caution when you go about.
Once again, we thank the Warren Street runners. You are
the best, in more ways than one.
Postscript: Upon reading this item, another teammate wrote
to report that one of his co-workers was also assaulted by three
individuals in the same area around the same time.
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ALBANY
SPRING CLASSIC: Coach Devon Sargent would like
to take the whole middle distance open/masters team up to Albany
for this team on Friday (May 10th). This would mean leaving
early for the drive, do the race and then have a big team dinner
afterwards. Sounds great! This is what makes a team
more than individual competitors.
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THURSDAY WORKOUT REPORT:
The 6 pm weather report reads: "Fifty-seven degrees temperature.
Ninety-seven percent humidity. Severe thunderstorms.
Tornado watch." The middle-distance runners' workout
at East River park was cancelled, but the distance runners'
workout in Central Park was held with forty-five attendees.
If we are correct, this is Rick Shaver's first workout
of the year, atlhough he has run two races already this year.
Rick explains, "After I completed the four miler and the
five miler, I knew that I was ready to run a workout."
Hmmm, a very interesting perspective indeed ...
The best part of this workout was to listen to Bill Haskins
relate his Jersey Shore Marathon experience. This was
a windy, rainy day in which portions of the race were in completely
open areas. Although the conditions were bad, Bill had
no intention of adjusting his goal time (6:30 min/mile pace).
He knew that there would be some difficulty due to the wind
in the middle section of the race, so he started out at 6:15
min/mile pace. For the first few miles, Joe Bowman
from Georgia shared the lead with Bill, alternating with each
other while four other runners simply tagged the two and otherwise
completely refused to contribute. At one point, the two
split apart to the far left and far right of the road respectively
and beckoned the others to share the work, but the others simply
split and followed them to the far side. Once again, those
two had to resume the lead. When they turned into the
strong headwind, Joe had to back off because he was on a quest
for running sub 3-hour marathons in all 50 states and did not
want to take the risk of leading and then blowing up.
This left Bill to take the lead alone. At one point, Bill
deliberately slowed down and forced the others to take over.
But the group then dawdled on at 7:00 min/mile pace, which forced
Bill to pick up again because he was not going to run a 3:05
marathon on account of these people. Finally, when the
turnaround came, Bill was exhausted from leading and the others
just picked up the pace to drop him, leaving him in eighth place
at that point. Justice prevailed because Bill came back
to catch that group, with the last three miles at 6:25 min/mile
pace. His final position was 3rd place in a time of 2:50:33.2.
The actual story was longer than that, as a couple of his non-racing
teammates also played major roles along the way.
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WEB
ACCESS STATISTICS FOR APRIL 2002: If you are wondering
where we find time to do this, the secret is that it is automatically
generated with the Web Trend Analysis program. Everything
is execuated and formatted automatically with just a few clicks.
At any rate, a cursory glance says that we had another record-setting
month in our history. The puzzling factoid is that this
page ( http://www.centralparktc.org/99gay.htm
) from three years ago has just emerged into our top 20 most
popular pages. Who is the secret star? Who are his/her
admirers?
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APB FOR HUGH BOWEN:
From Irene Jackson-Schon:
"For the 20th CPTC anniversary, Marty Stanton and
I created a presentation that was for the most part supported
by slides donated from the membership. After the event,
former member Hugh Bowen took those slides to try to
create a video. We have not heard from him since, and we'd like
those slides back. Does anyone know where he is?"
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THE LAST HOLDOUT AGAINST
THE INTERNET: In the 2002 NYRR Member Benefit
Directory, Dan Hamner is listed as "Non-political,
no computers, hands-on medicine for minimum of one hour per
patient." No computers? But that was then,
and now we have www.danhamnersportsmd.com.
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VIRUS ATTACK:
When it rains, the roof leaks of course. While it is bright
and sunny outside today, our depression increased with the realization
that our computer has been infected with a mail virus.
A Norton Anti-Virus sweep found nothing, but our firewall log
showed that we were sending two to three emails of unknown content
per minute to persons unknown. Presumably these are virus-infected
email. To protect the rest of the world from us, we have
shut down all outbound email. We apologise to anyone who
has received these email from us.
P.S. Proven conclusively --- when you're tired and worn
out, typographic errors abound ... (see item below).
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TUESDAY WORKOUT:
Lousy weather over the weekend continued sporadically today.
It was raining from 3pm to 6pm. And if you did not go
home quickly enough, you would have been caught in the rain
again. In total, we have about 65 people showing up our
three sections.
It has no doubt come to the attention of our regular visitors
that the level of activity has fallen off during the past few
weeks. We no longer answer any emails and we have skipped
a few workout reports. What's happening here? Well,
we've been working like dogs. If this is a rececession,
then we cannot imagine what boom times would do to us.
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ANOTHER
REACH THE BEACH RELAY TEAM From Paul
Sinclair: "The 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 put together
a masters team and Erik
Goetze has put together
an open team. We're looking
for a few more people to put together another open team.
Check out the Reach The
Beach Relay website and get back to me at sinclair_paul@yahoo.com
"
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BONAC
SHUFFLE 5K: This
race will take place on Sunday, May 19th at the East Hampton
High School. The race director is one Kevin Barry,
who is the brother of our Brian Barry. According
to Brian, the pre-race favorite to win this race is someone
named John Kenney. We suppose that we could send
Toby Tanser or Steve Paddock along to correct
the order of things. Win or not, the proceeds go to charity.
For further information call 631-329-6983.
UPDATE: Kevin Barry to Brian Barry:
"Don't bring those guys. We
want the slow CPTC people like you. Only kidding.
We have 3 East Hampton High School alumni coming who all run
about 15:30." Truth or dare?
WEEK OF APRIL 23-APRIL 29, 2002
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BAD WEATHER RUNNERS:
We will have to commend those who ran in races on Sunday in
that pouring rain ---
- NYRR Bring A Friend 5M (note: we hope that your friendship
survived this test),
- Yale University Springtime Invitational Meet (note: how many
miles did you have to drive up there and back?)
- Jersey Shore Marathon (note: no shelter from the rain and
wind!)
- Achilles Marathon (note: especially perilous for the wheelchair
athletes who had to go up and down that hill eight times)
- Leatherman's Loop (note: tough enough already for a waterlogged
trail run even without the rain!)
- Bronx Biathlon (note from Jonathan Cane: "Near
as I can tell. CPTC had four representatives - Zeb Nelessen,
Scott Gac, Kevin Motsch and yours truly.
All four of us made it into the top 17, but Zeb was clearly
the class of our field. He was top 10 after the first
run, moved up to 3rd on the ride and held his place on the final
run. FWIW, the conditions were hideous and the bike course
featured a *very scary* metal-grated bridge that we crossed
four times. Luckily, we all managed to stay upright,
but I can't say as much for the rest of the field. And
to think, I gave up road bike racing because I was sick of having
more of my blood on the course than in my body.")
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WHO'S COUNTING:
We are (and we are always counting) ... Here are our (known)
road race winners to date
Steve Paddock, January 27th,
LIRRC 5 Miles, Eisenhower Park, Long Island, NY
Kevin Arlyck, February 10th, Valentine's Day 5K, Prospect
Park, Brooklyn, NY
Kate Crowley, April 13th, 17th Bridge Run 5K, Fort Lauderdale,
Florida
Steve Paddock, April 13th, Skagg-Walsh 5K, Queens, NY
Toby Tanser, April 27th, Teen Challenge of Brooklyn 5K,
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Kate Crowley, April 27th, Teen Challenge of Brooklyn 5K,
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
The total of seven wins at the end
of April is putting us far behind the pace of last year's grand
total of 50 wins. However, triathlon season has begun!
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BRING A FRIEND 5M:
The race statistics read: 2931 entrants and 965 finishers.
We are gratified to see that friendship does not mean dragging
one's friends to run in the rain.
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CHLOE FOOTE REMEMBERS JACK
BRENNAN:
From Chloe Foote, team member
of the Central Park Track Club
Remembering Jack Brennan
A year ago April, I attended Lynn
Blackstone's running party and walked into the arms of Jack
whom I hadn't seen in years. He immediately recalled many
things of my past I'd chosen to forget; and at the same time,
those I was proud to remember, such as going to the Allman Brothers
concert with him circa 1975. His memory was razor sharp
and delightfully accurate.
Jack had his own style of lending support to his teammates. He
was often there to congratulate me at the finish of a long race
asking fondly, "Why don't you try running next time?"
One can only feel thankful and lucky to have felt Jack's humor,
his competitive spirit, his zest for life and his wonderful appreciation
for those he shared the world with. Death has taken a special
friend, but his presence will be etched in our memory forever.
- MOUNT SAC RELAYS: The result
for Sid Howard finishing in second place 2:38.4 reflects
the fact that this was a handicap race in which he was given a
19 second handicap behind the oldest starter. His real time
should be 2:19.
- THURSDAY NIGHT WORKOUT: Your
regular workout reporter was slaving away at the office.
Given the weather conditions, it was probably nicer indoors ...
- GET REAL! What is real is
this: The acknowledgement in Gordon Bakoulis' new book
Getting
Real About Running says simply "To Alan, of course."
You can read the beginning of the introduction at Famous
Saying #1412.
- CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: In one
semi-final game, Bayer Leverkusen tied Manchester United at Old
Trafford 2-2. That tie and those two away goals puts Bayer
Leverkusen in the favored position for the return match, needing
only a tie at home without conceding two away goals. Meanwhile,
in the other semi-ginal game, Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0.
It doesn't really matter who goes to the final here, because they
are both from Spain.
After the Champions League final, the next big tournament will
be the World Cup in the Far East. Unfortunately, the original
Orange will not be present this time (yes, we cried our eyes out!).
But you may get your chance to watch one of the all-time great
Orange players Dennis Bergkamp playing for Arsenal in the
FA Cup final.
- RUNNERS WORLD HALF MARATHON/5K FIELD REPORT:
Eyewitness/running critic Tobyoko ("O, no!")
Tanser wrote: "Ramon
Bermo's duties as the NYU running team coach cut sorely into
his own athletic performance. Running round like a headless
chicken, and attending to the needs of fifteen 21-yr old girls
was a job he took far more seriously than his own race that he
ran holding a bundle of women's warm-up clothes and water bottles
juggling from each arm - alas, we saw no Spanish flag, Señor!"
- SUPER (SOCCER) BOWL: From
Shula Sarner: "Saturday May 4th, just as
the sun comes over the yard arm, Arsenal (yay!) will be playing
Chelsea (boo!) in the finals of the FA ( Football Association)
Cup final. This is the English equivalent of the Super Bowl. Kick
off is at 3pm - ENGLISH time , which is 10 am Eastern time and
the perfect time for a Guinness and a good game of football (soccer).
IF you'd like to join me for the above and a full throated
rendition of 'who's the wanker in the black', please come down
to Clancy's Bar, which is 2nd avenue between 51st
and 52nd, around 9.30 am for a little English culture.
Ps, I'll be exercising (or
throwing myself off a cliff, depending on the score) later on
that day too if anyone wants to go for a run.
Pps. Jordan, even though you're not a true sports fan, I'm still
inviting you ;-)"
- ACHILLES
MARATHON: April 28th, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
From Yves-Marc Courtines: "The Achilles Track Club
is hosting its 2nd Annual Marathon in Prospect Park this Sunday,
April 28, 2002. The race is open to individual and relay teams
in both handicapped and able runner categories. We particularly
need runner guides that can run at a 3-4 hour pace and are willing
to run all or any part of the race. If you are willing to run
as a guide, please contact Adrienne Cooney at 354-0300
or AchillesClub@aol.com
or even just show up on the morning of the race if you can't decide
until the last minute. Any interested runners or guides can find
more information at http://www.achillesmarathon.com
."
As for the race entrants, we know that Toby Tanser, Patrick
Cowden, Mary V. Rosado, Robin Roberts and Marty
Levine have signed up for relay teams. The Fat Tuesday
Club of Toby Tanser, Matt Chaston, Jimmy Lynch
and Justin Reid will be tough to beat.
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TUESDAY WORKOUT REPORT:
So, last week, we had ninety degree temperature. Today,
the temperature was in the low 50's, feeling like the 40's because
of the cold 10 mph northwesterly wind. On days like these,
we wish we were in St. Croix, but then again, that may occur
soon enough ... When we got started, we counted fifty-three
people in the distance runners' groupt, twenty-four people in
the middle distance runners' group and fourteen people in the
sprinters' group. That makes ninety-one people, and then
we have to add our lone hurdler of the week --- Hugh Watson
this time.
To the vast collection of small world anecdotes, we add Adam
Newman's story: "I was in Paris doing the marathon,
and I saw someone wearing a Central Park Track Club shirt.
Unfortunately, he was gone before I got to talk to him."
Indeed, we do have a current member Greg Gall who lives
in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe. Marina Burke
also ran that marathon.
Another small world event is this photo of Brian
Farley at the 2002 Boston Marathon: a New York City
photographer travels to Boston to take the picture of a teammate
from Washington DC.
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NUMBER GAMES:
The first number is 193,000 bytes, which is the size of the
journals that ran from March 5 to now. This is obviously
murderous if you have to dial up by phone. Based upon
the current flow of verbosity, it looks like these journals
will be archived on a monthly basis. Talk, talk, talk
...
The second number is 5,203, which is the number of emails that
were sent to the Central Park Track Club website since December
29th, 1999. Talk, talk, talk ...
The third number is 483 megabytes, which is the storage space
taken by the Central Park Track Club website. At
this rate, we will be exceeding the storage capacity of a compact
disc soon.
The fourth number is 7,406, which is the number of jpg/gif pictures
that are posted on this website.
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RUNNING TIMES
(June 2002):
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SPARTA
5K: From Steve Paddock: "Is anyone
interested in going to this race? It starts at 0930 on
Saturday and seems to be a quick course with a good ability
field judging by last year's results (see their website).
I will be hiring a car if there is enough people for it; also
I am not the greatest driver on the wrong side of the road so
if anyone else would want to drive that would suit me.
Please email Steven.Paddock@badenochandclark.com
"
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LAKESHORE
MARATHON: Stuart Calderwood was entered
in the Boston Marathon, but elected to run this Chicago race
instead. You can read about the appalling conditions that
he found instead.
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SOY NYC: Famous
Saying #1410 covers Etsuko Kizawa, whose latest
career move is the restaurant Soy in the Lower East Side.
It is entirely possible for you to visit her place after a workout
at the East River Park track. You can do this by (1) running
south down East River Park and cross the FDR Drive by the pedestrian
footbridge to Delancey Street right underneath the Williamsburg
Bridge; run west until you hit Suffolk Street and turn right
(north) for one block, or (2) cross the East 6th Street pedestrian
footbridge and turn south to Houston Street; run west until
you hit Suffolk Street on the left; run south until you reach
102 Suffolk Street (one block before Delancey Street).
If and when you do that, we expect you to come back and have
marvelous things to say ...
WEEK OF APRIL 17-APRIL 22, 2002
Non, je ne regrette Rien (mots
de C.Dumont/ M. Vaucaire)
Non! Rien de rien ...
Non ! Je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal tout ça m'est bien égal !
Non ! Rien de rien ...
Non ! Je ne regrette rien...
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
Je me fous du passé!
Avec mes souvenirs
J'ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux !
Balayés les amours
Et tous leurs trémolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repars à zéro ...
Non ! Rien de rien ...
Non ! Je ne regrette nen ...
Ni le bien, qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égal !
Non ! Rien de rien ...
Non ! Je ne regrette rien ...
Car ma vie, car mes joies
Aujourd'hui, ça commence avec toi !
-
THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT:
Midsummer weather tonight, with the moon directly overhead.
Sixty-two people showed up at the workout tonight.
Following historical patterns, our road workout attendance should
continue to grow through September. If such is the case,
it will be hard to imagine what those workouts will look like
--- will we break the one hundred person mark?
Cruising around on a bike was Bill Komaroff, who said:
"For the second half of the Boston Marathon, I felt bad
the whole time. I am happy to have gotten a 2:57."
Seen running around the bridle path was Audrey Kingsley,
with this comment: "My quads are hurting so much that they
could not have hurt more. That's is why I am feeling pain
in my hamstrings right now, because the pain is migrating upwards.
I think I'll walk home tonight." Her self-diagnosis
was professionally confirmed by our professor of biomechanics.
Addendum: Audrey Kingsley: "I didn't walk
home (not that you are surprised)." Indeed, we would
have been shocked if she did walk ...
Periodically, we have to post a reminder about road etiquette.
This begins with making some room in front of the Daniel Webster
statue for people who want to walk across 72nd Street.
It is just plain rude and inconsiderate to block the roadway
and make people walk through. Then there is the question
of what happens on the road. Already we divide ourselves
into four groups these days to make sure that we don't have
sixty people going out in one big pack. Still, if your
group has 15 people, there is NO REASON OR JUSTIFICATION in
the world that those 15 people should run abreast and cover
both recreational lanes as well as half of the car lane.
First of all, this is rude because you yourself would not want
to run into such a group coming at you. Secondly, this
is dangerous as we see other people have to weave and dodge
to get through. You may feel powerful, but you will be
really sorry if there ever was a collision. It is one
thing if we are just an anonymous bunch, but unfortunately that
orange color is highly visible. The club does not want
a reputation for being rude and reckless, so please be somewhat
mindful of what you are doing when you run with the group.
-
LAKESHORE
MARATHON (April 21, 2002): We were trying to check the
results for this race and their page says, "Aren't we getting
ahead of ourselves? Maybe we should try training first!"
Okay, very cute, but we'll be back on Sunday and that joke had
better be replaced by the results!
-
BOSTON
MARATHON PHOTOS: The photos were first posted
somewhere around 3am on Thursday morning. On that afternoon,
James Siegel saw the page for the first time and said,
"I'm really impressed by the commentator's knowledge of
Yankee baseball." A proper historical perspective
requires us to disclose the following e-mail (subject title:
"YOU'RE KILLING ME!") that came from Jonathan Cane
at 9:09am on Thursday morning: "It's
Derek Jeter (and not Gary Jeter) in #9
and #13 of the Boston photos and Bernie Williams
(and not Gerald Williams) in #19. You have to understand
that I grew up in a household in the Bronx where my parents
occasionally forgot my name, but knew all the Yankees names,
numbers and statistics, so this is especially upsetting."
On our part, we felt no guilt about not knowing enough about
a game in which grown men are paid millions of dollars for throwing
sticks at balls. Now if you want to talk about whether
Steve and Mark Waugh should have been dropped,
that's something we are much more interested in ...
-
QUEENS HALF MARATHON QUIZ:
From G'mo Rojas: "Which Central Park Track Club
team member is right behind Glen Carnes?"
Think about this long and hard before you verify (cheat!) by
looking at the race result listings. Hint: We wouldn't
be posting this if there wasn't some special trick ...
-
NYRR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
Open men: 2nd place, one point behind WSX and tied with WS
Masters men: 1st place, undefeated and 20 points ahead already
Veteran men: 8th place, no team in Queens Half Marathon
Open women, 1st place
Masters women, 4th place, no team in Queens 5K
Veteran women, 5th place, no team in Queens 5K
Looking ahead to May, we should have a good turnout for the
Prospect Park men's five miler because this is our second home.
For the Mother's Day women's half marathon, we are tempted to
organize a boycott for this cruel and unusual punishment
for mothers who really deserve to have breakfast in bed ...
-
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
Overheard at the Boston-New York City shuttle on Monday evening
between an airline ticket agent and a known Boston Marathon
spectator (note: not a runner)
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid that you will have to wait
for the 7 o'clock plane."
"Well, I just finishing running the marathon and
I am limping a bit. Is it at all possible to put me on
the five o'clock plane?"
"Wow! How was your race?"
"Well, it was okay ..."
"I guess if you hurry, you can still make the five o'clock
plane ..."
...
Instant justice --- the passenger was 'randomly' selected to
have his shoes inspected ...
-
TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT:
Ninety plus degrees during the day. Summer has arrived
(until it turns cold again). Today's headcount at the
workout is 53 + 24 + 12 + 1 = 90 people. That means 53
distance runners, 24 middle distance runners, 11 sprinters and
1 hurdler. Who was that one hurdler? Well, it isn't
Hugh Watson who ran the 400m hurdles at the Columbia
University meet on Saturday. Rather, it was Helene
Sisti who is on the Brown
University all-time 400m hurdlers' list.
Having that many people on the track is obviously going to cause
some traffic problems, especially with the many soccer players
on the new artificial turn infield. Of course, things
can only get worse when our marathoners com back. This
is perhaps no different from the indoor track, where you have
to be careful about whom you are running into as well as who
might be running at you from the blind spots. That would
include all those people who just stand in the middle of the
track, totally oblivious of the fact that they are standing
in the way of the hurdler's workout.
Ninety degree temperature means hydration assumes greater importance.
Thankfully, the water fountain near the entrance of the track
has been turned on. If you think it is hot today, then
it gets even hotter tomorrow. Just be glad that they did
not get this weather for the Boston Marathon on Monday.
-
COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY MEET PHOTOS: This time, the photos
came from none other than Sue Pearsall. Look for
that sequence of Isaya Okwiya coming close, closer, closer
...
-
EAST RIVER PARK:
Officially, the long distance runners will begin their East
River Park track season this week. This is one gorgeous
track with a beautiful view of East River (assuming that you
want to look at all). There are two minor flaws --- first,
there is a little bump on the track at the top of the backstraight,
so you need to brace yourself for the jolt; second, it
stinks when the garbage barges head down the river to the Staten
Island landfill.
The travel directions are printed below. Generally speaking,
this neighborhood has improved tremendously from the early 1990's
when it was junkie heaven.
Travel directions:
-
The track is located in East
River Park, which is east of the FDR Drive at East 6th Street,
bordering on East River. Here are some possible (but
not the only ones) travel options:
-
Option #1: Take
any uptown or downtown subway (#A, #C, 1, 2, 3, #4, #5,
#6, N, R, Q, W) to 14th Street. Get on the L-train
to head east along 14th Street, exiting at the last Manhattan
stop at First Avenue. Run/walk east down 14th Street
to Avenue C (by the Con Edison substation), then go downtown
(south) until you reach East 6th Street, and then turn left
(east) to reach the FDR Drive, cross the pedestrian bridge
and the entrance to the track is right there. Apart
from the L-train, there are also bus services down 14th
Street; in particular, the #14 bus heads downtown along
Avenue D. Please verify those bus routes with the
MTA
and bear in mind that the bus can be interminably slow.
-
Option #2: Take
any uptown or downtown subway (#4, #5, #6, N, R, Q, W) to
Astor Place (East 8th Street) and walk/run down East 6th
Street all the way to the FDR Drive. Cross via the
pedestrian bridge and the entrance to the track is right
there. Alternately, the #8 bus will bring you to East
10th Street and Avenue D, where you can cross the East 10th
Street pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive and go south
a couple hundred of meters to reach the track.
-
Option #3: Take
any uptown or downtown subway (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, N,
R) to Houston Street. Run/walk east until you reach
the FDR Drive, turn north to cross over on the East 6th
Street pedestrian bridge and the entrance to the track is
right there. Alternately, you can take the #21 bus,
which will take you all down Houston Street and then deposit
you near East 6th Street and Avenue C, from where it is
only one block east.
-
Option #4: Take
a cab! Simply state that you wish to get to East 6th
Street and the FDR Drive (note: the taxi cannot stop on
the FDR Drive itself to let you off, but you can take the
service road that runs parallel to it).
-
Option #5: Coming
down from uptown, you can run along the East River esplanade
all the way down to the East 6th Street track. This
is the scenic route. If for some reason you have to
cross the street at Stuyvesant Town, we urge to be extra
careful in watching the cars and run defensively.
That is to say, just because you make eye contact with the
driver, you should not assume that he will stop for you
--- you have nothing to win and everything to lose in an
accident!
-
Option #6: Coming
up from downtown, you can run along the East River esplanade
all the up from Wall Street to the East 6th Street track.
This is the scenic route, going under the Brooklyn Bridge,
the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge.
WEEK OF APRIL 9-APRIL 15, 2002
- BOSTON MARATHON WRAP-UP:
(1) Weather: On Sunday night, the Weather Channel forecast
temperatures in the low 70's and high humidity (with rain in the
morning). One hour into the race, the termperature was 54
degrees with a northwest wind at 1 mph. Winner Rodgers
Rop said, "It was perfect weather today."
It just shows you that even billion-dollar supercomputers cannot
make perfect forecasts.
(2) DNS: Our results reflect the finishers known
to us. There were a few of us on the entrants' list who
did not make it to the starting line for reasons such as injuries,
illness, and other circumstances that dictated changes.
Just remember that this one marathon isn't the end-all and be-all
of everything. There will be another time (and maybe as
soon as next weekend!) ...
(3) "Slow" Men's Start: From Toby Tanser:
"Reason for men's slow opening
splits, The lead vehicle clock was giving the wrong time to the
leaders thus they thought they were runnning 20" faster than
they were ... hence the 15:58 5km opening split."
You can read the rest of the talk of the town at tanser.org.
(4) Boston Marathon Website Rating: ... SLOW AS @#%*
...
(5) Photos: We'll have to see if James Siegel
is going to deliver ...
- LONDON MARATHON WRAP UP:
Look at the results carefully:
Charles Allard Jr, 3:04:51, 1528th male (10K 40:25, 20K
1:21:04, half 1:25:37, 30K 2:02:59, 40K 2:52:20)
David Newcomb, 3:06:45, 1707th place male (20K 1:23:53, half
1:28:30, 30K 2:06:21, 40K 2:55:19)
Colin Frew, 3:06:47, 1636th place male (10K 40:10, 20K 1:20:48,
half 1:25:22, 30K 2:02:32, 40K 2:55:21)
Comment #1: 13:31 for Charles to finish the last 2.2K.
Yipes!
Comment #2: Look at how Dave and Colin joined up.
Comment #3: John Prather: "How did Newcomb
beat Frew by two seconds, but Frew finish 71 places ahead?"
Do you remember the story
of David Newcomb and Gordon Streeter at the 1999
Boston Marathon?
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INVITATIONAL TRACK
& FIELD MEET: Whatever else, this race was an
Internet-age track & field event. Three days before
the meet, right after the entry deadline, the entrants' list was
posted on the meet website, together with seeded times.
On the day of the meet, although they promised that the results
would be posted right after each event, they could only do so
every hour or so. But who's complaining!? If only
every track meet functions like this ...
- QUEENS HALF MARATHON/5K: As we
have wrote several weeks ago, the month of April has been historically
our weakest one in the competitive scheduel since we have a large
number of runners committed to the spring marathons. So
we were quite glad to see our men and women both finished third
place in their respective races. On the men's side, our
five scores were Toby Tanser, Kevan Huston, Kevin
Arlyck, Erik Goetze and Craig Chilton.
Although we have not polled them individually, we suspect that
some (if not all!) of them probably did this 'thing' purely out
of team loyalty. And we were really really delighted to
see Steve Paddock NOT in the half marathon; incidentally,
he won that accompanying 5K race for his second road race win
of the year. By the way, what was Charlie Stark doing
here when he is entered in the Boston Marathon this Monday?
Even more impressive are the masters men. With Alan Ruben,
Stuart Calderwood and Peter Allen absent, the three
of Graeme Reid, Ricardo Granados and Victor Osayi
won the race to preserve the undefeated string of this season.
While we always tell people NEVER to try to run every scoring
race on the schedule because you think the team might need you
do to that, it is still good to know that there will always be
sufficient depth around to permit you to skip some.
On the women's side, Alayne Adams led the team again.
Stephanie Gould surprised us again with her fastest 5K
ever --- what will she do next? The shock value may be fading
thought ... Our third scorer was a Godsend --- Sonja Ellmann
would not have been there if she did not get injured running track!
- PSAL
RECORDS AT THE ARMORY: Visitors at the Armory will
have seen the wall on which the various event record holders are
named. This track and field facility is the heart of New
York City athletics for many years, and those recordholder represent
the best of this city. Among the names of all-time public
school athletes, we find the name of our coach Brian Denman
(Boys & Girls High) as expected. He is the fourth all-time
faster quartermiler in 48.8 in 1978. Less obvious is the
name of our teammate Johnny Perez (John Jay) in sixth-place
all-time 3200m, with 9:23.4 in 1981. To put these times
in perspective, please note two points (1) they were achieved
on a flat (and splintered) wooden track, not the banked Mundo
track today; (2) they were 17 year olds when they ran those times.
- POLICE/FIRE
RACE REVIEW: Jonathan Cane --- Cane is the
fitness coordinator for the police department and thinks the times
are a changing for the police with their second win in a row.
"I think the firefighters do a better job of organizing themselves,"
he said, "and we never took it seriously, although that is
changing. We've got them outnumbered so at some point by virtue
of the numbers, we should start winning. But I do admit we have
a lot of catching up to do."
- CURRENT
NYRR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
Open men, first place
Masters men, first place
Veteran men, eighth place
Open women, first place (tied)
Masters women, second place
Veteran women, fifth place
Of course, all of that could change if we don't get a decent turnout
in Queens on Saturday, but that's okay because we are not obsessed
with winning ...
- JOSEPH BRODSKY: Yeah, yeah,
we know ... we are supposed to be working so hard right now that
we don't even have time to run. Nevertheless, we will make
time to mention that Joseph Brodsky's Collected Poems
in English has appeared in paperback. This poet became
dear to our hearts when we read that he was charged with 'social
parasitism' in Soviet Russia.
This volume contains more than 500 pages of his
poems. Here, he is writing about New York City:
Blues
Eighteen years I've spent in Manhattan.
The landlord was good, but he turned bad.
A scumbag, actually. Man, I hate him.
Money is green, but it flows like blood.
I guess I've got to move across the river.
New Jersey beckons with is sulphur glow.
Say, numbered years are a lesser evil.
Money is green, but it doesn't grow.
I'll take away my furniture, my old sofa.
But what should I do with my window's view?
I feel like I've been married to it, or something.
Money is green, but it makes you blue.
A body on the whole knows where it's going.
I guess it's one's soul that makes one pray,
even though above it's just a Boeing.
Money is green, and I am gray.
The above poem almost sound trite, but there
is nothing trite about this next one:
Bosnia Tune
As you sip your brand of scotch,
crush a roach, or scratch your crotch,
as your hand adjusts your tie,
people die.
In the towns with funny names,
hit by bullets, caught in flames,
by and large not knowing why,
people die.
In small places you don't know
of, yet big for having no
chance to scream or say goodbye,
people die.
People die as you elect
brand-new dudes who preach neglect,
self-restraint, etc. --- whereby
people die.
Too far off to practice love
for they neighbor/brother Slav,
where your cherubs dread to fly,
people die.
While the statues disagree,
Cain's version, history
for its fuel tends to buy those who die.
As you watch the athletes score,
check your latest statement, or
sing your child a lullaby,
people die.
Time, whose sharp bloodthirsty quill
parts the killed from those who kill,
will pronounce the latter band
as your brand.
- CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Two Spanish
teams (Barcelona and Real Madrid) have advanced to the semi-finals
for a historical confrontation, but our favorite Spanish team
(Deportivo Coruña) was crushed by Manchester United, who will
meet a certain German team in the other semi-final. We obviously
know the name of that German team but they have no fans on our
club ... The bad news for Manchester United is that English
national team captain David Beckham broke his foot after
an atrocious tackle by Aldo Duscher (and the referee booked
the wrong Spanish player for the offense!).
- COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY TRACK & FIELD INVITATIONAL MEET:
(The deadline for entry submission has passed).
8:00-10:00 Field Event Weight In
9:00 Hammer M/W - Javelin M/W to follow - Discus M/W to follow
10:00 Long Jump W/M - Triple Jump W/M to follow
10:30 Shot Put M/W
10:30 Pole Vault W
11:00 High Jump W/M
12:00 Pole Vault M
10:20 5,000 Meters (W)
10:50 400 Meter Relay (W)
10:55 400 Meter Relay (M)
11:00 3,000 Meter Steeple Chase (M)
11:15 1,500m (W)
11:30 1,500m (M)
11:55 3,000m (M) Invite
12:10 400m (W)
12:25 400m (M)
12:45 100m High Hurdles
1:00 110m High Hurdles
1:20 100m Dash (W)
1:35 100m Dash (M)
1:55 800m Run (W)
2:15 800m Run (M)
2:35 400m Intermediate Hurdles (W)
2:45 400m Intermediate Hurdles (M)
3:00 200 Meters (W)
3:25 200 Meters (M)
3:50 3,000m Run (W)
4:05 5,000m Run (M)
4:25 1,600m Relay (W)
4:40 1,600m Relay (M)
4:55 10,000m (M & W Combined)
Central Park Track Club entrants' list
Devon Sargent, W1500m
Marie Davis, W1500m
Sue Pearsall, W1500m
Hugh Watson, M400m
Charlotte Cutler, W800m
Devon Sargent, W800m
Kim Mannen, W800m
Isaya Okwiya, M800m
Chris Potter, M800m
Hugh Watson, M400m Intermediate Hurdles
Melissa Tidwell, W200m
Marie Davis, W3000m
Sue Pearsall, W3000m
Central Park Track Club, M 4x400m
-
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ANDREAS
NOLTE? Can anyone help to solve this puzzle: "I
am a friend of Andreas Nolte living in Burlington/Vermont.
It is possible to forward my e-mail address to him? Thanks in
advance. Rolf v. Tungeln, Bremen/Germany ( Rvtungeln@aol.com
)"
One evening, when the place was
nearly full, I saw a party of four come in the door; a couple
of them may have been wearing neckties, which wouldn't have
been a plus in a restaurant whose waitress used to wear a T-shirt
that said "Die Yuppie Scum." Kenny took a quick
glance from the kitchen and said, "No, we're closed."
After a brief try at appealing the decision, the party left,
and the waitress pulled the security gate partway down to discourage
other latecomers.
"It's only eight o'clock,"
I said to Kenny.
"They were nothing but strangers,"
he said.
"I think those are usually
called customers," I said. "They come here,
you give them food, they give you money. It's known as
the restaurant business."
Kenny shrugged. "Fuck
'em," he said.
How can you not want to meet Kenny?
WEEK OF APRIL 2-APRIL 8, 2002
- BIRTHDAY NOTE #1: On Toby
Tanser's website, we read: "Happy Birthday to Sir Roland,
May your wishes all come true." Apparently, Toby also
tried calling but "the phone rings, and rings, and rings
..." without pickup. Thanks, but people should have
known by now that this phone is not plugged in because it was
becoming a nuisance.
In any case, you probably wonder what I did on my birthday.
Well, it was pathetic because I was working the entire weekend.
There was no fancy dinner and no mass birthday party. Somewhere
late in that evening, I remembered that I hadn't eaten at all.
So I scrounged around the kitchen and all I could come up with
was a bowl of Ramen noodles with some spam and lettuce.
That is truly pathetic, and yet another recent meal that will
not make it into the food review. Oh, I did have a beer
--- the Presidente brand from the Dominican Republic (yes,
I am going downscale as quickly as Alan Ruben runs downhill).
Speaking of the food review, my very sad life right now has precluded
any useful contribution. So if you think that you have some
interesting experiences, please share them with us ...
Consolation note from Gordon Holmes: "Sorry to read
that you had no huge birthday celebration. Happy birthday regardless;
if it was on Saturday, you share it with my 3-year old niece and
goddaughter Olivia, who probably ended up spilling twice
as much food as you ate. Next year you deserve a proper one!
- BIRTHDAY NOTE #2: On a much
more spirited note, John Prather announces the birth of
Daniel Miles Prather at 11:27 p.m. on April 6th, 2002.
30 minutes old, 20", 7 pounds 6 ounces
8 hours old
Daniel Prather need not be
told this story, but we will have to relate this story about this
particular calendar day. Chinese traditionalists use a standard
almanac which grades each day of the calendar year for suitability
to perform certain functions, such as getting married, opening
a business, giving birth, etc. There are good days to get
married and then there are bad days never to get married.
Within the calendar, there are ten days that are considered particularly
bad that the recommendation is to just stay home and do nothing.
That is the reason why the large restaurants in Chinatown are
booked years in advance on the good days (and the bad days are
then made available for the Republican Party fundraisers ...)
So it was that my parents told me that they were waiting for my
arrival and looking at the calendar anxiously, but that I finally
decided to show up weeks later at 11:50pm on April 6th, one of
those dreaded days and this one even had a name --- "The
Day of Official Yang's Woeful Death" after someone who killed
himself in a particularly gruesome way. And this was a story
that they told me again and again and again, as if I really had
a choice in the matter ...
- WINNER'S
CIRCLE: FDNY & NYPD: We note that Jonathan
Cane's contribution on the Empire State Building Run-Up in
MetroSports.com exhibits his usual reticence in mentioning his
own participation, but you can see him in the photo (bring your
own magnifying glass).
- ARBITRAGE OPPORTUNITIES:
In these days of the Champion chips, people are supposed to received
two race times --- the clock time at the moment when one crosses
the mat (oh, don't forget that it's the second mat!) and the net
time which is the difference between the final clock time and
the time when one initially crosses at the mat at the start line.
It therefore makes for interesting reading to see huge gaps between
the clock time and net time. For example, at the NYRR 8K,
we have Anthony Munk 31:12-30:06 and Jesse Lansner
38:52-32:48.
Arbitrage is a trade, or a set of trades, that produces a positive
cash flow at one or more dates and zero cash flows at all other
days. In well-functioning markets, options and other securities
cannot be priced to yield arbitrage opportunities. If one
were to appear, investors would immediately move to exploit it,
and in the process, prices would correct themselves. In
English, this means that you usually start the race near the front
so that there is usually just a small difference between the final
and chip times; occasionally, you miss the start and then all
sorts of people that you know you can beat actually finishes ahead.
So please make sure that you get to the races on time in the future
...
Jesse Lansner offers this explanation: "In
my defense for arriving at the 8K six minutes late, it was due
to my being out late the night before exploiting a poorly functioning
market of fellow poker players. For more important races, like
this weekend's Queens 1/2, I will let my fellow 'investors' keep
their money and their shirts, and get a good night's sleep."
- 1992 BOSTON MARATHON: For
the Central Park Track Club newsletter of Spring 1992, Claudia
Porfilio filed this report:
It was the third weekend in April, Easter weekend
to some and the beginning of Passover for others, but to a number
of CPTCers it was two days before the Boston Marathon.
A weekend of nerves, excitement, hills and 26.2 miles of Massachusetts
road.
CPTC runners, 18 in total, traveled to the City
of Boston; some flew while others drove the 3-1/2 hours north.
And some, like the women's team and its CPTC cheering squad,
Candy Strobach and myself, drove for 7-1/2 hours, spending
a fair bit of time trying to get the portable CD player fixed.
It's a wonder we're not still at Electronic Street at 125th
Street in Harlem.
With so many runners in Boston, George could
have considered holding the workout in Franklin Park.
But before marathon morning arrived, there was the Expo to visit,
Easter candy to finish, Ultra Fuel to drink and nerves to calm.
Weather was a major issue. Would it be
cold? Humid? Raining? There was no way to
tell with past weather conditions so unpredictable. In
fact, that morning felt cool initially, but once the race got
under way, the runners quickly realized that heat and humidity
would soon follow.
Starting off fully hydrated and ready to race,
many runners suffered from the lack of water stations and the
humidity. Alan Ruben felt that the weather was 'deceptive';
he didn't actually feel the humidity while racing, but knew
by the finish he was definitely dehydrated.
Another obstacle was the hills. Boston's
course is infamous for the toll they can exact on one's legs,
downhill as well as uphill. According to Laurie Sawyer,
because you run the first half of the race practically all downhill,
"you legs just don't want to go up and down any more.
But you have to, and, once you reach Heartbreak, going down
really kills the quads."
Most CPTC runners were first spotted and cheered
on at mile 10, where they looked fresh, tough and ready for
the challenge ahead. Without realizing it, three of our
women, Martha Murphrey, Jane Ellen Hickey and
Laurie were running single file with about twenty years between
them. Talk about an unconscious team effort!
The diehard spectators, who had traveled from
near and far to cheer on the CPTC competitors, jumped onto their
cars or onto their bikes to make it to the next cheering spot:
Mile 21. The crew included much-missed past members Rachel
King and Ulf Gennser, who have resettled in the Boston
area (though not, of course, together).
This was one of our strongest Boston-bound women's
teams ever, highlighted by Jane Ellen's light, quick steps.
She entertained the crowd, getting them to pump up the volume
and help her coast in with an amazing PR of 3:08:41. Laurie
came cruising in, strong and focused, about a minute later,
her 3:09:47 a dazzling PR by 15 minutes. Our other women
included Diane Lebowitz who ran 3:51:11 and Patty
Glovsky and Dorian Gravenese.
The men's team had their own "Amazing Stories"
to tell. Andreas Nolte led the men (singlet-less,
alas) to an impressive 2:33:14, followed by Peter Allen,
2:36:03, who managed to get this "portrait of suffering"
in the New England Running News, and Alan Ruben, who
crossed the finish line in 2:41:14.
The men's Story That Must Be Told is that of
the sensational PR by Jeffrey English. Jeff has
this way of rolling with the road, flouting the rules of speed
and getting the job done and done fast. His victorious
finish in 2:47:54 was a PR, and even though he foreswore the
orange singlet, he deserves a lot of credit.
Next time, guys, OK?
Other men who conquered the road from Hopkinton
include Daniel Gonzalez (2:49;12), Nathan Klejman
(3:28:12) and Mike Batista.
Those are the ones who finished. But the
road is littered with tales of DNFs. As Coach George has
been known to utter, sometimes, it's better to drop out than
to hurt yourself --- physically AND mentally --- with a death
finish. So hats off to those who took the bus, fought
the start gave it their all, but didn't celebrate the finish.
And then there are those who should have NFed
and didn't. Sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way.
(No wonder that Greek guy died).
Now, to test if you really ran the Boston Marathon:
Is it true there is a woman named Charlotte, bewigged and 50-ish,
wearing a nightgown and slippers, who plays "It's A Small
World" on her accordion at Mile 8? If you really
ran, you'd know. Who could make that up?
Well, the story is told, and I can only say
that I think it was harder to write this damned article than
any 26.2 miles could ever be. Apart from that,
congratulations to you all!"
Biographical note: From the humble
role of the reluctant reporter for the Central Park Track Club
newsletter, Claudia Malley would go on to become the publisher
of Runner's World, the largest running publication in the
world.
- LONDON MARATHON: Earlier
this year, we had conducted a survey (not on behalf of the Central
Park Track Club) of over 22,000 people in the USA. Somewhere,
we asked people what activities they were doing more or less of
since September 11th. The sharpest increase is interest
in international news while the biggest decrease is in international
travel. This is reflected in that we have only two entrants
in this year's London Marathon: Charles Allard Jr. and
Colin Frew. But while Colin resides in London (somewhere
near Ealing, we gather ...), Charles would actually have to fly
in from Tokyo, a trip longer than any other member would have
to ...
- CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: The problem
with running a non-personal website is the balance between one's
personal preferences against those of a community of diverse people
with multivalent preferences. It took us this long to report
on the mid-week results (Panathinaikos-Barcelona 1-0, Liverpool-Leverkusen
1-0, Deportivo Coruña-Manchester United 0-2, FC Bayern-Real Madrid
2-1). In summary, Spain went 0-2 which was enough to send
us weeping our eyes out. Of course, our professional obligations
(and a reminder from Steve Paddock: "Did you see the
English victories in the this week?") require us to mention
that England went 2-0.
- USA 8K/
NYRR 8K: The following note would have been
sent directly to the trashcan if the author G'mo Rojas
had not identified himself as the NYU cycling coach: "How
about a 15 mile run in Central Park on Saturday? Are you
kidding? Saturday....I thought everyone was going to the NYRR
8000.....
I'm not sure who's planning on running the NYRR 8000 on Saturday,
but it's a great event to run or just watch. Plus it's a cool
t-shirt, even Ross Galitsky might wear it.
At 9:15am is the open race for everyone, 10:10am is the USA
Men's 8K Championships and then the 25th annual Police/Fire
race.
The first 2,500 runners in the NYRR 8000 (open race - 9:15am)
will receive a USA flag when they cross the finish line. Before
the USA 8K (4.97 miles) championships, we will have the Police
and Fire Departments' Color Guard, Police will sing God Bless
America, Fire will sing the National Anthem and the Mayor may
be there (yes, it's a big event, it's keeping the Mayor in NYC
for the weekend).
The Men's 8K field is being called 'the best men's American
field ever.' This will be a fast race in our backyard;
the runners will be trying to break Alberto Salazar's
21 year old record for the 8K - 22:04! If they do it's $25,000
to that person.
This is race is a big deal for the sport of running, for the
American athletes and for the New York Road Runners, please
try to support this if you can. Don't miss this one.....trust
me."
-
THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT REPORT: Let
us assure you that the sprinters and the middle distance runners
made the correct decision in staying indoors at the Armory tonight.
It was cold and breezy weather, just right for the Canadians,
but definitely not fun for a sprinter's workout by the Hudson
River in the dark. Next week, daylight savings time will
end and it will be bright and light outside when we run.
For the distance runners, this kind of weather is normal during
winter. That was why we had a year-high turnout of sixty-four
people.
Although this may come a tad too late, there was an impromptu
digital photography class held right before the workout groups
took off. The key for race photo is this --- never wait
till the runners come up to you, because the low-speed digital
cameras will only capture blurs. That is we use the Sony
Mavica digital cameras with the big 20X zoom lenses and we take
high-resolution pictures of people long before they get near.
By the way, we'll have to say happy birthdays to two Canadians
women (one national high school champion and one triathlete).
On a much more somber note, we report that a couple of people
that we know were recently involved in collisions with automobiles.
When a person collides with steel at high velocity, there is
nothing to win and everything to lose. For those who run
(or even walk) in the city streets, this is a reminder to exercise
extra caution. Of course, this applies to our workouts
as well; in particular, we refer to our group of runners who
were running abreast of each other and occupying the two recreational
lanes. We observed that there were some near collisions with
people running from the opposite direction. Our group
of runners also seemed to be totally oblivious of that big bike
pack. So one again, we have to remind them that there
is nothing to win and everything to lose in a collision.
So please be conscious when your group formation constitutes
a public menace!
There are of course other public menaces on the road.
On this night, we encountered four teenage boys acting like
total jerks on the west side. Our only suggestion: Ignore
them! (Or, as we once learned, let Jackie Cortes
handle them!)
- UNITED
STATES RUNNING STREAK ASSOCIATION: We are highly
ambivalent about bringing up this subject. On one hand,
we feel that we are bringing attention to and potentially even
leading someone into the worst sort of obsessive-compulsive behavior
cycle. On the other hand, we feel that our club has at least
one well-qualified person who is not currently on the their honor
list, but let's not get into that one ... On the 'Official
U.S. Active Running Streak' list, the most famous local runner
is Laurie
Parton-Corbin, famous for getting up from the hospital
bed after being hit by a car to get her run in.
- SOME MISSING PENN RELAYS HISTORY:
For whatever reasons, John Prather was quite ecstatic at
the fact that we could not come up with his result on a cold,
windy and wet day at the 1993 Penn Relays ... we ask, what are
people's priorities these days? What is so great about people
NOT knowing about your accomplishments?
-
WEATHER REPORT:
With better science and technology, we now have accurate weather
forecasts. With a forecast of a high of 54 degrees and
a low of 33 degrees with strong winds, the outdoor track does
not sound such a 'cool' idea tomorrow. Therefore, instead
of running outdoors by the Hudson River tomorrow night, our
middle distance/sprinters will be in the warm confines of the
Armory tomorrow night. Nowadays, the many weather observation
stations and satellites provide extensive data to accurately
forecast the cold fronts coming through Canada. The same
can be said about hurricanes. But it is much harder to
forecast the quick thunderstorms. In all likelihood, at
some point this year, we may run into what hit us last year
--- at 5pm, it was sunny outside; at 6pm, the dark clouds begin
to appear in the west; at 7pm, as we assembled for the workout,
the floodgates opened up in the heavens; at 715pm, the deluge
really came on. If at first you thought you could keep
dry by running around puddles, then later you don't care anymore
because you are totally wet. Of course, this means that
you are a real runner now ...
As with these things, we expect people to read these announcements
only cursorily and so we must repeat once again --- the distance
runners group will meet in Central Park, by the Daniel Webster
statue, at 7pm on Thursday.
-
THE ACTIVE FINGERS:
On Monday evening, we posted the item about Dr. Jordan Metzl's
book, THE
YOUNG ATHLETE (see the journal entry further down for
Monday). According to Amazon.com, there were 14 clickthroughs
to the book within three hours. But we are disappointed
that we have not closed any sale yet (although it is entirely
possible that Amazon.com deprived us of the credit with their
Byzantine rules).
-
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:
At the April board meeting, Marissa Tiamfook and Marion
Smit were admitted to the club. As for our old members,
please remember that the club dues were due on March 31st.
If you have not sent in your check yet, then you now fall into
the class of delinquent members.
-
IT'S
ABOUT PASSION: This story by Joe Glickman
recounts an adventure race with a team that includes Stefani
Jackenthal of the Central Park Track Club.
Joe Glickman's biography is provided here by Jonathan
Cane: "For
the record, Joe Glickman (who authored the article)
and I have co-written two books - The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Weight Training and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Short Workouts (with foreword by Tom Phillips).
In addition, he and Stefani have co-authored The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Rock Climbing. When he's not writing
books with silly titles, Joe can often be seen kicking my butt
in multisport races."
-
SOME
HISTORY OF THE PENN RELAYS: This is the first
big outdoor meet of the season and now in its 108th edition,
and the 50,000+ crowd in a packed stadium is always an uplifting
experience. As in past years, we will presumably field
a number of individuals and relay teams at this meet.
We thought that we should give some recognition to some of our
current team members who already had the Penn Relays experience
during their college years:
1997
College Women's 3000m: Margaret Angell (Harvard
University), 10:02.80, Margaret Schotte (Harvard University),
10:04.79
1998
College Womens' 3000m: Margaret Schotte (Harvard
University), 9:56.04, Margaret Angell (Harvard University),
10:17.38
1999
College Women 4x400m "Heptagonal": Harvard
University (Heather Hanson, Brenda Taylor, Lee Shearer, Marna
Schutte), 3:42.84; meet record and Harvard
University all-time best performance
2001
College Women's 3000m: Kate Crowley (Georgetown
University), 9:55.39
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