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Week of May 25, 2004 - May 31, 2004 Weekend
The Times reports today that many bloggers are addicted to updating their sites, and will do so even while on vacation (this is news?). Not us! We're off to the beach for the weekend, and you're on your own. We will have some access to a computer, but probably not enough to update the site. See y'all on Tuesday. Swim For
Clean Water Many of our members have swum races in the Hudson River, but none longer than 8 miles. Starting June 3, Christopher Swain will swim all 315 miles of the river to call attention to how dirty it is and to get it cleaned up. Happy
Birthday! Coach Tony Ruiz is 43 years old today. Happy Birthday! Quick
Steroids There's been way too much going on with this over the past few days, and we haven't had time to comment on any of it. We're a little too tired right now to get to it, so just check out Let's Run for links to all the major news. See, New
Yorkers Can Handle Anything "If the ice age comes again, you know, I'll deal with it. I'll get by. It's always something."
Best Time Another day, another best time. Kate Irvin ran 2:15.1 yesterday for the 800m, bumping her from 7th to 2nd on that list. The Westchester Track Club has a number of photos from the meet on their site, featuring both Kate and Jessica Reifer. Once a
Runner John Scherrer has posted some unfinished thoughts on running from 2001. How come the rest of you never write anything like this for us to post? Best Time We've been waiting official results from the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton earlier this month, but we're giving up. We do have one result, though. Kobie Fuller ran the 400m in 47.59, which is the best time in CPTC history by nearly seven-tenths of a second. We're so impressed, we're even reporting this in English! Fund Raising Well, not only did Colin Frew run the London Marathon, which we failed to notice, he even raised £5,015.05 for Cancerbacup, a European cancer information service. His supporters included Graeme Reid, Audrey Kingsley and Paul Stuart-Smith, and possibly some other CPTC members who chose to remain anonymous. If you'd like to donate, click here, and remember that pounds are not the same as dollars. Week of May 18, 2004 - May 24, 2004 Found
In Translation Last month we promised to report Kate Irvin's new club records in a foreign language. True to our word, we filed yesterday's report in something close to Italian. For those of you who don't undestand Italian, Altavista's Babelfish service provides this translation:
Given how rusty our language skills are, that could be the correct translation of what we wrote. We prefer Devon Martin's interpretation:
Why The
Rest of the World Hates Us Here's a little reading comprehension quiz from today's Metropolitan Diary:
Question: The best way to improve the world is to get rid of (a) parents who spend $50,000 to send their kids to preschool and kindergarten; (b) people who charge those parents $3,000 to help get their kids into the "right" preschool; or (c) New York Times editors who print stories glorifying types (a) and (b) and their plastic surgery. Best Times Brava, brava! Ieri, a la gara di pista "Boston High Performance," Andrea Haver correva il tempo più presto di la storia del'Organizzazione di Pista di Parco Centrale per 3000m in 9:57.5. Trenta minuti dopo, Kate Irvin correva 1500m in 4:35.8, il tempo terzo migliore per quella distanza. Masterful
Men Stuart Calderwood writes: "Thanks for comparing me to Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. I'm afraid my fastest radar-gun result was 74 mph, unless you count while driving — but my brother can throw 90+. Then again, he was a pitcher. As for Barry Bonds, we on the men's masters team are trying to distance ourselves from that individual, and we believe we can do so even if he chases us." Not mentioned in the comparison was Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, since he's a mere 38 years old. He's also 6-2 with a 2.13 ERA and is holding opponents to a mere .193 batting average. And today he became the 14th Met pitcher to throw a one-hitter. Glavine was perfect through six innings, walked one batter in the seventh, and finally allowed a hit with two outs in the eighth. No pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter while wearing a Mets uniform, a rather remarkable fact given that nine of the previous one-hitters were thrown by Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden and David Cone. Around
the World Update #20 – Nepal: Trekking in the Everest Region Dear all, We have just spent over two weeks in the Khumbu – i.e. the Everest – region in Nepal, enjoying what some trekkers call "The Ultimate Trek". Trekking
conditions Sherpas and
Buddhism Also, Sherpas would carry camera tapes from Advanced Camps to Base Camp every day to allow the guy at Base Camp to update the website with climbing pics on a daily basis. Carrying a load as big as them in front of a Western trekker with hands in the pockets is not considered degradating for the locals, who feel pride for being stronger and more endurant than everybody else. All these efforts also ensure a solid source of cash, and the average standard of living of the Khumbu region is said to be 10 times higher than in the rest of the country. Another cultural aspect that is here to stay is Buddhism, as everywhere on the trail one can see colourful prayers' flags, especially on every hilltops, exposed corners and summits, everywhere where it can be seen and where the wind blows, as they are meant to purify the air and calm down the mountain spirits. The Trek
in Itself Everest Fever We could feel the highest tension at Everest Base Camp. The EBC is actually on a glaciar, and tents have to be accommodated on a mix of rock and ice. There is little space to move around and climbers need to be very focused to spend 8 weeks there and at higher camps. We visited the EBC in Mid-May, when most climbers were actually getting ready at higher camps. We were there on the day of the first successful attempt: the Chilean expedition had made it to the top, the first summitters in 2004. However, the other teams were too busy to celebrate: the Malaysian team was about to start their summit attempt that night; the support staff in the Maylasian tent could not hide their nervousness: "we've all been here for 2 months, and the time has come, climbers will wake up at 10PM and start climbing (from Camp 4)". They were all checking radio and sattelite phones, making sure that everything works perfectly. That night, five teams would take their chance. The following morning, at Gorak Shep, the last "villlage" before EBC, sherpas and logde owners were stuck to their powerful binoculars, contemplating the top of Everest. By the time we left this place, at 9AM, they had already counted 22 people on the top of the world. That evening, we stopped in a lodge down in Pangboche. We met the wives of the Greek Expedtion climbers, stuck to their satellite phones and walkie-talkies. Their respective husbands had just summitted Mount Everest that day, and they were the first Greeks ever. However, it was not time yet for celebration and joy, as climbers still had to return safely to the South Col camp, where they would rest after a 20-hour long summit day. We could feel their nervousness, since many accidents do occur on the way down, but at 7PM, climbers were finally all reported back and safe. At the time we write this, more expeditions must have reached the summit. Hopefully, the early moonsoon rains that we are right now witnessing in Kathmandu have not hampered the latest attempts. We are leaving tomorrow for Tibet. During the trip there, we may get a chance to see Everest one more time, this time of the North Face. Hope everybody is doing well,
Everest Speaking of Everest, this message was just passed on to us:
For those of you unfamiliar with Bob Jen, Dave Blackstone provides a short bio: " Bob Jen, one of CPTC's leading distance runners and a distance running champion of the 1980s – a 2:31 marathoner – summited Mt. Everest on May 16, 2004, a triumph of athleticism and physical and mental endurance. Bob is a home building contractor in Westchester County, lives on the Upper East Side and is a Columbia University Business School Graduate." Thursday
Night Uptown Track Workout Report Quick headcount: 2 ... 5 ... 8 ... 10, and the author makes 11. Double down! Yes, it was another small group at the track. Some runners were resting up for weekend races, some were running the Harlem hills with the distance group, and some were just lazy. Even Coach Devon couldn't be bothered to make it. She did send a quick email to a few of the runners in which she claimed to be stuck in traffic, but this claim was met with some skepticism. "Substitute 'Aruba' for 'traffic' and I might believe it," remarked one runner. On the other hand, Armando Oliveira was there, and we realized that we've never seen him and Devon together. Might they be the same person? The workout was a simple 400m/300m/200m set, done twice (double down again!). It was so simple even Noah Perlis couldn't come up with an excuse not to do it. In fact, the only person who didn't do the intervals was Jessica Reifer, who claimed to be recovering from another hard workout, and just jogged around the track for a while. (It's possible she showed up just to complain "I read some mean things about me on the site." We're not sure what she could be referring to, however.) She was the lucky one, since everyone who did the intervals ran them way too fast. Or else half the team is going to go out and run a sub-4:30 mile and a 1:55 800m. Which would be nice. More likely people will start running more sensible paces when the coach returns. [Note: This report was posted late because we were out, and then it as too nice outside and then we were out again and — oh, like any of you read this over the weekend, anyway.] Memorial
Race We are saddened to report that Jason Stern was struck and killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle on May 7. Jason is the son of local swim coach Doug Stern, and in his honor Doug will be donating all proceeds from the Highland Triathlon (June 19 in Highland Lake) to Bikers Against Drunk Driving. Lewis
& Clark Two hundred years ago today, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery began their two year trek from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. Clark had actually started up the Missouri River a few days earlier, but the full trip did not get underway until Lewis joined him on May 21. Plenty of sites cover this better than we ever could, including lewisandclark.com, lewis-clark.org, a Missouri Historical Society site, a National Geographic site, a companion site to Ken Burns' PBS series, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, a Smithsonian site, and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration. For those who want to follow in the explorers' footstep, the Adventure Cycling Association offers bike maps that follow the original trail. You can also read their journals online. Goal Race
Reminder Anyone planning on running the flat and fast Ridgewood 5k on Memorial Day should email Josh Feldman ASAP. We will be coordinating transportation (car or train) for CPTC folks, but need to know numbers. In your email, please let Josh know where you live so we can figure out meeting places/times. Please be aware that there is NO race-day registration. SOY Class There were cancellations and a few more seats are available for this Saturday's Sushi-making class. If anyone is interested in attending, please call (212) 253-1158. Sushi Master It's a fun hands-on class. Join us! Steroids,
Again and Again and Again At a press conference on Sunday, Marion Jones threatened to sue if she is barred from the Olympics based on anything other than a positive drug test. "I can tell you this,"Jones said, "that if I make the Olympic team, which I plan to do in Sacramento, and I am held from the Olympic Games because of something that somebody thought, you can pretty much expect that there will be lawsuits." Jones, who is hoping to pick up a bunch of medals in Athens, pulled off a neat superfecta with this statement: she managed to be wrong from factual, legal, moral, and public relations standpoints. First of all, nobody has threatened to bar athletes based just on what "somebody thought." What the United State Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has proposed is barring any athlete who is caught cheating, whether the evidence comes from a drug test, documents proving the athlete purchased steroids, or from an admission of wrongdoing by the athlete. These "nonanalytical positives" are less convincing than a blood or urine test, but that doesn't mean they can't establish guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is the standard the USADA is using. That's the same standard the American criminal justice system uses, and if it's good enough for matters of life and death, it ought to be good enough for sports. But let's say some athlete (Jones isn't the only one making these threats) does sue over a disqualification. This being America, anybody can bring a suit for just about any reason, but that doesn't mean it will go anywhere. On Monday, judge Barbara Jones (SDNY), threw out Regina Jacobs' challenge to the USADA's arbitration system, and similar challenges will probably not fare any better. It's possible that an athlete may be awarded money damages, but we can't see any judge ordering the USOC to include a particular athlete on the Olympic team. But the thing that Marion – and all the other athletes – needs to remember is this: Failing a drug test is not the transgression here. Taking steroids in the first place is. If there is conclusive proof that an athlete is doping – whether it comes from a drug test or some other source – that athlete should not be allowed to compete. That just leaves the public relations error. Of course, Marion Jones had no way to know that, even as she was giving her press conference, Kelli White was agreeing to a two-year suspension and the disqualificaiton of all her results since December 15, 2000. White's ban comes not from any positive test, but from her own confession after being confronted with incriminating evidence seized from BALCO. White admitted that she had been taking multiple steroids (it's not clear if THG is one of them) and EPO since December 2000, but she has never tested positive for anything stronger than the stimulant modafinil. (Although the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle both report that the evidence against White included a report of a positive test commissioned by BALCO. Prosecutors suspect BALCO owner Victor Conte performed the tests to make sure his clients would not fail drug tests in competition.) White gets off with the minimum penalty (she could have been banned for four years, or even for life) and the possibility of early reinstatement because of her confession and her agreement to cooperate with the USADA as it pursues other drug cheats. We assume this will include explaining how she beat all those drug tests. She will also be a witness in the trials of Conte and her running coach, Remi Korchemny, both of whom are charged with distributing steroids. (Lots more info on all this can be found at Let's Run and Runner's World.) After testing positive for modafinil last August, White claimed she had been prescribed the stimulant to combat narcolepsy and had never taken any other performance-enhancing drugs. In coming clean she said "I have had a very difficult time since winning the world championships last August. I have had to continue to train while knowing I had acted improperly. With my suspension, I now have some time to evaluate my life, the choices I have made and the direction in which I would like it to go." She also admitted that "I have not only cheated myself, but also my family, friends and sport. I am sorry for the poor choices I have made." White has garnered some praise for her admission of guilt, but we notice that she didn't come clean until presented with overwhelming evidence. Of course, she could have fought the decision, appealed her ban, and perhaps even sued. We're sure some athlete will do that as the USADA busts more cheaters, but we hope most of them will follow White's example. Boys Will
Be Girls In other Olympics/drug news, the IOC will allow transsexuals to compete if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through at least two-years of hormone therapy. Times columnist Selena Roberts sees the new policy as a direct contradiction to the anti-doping rules, and predicts some of the messes that it could cause. We don't know enough about the subject to have an informed opinion on this yet, but we did notice that the most famous transsexual athlete, ex-professional tennis player Renee Richards (née Richard Raskind) is against the new policy. And some friends who understand science better than we do have raised questions about whether two years is enough time to eliminate - or at least minimize - the physical advantages an ex-male would have over a natural female. According ot IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch the impetus behind the ruling is that "Until now, we didn't have any rules or regulations. We needed to establish some sort of policy." Yes, but you also need a policy that is sensible and supported by the public; so far this one fails on both counts. It feels hastily assembled, and no one seems to be making a strong effort to sell it yet. We're not even sure why the IOC felt the need for a policy now. The only elite transsexual athlete we know of is mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq (née Michael), but she only races downhill, which is not included in the Olympics. Golfer Mianne Bagger (also her original name, apparently) hasn't established herself as elite yet, and in any event golf hasn't been an Olympic sport since 1904 (and arguably isn't a sport at all). Even IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said such athletes are rare, but adds that they are "becoming more common." Still, this seems to be a moot point as far as the Athens games are concerned. That means the IOC had the time to build support for the new policy, rather than just announcing it. Aged to
Perfection The Times is a bit surprised to learn that athletes in their 40s can excel in sports. The article is on baseball players (Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, who won't turn 40 until July) but we imagine the Gray Lady would be just as shocked by the performances regularly turned in by Alan Ruben, Peter Allen, Stuart Calderwood, etc. Pomp and
Circumstance We remember the name of our commencement speaker, but not one word of what he said. Of course, he was just a distinguished federal judge. If he'd been a top comedian, like, say, Jon Stewart, we might have retained a bit more of it. By sheer coincidence, Jon Stewart just gave the commencement address at The College of William & Mary, and it's definitely worth reading. Khalid
Commits Khalid Khannouchi has committed to run the Chicago Marathon for the next four years. As part of the deal, Khannouchi agrees not to run any other fall marathon during this time period, so we won't be seeing him in New York any time soon. Tuesday
Night Uptown Track Workout Report Another Tuesday, another windy night at the track. We had 20 runners this time, if you count Kieran Calderwood, who deserves to be counted since he was running around as much as anyone. He was also experimenting with the pole vault, so we may have a future decathlete in our midst. Anna Shaver stopped by to check out the club, after having already appeared in a half-dozen photos at the Spring Couples Relay (that the benefit – or penalty – of being on a team with a friend of the photographer). Ms. Shaver tried to convince us that she was intimidated by the orange runners, which might have worked if we hadn't seen her finish just behind Stacy Creamer at the Relay. Any doubts about her ability were further dispelled when a quick Google search revealed that she can even run with just one shoe. The Coach was back this week, but without her own copy of the workout. Luckily she'd alerted her charges to this need, and almost all of them brought her a copy. Nobody brought her any apples, though. There were only two workouts this time, plus whatever Noah Perlis was doing. Paul Bendich was not present, opting to run with the downtown group instead, but refusing to send in a workout report. Jessica Reifer, newly moved in to her new apartment within site of the track, wasn't there either, bolstering our theory that the more convienent it is for a runner to attend a workout, the more excuses he or she will find not to show up. Oh, and as nice as the track there is, running on whatever synthetic turf makes up the football field is even better. Olympic
Host City Finalists New York City
was named one of the five
finalists to host the 2012 Olympics. The other choices are Paris,
London, Moscow and Madrid. Leipzig, Istanbul, Havana and Rio de
Janeiro all failed to make the cut. The final decision won't be
made until next July, but most observers have already written off
the Big Apple. Ladbrokes
has New York's chances at 5-1, better only than Moscow (12-1), tied
with Madrid, and trailing London (5-2) and Paris (even money). William
Hill puts them in the same order: Paris, 11-10; London, 5-4;
Madrid, 7-1; New York, 8-1; and Moscow, 20-1. The IOC's own rankings,
on a 1-to-10 scale, put Paris first with 7.9, followed by Madrid
at 7.8, London at 7.1, New York at 6.9 and Moscow at 6.2. ESPN explains why they think New York won't be picked, the Times reviews some of the challenges the city faces, and NewYorkGames.org breaks down the voting and notes "Fourth place is an abysmal showing for what New York should have accomplished given our superior infrastructure. This must lead to an immediate overhaul of the plan." The folks at NYC2012 put a positive spin on everything, although some of their claims are contradicted by the IOC Candidature Acceptance Working Group Report. The report is 98 pages long, and really dry, so only click on the link if you're as geeky as we are. The IOC notes that 68% of New Yorkers favor having the Olympics here, but, according to a Quinnipiac poll, 60% oppose using any tax dollars to build an Olympic stadium on the West Side, and 53% still oppose the project even if "the only tax dollars used came from the increased tax revenue from new office and apartment buildings in the surrounding neighborhood." No wonder New York was ranked last of the nine cities in "Government Support, Legal Issues and Public Opinion." We were seventh for "Olympic Village" (see the designs here, but be warned that they're mostly hideous) and sixth on "Environmental Conditions and Impact." Neither Paris nor Madrid ranked lower than 4th in any category. The best thing about New York City getting the Olympics would be the upgrade in the city's infrastructure and new athletic facilities that we'd get out of it. But those hardly seem worth the expense and hassle (which will that would come with the games. We'd also like to believe that the city can be improved without having to host the Olymics, but that may be too optimistic. We'll find out next summer, when one of the European cities is chosen. CPTC Concert Patrick Cowden and Glen Carnes will be performing songs from Patrick's Children's-CD "Music is a Miracle" on Sunday, May 23rd at HiArt studios, 601 West 26th Street, Studio 1425I, from 3:30 to 5:00. Tickets are $5. For more information see the HiArt website, or email Patrick or Glen. Week of May 11, 2004 - May 17, 2004 Another
Photo Yves-Marc Courtines sent us the following demand: "I insist that you post the photo that I took. It's not often that I get a shot at a photo credit since I barely know what a camera looks like. And, since the photo happens to be of a trophy-wielding 5ker — even more reason to post it." We try to minimize any blantant self-promotion on this site — we find subtle self-promotion works much better — but we also try to minimize conflict by caving in the face of any threat, no matter how minor.
Faster,
Faster! Ali Rosenthal alerted us to this interesting article at Forbes.com: "What's The Human Speed Limit?" The article doesn't provide the answer, but it does raise some theories, and also reveals that an antelope can run a marathon in 45 minutes. Slower,
Slower! Another article on Forbes.com bemoans "The Slowing Of The Marathon." While we disagree with the claim that elite American marathoners are getting slower, it is indisputable that the average marathoner has slowed down: the median men's time in the NYC marathon has gone from 3:41:49 to 4:28:41 in the last 20 years. Average times is some other marathons are even slower. Carey Pinkowski, the race director of the Chicago Marathon, says "Our participants are much smarter, better trained and better prepared. Though they are slower, they are running more efficiently." Houston Marathon medical director John Cianca disagrees: "In a way, [running that slowly] is an insult to the distance." We're with Cianca on this one, although we have no objection to those runners who are naturally slower. As far as we're concerned, a runner who gives his all to finish in 4:40 and then gets to work on running his next marathon in 4:30 ranks right up there with those who qualify for the Boston Marathon. It's the runners who train just enough to finish one marathon with no interest in their time, doing it just to cross another item off their lifelong to-do lists, who are insulting the race and the other athletes. The marathon should be about competition — even if it's just with yourself — not just about completion. Photos A reader who assumes that we have nothing better to do than update this site the moment we get home sent wrote us this morning: "Where are those photos from the Queens Half-Marathon? Aren't they developed yet? I've been waiting by my computer all weekend. OK...maybe I haven't. I'm not that pathetic. I do take bathroom breaks." Well, we don't go near the computer in the daytime when it's this nice outside, and we were out yesterday evening. But our correspondent, and the rest of you, won't have to wait any longer: the photos are now posted. Heat A friend of ours passed out yesterday while running the Queens Half-Marathon. He's fine, but we thought we'd remind all of you to be careful when running in the heat. Toby Tanser wrote an article last year which has a lot of good advice: "Heat, Humidity and How to Cope." Steroids Kelli White may not be stripped of her gold medals in the 100m and 200m from last year's World Championships, even though she tested positive for modafinil, a banned stimulant. This is because the runner up in the 200m, Russian Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after she won the world indoor 200m title in Budapest this March. Kapachinskaya faces a two-year suspension and the loss of her medal from that race, and the International Association of Athletics Federations doesn't want to simply hand her a new medal to replace the one she's losing. The only way to do that may be to rule that White's positive test only counts for the 100m, since the result came from the drug test after that race. This would reverse a long-standing policy that a positive drug test disqualifies the athlete from the enitre meet. IAAF Genearl Secretary Istvan Gyulai made this clear when White's test result was announced: "It would be wrong to say, 'You are doping on Sunday, and you're out,' and then say, 'You can win the same medal on Thursday at the same championships'. I believe this is an important moral message." But not rewarding steroid users — even if the alternative is rewarding stimulant users — may turn out to be a more important moral message. Odds and
Ends
Photo
Op John Kerner writes: I didn't have the greatest experience at my first crack at the Boston Marathon. The heat is well-documented by this point. And on top of that, I had to drop out with a hamstring injury. But one of the good things about the experience was that I got to meet Bill Rodgers the day before the race at a work event. While I didn't have any luck recruiting him to wear the orange, I did manage to get a picture of him next to the orange.
Color
Wars The New York Times recently added a "public editor" to foster a dialogue between their staff and their readers. At this site we go one better, and share even the internal conversations between our staff, as in this memo we received today:
Our assumption was that if Syracuse wanted to use orange as a noun they would have gone for the Syracuse Oranges, in which each player would be an individual piece of fruit. But there's no reason that the entire team couldn't be one giant orange, as strange as that image would be. We're not sure if that would make each player on the team an orange section, or if they would all be individual oranges who would then come together to form one giant citrus fruit, ala Voltron. Alas, Syracuse's press release supports our original, less-interesting assumption:
In other color news, John Prather writes:
We're not familiar with these sort of things, since our own alma mater had as its mascot the cardinal (the bird, not the color, the religious official, or the type of number), symbolizing nothing other than the fact that our school colors were red and black. Stanford's official site offers the following history:
Stanford Magazine adds the following to the story:
And a Playboy interview with the Tree itself adds this:
As far as we can tell, then, Cardinal is just a color. But we suspect Crimson might be a "self-righteous conceptual adjective." Thursday
Night Uptown Track Workout Report Regular readers
of this site know not to expect updates every Friday, since we're
usually We learned that our runners desperately need a coach to keep them on schedule, as they dithered around for nearly half-an-hour before finally starting the workout. Or, more precisely, the five workouts: one for those racing one mile or further this weekend; one for those racing 800m; one for those who aren't racing this weekend at all; one for those who aren't racing this weekend but missed Tuesday's workout; and one for Noah Perlis, who refuses to follow anyone else's training. Most of these workouts involved 200m or 600m intervals, which was a bit of a problem since there was a strong headwind along the homestretch, causing even the most perfect of pacers to run uneven splits. One person not bothered by this was Paul Bendich, who never ran even splits even when he was a regular at our workouts. Alas, the hard life of a graduate student has kept him from working out regularly down in North Carolina, but he's hoping to get back in shape in the next few weeks. He refused to write this workout report, though. So did Noah Perlis, now that we think about it. And Chris Price wonders why we haven't appointed anyone to write workouts for the distance crew. We can't even get our volunteer writers to volunteer on a regular basis! But seriously, why aren't any of you distance runners filing reports from the workouts? You could be famous! This site is read by hundreds of people every day. Okay, more like two dozen. And a quarter of them are our friends and family who only read it to make sure we haven't said anything nasty about them. Ligaya Mishan talked about how cool it would be to run the Honolulu or Maui Marathons, since she's from Hawaii. But she won't run them anytime soon because she doesn't run marathons. If she or anyone else on the team does run, we think the team should send us along to photograph the races. We'll probably need to spend a couple weeks there before the race to get set up, and maybe another week or two after. And that was it for the 12-minute workout. Kate Irvin and Andrea Haver did their cooldown run in bare feet. Maybe that's the secret of their speed. After all, it worked for Abebe Bikila. And we share a last A train ride with Jessica Reifer. By next week she'll be living within sight of Baker Field, and we'll be all alone on the long subway ride back to Brooklyn. On the plus side, we'll get a lot more reading done, which will give us more time to update this site when we get home. Or more time to play Civilization. We haven't decided yet. Horse
Sense Despite their best efforts to remain as vapid and pointless as possible, the writers of the New York Times' Boldface Names column (which would normally be called a gossip column, except it never has any good gossip) went ahead and talked to Peter O'Toole. O'Toole almost made the Oscars watchable last year, so spicing up Boldface Names wasn't too much of a challenge for him. He even offered a little advice: "never bet on anything that can talk." Luckily, Mr. Ed won't be running in tomorrow's Preakness Stakes, so we can gamble to our heart's content. As fans of all things Antarctic, we'd like to support Sir Shackleton (30-1), but he doesn' t have much of a shot. The well-rested Eddington (8-1) and Rock Hard Ten (6-1), neither of whom ran in the Kentucky Derby, should have an impact, and we wouldn't discount Derby runner-ups Lion Heart (3-1) and Imperialism (5-1). Imperialism has been racing nearly as often as Alan Ruben or Toby Tanser, so he may be tired out, . But the smart money is still on Derby winner Smarty Jones (8-5). Sure, numerous experts will tell you he's not good enough, but they all end up sounding like the Marx Brothers:
Smarty Jones wins all the time, too; he's undefeated in seven starts. Making it eight-for-eight will be tough against this field, but as long as he keeps winning we can't see any reason to bet against him. But with excited fans – who have taken to the lightly-pedigreed Pennsylvania-bred horse in much the same way they did to the lightly-pedigreed New York-bred Funny Cide last year – likely to send Smarty Jones off at even money, or even as an odds-on favorite, we don't see much benefit to betting for him, either. We'd almost be better off putting our money down on a longshot with a clever name (see Sir Shackleton, above, or perhaps Song of the Sword, also 30-1). If you want our opinion (and remember, it's worth exactly what you're paying for it), go for Smarty Jones, followed by Imperialism and Rock Hard Ten. If you bet any of them and win (or, better yet, hit the trifecta), remember where you go the advice. If you lose, of course, you're on your own. Oops When we posted the results and splits from the Thursday Night MIle, we accidentally left out Sid Howard's splits. They're posted now. Orange The athletes of Syracuse University have a new name. The students formerly know as the Orangemen and Orangewomen will henceforth be just the Orange. We're glad they're keeping the color, but the name change does strike us as silly. Team nicknames should be nouns, not adjectives. The Syracuse Orange is just as nonsensical as the Harvard Crimson or the Stanford Cardinal (that's a color, not a bird). Yes, most of the teams in the MLS, the WUSA, and the WNBA (plus a few in the NBA and NHL) have mascot-challenged names like Fever, Revolution, Lightning and Power, but we expect better of our scholar-athletes. Kennedy
to Run New York City Marathon Two-time Olympian Bob Kennedy will make his marathon debut in New York City this November. Kennedy holds the American records for 3000m and 5000m, and hopes to run the 10k at the Olympics this August. Kennedy and Deena Kastor are the only top Americans to commit to the NYC marathon so far, but we keep hearing rumors that others - possibly including some of the Olympic marathoners - will be there as well. Tuesday
Night Uptown Track Workout Report Rain, rain, stay away, at least until the workout ends. And it did. We hear that some parts of Manhattan were absolutely drenched last night, but up at Columbia where the air is rarefied (per Margaret Schotte) the ground stayed dry. Actually, the air was heavy and sticky, which is to be expected when the humidity is 99.4% and the threat of rain is omnipresent. So, while the weather conditions may have slowed our 16 runners down a bit, a desire to finish the workout before the percipitation returned made them run faster, so the weather ended up having a neutral effect on the workout. Chris Price got to the track so early that he was nearly done with him warmup before any other runners arrived. Most of the rest of the tema arrived late, thanks to subway difficulties.Jessica Reifer had sore legs after beating some boys in soccer over the weekend. Stuart Calderwood and Stacy Creamer lerarned the hard way that babby joggers don't fit through the turnstiles at the 215th St. station. And it looks like everybody is moving up near the track. Oh yeah, the rain started up again just as we all left the track. How's that for timing? Assistant
Running Coaches Needed Coach Mindy is looking for a few assistants. Details below: Give back to the sport that has given you so much, while you earn extra income! The Running Center is seeking assistant running coaches for two of our programs. Women's Running Program
Marathon Training Program
If interested, please send email to coachmindy@therunningcenter.com with Assistant Coach in the subject line or call 212-362-3779. More Pictures Photos from the Spring Couples Relay are now up, including one movie. Fat World Obesity; it's not just for Americans! CNN shows that there's more than enough blame for the obesity epidimic to go around. Don't worry, though. The U.S. still gets a lot of blame for allowing "the food industry to influence government policy of the United States, which has been imposed worldwide." Race Winners For the last three years, Margaret Schotte has competed in the Spring Couples Relay Triathlon with her coach, Jon Cane. After finishing second in 2001 and 2002, they finally won last year. As a reward, Margaret was allowed to skip the race this year. The result? Jon and new partner Alexandra Horowitz won the relay, while Margaret and Zeb Nelessen headed over to New Jersey, where they both won at the Pine Barrens Spring Duathlon. Zeb finished in 1:25:59, 4:47 ahead of the second place finisher. Margaret was the third finisher overall, in 1:31:03, which was a whopping 10:18 ahead of the next woman. You Mean
We Can't Blame Atkins for Everything? Apparently Krispy Kreme's financial difficulties are due to mismanagement at the company, and not the popularity of low-carb diets. The same is true for New World Pasta's recent slide into bankruptcy. As Slate points out, "Krispy Kreme has come to rely less on sales of fresh donuts at Krispy Kreme stores and more on sales of somewhat less fresh donuts in convenience or grocery stores. And as any connoisseur will tell you, there's simply no comparison between the two." But until they open a store in our neighborhood we're stuck with the not-at-all fresh options as Foodtown, and sometimes the store is out of Entenmann's. Running
In New York Runner's World offers travel advice about New York City. After reading it we're still not sure if the writer actually set foot in the city. Week of May 4, 2004 - May 10, 2004 Taste
Test Salon conned four food writers into trying various "faux-carb" foods. New York Times' writer Mark Bittman says about one product: "If it's four in the afternoon and you haven't had anything to eat all day and you're plotzing, you would eat this!" That's one of the more positive reviews. Maybe the real secret of the Atkins' diet is making the food so horrible that dieters lose their apetite entirerly. Another
Dumb Top Ten List Men's Journal ranks the 50 best places to live. For big cities, San Diego is first, followed by Portland (Oregon), Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Austin, Denver, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Seattle, and finally, in 10th place, New York. We can almost accept San Diego, if for no other reason than the weather, but the others beating New York? Ridiculous. And the magazine's description of the Big Apple ("Sure, it's noisy and dirty and expensive. But where else can you eat curried goat in Chinatown, then hop on a train and, 30 minutes later, be surfing or hauling in bluefish?") sounds like the late-80s Saturday Night Live Skit with Joe Mantenga ("Sure, you might get shot, but what other city has four Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals?"). The only explanation for New York's low showing is that the locally-based editors are trying to justify more "research" trips around the country. Results We've received reports of two race wins, a best time, and some unofficial records at the Armory meet, but we're still waiting for all the official results to be posted. In the meantime, Amerigo Rossi shaved a few second off his 800m and 1500m best times, Kate Irvin shaved a few fractions off her 1500m best time, and Andrea Haver moved up one spot on the same list. Midland Run 15k Anyone heading to the Midland Run 15k in Far Hills, NJ next Sunday (May 16)? I'm looking for a ride out that way, leaving from NYC (especially Brooklyn!). If you're interested in going to the race, but don't have a vehicle, let me know anyway, and maybe we can put our heads together a figure something out. Email me at chillwizzard@mindspring.com. The Midland Run is one of the premier longer-distance races in the area, as the top-flight organization and bucolic farmland setting help attract a strong field ($7,500 in prize money helps to draw the elites, too). There is a 5k, and bike races in the afternoon. See www.midlandrun.org for details.
Coaches With the firings of Atlanta Hawks' coach Terry Stotts and New Orleans Hornets' coach Tim Floyd, all 15 teams in the NBA Eastern conference have now replaced their coaches at least once since the end of last season. With that in mind, we'd like to thank our coaches – Tony Ruiz, Devon Martin and Brian Denman – for being so great. Yes, we make fun of them on this site a lot, but we kid because we love. And because they're easy targets. Photos Photos from today's Mother's Day races are now posted. Photos from the Spring Couples Relay and Thursday's mile race will be up soon. Mmm,
Donuts. D'oh! Krispy Kreme Doughnuts reported a decline in revenue, which caused its stock to drop 29% on Friday. The stock has now lost nearly 55% of its value since last August. The reason for this? According to chairman and CEO Scott A. Livengood, "For several months, there has been increasing customer interest in low-carbohydrate diets." We were very disappointed to hear this, but it did make us wonder just what diets all these people were on before that let them eat donuts. Especially Krispy Kreme donuts, which are ridiculously high in fat, saturated fat, and sugar. That's what makes them taste so good. The
Computer Wore Running Shoes Do you like gadgets? Do you ever feel that you're not spending enough money on your running shoes? Then adidas has the shoe for you! Yes, the company that brought you the Imposssible Is Nothing ad campaign (that's the one that, for no apparent reason, has a young Muhammad Ali sparring with a modern day Laila Ali) is about to introduce the adidas 1, a new running shoe that will automatically adjust its cushioning while you run. The shoes will go on sale in December at $250/pair, which seems pretty high. One analyst thinks the shoes will still sell well because "a lot of people who run - business executives and the rest - do have the money and love having the latest cutting-edge shoe that apply technology to make the running experience better." Maybe the article in the Times was a little unclear, but we're still not sure how using these shoes is any better than just using shoes that fit right. Site
of the Day Congratulations to the Far East Correspondent, Webmaster Emeritus and Commander-in-Chief of the Global Surveillance System. Of course those are all the same person: the incomprable Roland Soong, whose blog, EastSouthWestNorth, was named Political Site of the Day for May 6th, 2004. Probably
Our Last Mention of Bannister The redesigned Runner's World Online has their own section on Roger Bannister's historic run. The highlight of this is the original BBC film of the race, albeit in a rather small window. Those who attended the special Thursday Night at the Races last week got to see most of this on a big screen. Photos from that race will be up as soon as we finish identifying everyone. Resultswill be here as soon as NYRR posts them. We're
Back The computers are fixed and we're back on line. There should be more than enough here to keep you busy, even if some of it is a little out of date now. Have fun! $10,000
Prize Money Race Forget trophies! Get yourself over to Jersey City, NJ on Saturday for the Newport 10K, where there's $10,000 in prize money. For the top men and women -1st $2,000, 2nd $1,000, 3rd $750, 4th $500, 5th $250 and for the top USATF-NJ Members, Male & Female - 1st, $350, 2nd $250, 3rd $100. Of course, there are still trophies, and a party after the race. NYRR Foundation - Team for Kids Dear CPTC, I'd like to introduce to you to the New York Road Runners Foundation Team for Kids, a special opportunity NYRR makes available to accepted ING New York City Marathon entrants. The Team is a wonderful fund raising initiative that offers unique and exclusive benefits to your Club members and vital services to New York City kids. Before I do that, a little about the Foundation. Originated by NYRR in 1998 to promote health and well-being in underserved NYC neighborhoods through participation in the sport of running, Foundation programs serve 3,000 kids a week in more than 100 schools and community centers. Our rapid growth underscores our success at linking running with achievement in school and life and the urgent need for our programs throughout the city. This year, Team for Kids will accept 250 accepted ING NYC Marathon entrants who pledge to raise $1,250 per person. In return, Team members will enjoy exclusive benefits from sign-up through race day, including twelve weeks of marathon training (a.m. and p.m. group runs), Team clothing, Team parties, fundraising awards, and great Marathon day perks, such as preferred bus departure and VIP entree to the Celebrity Baggage/Family Reunion area (only 200 yards from the finish line!). Last year Team members raised $280,000, which fueled service expansion to 1,000 more kids. Please visit www.nyrrfoundation.org for more information about the Foundation, and contact me at 212.423.2281 or by email at csperber@nyrrc.org with your questions and comments. Your assistance in supporting kids' running is greatly appreciated. Sincerely,
Web
Gems Poor baseball. The erstwhile national pastime is struggling to keep its fans from deserting to basketball and football. Major League Baseball can't give away tickets to see the Montreal Expos. They can't give away the Expos, either. BALCO is in the press more often than half the teams. Only third-stringers and minor leaguers are willing to play in the proposed world cup. The kids would rather play basketball or even – horrors! – soccer. And now Major League Baseball's satraps have shown they can't even sell out properly. In an effort to get children interested in baseball again, MLB is teaming up with Sony to promote Spider-Man 2 at all games over the weekend of June 11-13. Spider-man logos will be placed on the bases and on-deck circles, previews for the movie will be shown between innings, and there will be giveaways for the kids. The teams will get $50,000 each out of this ($100,000 for the Yankees and Red Sox), but MLB insists this is marketing, not advertising, and is being done solely to bring kids to the ballpark. So why did they pick the interleague weekend, when attendance is already higher than average? Promotions are usually scheduled to get people to games they wouldn't otherwise go to. The Yankees schedule giveaways when the Devil Rays are in town, not when the Red Sox are here. But nearly everyone is content to let MLB schedule promotions when they don't need them. The complaints, mostly from baseball "purists" (why is that such a pejorative term?) have been about defacing the bases, tampering with the field, and where it might lead. (Purists in all fields are obsessed with the "slippery slope" thesis.) What's next? Ads on the uniforms? That's already happened when major league teams have played in Japan, but Commissioner Bud Selig has tried to allays fears that it might happen here, saying "Nobody respects the tradition of the uniform more than I do." Really? Then why did he let the Blue Jays adopt those ugly jerseys? We just think the logos are pointless. What fans can see the bases that clearly anyway? What fans will go to the game to see the logos on the bases? It's as if baseball was trying to come up with a promotion that will annoy one group of fans but not attract any others. Jacqueline Parkes, senior VP for marketing and advertising, said "I would never do anything to inhibit or prostitute the game." But from the designated hitter to running ten minutes of ads between innings in the postseason to turing a blind eye to steroid use, MLB has always been willing to sell out for the right price. We're just shocked to see how cheaply they can be bought these days. An interesting note: This isn't the first time baseball has sought help from their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. On Friday, June 5, 1987, Shea Stadium hosted the wedding of Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson before that night's game. (About five years ago Spider-Man reverted from an adult back to a teenager in order to sell more comics.) The Mets sold out the stadium that night, thanks not to the superhero nuptials, but rather to Dwight Gooden's return from rehab. Selig and company can put whatever they want on the bases, but it's still what happens on the field that will make bring fans to the stadium. UPDATE: After strong negative reactions, MLB dropped the plan to put logos on the bases, although the rest of the promotion will continue. Parkes explained the volte-face: "At the end of the day, as we said yesterday, it was the smallest element, not that important to us. While it was something originally they wanted, it is not worth risking or damaging the fans' experience." Which is basically what we said above. May Goal Race The next goal race is quickly approaching: The Ridgewood 5K held in Ridgewood, NJ, about an hour from NYC. The race is on Memorial Day, and is known as one of the fastest, most competitive and best organized 5Ks in the tri-state area. If you have any interest in running the race, please email Josh Feldman at joshua_feldman@swissre.com. If you want to race outside of Central Park, this is a great race to participate in. We will help in providing transportation to the event, or you can take NJ Transit from Penn Station to Ridgewood (the station is very close to the race start) in about 45 minutes (including a transfer). Bite the Injury Bug Back Figuratively, not literally. Toby Tanser shows you how at MetroSports. Mile
Race This is probably our last mention of Roger Bannister for a bit, since all the hoopla should be done after today. Really we just wanted to remind all of you about the mile race at the Armory tonight. Registration starts at 6:00 and the races start at 7:00. Full details are on the NYRR site. Coach Devon says "Bring water, because it may be a little hot in the Armory." We expect that it will be more than just a little hot, but it should still be a fun event. Besides, what else are you going to do tonight? Stay home and watch some overhyped sitcom finale? We didn't think so. Some final links on Bannister's record run: The Times of London has about 20 articles on Bannister, the mile, and records in general (they join ESPN in predicting a sub-2:00 marathon within a decade); Runner's World links to all the sites we don't have time to check up on; and Google picks up all the news coverage, which is basically the same three stories repeated on dozens of different sites. Updates There were no updates here this morning, so a couple of our readers immediately wrote in to find out how drunk we'd been and/or which cheap motel we'd spent the night shacked up in. We're flattered by the accusations, but the sad truth is that we did a lot of work on the site which we couldn't upload because the FTP server had crashed. Although we're a little shocked to learn that people think we're normally sober when we write this stuff... The
Wrong Anniversary? Is it possible that all this hoopla over Roger Bannister's record-setting run is misguided? The Scotsman reports that one of Bannister's pacers, Chris Brasher, may not have finished the race. Since pacing was against the rules back then, any runner who appeared to be serving as a pacer had to finish the race to prove he was a regular competitor. Yet, in the pandemonium that followed Bannister's finish, no time was recorder for Brasher, and the rush of spectators onto the track may have prevented him from finishing at all. Frankly, we don't care about a foolish rule that has since been abandoned (although Pat Butcher has a lengthy diatribe against pacing for anyone who's interested). More intriguing is the suggestion that the 4:00 barrier had already been broken when Bannister ran on May 6, 1954. The Guardian recounts the feats of James Parrot, who ran a sub-4:00 mile in 1770, and of a man named Weller, who ran 3:58 on October 10, 1796. Are these times real? We don't know enough to say, but the article does list enough other results to remind us that there were talented athletes before cameras were there to record their achievements. Experts disagree on the validity of the 18th century results, but Dr. Greg Whyte, head of science and research at the English Institute of Sport, and Bob Phillips, author of 3:59.4 - The Quest For The Four-Minute Mile both accept that the times could be valid.
Central Park Maintenance The New York Flyers have asked us to join them for a Work Party with the Central Park Conservancy this Saturday. Come help out with some park beautification. Gardening equipment and gloves will be provided by the Central Park Conservancy. There will be free Cookies and Lemonade for all volunteers!
RSVP as soon as possible to John Ward at Johnwsub3@yahoo.com. Photo
Exhibit Now through June 6, the World Financial Center is presenting "Game Face: What Does A Female Athlete Look Like?" Their website describes the show this way:
The pictures are on dislpay Tuesday-Friday from 11am - 6pm and Saturday & Sunday from 12 - 5pm. Welcome
New Members Nine new runners donned the mighty orange singlet this month: Christopher Angell, Steve Burgess, Warren Clark, Miwa Fujiwara, Bruce Hyde, Ligaya Mishan, Lloyd Riddick, James Smyth and Michael Wells. Recruitment points go to Margaret Angell, Alston Brown, John Gleason and Sid Howard (3), with two honorary points to Devon Martin. Sid leads the recuritment challenge so far with four points, and is favored to repeat last year's victory. Fire Chief John is second with two points, and 13 members are tied with one. In the unofficial Coaches Competition, Devon remains the only one on the board, with seven points. Comma
Sense We're used to seeing errors of grammar and punctuation in the New York Times. While we're generally offended by such misuse, we try to be tolerant of the inevitable mistakes that reporters and editors facing constant deadlines will make. But after reading John Rosenthal's Op-Ed piece, The Elements of Common Sense, we must confront the possibility that these mistakes are born not of haste, but of either ignorance or apathy. Rosenthal, the executive editor of The New York Times Almanac, suggests that rules, like records, are made to be broken:
Well, of course. Nobody is suggesting that the English language should remain unchanging or that we should follow rules that don't make sense (we leave that to the French and their doomed quest to maintain the "purity" of their language). But the rules of punctuation exist for the sole purpose of eliminating confusion. "Dont" may not confuse anyone, but the distinction between "we're" and "were" is important, and a failure to distinguish plurals (i.e., "days") from possessives ("day's") can turn an otherwise intelligent passage into incomprehensible nonsense. But what is this claim that "force-feeding the rules of punctuation isn't working"? The problem is not that people are force-fed arcane and arbitrary rules; the problem is that students are not taught the simplest rules of writing. Nor are they tought how to write or think clearly. If we're lucky they're taught to spell. And this isn't just at the elementary levels:
First of all, the Pythagorean theorem is easy to remember: a2 + b2 = c2. It's not that much harder to remember what it means: "The area of the square built upon the hypotenuse [the side opposite the right angle, which is always the longest side] of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares upon the remaining sides." Or, in the triangle shown below, the length of side "a" squared plus the length of side "b" squared is equal to the length of side "c" squared. Even the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz understood this!
Back to grammar. Anyone with a master's degree in English who doesn't know the difference between "its" and "it's" should have his degree revoked immediately and sent back to repeat everything from the third grade on. (This is much gentler than the punishment suggested by Lynne Truss, the author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, who thinks such people should be "struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave"). This is even simpler than the Pythagorean theorem. "It's" is a conjunction, and is short for "it is," or "it has." "Its" is a possessive and means "belonging to it." If you can substitute "it is," then use "it's." If you can't, use "its." These are not "picayune punctuation rules." They are the basics of clear, comprehensible writing. That the Times would print such an essay is disappointing. But, given how poor some of the writing in that paper is, it's not surprising. Woo Hoo! The voices behind The Simpsons have agreed to a new contract, ending their one-month-old strike. They get their salaries doubled. We get at least four more years of the show. FOX gets to keep making obscene amounts of money. Everyone's happy. Do You
Believe in Miracles? ESPN's Page 2 predicts that a man will run a sub-2:00 marathon by 2012 and a woman will win the Hawaii Ironman by 2018. The second one looks more likely than the first, but we think they're both rather optimistic. |
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