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Week of July 27, 2004 - August 2, 2004 And We Thought It Just Made Us More Attractive To Women A new study by researchers at University College London suggests "some specificity in the association between alcohol consumption and cognitive ability" and that "frequent drinking may be more beneficial than drinking only on special occasions." For those of you who didn't get trashed over the weekend, the Telegraph translates that as "those who even drink only one glass of wine a week have significantly sharper thought processes than teetotallers." And for those teetotallers out there who are still confused, that means that drinking "can make your brain work better." (Link via everyone's favorite alcoholic blogger, The Minor Fall, The Major Lift.) Best American Runners 2 Two weeks ago ESPN Page 2 presented their list of the 10 Best Male American Runners. Now they've finally given the women their due. It's a little heavy on the shorter distances, with seven sprinters (led by FloJo as first overall) versus one middle distance runner (Mary Decker Slaney) and two roadies (Lynn Jennings and Joan Benoit Samuelson). But it's not a bad list, especially when you notice that the author thinks Deena Kastor has a good chance to win the Olympic marathon, which made us wonder how much he actually knows about running. River to Sea Congratulations to the CPTC Veterans Team. They were the second fastest team at Sunday's 92-mile River to Sea relay, and the fastest veterans (over 35) team. Alan Ruben sent this report:
He also sent us some photos, which you can see here. Photos 4 Photos from the Nike Run Hit Wonder are now posted. Thanks to Stuart Alexander for taking the photos and for spotting CPTC runners even when they weren't wearing orange. Photos 3.5 We've tried our best, but there was just no salvaging most of the photos we took at Devon's post-track race party last month. It seems drinking and photographing don't mix too well. We do have these three, which are the only ones that are in focus and well-lit enough to be worth anything. As always, click on the thumbnails for larger photos.
Orange Wedding Once upon a time, the wedding announcements in the New York Times were limited to just the couple's educations, professions and parentage. Generally the emphasis was on the parentage, especially when those parents had names like Louis Winthorpe III or C.K. Dexter Haven. Eventually, though, the editors of the Times realized that (1) most of us not only don't know who is in the social register, but weren't even aware that there still is a social register and (2) it's okay to include interesting information in the stories. But why doesn't that interesting information ever include anything about running? We've been puzzled by that in the past, and wondered again when we read this today:
Something's missing here. Something like "Ms. Schotte was the top finisher at the World Duathlon Championships this year, and has finished first at the Canadian Duathlon Championships for the last two years. She is a member of the world famous Central Park Track Club." We recommend the Times' editors check out the New York Observer's announcement of Kevan and Ana Huston's engagement or the Houston Chronicle's announcement of Frank and Kim McConville's wedding. They might learn something. Also in today's wedding announcements, ex-CPTCer Stephen Sipe married Catherine Herbst. Again no mention of running. All right, enough griping. Congratulations, all of you! Ain't Too Proud to Beg Noah Perlis writes: "I thought it was obvious that I wrote about the 55m in jest, but your response makes it sound malicious." That was not our intention. We were actually hoping Noah would create a new page for us to post. How many times do we have to beg you guys to contribute to this page before someone actually does? No, seriously. We have no shame and we're happy to beg, but we'd like to know how long it will take. Good Cop, Bad Cop Despite years of evidence to the contrary, we persist in the belief that we can get people to use proper grammar simply by setting a good example, and occasionally by politely pointing out another person's mistakes. This has proven to be roughly as effective as King Canute comanding the tide to turn back, which may be why the Grammar Cop hands out fines for the more egregious offenses. (Link via Gawker, naturally.) Summer Reading List No, it's not one of those lists you always got back in high school of the 85 books you were supposed to read before September. These are books you'll actually want to read, and there won't be a quiz when you're done. It's Metro Sports' Summer Reads for the Serious Runner, by our own Toby Tanser. You can also check out Best of Summer in NYC, co-written by our own Jonathan Cane (see, no snub!). It includes such things as "Best Reason to Drink Beer" (we've got more than enough of those) and "Best Reason to Go to Long Island" (there is one?). You Gotta Play the Hand You're Dealt We've noticed lately when we play poker that we do well early in the night, but that our skills tend to diminish as it gets later. Luckily, we play no-limit Texas Hold-'Em (the same game you see on World Poker Tour, Celebrity Poker Showdown, and the World Series of Poker) so we usually win enough in the first tournament to cover our losses in the second one, but that doesn't make us feel any better about acting like an idiot. In the future, though, we can console ourself with the fact that we can't do any worse than we did on one hand we played last night. We'd already lost a few chips, due entirely to our own poor play, but the situation is hardly dire when the hand in question takes place. Some small betting before the flop forces out everyone but ourself and Sang. The flop comes Ace, 10, 6, all different suits. Sang bets first, for about half our stack. We quickly go all-in, since we're holding Ace-10 in our hand, giving us top two pair. That is, we think we're holding Ace-10, but when Sang calls us and we turn over our cards, we discover we're actually holding Ace-4, and had, in fact, had Ace-10 on the previous hand. Everyone at the table becomes instantly aware of our error when they hear our rather loud – and completely unprintable – reaction to our own cards. Sang turns over a 10-9, so we're at least in the lead, but then another 10 shows up and we're out of the game. Even worse, we were hosting the game, so we couldn't just walk away in shame. Back when we played bridge we were able to keep track of nearly the entire deck. Now we can't evern remember two cards. If this keeps up, soon we'll be so dumb that we won't be able to remember where the next poker game is. At least that will keep us from losing any more money. Bicycle Races For those who didn't get enough cycling by watching the Tour de France, the New York City Cycling Championships will roll through the streets of downtown this Sunday. The pro women ride at 8:30 a.m. and the pro men at 12:30 p.m. But the important race is, of course, the Bike Messenger Race at 11:20 a.m. Working Hard Or Hardly Working? It's unlikely that any of our readers need help wasting time at work (well, maybe on the days we don't get a chance to update the site). Just in case you do, Corinne Maier has advice for you in her new book Bonjour Paresse – De l'art et la nécessité d'en faire le moins possible en entreprise (or Hello Laziness - The Art and the Importance of Doing the Least Possible at the Workplace). Of course, being French, Maier is not advocating indolence simply for your own mental health, but rather has written what The Guardian describes as a "call to arms to the 'neo-slaves' of middle management and the 'damned of the service industry', condemned to dress up as clowns all week and waste their lives in pointless meetings." Unfortunately, Maier is not be the best person to offer advice on how to destroy the system from within "without appearing to do so," as she faces a disciplinary hearing next month for attempting to "rot the system from within." Yes, her bosses at Electricité de France are probably going after her mostly because of her book, but with French labor rules being what they are, the fact that the company can even bring charges against her suggests she must be slacking off at a level we can only dream of. Best Times – Pointless Edition Noah Perlis has submitted his best times for 55m (both overall and age-graded), in the hopes that we will create a new list. We're a little busy, and Stuart already puts in more than enough time on these lists, but if Noah wants to go through the all the results and find 10 people on the team who've run a 55m race, and then send us the list, we'll be happy to post it here. See, There Is No Civilization Outside of NYC Slice – which bills itself as both "New York's No. 1 Pizza Weblog" and "America's Favorite Pizza Weblog" (are there any other pizza weblogs out there??) – has introduced GOPizza to explain New York pizza to all the Republicans coming to town next month. Are there really people out there who need to be taught things like "How to Order a Slice" and "How to Hold a Slice"? Luckily for us, people that stupid aren't aware that there is more than one borough in New York, but those of you who live in Manhattan may be in trouble. We don't know of any similar site teaching Democrats how to eat whatever food it is that Boston is famous for – beans or fish or something – which just proves once more how much cooler New York is than anywhere else. This Video Is Your Video Look, we've seen the JibJab video of Bush and Kerry singing "This Land Is Your Land." We even laughed at it (although it's not as funny as everyone keeps saying). Now, if the four people out there who haven't already forwarded the link to us could refrain from doing so, we'd really appreciate it. And for those who like commentary on their stories, Salon analyzes the deeper meaning of the video, and Eugene Volokh explains why the creators of the video might get sued by the company that owns the rights to the song. Personal Best Glen Carnes' 4:37 mile was a particularly noteworthy lifetime best. His high school best was 4:39, and that remained his PR up to when he joined CPTC. After getting back into top shape, he ran 4:39 again indoors this past winter – a mere 19 years later. Then, still trying for an all-time best, he ran yet ANOTHER 4:39 – but a few tenths slower than indoors – at the previous Sunday Morning at the Races meet. He came back to this final track meet of the summer to take a last shot at the elusive personal record, and not only did he get it; he shattered it with his 4:37 and he won the race as well, after holding off a challenge on the last lap from a very talented miler, Mike Guastella of Warren Street. This was a much-deserved great race for Glen – after an awfully long wait and a lot of work Tuesday Night Track Workout Report The official CPTC rule is "we run unless there is lightning." Our own personal rule sometimes has us staying inside in much less dangerous conditions. So, while the rule states that there must have been a workout or two last night, we didn't attend either one. If any of you did show up, please let us know about it. Lost and Found A reminder: Collecting lost gloves makes you quirky and interesting. Looking for your lost socks makes you a pathetic loser. Catherine Stone-Borkowski's Trip to the Olympic Trials
Sunday - Up early for quick run with Suzy Favor Hamilton. No complaints of a pulled hamstring at that point, but Rin was unable to walk so she had to cancel and go eat again. We packed, took some more pictures, and went off to airport with some female triple jumpers. The trip back was fine until we transferred in Minneapolis and the flight to Newark was delayed (boy, there's a surprise!). We got in late, showered and unpacked, and - oh, yeah - ate again! The 2004 Olympic Team Trials motto: "ICE IS A GIFT FROM GOD." Rin says "THANKS CPTC!!!!" for sending her. She hopes she did the uniform proud.
Another Member in the News Jonathan Cane writes: "What's with the snub on the CPTC site where you mentioned all the CPTCers in NY Runner this month but didn't include me?" Say what? We would never do such a thing, but we also know Jon wouldn't make something like this up. So we looked through the issue a little closer, but still couldn't find any photos of Jon. It took a second check before we noticed his name on page 62, as the author of an article titled "Who Needs Crosstraining?" Well, that explains it! Everyone knows we just look at the pictures, and don't actually read anything... Best Times – Caving Under Pressure Edition Stuart Calderwood weighs in on Kate Irvin's recent race result:
We've always been a little uncomfortable with listing Toby's result, since we ran that race and believe that 5.3K was NYRR's estimate, not an actual measurement. And most of the other splits were recorded by official timers, while this one comes from Frank Morton's stopwatch. But because Stuart is the one who created all these lists (and because Coach Devon is abstaining on the issue), we'll defer to his judgment and give Kate sixth place on the 400m list. It's the least we can do for Stuart today, since Mike Trunkes has just submitted a new collection of PRs, one of which knocks Stuart off the 4 mile list. (The other times are for 5 Miles and 1500m). Will this inspire Stuart to assemble new lists of best masters times and best age-graded times? As editor of this site, we'd be delighted to see that, but as a friend who cares about Stuart's mental health (not to mention Stacy's and Kieran's), we'd prefer he dodge that headache. Week of July 20, 2004 - July 26, 2004 Hope & Possibility 5-Miler The Achilles Track Club's Hope & Possibility 5-Miler is this Sunday, August 1 at 8:30 am in Central Park. You all know that Achilles does lots of good work, and this is your chance to help them out. Members in the News Jeff Wilson informs us that Catherine Stone-Borkowski is the Running Times Age Group Ace in this month's issue, on page 50. And this month's New York Runner is overflowing with CPTC runners: full coverage of Margaret Angell's trip to the Olympic Trials Marathon on page 28, plus another photo of her on page 45; What Ever Happened To Fritz Mueller on page 25; a photo of Laura Ford on page 34; and a photo of Sid Howard (with Harry Belafonte!) on page 36. We Ask Ourself the Same Question Nearly Every Day, and Usually Come Up With the Same Answer Shamelessly stolen from the Flyers' site:
Birthdays It'd be nice if we knew about these things on our own, but it looks like we'll always have to rely on Toby Tanser's site to find out about CPTC birthdays. He doesn't supply the exact date, but apparently secretive Nike model and glove collector Alexandra Horowitz had a birthday recently. Campaign Promises He hasn't taken a position on cars in Central Park yet, but John Kerry did address another important issue in this interview with ESPN's Page 2.
That's a step in the right direction, but we'd rather see one of the candidates promise to tar and feather Commissioner Bud Selig. Fifth Avenue Mile Preparation To prepare for the Fifth Avenue Mile on August 14, we will be having a 1200m time trial at the Columbia Track on Tuesday, August 3. All CPTC members are welcome to attend. Goal Races August Goal Race As everyone knows, the CPTC goal race for August is the Club Championship 5 Miler, to be held on Saturday, August 21st in Central Park. This race is always of major importance for the club, as we go head-to-head with the top runners from the area for tri-state bragging rights. As usual, the race will be followed by a picnic and softball game in the park. Everyone should come out and run — you've got three weeks to get in shape! September Goal Race - Immediate Action Needed, Please Read! September's goal race is the Philadelphia Distance Run, being held on Sunday the 19th. One of the premier half-marathons in the country, this is a well-organized, highly-competitive, PR-inducing race, and the perfect tuneup for anyone running a fall marathon. We would like to field several smokin' 5-person teams for this event, but since team entries have to be submitted together, this requires a certain amount of coordination. Kevin Arlyck will be doing the organizing, so if you would like to run Philly with CPTC, contact him at chillwizzard@mindspring.com ASAP. The on-time registration deadline is August 9th, so please let him know by August 2nd (yes, that's one week from now). Once we have a final list of CPTC entrants, he will make up 5-person teams (in consultation with other Exec Committee members), with the goal of forming teams that will be as competitive as possible. Please indicate if you have a preference for male, female, coed and/or Masters teams, though we cannot promise that we will be able to accomodate anyone's wishes. It is important to note that running Philly will require staying in a hotel Saturday night. The club will help pay for transportation to the race if there are not enough folks driving. It is also important to note that, as many trackies and Reach the Beach vets know, going to an out-of-town race with a bunch of teammates is a hell of a lot of fun. For anyone who has not had such an experience, this is it! Best Times You might remember how Alan Ruben recently knocked John Scherrer off the Best 3K Times list. Now Alan's gone, too, a victim of Mike Trunkes, whose 8:26 back in 1989 is the new number one time. We've also learned of a 1990 5K that moves Mike up from seventh to third on that list, and a 1991 10K that moves him from fifth to fourth over there. Speaking of 10K times, Andrea Haver has grabbed the number eight spot on the Women's Best 10K List with her win at Thursday's Nike Run Hit Wonder race. And speaking of Andreas, Ligaya Mishan noticed that her recent 3k best time actually didn't merit inclusion on the list, because we were missing Andra Costella's 11:10.06 from this January. Lastly, Frank Morton pointed out that Kate Irvin's recent 800m time, which was the best in club history, included a first lap that was good enough for sixth place on the 400m list. Despite his insistence, we're not including it on the list, because such unofficial splits don't count. But it's still a pretty impressive result. Separated at Birth Continuing in our series of CPTC runners and the celebrities they look like, we have this comparison of David Howard and a model from an online ad.
Best American Runners ESPN Page 2 has a list of the Top 10 Male American Runners. As with every such list, we have our quibbles with it, but it's worth checking out. The Same Rule Applies to Your Right To Be Annoying Cathy Seipp over at The Volokh Conspiracy comments on Medicare's decision to pay for obesity treatments. She's got a couple of good points, and at least one great line: "your right to overeat ends where my airplane seat begins." Ironman Training Ross Galitsky, Ramon Bermo and Scott Willet are leading a training program for Ironman Lake Placid. Details below:
Chicago Marathon The Chicago Marathon is filling up quickly, with over 25,000 registrants already. Organizers predict that the race will sell out in early August, so anyone who plans to run should sign up soon. Photo Rules We read on Toby's site that one of the Flyers' webmasters said "I’m not going to post a picture of me on my web site because my chest is out of shape… the only thing I am happy with is my legs.” If only we were allowed to exercise such discretion. But how could we ever justify publishing all the embarssing photos of the rest of you if we didn't occassionally include one of ourself? Recruiting Stuart Calderwood writes: "I think I've got Tim Broe and Deena Kastor interested — they say they have good luck in races in Central Park." We would have focused our attention on Alan Webb, since he's been known to bring his own post-race keg with him to track meets. Fat Chance The Onion has an article titled "Report: Scientists Still Seeking Cure for Obesity." It's a joke, of course, but it's disappointing to see how many Americans still think there is some magic cure through which they can lose weight without eating properly or exercising more. A new study suggests that these people are starting to give up on the Atkins Diet being that cure, but there's nothing in the report to reassure us that they won't just take up the next fad diet and never actually slim down. Two Hit Wonder We doubt the folks over at McSweeney's are aware of the Run Hit Wonder race tomorrow. But they did produce this somewhat amusing list of Possible Follow-Up Songs for One-Hit Wonders. Alas, they did not include I Run Even Further Away. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Last week we complained about the meaningless statistics that baseball commentators are always providing us with. We're not the only one bothered by this: King Kaufman at Salon.com shows just how meaningless these statistics are, and also shows how even the potentially meaningful ones are usually presented with so little context as to become meaningless. Then his readers weighed in with their complaints, and Kaufman added some insight from a reader who works in sports television. To illustrate this, we'll tell you that May's journal is huge – a whopping 156kb in size. We must have written an enourmous amount that month! Except a little research reveals that the average journal page for the last year is 158kb, so May's journal is actuallly perfectly normal. And an examination of the page itself shows that many of the longer entries were either written by other members or else lifted from other sites. So, while we initially presented 156kb as being indicitve of excessive writing on our part, it turns out to reflect a lighter than usual output (we didn't even post for the last four days of the month). And we have absolutely no idea how this page size would compare to the average monthly output of any other website. So remember the next time you hear a stat like "player X is batting .306 against lefties with one runner on in the late innings of Wednesday night games played in domed stadiums," that it's only releveant if you know how well player X is hitting in slightly similar situtations (say, the same set-up but in an outdoor stadium), and how other players are hitting in the same situation. Announcers and journalists who aren't prepared to provide that context should drop the stats and just tell humerous anecdotes instead. Thursday Workout Tomorrow's workout in Central Park will begin at 6:45, in order to avoid the crowds from the Run Hit Wonder race. We will still be meeting at the statue of Daniel Webster at 72nd Street and West Drive. The Incredible Mr. Browne Sometimes we think sports coverage on TV should come with a disclaimer at the bottom, "Professional athlete; do not try this at home." This would help to remind the overracers on our team that, while Dan Browne can run two elite distance races in nine days, it's not a good idea for the rest of you to attempt that. Yes, Mr. Browne announced today that he'll be running both the 10,000m (August 20) and the marathon (August 29) at the Olympics, making him the first American to do so since Frank Shorter at the 1972 Munich Games. As if that's not enough running, he'll follow it up with his NYC marathon debut on November 7. We Have Another Winner John Prather writes:
And let's see John show some distance running knowledge, since he was not first in the "King of the Distance" section of the contest. (That honor was shared by Alan Ruben and oureself.) It's all well and good to predict the winners in the sprints and the field events, but who really cares about the men's shot put or the women's high jump? Actually, we were a big fan of the women's high jump, but we lost some of that interest once Amy Acuff got engaged. The final standings for the contest are:
King of the Distance competition:
Week of July 13, 2004 - July 19, 2004 We Have a Winner! And it's Stuart Calderwood, who won the Jail Break 5K out in Dublin, California, this past weekend. Dublin is near Sacramento, where Stuart was trying to recruit new members at the Olympic Trials. All About Catherine Speaking of the Olympic Trials, we found this article in the Sacramento Bee:
More Best Times Catherine Stone-Borkowski ran 2:19.79 in yesterday's Masters 800m at the Olympic Trials, which moves her up three spaces on the Best Times list. Then, this morning, Kate Irvin ran 2:12.0 to take over the top spot on the same list, and Ligaya Mishan ran 2 miles in 12:26.8, which works out to 11:36.1 for 3k and ties her for tenth on that list. Way to go ladies! Also this morning, a result that doesn't make the list and isn't an official record (becasue the NYRR Sunday Morning at the Races isn't an officially sanctioned meet). Still, Sid Howard's 2:21.9 in the 800m is the fastest time ever run by an American man age 65. Since the old outdoor record was 2:24.78, set by Mack Stewart of Texas last year, we're pretty comfortable in saying that Sid broke the record, even if there weren't enough official timers up at City College this morning. Sid set the American indoor record earlier this year, and we're sure he'll make this record official soon enough. Then it's time to focus on those world records that Canadian Earl Fee set a decade ago. Big thanks to Frank Morton for all the results and splits from the NYRR meet. Photos 3 We didn't even remember we'd taken these photos from Alayne Adams' farewell party until we were downloading some other photos from the camera. At least we remember the party, which is more than we can say about some other photos we found on our camera... We've also posted a whole slew of photos from last Sunday's Track Race. And we should have other photos up later this week. Dressed for Success We know that pimpin' ain't easy, but that's still no excuse for dressing like this guy. Ride Wanted Miwa Fujiwara is running the "Self-Transcendence Marathon" on Wednesday, Aug. 25th and is looking for a ride from Manhattan. If anyone is driving up there, plese email her at qpboys@hotmail.com. What Is A Sport? We have our own defintion of what makes something a sport (an athletic competition with an objective winner determined by set rules), but we recognize that it still leaves a lot of vague areas on the borders (is golf really athletic?). And, much as we love to play poker, we can't think of any definition of sport that would include card games. Yes, we know that the International Olympic Committee has recognized the World Bridge Federation and the World Chess Federation, and officially considers both games to be sports. But we're still amused by Poker in Athens, a promotional site masquerading as a movement to get poker into the Olympic games. How can you not like a site with "articles" like Scientists Debunk Popular Painting: "Dogs Can't Play Poker"? For a more serious discussion on what is and is not a sport, check out this article in Is Math a Sport? at Slate.com. And if any of you can come up with a good explanation for why bridge, poker, chess, math, golf, bowling, cooking or beer pong should be considered sports, we'd love to hear it. Best Times Frank Handelman writes: "To give some perspective to this 2 mile vs. 3000m brouhaha, and in a pathetic attempt to cheer myself up while my hamstring injury lingers, I report that I ran two miles for the CPTC in the old Armory in 1973 in 9:29.5 (a race that went off in a Friday night meet at about 12:15 Saturday morning — some things never change)." And the magic calculator tells us that 9:29.5 for 2 miles = 8:50.8 for 3000m, which beats Frank's 3k time of 8:53.2, but doesn't change his position on the Best Times list. All-Star Silliness Baseball is a sport that revels in statistics. From basic statistics like a player's batting average to the advanced calculus of Bill James, the stats geeks who follow the sport can tell you almost anything. What they often can't tell you if whether the statistic in question means anything. It's all well and good that player X is batting .306 against lefties with one runner on in the late innings of Wednesday night games played in domed stadiums, but does that really tell us anything? (We can name ten players whose last names start with the letter 'M' who have all hit more than 40 home runs in a season, but we'd never suggest that there is a causal effect between a player's position in the alphabet and his slugging abilities.) But with so many statisticians working overtime these days, there is always a new and more obscure statistic to be dug up. And so we learn that Roger Clemens is the first pitcher in history to give up a single, double, triple and home run in one inning of an All-Star game. As if hitting for the cycle (one hit of each type in the same game) were not a meaningless enough statistic, now we have pitching for the cycle in one inning of a meaningless game. Yes, yes, we know that baseball has been promoting the game with the slogan "This one counts," since the American League's victory last night guaranteed their team home-field advantage for the World Series, but there are two important reasons why it still doesn't matter. First, most of the players in last night's game, including Clemens, have no realistic shot at playing in the World Series. And second, home-field advantage isn't all it's cracked up to be, as the Yankees discovered last year. So why did we write a long entry about this? Because we hate Roger Clemens, and want to make sure everyone knows how bad he was last night. Tuesday Night Downtown Track Workout Report When you're alone and the lack of workout is making you lonely you can always go ... downtown. Yes, for reasons unbeknownst to us (mostly because we never asked), Coach Devon decided to move Tuesday's uptown workout to Wednesday. We hadn't planned to go up to Columbia anyway, since last night was the New York Philharmonic's concert in Prospect Park. But then it rained too much and the concert was canceled and we had nothing better to do so we decided to check out Coach Tony's group at the East River track. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe everyone was recovering from the Bronx Half-Marathon. Or maybe or memories of old workouts exaggerate the attendance. Whatever the reason, we couldn't help but notice how light the attendance seemed. Fewer than 30 people made it out there, and that includes three timers (ourself, Stuart Alexander and Michael Rosenthal), one would-be-timer (Frank Handelman) and two other refugees from the northern workout (Neil Fitzgerald and Andrea Haver). It also included a few nonmembers: Erin, recently of Dartmouth, and Catherine, recently of the University of Michigan. Erin explained what brought her to the workout: "I ran my second half-marathon last month. When I finished I noticed that half the women ahead of me were from CPTC, so I thought I'd better check you guys out." That would be the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont on June 6, 2004, the relevant results of which we've highlighted below.
It's been a while since we last attended a workout led by Tony, and we wondered how late it might start. Not particularly late, as it turned out. We barely had time to learn the origin of Zeb Nelessen's latest scars ("These are from cycling; this is from rock climbing; this one's from ...") when Tony started the announcements. Nothing too exciting this time, just a few results from the weekend's Bronx Half and Sunday morning track race. And then, at 6:48, the runners were off for some 800m intervals in an intermittent drizzle. About the workout itself we have nothing to say, which is normal for these reports. But after the running was over we got to meet new member Kim Milans. Kim's only been in NYC for two weeks and isn't even that familiar with the park yet ("Where's this statue for the Thursday workouts?"), but she saw this site and knew that she had to join the team. That little ego-boost alone would have made our day, but things got even better when Sarah Gross invited a few of us to help her try a restaurant that might cater our awards dinner in December. We were joined by Zeb, Erin, Jeff Wilson (who shared some details of Alan Ruben's incredible collection of concert recordings, which is even greater than Jeff's own music library), and Brad Weiss. Sid Howard tried to join us, but he ended up driving in circles looking for a parking space the whole time. He did eventually drop off Coach Tony, only 20 minutes after everyone who walked to the restaurant had started eating. And Eric Goetze showed up to try the desserts, which are almost as good as the offerings at his own Blue Sky Bakery, at 53 5th Avenue (between Bergen Street and St. Mark's Place) in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Of course, that's sort of like saying Beethoven is better than Mozart; you can't really go wrong with either one. But most of you won't get to make that comparison until December (although you should certainly check out Blue Sky before then), because Sarah asked us to keep this place a secret so that the rest of you can have a nice surprise at the party. That's tough to do, because the food was so good we were actually planning to write our first restaurant review in months. Instead, you'll just have to content yourselves with this essay on New York City food critics. Retort Somehow we overlooked John Scherrer's response to Alan Ruben's comments last week, but we're printing it now
You want more best times lists? Don't you think Stuart Calderwood has gone through enough trouble to create the ones we have? But your respect for the over-the-hill crowd has been noted. Photos
2 This time they're from the Corporate Challenge. Thanks to Stuart Alexander for taking these. Many more photos to come in the next few days, including a whole bunch from some track races. In Memory
of Jason Stern The Central Park Track Club would like to encourage it's members to make donations to B.A.D.D. (Bikers Against Drunken Drivers) in memory of Jason Stern who was killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle on May 7th, 2004. Jason Stern was the 36-year-old son of Doug Stern, whose swimming and deep water running classes have served many of our members over the years. Doug has always been a great supporter of the New York running community and those of you who have run the New York City Marathon will probably remember his encouragement as you re-enter the park just after Columbus Circle. CPTC will match contributions up to $250 and send a single donation to B.A.A.D. Please send your checks payable to
Checks must be received by July 26th. Opera
Fundraiser We try to avoid too many forays into politics on this site, and we remind you that the Central Park Track Club does not have any official position on the current presidential campaign. Personally, however, we support the opera career of Karen Frankenstein (whose day job has her trapped in a cubicle 10 feet from our own mini-prison), and she'll be one of the singers at a fundraiser for John Kerry next Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30 pm in CAMI Hall (165 W. 57th Street). The concert will include selections from Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Turandot, I Puritani, Candide, Le Nozze di Figaro, Tosca, Faust and Lucia di Lammermoor. For more info, go to www.operanotes.com/operation_kerry.htm. For those who know more about opera singers than we do, the other performers will be Cheryl Evans, Raúl Melo, Andrew Drost, Eric Johnson, Mark Uhlemann, Arianna Zukerman, T. Steven Smith, Mimi Lerner and David Rebhun. Welcome
New Members A big orange welcome to our newest members, Leon Brown, Charles Miers, Kimberly Milans and Anna Shaver! That's 38 new members this year. Stacy Creamer, Brian Denman and Jesse Lansner each get one recruitment point, and Devon Martin gets two honorary points. That gives Devon a commanding lead in the honorary category, with 9 points. Sid Howard still leads the regular competition with 6 points. Regular readers of this page may have been surprised to learn (as we were) that Charles and Leon were not already members of the team, since their attendance at the uptown workouts (and in the workout reports) is better than most members. Charles recently won the Most Senior Executive Award at the Corporate Challenge, and his daughter Henrietta has appeared on this site a few times. Anna has been a regular at both the downtown and uptown workouts, and made it into a number of the photos from the Spring Couples Relay before she even attended a workout. She also made it onto fast-women.com back when she ran for Colgate University. Kim is no stranger to fast-women, either. She has two photos up there from her days at the University of Pennsylvania (she just graduated in May); one from the 2003 Penn State National Invitational, and one from the 2003 Heptagonal Cross Country Championships. She's also run a 5K in 16:47, one mile in 4:56.41, and 1500m in 4:34.60. That's fast. Cellphone
Courtesy Month July is Cellphone Courtesy Month. Please stop talking loudly into your cellphone in public. Week of July 6, 2004 - July 12, 2004 Urban
Athletics Sale and "Ladies Nite" Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 13, is the Summer Sale at Urban Athletics. Take 15-50% off great summer apparel and footwear all day long! In the evening, starting at 6pm, Hind will be sponsoring "Ladies Nite" a seminar for women on how to pick the best sports bra. Give aways and raffles as well as refreshments will be provided. Urban Athletics Half or
Nothing Toby Tanser's latest article features advice on running half-marathons. Among other things, he reminds us that "Running 13.1 miles isn’t something that you do on a whim." Yeah, we've found that one out the hard way a few times. Wednesday
Night Swim and Saturday Swim Races The kayaker training session we mentioned last week has been rescheduled for this Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. at the Downtown boat house. Swimmers are needed to help the kayakers train to work swim races. The training session starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Downtown Boat House, which is on the Hudson River at Pier 26 (between Canal and Chambers). If you would like to help out, please send an e-mail to Nancy Brous at nbrous@nycswim.org. There are also two Hudson River swim races this Saturday: a 2.4 miler, and a 0.5 miler. Both should be lovely. Sign up to swim or volunteer at www.nycswim.org. Bronx
Half-Marathon Recap There must have been something in the air yesterday. First, Brian Barry showed up at the race only to discover that he had accidently thrown out the bag with his chip, bib and singlet in it, and had instead brought to the race a bag meant for the trashcan. Then Marty Levine arrived from Westchester only to find out that he had left his running shoes at home. He wisely decided not to attempt the race in the sandals he was wearing. True, Phidippides probably ran the first marathon in sandals, but his result is not one any of us want to emulate. (Disclaimer: Yes, we know that more recent evidence suggests that the messenger who ran from Marathon to Athens to report "Rejoice, we conquer!" (a) was not named Phidippides and (b) did not actually die after relating the news, but why ruin a good story with facts?) But the strangest thing has to be the unknown runner who saw Frank Morton at about mile 4.5 and remarked "There's so much shade on this course!" Forgetting your number or your shoes is bad enough, but forgetting your brain? That's just embarassing. Olympic
Trials After finishing seventh in the 100m finals at Olympic trials yesterday, accused steroid user Tim Montgomery offered this explanation to the press: "The reason I didn't win was because y'all were on my back; I have to deal with y'all every day." Yes, it's the media's fault that Montgomery hasn't run well for the last two years. And the media is probably to blame for all that evidence the USADA has about Montgomery's steroid use. We suppose the media must be responsible for Marion Jones' fifth place finish in the women's 100m, as well. If only the press did have the power to cause all the athletes accused or suspected of being on steroids to fare so poorly in the trials! But we're thankful to whoever or whatever it is that's causing Montgomery, Jones, Chrystie Gaines, Michelle Collins, et. al. to miss the team. The U.S. looks likely to send a clean team to Athens, and, thankfully, the team selection is being settled this week on the track, not next month in a courtroom. But our relief in watching potential dopers lose is tinged with some sadness. As Red put it after Marion Jones' loss, "Unfortunately, I'm happy about this." Happy might be too strong a word, but we're definitely relieved by her loss, which is something we could never imagine saying a year ago. It was hard to watch the trials on Saturday and root against a talented, personable, charismatic athlete who we've long admired, and who brought so much positive attention to track and field. But it would have been harder to root for a probable cheater who threatens lawsuits and brings mostly negative attention to the sport. That Marion Jones fits both those descriptions is depressing, but the latter characteristics are more important than the former. There is no place for cheaters in this sport so, as much as it pains us, we'll be rooting against Marion in the 200m and the long jump. For the sake of the team and the sport, we hope she loses. But we won't be happy until we go back to focusing on the winners, not the losers. Low Carbs,
Low Class From today's Metropolitan Diary:
So, just to make sure we've got this right: First, there more people out there than we suspected who think that they can lose weight be eating McDonald's hamburgers so long as they skip the bun. These people are also inconsiderate slobs who litter at will. And both Ms. Wosk and the editors at the Times think this is amusing. Dr. Atkins is even more of a monster than we thought. Photos
1 We're still way behind, but we finally got one set of photos up, from the Mini Marathon. We've got about three more sets that should be up in the next day or two. Plus any photos we (or other members) take tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like we'll never be fully caught up... Pick Your
Shirt Complaining about race t-shirts is a time-honored tradition among runners, but the New York Road Runners are trying to put a stop to it. This year they're letting the runners pick the design for the NYC Marathon shirts. There are five choices, and anyone can vote on them by clicking here. Voting ends on Wednesday, July 11, so vote soon. Technically this is just for marathon entrants, but there's nothing to stop anyone else from voting. And why shouldn't the rest of us have a say? We'll have to look at the shirts just as much as the competitors. Volunteer
Swimmers Needed for Saturday This coming Saturday, kayakers are being trained in the Hudson to assist with swim races. They need swimmers to help with the training. It's a fun way to get your feet wet. For example, you might splash around, pretending to be in distress, and let a kayaker practice towing you to safety. Of course, you can swim around the pier during the entire session. The water is warm, so wetsuits are optional. The training session starts at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Downtown Boat House, which is on the Hudson River at Pier 26 (between Canal and Chambers) If you would like to help out, please send an e-mail to Nancy Brous at nbrous@nycswim.org Olympic
Trials Mary Wittenberg sent us the following regarding media coverage of the Olympic Trials:
You'll
Never Make a Monkey Out of Me Last year we compared media executives to monkeys and then had to apologize when Alexandra Horowitz pointed out that the comparison was unfair to the monkeys. We've learned respect for our simian siblings, but some people keep engaging in these sorts of snide similes, and the folks at Monkeywire have had enough. So, please, everyone, remember that George W. Bush is NOT a chimp. Thank you. Tuesday
Night Uptown Track Workout Report The long weekend took its toll on our runners, and only 16 of them made it up to the track for this workout. Actually, even that's an overstatement, since Coach Devon wasn't there to run, and two other attendees were non-CPTC members. But those who were there made up for the sparse attendance by running in such a tight pack that it felt nearly as crowded as the downtown track. Pretty remarkable, considering they were running two distinct workouts concurrently. Normally we try to report any good conversations we've overheard, but the Coach kept chatter to a minimum by telling the runners "If you have enough energy to complain about the workout, that means you're not running hard enough." So the longest conversation we heard was John Affleck and Glen Carnes discussing who should lead the first interval. After we somehow survived the intervals there was a discussion on the merits of running barefoot. The consensus was that it's more fun to run barefoot on the grass than on the track, but the track does beat pavement. On the subway
ride home, Ligaya Mishan wondered if the New
York Post's "scoop"
on John Kerry picking Separated
at Birth Inspired by our recent comparison of Josh Feldman and Dutch soccer star Giovanni van Bronckhorst, a reader sent in the following comment: "Every time I see photos of Kate Irvin running she reminds me of Mariel Hemingway in Personal Best." We've been lucky enough to forget most of that mediocre film, but this movie poster we found does show some similarities. Keep those celebrity comparisons coming!
Steroids Just because we haven't been reporting on the subject doesn't mean there hasn't been news. The latest big story is the San Jose Mercury identifying Trevor Graham as the coach who sent the THG sample to the USADA. Graham is a former coach of Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, and he worked with BALCO head Victor Conte on "Project World Record," a program designed to have Montgomery break the 100m record. Other athletes coached by Graham have tested positive for drugs, and his aid to the USADA here may have more to do with animosity towards Conte than a true desire to clean up the sport. And Graham and Conte (or their surrogates) have been posting harsh messages about each other on an Internet message board called sub10. Olympic
Trials Predictions It was only a matter of time before somebody adapted fantasy sports to running, and of course Let's Run was the one to do it. Click here to play. It's free and you can even win some prizes. Or you can just win bragging rights on the team, since we've set up a group there. Just select CPTC when asked "Would You Like to Play in A Group?" Correction Alan Ruben actually ran 9:05.06 for 3k, not 2 miles, and he never claimed otherwise. We screwed up in transcribing his email. That's still good enough for tenth on the Best Times list, at least until the next round of updates. Sock It
To Me! According to the Times, Sean Combs' Fourth of July party in the Hamptons "might have been the first political rally in history to have go-go dancers in attendance." We don't expect the writers of the Arts section to know that much about politics, but didn't someone there remember Richard Nixon appearing on Laugh-In? Buon
Appetito! The Times isn't always useless. Today they had an interesting article on how fat cells work. They also featured a nice op-ed, You Are How You Eat, which contained lots of common-sensical advice on eating and health. It's worth reading the whole thing, but it boils down to "Ultimately, it's not the carbohydrates — or the next unsuspecting food group that will come under attack — that will make us overweight. It's our relationship with food and our lifestyle. In other words, how we eat is just as important — if not more so — than what we eat." Save the
River Fun Run Anyone up near Clayton, NY at the end of the month may want to check out the Save the River ~5K on July 31. The river in question here is the St. Lawrence River, which the race follows around the town. The course is "approximately 5K," so everyone who runs is guaranteed a PR! Marathon
Training We've always thought the point of going to a spa was to get away from running for a little while. Seems we were wrong, as this offer shows:
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Thursday - We were up at 3 AM and off to the airport, only to find that our flight was cancelled and we have to get to another airline in another terminal. On the monorail Joanne forgot to hang onto the railing and fell over her luggage. Then Joanne and Rin both fell getting on to the automatic people mover, and it looked like it was going to be a long trip with Thelma and Louise. On our new flight we had to change planes in Dallas, but we make it to Sacramento only one-and-a-half hours late. At the hotel we got the wrong rooms, with Joanne getting stuck in a room with a leaky toilet right by the ice machine. After checking in we picked up our credentials (Rin had to have multiple photos taken until one was just right) and went over to the stadium to get acclimated to the area. There were LOTS OF PEOPLE around!!
Friday - Had breakfast with Shawn Crawford and his girlfriend, and then we went off to the practice track to practice with Nicole Teter and her coach Frank "Gags" Gagliano, from the NIKE Team. Frank said he will help coach Rin by phone until he moves back to New Jersey. After practicing, Catherine got massaged by John Capel's massage therapist while chatting with Lauryn Williams and Jearl Miles Clark. It was a real rap session; the only thing missing was the coffee! Back to the hotel to shower, eat, nap and eat again. Rin said she could easily get used to this lifestyle! After heading back to the stadium to buy more gifts it was time for a photo shoot with Maurice Greene, which drew a real crowd. Mo wanted to extend the shoot, but Rin was getting tired so we went back to the hotel, munched on Fritos with Amy Rudolph, and went to bed early.
Saturday - Another breakfast with Shawn Crawford and his girlfriend, this time joined by Coby Miller. They still don't believe Rin is a Masters Runner. Afterward, Catherine rested, sewed her top, iced her foot, got a blessing from USOC Chaplain Father John, showered, did her hair and makeup, (she may be on TV). We watched the meet with Inger Miller and Gail Devers on the big screen TV in the athletes' area. Jearl Miles-Clark came to watch Rin race and wish her well (Rin ran against Jearl's sister-in-law, Joetta Clark Diggs, in high school and actually beat her once). Jearl insisted Catherine meet her husband/coach J.J. Clark, who is Joetta's brother. We read an article about Rin in the Sacramento Bee and she tried to rest and stay cool until it was time to warm up. It's amazing how long half an hour can be.
Finally, the race started! Rin practically walked the first quarter in 75 seconds, getting elbowed the entire way by a girl who wasn't even supposed to be in the race. She followed that by running the second quarter in 64, which felt so smooth she could have done it twice. She spanked elbow girl, who placed around 7th or 8th. Rin placed 3rd and got the bronze medal and a bouquet of flowers. She did her cool down by standing in front of the misting fan in the athletes tent. We went back to the hotel to shower and change, and then off to the Elephant Bar where we were comforted by exotic drinks and huge desserts.
At the gift shop we ran into Stuart Calderwood. An unsubstantiated rumor has it that he was at R.J. Grins with Deena Kastor. Back to the athletes' hospitality area for more snacks, ping pong, video games, air hockey and lounging with other athletes. Got a DVD of the race from USATF High Performance and watched a TV interview of a woman with a really bad facelift. Rin insisted she was ready to go dancing, despite that fact that she couldn't even walk. Joanne's new paraolympian "friend," offered his wheels, but Rin's support crew crashed and burned, so dancing plans were cancelled and we all went to bed. 
