The Central Park Track Club Journals -- May 2003

The Journal: The Life & Times of the Central Park Track Club

WEEK OF MAY 27, 2003 - JUNE 2, 2003

WEDDING ANOUNCEMENT [6/02/2003] Kim Mannen and Frank McConville's wedding announcement in the Houston Chronicle reflects a welcome trend. Gone are genalogical histories of the bride and groom, with descriptions of their parents' jobs. Instead the announcement focuses on more important information: the happy couple's membership in the Central Park Track Club and their best race results.
GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE [6/02/2003] First Jayson Blair was fired for making up stories and copying other reporters' work. Then Rick Bragg was forced out for failing to credit an intern's contributions to a story. (The Lewinsky scandal meant it was no longer okay to sleep with interns. Now's it's wrong to make them do all the work without credit. What's the point of having them around any more?) Witnessing these recent plagiarism scandals at the New York Times, our readers may start to wonder just how much of this site is based on original research. We haven't looked into it too closely, but we imagine it's a rather small percentage. Sure, things like the workout reports are generally original writing, but half of them tend to come from writers other than ourself (this will be true of any workout report from tomorrow, since we won't be in attendance), and the accuracy of all these reports is questionable at best. The other stories are generally lifted from somewhere else. Obviously we haven't been to Mt. Everest, or personally interviewed Sir Edmund Hillary, so our story on him last week was based on articles in Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine and several websites, including www.everesthistory.com. In general we base our stories on articles from obvious sources like The New York Times, The BBC (for cricket, etc.), Runner's World and Running Times, but also more obscure publications like Sports Business News, The Week, and Non-Threatening Boys Magazine (anyone who gets that reference is as big a geek as we are). Except when we are offering a direct quote, or are responding to a specific article, we tend not to cite our sources. Partly this is laziness on our part, and partly we figure that anyone who is reading this will realize that we are not omniscient (despite our Global Surveillance System), and that our facts do come from somewhere.

We also publish stories that we did not write ourself. The Hong Kong Correspondent is known to all, and his writing is usually recognizable. The original Tuesday Night Workout Reporter was Paul Bendich. He stopped filing his reports (later making up some excuse about being on strike), and his job was taken over by Noah Perlis. (On an interesting note, the Tuesday Night Reporters and the web editor all attended Stuyvesant High School, though not at the same times.) Announcements may be written by any number of uncredited members (e.g., the report on the Home Depot Invitational was penned by Stuart Calderwood). And, of course, some stories are credited to their authors (e.g., Stacy Creamer's note regarding race finishes). What determines when someone is credited? It's not an exact system, but we generally don't identify the author for stories written by members of our unofficial staff (staff membership is determined solely by our whims), or if the writing in question is something impersonal, or for general announcements (does it really matter who informs us about changes to the race schedule?).
PHOTO FINISHES AND FINISHES PERIOD [6/02/2003] I hate to disagree with my attorney and our webmaster in one fell swoop, but as one of two subjects referred to in recent Journal entries, I would like to – respectfully – weigh in. On the subject of race finishes, I submit that if you're winning, there's no "wrong" way to cross the line. As far as potential photo ops go, sometimes there's a camera at the finish; more often times, there is not. Personally, I respond to the sight of a banner by wanting to raise my arms in triumph – photo or no photo. Others may not feel the urge to make a gesture that is genuine celebration at best and self-aggrandization at worst. As far as the timing issue is concerned, I'm afraid that raising one's arms in victory probably takes as much time as hitting one's watch. It may take more. As for fears of squandering precious hundredths of a second with either gesture: save your concern for the track. In road races, you'll rarely see your time reflected in any increment smaller than a second. Tenths and hundredths you only get on the track Moreover, in a road race – with the exception of the Fifth Avenue Mile – tenths and hundredths will be rounded up to the next second. On the road, that 4:59.85 will be recorded as 5:00. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am moved to admit that while I did not hit my watch at the finish line, I did hit it at the intervening mile splits. Frankly, in most road race situations, it's more important to me to record my splits for later review rather than save the corresponding fractions of a second. Frank Handelman's admonishment to leave timing to the timers is astute advice for the track, where fractions of seconds really count (and are counted) and where you'll often find FinishLynx or three timers on a finish. But – especially in light of the NYRR's recent and rare snafu in getting times in the Race Against Teen Smoking – you may not want to leave it to the professionals on the road.

— Stacy Creamer
CPTC IN THE BIG LEAGUES [6/02/2003] While wearing the CPTC orange (which is very similar to the Home Depot orange) at the Home Depot Golden Spike Tour's meet in Carson City, California yesterday, Amerigo Rossi finished 9th in the 1500 meters, behind such big names in U.S. middle-distance running as Jason Lunn (the winner at 3:37), David Krummenacker, and Michael Stember. Rigo's time was 3:51.39, which broke his own CPTC team record by 2.3 seconds and equates to approximately 4:08 for the mile. Winners of other events included Maurice Greene (M 100 meters, 9.94), Regina Jacobs (W 1500 meters, 4:03), Ana Guevara (W 400 meters, 49.6) and Stacy Dragila (W pole vault, 14-9).
WHERE WERE YOU? [6/02/2003] Devotees of this site who have come to expect regular updates were no doubt disappointed by the lack of new content over the weekend. Of course, their disappointment would probably have been greater if they had seen what we intended to write about, but the fact remains that this site did not change during the entire weekend. We apologize for this, and place most of the blame with Verizon and Cablevision. See, we moved to Brooklyn three months ago and discovered that our new apartment lay just on the border of the Cablevision and Time Warner Cable coverage areas. Noticing that Time Warner had a better package, we attempted to have them set up cable and a cable modem in our apartment, but eventually discovered that this could not be done. Cablevision was happy to wire our building, but is not yet offering Optimum Online, their cable modem service, in our area. We then gave in and called Verizon to set up a DSL line (we get very good cell phone service in our apartment, so we had not yet set up a phone line). Verizon came by, found some inadequacy in the wiring outside, and told us that the building would be wired by May 15 or so. When that first deadline came and went without a change in our status we were given a new completion date of June 2, which has now been finalized as June 4. Theoretically, by Wednesday night we will once again be able to update this site from home. And what of prior weekends where we have managed to keep the site updated? On those occasions we imposed upon our parents and used their computer. This weekend our schedule prevented us from making the trip over to their house. Next weekend we'll be out of town. By the 14th, though, we should be doing full weekend updates again.
BECAUSE IT'S THERE [5/29/2003] That's what George Mallory said in 1923. Why would anyone try to climb Mt. Everest? "Because it's there." Because it's the biggest challenge we have. Because we've crossed the continents and charted the oceans and been to the poles, but nobody's stood at the roof of the world yet. Because there's something in us that needs to see what's over the next hill, even if that hill is 29,035 feet tall. Because there may not be anything interesting up there, but we'll never know for sure until we see it for ourselves. Because there's nothing that we can't accomplish. Because someday someone is going to climb that mountain and it might as well be me.

It wasn't Mallory, though. On June 8, 1924, he and Andrew Irvine disappeared near the summit. Mallory's body was found 75 years later, but without any evidence to show he reached the top. It would take almost three more decades, but on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood at the top of the world. A century after surveyors had established Everest as the world's highest peak, the mountain that had thwarted so many attempts had at last been conquered. Norgay had spent 18 years of striving for the summit. Hillary was at the start of a lifetime of adventures. Neither would climb the mountain again. Why bother? It was the first attempt that was the challenge. What could be gained by retracing their footsteps?

But Everest was still there. And if you couldn't be the first overall, there were still other firsts to be had. The first summit from the northern route (Wang Fu-chou, Konbu aka Gonpa and Chu Ying-hua, 1960). The first summit by an American (Jim Whittaker, 1963). By a woman (Junko Tabei, 1975). Without oxygen tanks (Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, 1978). Solo (Messner, 1980). By a blind man (Erik Weihenmayer, 2001). The first to ski down the mountain (Yuichiro Miura, 1975). The last ten days alone have seen new records for oldest (Miura again, now 70), fastest (Lhakpa Gelu, who climbed the 17,388 feet from base camp to the peak in 10:56:46) and youngest American (Jess Roskelley, 20; the youngest climber ever was Temba Tsheri, age 16). And with each new 'record,' Everest is diminished slightly.

Worse than the record seekers, though, are the tourists. Hillary and Norgay were the strongest climbers on a team of 27 top mountaineers. Too many of today's climber are adequately fit, slightly competent thrill-seekers who have paid up to $65,000 for a guide to lead them to the top. The first climbers blazed new trails; today they follow marked paths, with ropes and ladders already in place. By 1980, 100 climbers had reached the top. Since then 1100 more have followed. As we write this a team assembled through a reality show is making it's push towards the summit. What was once remarkable has become routine and is sliding towards the ridiculous. Why climb Everest? Eh. Because it's there. Because it's not that big a challenge any more. Because it's something you can brag about at parties. Because everybody else has climbed that mountain so you might as well follow them.

There are hundreds of unclimbed mountains out there. Dozens of peaks that are far more demanding than Everest. Parts of the world remain as mysterious today as they were 50 years ago. Hillary thought the first summit would be the end of the world's interest in Everest, and while still standing at the top was already looking towards his next challenge. "We knocked the bastard off!" Hillary exclaimed on his return to camp. Who would have thought that everyone else would pile on afterward?
THURSDAY NIGHT NON-ROAD WORKOUT REPORT [5/29/2003] We couldn't make it to the workout because we'd received the phone call that everyone dreads. The one where a familiar voice calls, panicked, and says "Can you help me move tomorrow?" Since this particular voice belonged to our brother, who helped us move only three months ago, we had no choice but to agree (that, and some slight sense of familial duty). Unfortunately, little brother is following our own relocation scheme: out of the old apartment, into the parents' house for a short spell, and then on to the new place. In our case we spent only two weeks at the ancestral home (but four straight weekends moving belongings between the residences), but it looks like it will be closer to two months before the kid's new place is ready (New York real estate - what a mess). With a little advance warning, though, we should be able to be out of town during the next move.
TUESDAY NIGHT UPTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/29/2003] The original uptown workout reporter remains on strike (we would consider meeting his demands except that he doesn't seem to have any) and his replacement has not been heard from this week, but we still have a workout report, courtesy of John Affleck: "About 15 Central Parkers made it to the Uptown middle distance workout Tuesday night for 3 X 1000 meters, with 300s at the end to put the hurt on. Armando Oliveira led the pack, amazing us with his ability to chat conversationally while cruising along at sub-5 minute mile pace. The important development, however, was the post-workout discovery of the Piper's Kilt, at 207th and Broadway, which has a nice, inexpensive menu, healthy selection of beers, the Yankees on the tube and an Irish tricolor on the wall. Jerome, your table is ready.
TUESDAY NIGHT DOWNTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/28/2003] Warm weather may return tomorrow, but last night was stil cool and windy. We arrived at the workout with only a few minutes to spare, so we didn't have time to count the attendees, but it looked like the usual 35-40 person turnout. We'd also forgotten to bring any of our numerous running watches with us, so we have to guess at the start time of the workout, but we think it was about 6:40 pm. The workout, led this week by Stuart Calderwood was 1 mile, 1200m, 800m, 3x400m, with the quarter done about 1 second faster on each interval. A workout like this goes best if the runners pace themselves well and work as a group, and it was heartening to see several tight packs out there, especially the 'A' group. The quick start and quick running (not to mention the quick winds) inspired most of our runners to make an equally quick departure at the end of the workout. Some of them, we understand, were on their way to a party, but we'd like to think that at least a few of them were heading downtown to hear the Hardest Working Man in Show Biz.
TIMERS NEEDED [5/28/2003] As everyone who's been to one of our workouts knows, it's a lot easier when you have someone calling out your splits. Roland's depature has deprived us of one of our most dependable timers, as was clearly noticable last night when we started out with only two timers (special thanks to Michael Rosenthal who joined in late) for four groups. Please, if you can't run the workout but can still make it to the track, be a timer for your teammates. If you're free on Thursday you can help Tony Ruiz ensure that all the runners who start our workout make it safely back to the statute.
ONE MORE FOR GOOD MEASURE [5/27/2003] Graeme Reid sent us our eleventh result for May 18, along with a complaint about our delinquency in reporting race results from across the pond. For ourselves we retreat to the standard excuse of our inexperience in searching out results. We wonder, though, if the Webmaster Emeritus (who still spends a fair amount of his time tracking down race results for this site) might still be nursing a grudge against the British.
THE GIRLS ARE BACK IN TOWN [5/27/2003] Thanks to the SARS epidemic in China, the Women's World Cup (soccer, obviously) has been moved to the United States. The precise schedule has not been worked out yet, but the tournament will take place at several stadiums around the country between September 23 and October 11. No word yet if Giants Stadium will be one of the venues. The U.S. hosted the last Women's World Cup, in 1999, with great success, but that one did not have to compete with (American) football and the baseball playoffs.

WEEK OF MAY 20, 2003 - MAY 26, 2003

TRAVEL PICS [5/26/2003] Freed from his day-to-day responsibilities at this site, the former webmaster has used his time to give us a photographic account of his recent trip to Santiago de Chile.
CRUEL SUMMER [5/26/2003] Despite what the calendar may say, for most Americans Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer. Not that this weekend has felt at all like summer, but surely we're just a few days away from warm weather, right? Maybe not. The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts the following for the New York area: "June through August will be cooler than normal, on average. The hottest temperatures will occur in late June and early August, but there will not be any prolonged heat waves. Rainfall will be below normal in the northwest, but heavy thunderstorms will add up to above-normal rainfall in the southeast." Is there any hope for warmth? Well, the Almanac's forecast for spring ("Overall, the period will be near normal in temperature and precipitation.") doesn't seem to have been borne out. Let's hope they're wrong about the next few months, too, and we'll get a real summer soon.
COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT [5/25/2003] The Hong Kong correspondent writes: " What's this rubbish about nine race results being the most ever recorded for any weekend? Please refer back to the journal entry for the week of July 2-8, 2002, in which 17 races were reported, including results from Maine, Georgia, Japan, and two people running three races in Ohio."

Our correspondent is, of course, correct. The long weekend from Thursday, July 4, 2002 to Sunday, July 7, 2002, did indeed give us 17 race results. Whether a long weekend should count be considered the equal of a normal two day weekend is a different argument (and one that is rehashed with every new movie release claiming a box office record), but it is not one we need to address here, as we had claimed only that nine results was the most for one day. We were actually wrong about this, as July 4, 2002 had 10 results (as May 18, 2003 now does). Can our dedicated researcher find a single day with more results? Undoubtably yes, since we've already uncovered a single day with 11 results (part of a two day weekend with 16 results). Can he top that?
AMEN TO THAT! [5/25/2003] The Tuesday reporter sent us an explanation of the gematria of "amen" that has cleared up our confusion. An explanation of our efforts: We first applied numerical values to the English letters in amen and got 33 (a=1, m=13, e=5, n=14, 1+13+5+14=33). Since the square root of 3 (the second numeral in '33') is 1.732, which is not an integer, 33 was obviously wrong. Yves-Marc Courtines then came across the Mysticalnet Web Gematria Server which yielded five options: 741 (Hebrew), 61 (New Aeon English Qabala), 23 (The Gematria of Nothing), 91 (Greek), and 156 (Enochian). Knowing that we were looking for a two digit number, we immediately rejected the Hebrew and Enochian (apparently a system of Hermetic magic, whatever that is) results. The Gematria of Nothing seemed unlikely to have been used, and its result gave us the same problem with the square root of 3 that we already had. The two other options were more promising. The square root of 1 is 1, so e-mail addresses of jag611 or jag911 were both possible for Fire Chief John. As Yves-Marc pointed out, "jag911 would make sense being a fireman — but not jag611, unless he likes to handle phone repairs." And John's actual e-mail address? jag393.

So where did the 39 come from? From Hebrew. The Hebrew spelling of amen is:

For those who don't know Hebrew, the above letters, from right to left, are Aleph (silent), Mem, (m) and Nun (n). Aleph is the first letter of the alphabet, Mem the 13th, and Nun the 14th. However, some Hebrew letters, including Nun, are written differently when they appear at the end of a word. In gematria, the 'final' versions of these letters are listed separately, with Nun final as the 25th in the system. So, 1+13+25=39. So why did the other system give us 741? Because in the traditional system (used by the website we found), the first nine letters have values from 1 to 9, the next nine from 10 to 90, and the final nine from 100 to 900. (The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, with five 'final' letters). In the traditional system, then, aleph is still 1, Mem is now 40, and Nun final is 700. 1+40+700=741.

And what does this all mean? We have no idea, and reading through several webpages on the subject have actually left us more confused that when we started out.
A CUT ABOVE [5/25/2003] As basically everyone not living in a cave knows by now, Annika Sorenstam played against the men in the Colonial Invitational this week, and missed the cut after the second round. Depending on who you ask, this proved:
We shot under 74 (Annika's second round score) the last time we played golf. Admittedly, that was at a mini-golf course, but let's see some of these pros get their putt up the ramp and through the windmill in under three tries.
CELEBRATING CENTRAL PARK [5/23/2003] In honor of Central Park's 150th birthday, a number of museums have organized special exhibits about the park. In addition to the usual suspects (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York), there is Celebrating Central Park, 1853-2003, at the Hirschl & Adler Galleries. This exhibit, which runs through July 3, chronicles the many facets of this magnificent urban resource through works of art in a variety of media – paintings, watercolors, prints, photography (including a 1970 Ruth Orkin photo of the start of the first New York City Marathon), and sculpture – selected from public and private collections. And, it's co-curated by our favorite Canadian gallery director/triathlete (although we imagine there's only one out there), Shelley Farmer. Hirschl & Adler is located at 21 East 70th Street, and is open Tuesday - Friday from 9:30am to 5:15pm, and Saturday from 9:30am to 4:45pm.
PERFECT 10 [5/23/2003] Or at least some sort of 10, since George Robertson in the Balance Bar Sprint Adventure race gives us ten results (and a fifth sport) for Sunday. Please say that you guys are taking things easy for Memorial Day. We shudder to think of how many races you might get yourselves into over a three day weekend.
HOW DO YOU TALK TO AN ANGELL? [5/23/2003] Peter Gambaccini's latest "Brief Chat" for the Runners World website is with our very own Margaret Angell. Our favorite quote: "What was key for me was to have the support of my club team, and to mark my training with our club team scoring races."
THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT REPORT [5/23/2003] It was cool, windy, overcast, and rain had been threatening all day. This threat failed to deter 45 runners from showing up, including two prospective members attending their first workout. One of these women knew of the club from checking out the website and seeing our bright orange singlets and jackets at races. The other woman (who, naturally, turned out to be Canadian) other was recruited last minute by Fire Chief John. The star of the evening, however, was Margaret Angell, making her first appearance since her triumphant performance at the London Marathon. For those who've forgotten, Margaret finished in 2:46:20, which qualifies her to run in the U.S. Olympic trials next year. This makes her the first runner coached by Tony Ruiz to qualify for the trials (a fact which Tony briefly mentioned, but didn't make a big deal over).

The workout itself focused on two loops of the Harlem Hills (the first at 10 mile pace, the second at 10k pace), with a one mile pickup at 5k pace coming home. Oh yes, there was a warmup before that, which Margaret Schotte skipped, much to her dismay (her exact words back at the statue were "Now I know why we have a warmup in these workouts!"). Margaret Angell (did we mention she's the first runner coached by Tony Ruiz to qualify for the Olympic trials?) ran the workout at her usual brisk pace, proving the wisdom of taking a little time off after a marathon. Several team members who rushed back into workouts after the Boston Marathon could be seen trudging up the hill far behind her.

After the workout Fire Chief John let us in on the exact number in his e-mail address. Gematriatic analysis by ourselves and Yves-Marc Courtines had resulted in a variety of different numbers, none of which gave us a second digit that yielded a whole number for its square root. Learning the exact number left us only more mystified as to what the Middle Distance reporter was referring to. (Gematria is a system in which each letter of an alphabet corresponds to a number. Numerical values of words are totaled up and words with the same numerical value are seen as being related, uncovering hidden connections. In no system that we tried did "amen" yield the correct number.) Oh yes, a runner coached by Tony Ruiz qualified for the Olympic trials.
DON'T TIME YOURSELF! [5/22/2003] "Seeing Joe stop his watch as he crosses the finish line makes me nuts! He ran a great race, but not only is he depriving himself of a really cool photo op (no big deal) he is causing himself to run a slower time (very big deal). This is a race, not a workout. LET THE TIMERS DO THEIR JOB, AND DO NOT LOOK DOWN TO STOP YOUR WATCH WHEN YOU FINISH!! Let's say you want to run under 17 minutes for 5k, you time yourself this way and get an official 17:00.2. Duhhh – what's your purpose here? Even makes me crazier in track meets, where stopping your watch can mean the difference between 4:59.85 and happiness and 5:00.10 and despair. Get the point people? (Do I come across as a little over the top on this one? And if I do, IT'S FOR A GOOD REASON. THIS IS A RACE NOT A WORKOUT – DO NOT TIME YOURSELF – AAAARRRGGHHHHH...)"

— Frank Handelman
ON CLOUD NINE [5/21/2003] The latest updates to our results page bring the total number of races run by CPTC members last Sunday up to nine. These races encompassed five states, two countries and four sports (road race, duathlon, triathlon and orienteering). Without bothering to search through six years of results on the website, and another 25 years that may or may not exist in newsletters, we are just declaring this to be the most races ever run by the team in one day. Anyone who proves otherwise probably has too much free time on his hands.
PROPER FORM [5/21/2003] Joe Tumbarello and Stacy Creamer both won Sunday's Skaggs-Walsh 5K race, but a glance a the race photos showed that only one of them did it with style. For your edification, we present the right and wrong ways to cross the finish line:

WRONG WAY RIGHT WAY
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS [5/21/2003] Two corrections today, but neither one is of our own claims. First, Stuart Calderwood informed us that "Stacy Creamer's recent 18:37 is her second-fastest-ever 5K (to her PR of 18:18 in Chicago at age 40), but it was the best age-graded percentage (83.6) of her life at ANY distance. Perhaps if she hadn't stopped at merely running 5K's on two consecutive days she would've run a PR on #3, but she seems not to have found one for Monday." Then we received several e-mails alerting us to the fact that the New York Road Runners Club had adjusted the distance of last night's Downtown Dash from 2.7 miles down to 2.6 miles (the intended distance was 2.5 miles). When we went to look at the results we saw that they had been adjusted again, up to 2.66 miles. Corrected paces appear on the results page.
TUESDAY NIGHT BROOKLYN WORKOUT REOPRT [5/20/2003] We got a last minute request to fill in at the Nike run in Brooklyn, so we didn't make it to the track. We did run a nice loop of Prospect Park, with five hill repeats in the middle, and then hung out at the bar for a while. This makes three workouts in a row that we've missed due to three different work commitments, but we promise that nothing will keep up from Thursday's workout. Well, nothing but the rain that is forecast.
TUESDAY NIGHT UPTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REOPRT [5/20/2003] Better weather brought out 17 middle distance runners and John and Sue to time. An initial set of 800m was followed by a set of 400m with short recoveries. Armando turned in his sadistic hat (as a high school track coach) for his masochistic hat (as a runner) and was pushing Chris or Stuart who took turns leading the pack.

After some ribbing about being the cover girl on the website for two weeks running (yes, pun intended) Charlotte was publicly congratulated for winning the corporate challenge race last week and was surprised to be told she was featured on the website with her second place in a recent mile race in Westchester.

Due notice was also given to Ana and Stuart's recent successes, as well as Stacy setting a lifetime best in her recent 5K (4 races in one week!) as well as her wins and places. Someone mused about the theory of women runners getting faster after having children and what if anything happens to their bodies to allow for that.

The Resistance Is Futile title was quietly bestowed on Chief John who broke down after all these years and finally got his first e-mail account today. We do not have permission to give it out, but it starts with his initials of jag and continues with 3 numerals @hotmail.com. The third number is the square root of the second and the first two numbers have a gematria equivalent to the word Amen.
THE BIG 150 [5/20/2003] In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Central Park we are organizing a 150 mile relay to be held on July 19th. This will be an all day event open to everyone who would like to participate. The length of the legs will be dependent upon how many people want to participate. (Ex. 60 people = 60 2.5 mile legs.) If you are interested or have ideas please email Bill Haskins at bill.haskins@verizon.net.

WEEK OF MAY 13, 2003 - MAY 19, 2003

ANOTHER DEPARTURE [5/19/2003] On a cold evening of late November 1999, a few days after arriving in NYC, I showed up at Daniel Webster's statue for the first time and discovered a multicultural group of half-crazy, hard-core runners — you guys. Since then, all along these 3.5 years, you have inspired me, guided me, kicked my butt and helped me reach some of my craziest dreams. But also, more importantly, I know I could count on you guys in any situation, and I know this will continue wherever I am in the future.

No more lactate threshold pain and no more orange singlet for me though, at least for a while. As some of you know, I (and my girlfriend Anne) will be leaving the U.S. on May 29 to pursue another dream – a one-year round-the-world trip.

You are all invited to come to Mary Ann's, 1803 Second Avenue (at E. 93rd Street), on Wednesday, May 28, at around 7:00 PM. Just stop by and say hello (and goodbye), drink a margarita, or stay longer, share some good typical Mexican food and enjoy the party until we drop like rocks.

Hope to see a large contingent of CPTCers!

Olivier Baillet
MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS [5/18/2003] The original webmaster has been so secretive in his departure that even we are not 100% sure of it, but we believe he has now left for foreign shores. While the transition is close to chaotic on our end, we hope that it appears seamless to our readers. The only major change we wish to remind you of is that all results, journal entries, announcements and general complaints should be sent to webmaster@centralparktc.org. (The complaints should be copied to Roland, along with a comment about how much better the site used to be).
RUNNING AMOK [5/18/2003] As of this writing, we have results from 10 different races this weekend, and we wouldn't be too surprised to hear about a few more races in the next day or two. We had some comment we wanted to make about this but, after an hour of updating the other pages, we forgot what it was. Anyone who sends us a witty and/or profound comment that should have gone here gets a nice mention here, and possibly a photo on the front page.
FAMILY AFFAIR [5/18/2003] From Stacy Creamer: "Stuart and I ran the Philadelphia Bar Association 5K this morning. The course was an out-and-back on the West Drive of the Schuylkill River (approximately between miles 4 and 6 of the Philadelphia Distance Run course, just past the Art Museum). Stuart was the second finisher overall with a time of 16:40; I was the second female with a time of 18:37. My lawyer-brother Shane broke 21:00 for the first time since high school (20:58) and my lawyer-father came in third in his age group (70-74) even though he participated in the walk, not the run."
QUEENS FOR A DAY [5/17/2003] Despite the absence of some of the big names, the depth of our team carried us to third place finishes for both the Men's Open and Men's Masters teams in today's Queens Half Marathon. The overall standings remain unchanged, with the Open team staying in third place, and the Masters in first. In the 5K, we had strong showings from all three CPTC runners: Joe Tumbarello and Stacy Creamer each took first place, and Glen Carnes set a PR.
BURNED AGAIN [5/17/2003] Those readers with a good memory may recall that back in January we complained about an article in the Styles section of the New York Times promoting the idea that 20 minutes of weightlifting per week was all the exercise an average person needs, and, indeed, is even better exercise than running, cycling, swimming, etc. We lamented at the time:

The health pages in the Science Times section of Tuesday's paper are full of articles on proper nutrition, diet and exercise. It's a shame that the rest of the paper doesn't treat these subjects as seriously

We would like to apologize to the editors of the Styles section. True, they gave more prominence to the trainers who promote this exercise regime than they did to the doctors who challenge its effectiveness, but at least they bothered to ask some doctors about it. Last Tuesday the Times Science section featured a review of two new exercise books by Adam Zickerman and Fredrick Hahn, two of the trainers profiled in January's article. This time there were no interviews with skeptics and no challenges to the authors' claims. The review did little more than quote passages from the two books, taking all their assertions at face value. We were left wondering if the reviewer even read the books, or if he perhaps just copied the promotional material off of the book jacket. We hope that this is just a temporary lapse in what is usually a dependable part of the paper, but we tend to expect less of the Times each time we read it.
BLESS YOU [5/16/2003] Need a little extra help in your next triathlon? The annual Blessing of the Bicycles will be held tomorrow at 2:00 pm at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Amsterdam and 112th St). We may make our way up there, as our bike often behaves as if it's possessed (though we suspect that last week's tune-up may have exorcised a few of the demons).
TRACK PHOTOS [5/16/2003] Joe Golden of the Westchester Track Club was generous enough to send us some photos of Charlotte Cutler at the Somers Lion Club Invitational, where she finished second in the elite mile. He commented: "Charlotte made a great impression, both as an athlete and a person, and everyone was happy that she participated in the event."
THURSDAY NIGHT UPTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/16/2003] Baker Field, Thursday May 15 Middle Distance Group Workout

Quality, not quantity.

Weather – same as downtown but noticeably windy.

Headcount – 3 plus one timer (Sue) who had fever during the day and ran earlier.

Workout – 8 x 200 at faster than 800 meter racepace, with either a 200 jog or 150 walk in between. Chris, Eugene and Noah all deserve mention since there were too few to politely leave any one out ("scab reporters" are polite, contrary to non-working real reporters who also speak poor French).

Not worth noting – Our fearless timer agreed to pace herself for one last 200 as a requested rabbit with an 8 second lead for the last interval needed by one of the runners to complete the set, finishing in a tie.

It is assumed most of the regular crew were dutifully absent in planning for the track meet at the same field this Saturday night at 6 PM (pre-registration starts at 4:30). Refreshments, music, and entertainment will be provided if you bring your own. Tailgate parties are not expected.

Au revoir to our over-dedicated Downtown Reporter. Hopefully hasta la vista is more appropriate.
THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT REPORT [5/15/2003] This report will be the last (at least, according to the schedule) to be filed by this particular person, who was the person who wrote the first ever workout report. It is therefore important to remind the pretenders about the basic format:

Weather --- It was a glorious spring morning today, but the clouds rolled in around 3pm. The workout took place before the big rains came.

Headcount --- Forty-two persons were present at the start of the workout, not including the very very very very late Margaret Schotte. She said, "After winning the Spring Couples Relay for the first time, I was all set to retire. Unfortunately, my partner has just informed me that we'll have to do it again next year."

Coup de Grace --- The first finisher in tonight's 5x800m was Stuart Calderwood, who outleaned Alan Ruben at the finish line. Neither person seemed particularly interested in this outcome, for both were much more happier at being able to hold off Alayne Adams' group.

Sin of Omission --- It has come to our attention that the Tuesday downtown workout report contained a major omission --- Audrey Kingsley ran her first (and not last) sprint workout with coach Brian Denman.
MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE [5/15/2003] Our Latin American correspondent filed this late report: "On El Día de la Madre, I strolled through the pedestrian mall in the center of Santiago to enjoy the day with all the mothers out there. This is the day when all mothers are supposed to rest from their labors and bask in the appreciation by their families. When I got back to the hotel, I checked the website and I found out that a few of our mother teammates did not get to rest today.

If you go back and review the history of the Mother's Day Half Marathon on the website, you will see much displeasure at the idea of holding a women's half-marathon scoring race on mother's day (see 2001, for example). It is true that this year's scoring schedule permits two races to be dropped but the teams are required to run at least three of the four long distance races (three half marathons and one full marathons. To bail out on this one means that it would be compulsory to field a full marathon team. So it is that on this morning, we find three of our masters women doing their 'training' runs --- Alayne Adams, Yumi Ogita and Stacy Creamer --- and in fact they won to maintain the women masters' unbeaten streak this year.

For the open team, our top scorers of the year so far took a break today as there is no doubt that we can field a strong marathon team. Still, our two masters Alayne Adams and Yumi Ogita combined with two of our youngest runners Andrea Haver and Andrea Costella to finish in third place in this race, and are therefore still leading in the overall scoring competition. Upon information and belief, these are the first scoring placings for the Andreas and earn them their right to ascend the awards podium as well as the website's Angels Of The Year awards.

Looking ahead, we will have Catherine Stone-Borkowski scoring for the open/masters teams in future races. Also a mother, Catherine won the concurrent Mother's Day 5K race (and thereby swept the race 1-2-3 with teammates Alexandra Horowitz and Etsuko Kizawa), and is therefore an instant impact runner.

So it is that we thank all the mothrs in the world, and our teammates especially ..."
TRAVEL ADVISORY: QUEENS MARATHON [5/15/2003] Please consult the NYRR website on changes in public transportation schedules.
TO THE BARRICADES! [5/15/2003] Just when we were preparing to send out a seach party to find our missing Tuesday night reporter, the following e-mail arrived:

The scab reporter from Tuesday night is correct: We are out on strike. We do this in solidarity with the glorious unions of France. We shall write again when the wrongs of the world have been righted. Mort aux Vaches!

- Citoyen Bendich

This begs the question of whether Monsieur Bendich is a man of princple, or simply too lazy to file a report, and grabbing at the first excuse he could come up with. If it's the former, than we are very impressed at his heartfelt, if self-destructive, convictions, but we worry about his sense of timing. Surely he could have found a better time to proclaim his solidarity with the French than a week in which Les Miserables is closing and the Francophone editor of this page is being replaced by a man who considers the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to be too complimentary to the Gauls. (Lest you think us to be some rabid war-monger, rest assured that our feelings towards the French predate the recent dispute over Iraq by many years.) As for the French labor movement — no, this is a family publication, so we will refrain from publishing our true feelings here.

But perhaps our cynicsm is well-placed here, and our formerly intrepid reporter is simply shirking his duty. Is it not too far-fetched, then, to predict that we will see a workout report next Tuesday – or perhaps the Tuesday after that – declaring that all wrongs have been righted, no Rightists are left, the Leftists are again writing, and the writer was wrong to neglect his faithful readers? And that he didn't mean what he said about the cows.
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BEACH, DEAR FRIENDS [5/15/2003] This year's running of Reach the Beach will be held on September 12-13. According to the race director, the earlier date is designed to provide "more daylight, warmer temperatures and less chance of hurricanes." Don't worry about the race getting too easy, though, as the organizers have extended the course to 206 miles.

For those who missed it last year, Reach the Beach is a 12 person, 24-hour relay race in New Hampshire that goes from Bretton Woods to Hampton Beach. Last year we sent three teams up to race in the pouring rain (check out the pictures), where they picked up some nice awards, including 1st place Men's Masters team. This year? Well, we know that Tom Phillips is already looking into organizing some teams for this year. Anyone interested should contact either Tom Phillips or ourself with questions (not that we know anything, but that never stops people from sending us questions about anything else). You can learn more about the race at www.rtbrelay.com.
JACK BRENNAN MEMORIAL RUN UPDATE [5/15/2003] There is a slight change in plans for the Jack Brennan memorial run this Sunday: "Unfortunately the cemetery will not be ready for the unveiling on Sunday. We are still having the run which will begin and end at my house with a moment at Jack's grave side. If you know of anyone who is intending to come, please give them the information.

Meeting time: 9:30
97 Fargo Lane
Irvington NY.
Departing time: 10ish(Brennan time).

followed by eats and memories.
Any questions, call 914-591-2048

Thanks,
Marian Brennan"
I WANT YOU! [5/15/2003] The Men's Open and Men's Masters team for this Saturday's Queens Half Marathon Men's scoring race are looking a little thin. We are looking for B, C and D group runners to step up. If you can make this race, this could be your big chance to appear on the end of year scoring spreadsheets!
POLICE MEMORIAL 5K [5/14/2003] From Jonathan Cane: "You are all invited to particpate in the 2nd Annual Police Memorial 5k. It's being held this Sunday in lower Manhattan. The course is a flat, fast, PR-friendly out-and-back. Registration is available on line at www.nypdrunningclub.org/Memorial2003.htm and on race day at Chambers Street and West Street. The race start is 10:00, but registration closes at 9:30. All proceeds go to the Police Widows and Children's fund and related charities."
MOVING, EVERYTHING MUST GO! [5/14/2003] Olivier Baillet has furniture for sale:

Table + 8 chairs (IKEA): $140
VCR (Panasonic): $40
King-Size Bed (IKEA): Frame + mattress: $340, Frame only: $200
Couch Sofa-Bed (Jennifer Convertible): $220
Everything is 3-years old and in perfect condition. Prices are negotiable, especially for you, runners! View the furniture here.

Contact:
Olivier Baillet (work): 212 278 7005
Home: 646 215 9110
Address: 392 Central Park West # 2L, NY NY
Email: olivier.baillet@us.socgen.com.
NIKE RUNNING [5/14/2003] Nike is sponsoring a series of group runs for the next six weeks. Many of the coachers and pacers for these runs are members of Central Park Track Club. On Monday and Wednesday the group runs meet at the Westside Brewing Company and at Chelsea Piers. On Tuesday and Thursday they start from Niketown, and Circles in Park Slope. Of course these are not as much fun as the CPTC workouts, but they may be a better fit for many of your friends.

We know your summer schedule is action-packed. But you'll find a way to get your miles in. NYC runners always do.

I RUN NY Training Runs
To add to your motivation, we've got a summer-long series of training runs that'll get you race ready in addition to being loads of fun. You'll meet other runners, enjoy post-run food and giveaways and test-drive our latest products, including the NIKE Air Zoom Spiridon training shoe.

And if that's not enough, the first round of drinks is on us!

Plus, if you participate in any 9 training runs, you'll race for free! Just hook up a Frequent Runner Card at your first run and make sure to get it punched each time you attend. Training runs begin on May 12 and end June 17. You can get a complete schedule online at NIKErunning.com/run-nyc.

I RUN NY 4-miler
The moment you've been training for! Join thousands of other runners for a fun 4-mile Central Park loop. The exclusive post race party is at Rumsey Playfield where there will be food, drinks and a special live performance by Mos Def and more. You'll also receive a free NIKE Dri-FIT race tee.

Race Day is Wednesday, June 18th with a 7 PM start. No one really knows when the post-race party will end...

I RUN NY counts as a New York Road Runners / New York City Marathon qualifying race and proceeds benefit NIKE Go and the NYRR Foundation.

Space is limited, so hurry up and register. Only race participants get to join in the fun. To register for I RUN NY, head over to the New York Road Runners site at www.nyrrc.org.

Get a complete training run schedule and race info at NIKErunning.com/run-nyc or 1.866.URUN-NYC.

See you at the runs,
NIKE Running
TUESDAY NIGHT DOWNTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/14/2003] We got stuck late at work last night. Normally we're out the door at 5:30 on the dot, but the boss asked us to stay around for what turned out to be another hour to finish up a project we were working on. We hate to miss a workout, but there were two good reasons for staying: (1) they have to pay us overtime when we stay late, and we really needed that extra $5.85, and (2) staying late once in a while distracts from the fact that we spend quite a lot of our work day updating this site. Anyway, we didn't make it to the workout until 7:00, so we have little to report. Luckily, our dad was making his first guest appearance at our track workouts, and he filed a short account:

Despite unseasonably cold and blustery weather, our four groups of dedicated runners turned out for Tuesday's workout. The workout was 4 x 1k at 5K pace, followed by a 400 meter recovery, topped off by 3x300 meters with a 100 meter recovery. In the usual unfair manner of running events, the fast runners got to finish early. A pleasant dinner at Two Boots allowed for conviviality, crawfish and crabmeat.

You can tell dad doesn't read this site too closely; his report is succinct, accurate, contains no salacious gossip, and has no thinly-veiled insults directed at anyone. We missed all the good stuff, but we can report that Stacy Creamer was being followed around by a Japanese TV crew and that the waitress at Two Boots complained that Sid Howard did not join his teammates (including two Josephs, two Lauras and two Andreas) for their post-workout dinner.
TUESDAY NIGHT UPTOWN TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/14/2003] Baker Field, Tueday May 13 Workout - Middle Distance Group.

16 stalwarts braved the wind and threatening rain in chilly 60s temp to run 6 x 600, except Coach Devon and Harry, who eked out a 7th, and one misplaced sprinter who ran 6 x 300. Chief John Gleason had a different workout with a planned jog to loosen up for his Corporate Challenge the next day. He ended up striding 7 x 130 approx. in 18 seconds each as he timed the 400 splits and then ran across field to call out the 600 times, since each interval started where it stopped on the track.

An urban myth was shattered in the recognition that Baker Field rules do not prohibit the wind from blowing, leaving only the remaining myths that it is not allowed to rain on the field and that runners there never seem to age. With the cacoon-like quiet, surrounding high stands, landscaped berms, free parking, bathrooms that work and are clean, and having a perfect track all to ourselves, we should rename the field to Brigadoon Field (also in keeping with the historic Irish neighbood).

(reporter's note - it appears Paul Bendich is out on strike).
JACK BRENNAN UNVEILING AND MEMORIAL RUN [5/13/2003] We announced this two weeks ago, but we're posting Marian Brennan's note again as a reminder:

On May 18 at 11:00am, on what would have been Jack's 54th birthday, we are having an unveiling at Sleepy Hollow cemetary. This will be preceded by a run which shall begin at 97 Fargo Lane; Irvington, NY and end at the cemetary. If you are interested in running, please gather at our home at 9:30am, and, in memory of Jack, you won't leave for a half hour or so after that. I hope you can join us. Please pass this message along to anyone who might be interested. If you have any questions please call me at 914-591-2048. Brunch will be served after.
CPTC SINGLETS AND SHORTS [5/13/2003] The new CPTC singlets and shorts will be arriving soon from Brooks. They will be available in the next week or two exclusively at Jerry Macari's Urban Athletics store in the World Financial Center. Watch this website for details of a special 'opening day' party.
SIMPLY THE BEST [5/13/2003] Toby Tanser's latest article for Metrosports New York covers the best of everything when it comes to running.

WEEK OF MAY 6, 2003 - MAY 12, 2003

OBED MATAYA UPDATE [5/12/2003] We received the latest news on Obed Mataya today:

Dear all - Just to let you know that Obed comfortably won the JUCO 5,000 and 10,000 titles at South Plains, Texas, over the weekend.

Into the bargain he also came second in the 1,500.

The URL for the results is: http://www.southplainscollege.edu/athletics/menresults.html.

This brings the curtain down on his collegiate season but it is far from the end of his track programme.

He now goes into summer school at Central Arizona for six weeks and do some open races while he is there. The tentative idea is for him then to come to Europe and do a few races en-route to the World Championships in August, where he will run the 5,000 and perhaps also the 10,000 (the timetable mitigates against running the 5,000 and 1,500), subject to the discretion of the Zambian federation.

At the moment, Obed does not have a qualifying standard in either event (his 5,000 PR of 13:25.25 is faster than the B qualifying standard but was run in August 1991 and the current qualifying started January 1 2002) but, to the best of my knowledge, no other Zambian man has a world championship qualifier.

Each federation can send one man and one woman to Paris regardless of their standard, and at this stage Obed would appear to be the best qualified to represent Zambia at the World Championships.

I'll keep you posted on his progress.

Best regards
Phil Minshull
SCHEDULE UPDATE [5/12/2003] The Club Team Championships Race is now scheduled for August 16. The women's points race scheduled for June 18, will now be held on June 21. These changes are not new, but, due to an editing error, they did not make it onto all of the schedules on this site. Please update your calendars appropriately.
ROAD WINS [5/12/2003] It was a good weekend for the club, with four new entries added to our list of Road Race Winners. On Saturday, Margaret Schotte and Jonathan Cane won the Spring Couples Relay. On Sunday Catherine Stone-Borkowski and Alayne Adams won the Mother's Day 5K and Half-Marathon, respectively. Finally, Stuart Calderwood looked through the old results, and noticed that we'd failed to list Josh Feldman's victory in the Hope 5K on April 13. This increases our win total to 19, including double victories on four separate days.
SOY PICTURES [5/11/2003] Neeraj Engineer has posted his photos and videos from Roland's farewell party on his website.
THURSDAY NIGHT TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/09/2003] As most readers are by now aware, this web site will soon be under new management. This will result in some changes (more on those in the days ahead), and the idea we are most keen on promoting (and, at the same time, the most pessimistic about seeing it realized) is to encourage our readers to provide more of the content for this site. So far, at least, this is succeding, as evidenced by Noah Perlis' track workout report. This makes two reports in two days. There must be something in the air up by Columbia that has awaked the inner muses of the middle distance runners!

First a correction for Tuesday's report - I was cutting out after each 400, not 600. An observant reporter would have noticed I started after the group reached the 200 meter mark and I did a 400. You are making me look bad to the rest of my sprinters' group by attributing the extra distance, and I demand a retraction to avoid any charges of going over to the dark side of longer distances from my blood sweat and tears brothers (and sisters).

Thursday at Baker Field - Middle distance group was small. Weather was gloomy with cloudym threatening skies and moderate temperature in the low 60's. Some are racing this weekend or getting married, and the coach was on her way to Texas to witness the exchange of a middle distance runner giving herself up to attract a new premier roadie to the club (now that is team dedication!!).

The stalwarts included Armando, Chris, Sue, Noah, Eugene, and John (come lately who arrived after the last interval). 6 or 7 x 300 with a 100 meter walk in between, except for Noah, who did 5 (he never met a workout over 1600 meters total he liked).
THIS IS NOT A WORKOUT REPORT [5/09/2003] As in Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe. Not intentionally so, we had to miss the Thursday workout because we had to finish writing the story about the life of a copy of a newspaper as witnessed by an Argentine living in Paris. However, we do want to take this opportunity to tell you how smart are the people that we run with. A case in study, Sid Howard: "Hey, tell me when you'll be leaving ... (short pause) ... hey, you are going to just leave without telling me ... (short pause) ... YOU ARE GOING TO DO JUST THAT, AREN'T YOU! ... "
TRIBUTE ALBUM [05/08/2003] More photos have been added from Roland's Farewell Party. At the party, Toby Tanser presented Roland with some tributes from team members. Those tributes are now available here. If you would like to add your own comments to this page, please e-mail them to webmaster@centralparktc.org.
CORRECTION [05/07/2003] Frank Handelman writes:

Nice note about the overseas coverage of our stalwart Brits, but the 800 leg in question at the CPTC relays was run by Alan Bautista, our indomitable sprinter and emergency room doc. I know, I trailed him (and Alex Horowitz for that matter) all the way. Alan is one of those sprinters who could run a great 800 if he didn't throw a mental roadblock in his own path at about 500 meters, as in:

"Jeez, I feel great, this is easy, I can really do this distance ... but wait a minute! ... if I run this 800 strong all the way the coaches will make me start training for it and doing all those horrifying repeat 1000's and 1200's and that other scary stuff when I instead can be doing 4x200 and call it a night ... better start to fall apart this next 200, then really lose it in the last few steps ... ahh, that's the ticket."

We've corrected the results page here, but we'll let our president enjoy the accolades of his countrymen a little while longer.
SPRINTERS [05/07/2003] After a long absence, the sprinters are back on the website. As of now they are our favorite group, since they update their own workout pages, making life much easier for us. Check them out here.
CLARIFICATION [05/07/2003] Yesterday we reported that Kevin Arlyck had been spotted in the lead back of the Cinco de Mayo 5K. This was correct, but not entirely accurate. There was a race in Prospect Park, and Kevin did run with the lead pack, but he never actually entered the race. It seems that Mr. Arlyck was out for his morning run when a group of runners wearing race bibs came up behind him. Rather than pull off to the side, Kevin ran with the leaders for about two miles, and even pushed the pace faster for a while. Then, when the race course reached his exit of Prospect Park, he veered off toward home, and let the registered racers finish on their own.
VIVA MEXICO! [05/07/2003] Monday was Cinco de Mayo, the annual celebration commemorating the introduction of tequila to the United States. For those who don't speak Spanish, Cinco de Mayo translates as "The latest excuse to sell Corona to gringos." We stuck to the agave juice this year, since we were tagging along with Los Aviadors de Nueva York on their "Margarita Tour," and may we just say that we were shocked and appalled by the conduct of some or our rivals. Yes, it was a party, and the tequila was flowing, but that's still no excuse for some things.

C'mon people, body shots??? True, they were licking the salt off more athletic bodies than one usually sees in some circumstances, but we had thought the Flyers were a little too grown up for such behavior. It was cute when one of the organizers showed up in a sombrero; less so later on when she was dancing on the table wearing nothing but the hat. And who knew that, in her spare time, the Webmistress is known as "Mistress Dana?" At least she knows how to handle that whip properly! Of course it's always nice to see teammates who are close to each other, but when they're getting that close, they really should just get a room. And not the room with the webcam for www.running-tramps.com that a multi-sport athlete who lived around the corner was offering... (Silly us, we'd never realized that "multi-" referred to the number of athletes participating in the event; we expect they'll sweep the awards if the Road Runners Club ever sponsors a Valentine's Day Fivesome).

By the way, to the Flyer who asked "Why haven't I seen any references to us on your website for the past few weeks?": Is this what you had in mind?
THE OTHER TUESDAY NIGHT TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/7/2003] The Middle Distance Crew braved the frozen northern winds of Inwood, the massive snow gusts, to finally reach the top of the world (according to this provincial Manhatannite, at least) at Columbia's Baker Field. And not to rehash past trauma, but it was truly awful:

-There were absolutely no soccer players or small children to run into us. We become very lonely and this threw off our rhythm. To fill the empty void in the middle of the track (and in our hearts), John Affleck promises/threatens to bring a football next time.

-The track was very soft and very flat. A bit of our childhood was lost when we realized that we could no longer "ride the rollercoaster" on the back straightaway.

-There were actual bathrooms, which means that CPTC members will now have to find more creative ways to get a ticket.

But seriously [sic], the new track is quite a marvel. We strongly encourage others to make the trek, which, in all honesty, is less than a hour from downtown Manhattan. If you meet Devon Martin and company at the corner of Dyckman and Broadway (Dyckman St. on the A train) at 6:55, you can also do a warm-up mile over some impressive hills.

15 intrepid souls were at the workout, including the sprinter Alayne Adams, who found the middle distance rituals to be quite interesting ("wow, if you rest longer, you can run the intervals faster," she discovered). The workout consisted of 4 1000-meter intervals. In the spirit of Roland's report, we will point out the cheaters:

Frank Handelman seemed to run only the first quarter and the last two hundred of each interval. When questioned, he muttered something about "World Masters." Noah Perlis seemed to cut out after the 600 each time, claiming that he was doing the "sprinter's workout." Other than that, we had full compliance.

After the workout, Jerome O'Shaugnessy modeled his new bearprint pajama pants, a fine followup to last week's cheetahprint line. Why this man doesn't design our team gear, we will never know.

And on the jog back to the station, we learned the true motivation behind Sue Pearsall's impassioned advocacy of Baker Field: she lives a large stone's throw away.
THE WEDDING [5/7/2003] It would be a grave crime for us not to inform you that Houston's own Kimberley Mannen will wed Frank McConville on May 10th, Saturday. The details of the occasion are given in the appropriately named frank-kim.com. Both Kim and Frank are members of the Central Park Track Club, and this is therefore double happiness for us.

We were once asked, "Who is Kim?" and we replied: "It is the red-haired Texan with the big smile." That description vastly understates her importance to the club as everybody's friend and a member of seveal different American-age-group-record-setting relay teams. And even that addendum does not address her essence, which is her faith and genuine goodness as a person. The following photo collage shows the many moods of our friend Kim.

The Central Park Track Club biography for Frank is much shorter, as he has only run one race for his and it is his future that we look forward to. If his running past is any indication, we should be so fortunate to have him. Frank was a New York City high-school running star, an All-American cross-country star at Georgetown University, a member of the famous Running Enclave in Washington DC and then a dominant figure in the local road running scene. But for now, all that matter to us is that he is one of the nicest and most composed people we have ever met.

So on this weekend, our hearts fly out to Houston and wish our two friends a bright future. We will see them again soon.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS [5/07/2003] Welcome to Joe Bolster, Marvin Cabrera, Kent Edens, Michael Lubell with recruiting points going to Yves-Marc Courtines, Sid Howard, Devon Martin (2) and Erik Schmitz.

TUESDAY NIGHT TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [5/07/2003] This report will in fact the final one filed by this particular person (and no, my name is not Paul Bendich). But it was not as heavy-hearted as when we picked up the phone to terminate our 20-plus-year relationship with the New York Times this morning. Feeling depressed too at the workout is coach Tony Ruiz, who had only one assistant timer today to whom he gratefully clutched and then said, "Oh, no! What I am going to do when you are not around!" Well, there is such a thing as spontaneous self-organization. The formal definition of that term is complex: "Self-organization is the term used to refer to the spontaneous organization of a system's elements into coherent new patterns and structures. For example atoms 'seek' a minimum energy state by forming chemical bonds with other atoms, thereby creating molecules, individual organisms organize into 'societies' of organisms which interact with other 'societies' to produce an ecosystem, human beings try to satisfy their material needs in their interactions with one another, which gives rise to markets and economies." In practice, Yves-Marc Courtines took charge of the "C" group and, if anything, it was tighter than groups run by timers who are too busy chatting up the girls in the grandstand.

This workout was 3 times 1 mile, which was a lot harder than normally thought of given the cool and humid conditions. We report the following cheaters --- Sid Howard ran 3x1200m instead, claiming weariness from moving furniture in Philadelphia, where he did not watch the Broad Street Run in which two people (G'mo Rojas and Adam Newman) were shocked to find their results posted on the website when they got back. When questioned about something called 'over-racing', Adam Newman mumbled something about being pressured to enter races while he attends weddings all over the world (London Marathon, Leatherman Loop, Broad Street Run). Packing it early tonight was Casey Yamazaki, who said that he needed a four-week plan to build up his strength before he is going to be ready for the next group. We'll keep watching him. Carlos Stafford might have suffered tonight, but he was much more impressed by meeting the swimming instructor of his sports club running with us tonight.

Now that Kim Mannen and the middle-distance group are moving to the Columbia University track, we have evidence that our next Magnetic Personality Of The Year candidate is Victor Osayi, who got hit twice in the leg by soccer balls after the workout today. Marie Davis was also hit by a soccer ball which was powered by a soccer player well known to her. We also saw that the soccer players are using a reflective ball, but we are sure that it will hurt every bit as much if we ever get smacked.

After the workout, Sid Howard took seven hitchhikers on his brand new Super-Fast Delivery van. This is a slightly larger than usual number of free loaders, and is probably a direct causal consequence of the subway fare hike to $2 per ride. We have this terrible feeling that the next time his hitchhikers may find themselves at the front door of Soy restaurant instead of wherever they thought they were going.

P.S. By the way, did we ever tell you that we discovered that the Run-On-The-Bridle-Path-In-The-Dark sub-classification actually has two subdivisions --- the Run-On-The-Bridle-Path-In-The-Dark-In-The-Early-Morning and the Run-On-The-Bridle-Path-In-The-Dark-At-Night sub-classifications and that these groups never meet for understandable reasons?

FOREIGN RUNNERS IN USA [05/07/2003] Have you wondered how the Canada Marathoning website keeps track of the career of Alayne Adams? We would like to think that they check the Central Park Track Club website periodically because it is the easiest way to do that. We are proud to point out that this is something that is not available to the other Canadian athletes. But we have no conclusive evidence that the Canadians use our website this way.

Our greatest pride and joy is a continent away, where British Athletes in the USA is known to monitor our website. Yes, that website carries the road race results for Toby Tanser, Alan Ruben, Charlotte Cutler, Shula Sarner, ... which could have been independently obtained by them. But the telltale clue is the last race of the 2003 indoor track season on their listing:

Apr 1: Central Park Track Club Relays @ New York (A) NY [12] mx4200 Medley 8 Team "G" (3rd leg Alan Ruben (57, Central Park TC) 800 2:20.01) 13:44.00
EVERY MILE YOU RACE, WE'LL BE WATCHING YOU [05/06/2003] We have noticed that some of our members try to test the abilities of our Global Surveillance System. They find obscure races, travel far from New York, and sometimes even misspell their names on the appli-cation. Then they log onto the website and find out that their result was uncovered mere minutes after the race ended. Is there any way to escape the all seeing eye of the Central Park Track Club? Two of our members certainly thought they had found a way this weekend, by running races that had no website results. A worthy effort, but we rely as much on HumInt as TechInt. On Saturday our spies easily caught Stacia Schlosser (who claims to be slow and out of shape) placing in the money at the Revlon 5K in Central Park. Kevin Arlyck may have thought he had a better chance of escaping our gaze by running in Prospect Park, but he too was spotted – in this case in the lead pack, with under a mile to go, in CAMNY's Cinco de Mayo 5K. Better try harder next time!