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Week of August 31, 2004 - September 6, 2004 Labor Day We've noticed that some of our readers seem to think that we have nothing better to do with our time than update this site. That was actually true this past weekend, but, as we were at the beach, we felt that doing nothing was a better use of our time than updating this site. We think we've got enough here today to make up for it, though. Report from 100 Centre Street After spending Sunday marching at super slow cadence up a jammed and festive Seventh Avenue along with four or five hundred thousand others, including my oldest and best friends from college who came in from Michigan and Pennsylvania, I spent most of the week volunteering at the Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street, representing people arrested, with and (mostly) without cause in the demonstrations. (Just don't tell Coach Martin, cuz I sure didn't run much this week.) The scene at court was a bit surreal – people from all over the country, charged with riding their bikes the wrong way up Broadway, with gathering on the sidewalk, with taking unauthorized photographs on the public streets (lots of cameras were confiscated), with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Crimes like parading without a permit, and riding bikes in large blocs without permits. Bikes were seized as evidence to show the suspects actually had them. One woman was charged in the biking conspiracy, but had a good defense – she had no bike. Several of my clients were college age woman who were arrested at Times Square for parading without a permit, having been tailed by the police from the steps of the main branch of the Public Library at 42nd and Fifth, where they took part in a Kiss-In. For these crimes, people typically spent about 24-30 hours in lockup, under terrible conditions as reported in the Times. Some were held for several days or more, in what many thought was an effort by the NYPD to keep them in jail until George Bush left town. That was proven by my experience at the "Lobster shift" – overnight court – on Wednesday into Thursday. At about 3am, it became clear that the usual run of the mill suspects, charged with drug cases and assault, prostitution and DWI, were being arraigned at close to warp speed – seven hours or so, while the demonstrators were lingering into their second full day or more. The normal time on a criminal case in Manhattan is about 24 hours before you see a judge. It took a judge's order and a fine of $1,000.00 per day per demonstrator not released, to get the process moved up and people out as of Thursday night. All was not bad – the spirit of the demonstrators and their families and friends, the lawyers and support people organized by the National Lawyers Guild, Legal Aid Society and others was phenomenal. And Sunday's massive march, held without a rally permit after the City denied use of Central Park, was followed by many people gathering at the Great Lawn for picnicking, politics, Frisbees, and general good vibes. The whole week's experience, the march, the week of demonstrations and vigils, the Central Park frolic, the work in court and all that went with it, made me realize once more how much I love this town and the people who live here – the one reason I can find to thank the Republicans for being here.
Why We Hate George S. "I wanted to show the fans that we have the same courage and the same attitudes all New Yorkers have had in fighting back from that terrible episode on 9/11. New Yorkers never give up and the Yankees never give up."
We Hear Zell Used to Vote for "Tastes Great," But Now Goes for "Less Filling" The following is reproduced verbatim from Slate magazine:
There are several things that we find offensive about this. First is the quote itself, although we're hardly surprised to see such extreme language. (And we realized there was no point expecting anything sensible from Zell Miller once he tried to challenge Chris Matthews to a duel.) But it doesn't consitute a "Whopper" by Slate's usual standards. That distinction is supposed to go to statements – usually by politicans – that can be shown to be false (mostly along the lines of "I voted this way" or "I never said that" or "The bear tax is the fault of illegal immigrants"). Miller's statement is an opinion, and the fact that he used to hold a different opinion doesn't prove that one or the other is wrong. (Some other parts of Miller's speech were demonstratably false, and Slate did a good job of setting the record straight in a separate article.) What really offended us, though, was the last sentence. That reference to Cecil B. DeMille is common enough, and we imagine the average Slate reader will probably understand it, whether or not they've seen Sunset Boulevard. But if they don't, well, too bad. They can look it up themselves. Or they can figure out the point of it from the rest of the article. There's no cultural reference that will be understood by every reader, so you have to either leave the references out completely or accept that some people won't get the joke. Preferably the latter, but in such a way that your point still comes across whether the reader is as geeky as you or not. If you need to explain your reference that means that either you're too dumb to write clearly or your readers are too dumb to understand anything. Thursday Night Road Workout Report We would like to apologize in advance for this for this report. It has been some time since we attempted to recap an outdoor workout, and we are quite rusty. Among other things, we failed to even wear a watch, making it impossible to record what is perhpas the most important datum regarding the workout – the time it starts. However, as Coach Tony gathered the group to begin his announcements, we heard Chris Price exclaim "What's with this 7:01 start?" So, estimating the length of Tony's speech at 15 minutes, we will give the start of the workout at 7:16 pm. Fifteen minutes may seem like a rather questionable estimate, but Tony was remarkably terse tonight. It probably helped that he had no announcements to make and no race results to report. He did take the time to make one joke ("I guess only the Democrats are here tonight," which seemed slightly clever until we heard John McEnroe make the same joke about the attendance at the U.S. Open) but other than that all he had to do was describe the workout. Stuart Calderwood would have been taken three minutes to do it, but Tony always goes at his own pace. We don't know if they were all Democrats or not (remember, we don't discuss politics here), but there were 30 people there. That includes visitors from the uptown group, like Mr. Price and Mr. and Mrs. Carnes; injured runners making the first steps of their recovery, including Stuart Alexander (who we hope will continue to take pictures rather than race even once he's healed), and our favorite blushing bride, Margaret Schotte; and even a couple of non-members, like the New York Flyers' Bill Stergiou and prospective member Sam Frank, who recently wrote a nice three-part account (1, 2 and 3) of both the Olympic distance races and his own experience in the Manhattan Half-Marathon for the online magazine N+1. Our non-running readers (if we have any) should be advised that this article has a little more information than necessary on chafing and blisters. But after the headcount and the guess at the time we abandoned even the pretense of being a dedicated reporter. Not only did we skip the run itself in favor of our own light job, but we spent the post-workout period helping Fire Chief John find his glasses when we should have been eavesdropping for good gossip. Updates Part 2 of the Yankees-Red Sox playoff game has been posted. Like most sequels it's not funny as the original, but at least it still has lego graphics. Also, as best as we can gather from the postings on Let's Run, Lance Armstrong is not doing any running right now, and if he does run the NYC Marathon it would be for charity. Of course, none of them bother to post an exact transcript or anything useful like that. More on this story as we get it, unless we lose interest, which is certainly possible. Run Strong We don't watch the Tonight Show, so we missed Lance Armstrong's announcement that he's considering running the NYC Marathon. We don't have any more details than that, although we're guessing that he's talking about this year's race. Runner's World has some thoughts on how fast he might run (anywhere from 2:10 to 2:40 depending on who you ask), but they're all based on him switching over to running full time. If he's just doing a two-month crash training program, and running the race for charity/fun, we figure he'll run around 3:15-3:30. Probably on the lower end so he can be sure to beat ex-wife Kristin's 3:48 on a comparative basis. Really We Just Don't Like the Name "George" Apparently we are "completely leftist" and "a Yankee hating website" that publishes lots of "drivel." We object to the first claim. We have fairly strong political views, but we feel we do a good job of leaving them off of this page. (Our original goal was to avoid any discussion of politics, sex, religion or money. Two out of four ain't bad.) This is as good a place as any to put in a link to Page 2's analysis of George W. Bush as an athlete to match their article on John Kerry from last month. See, fair and balanced! Meanwhile, we think this link will let you vote on which candidate would win in a physical fight and why. (Or else it's a marketing survey. We already took a couple of surveys on that page and now we can't access them again.) As for the Yankees, hating is such a strong word. It's more of a strong dislike. But if anyone wants to try to convince us that rooting for the Yankees is not actually like rooting for U.S. Steel, we're happy to listen. In the meantime, check out this "pre-cap" of the one-game Yankees-Red Sox playoff for the AL East championship. It's probably the funniest thing we've read all week, but we're also so loopy from sleep deprivation that we'll laugh at anything that's illustrated with legos. And, yes, everything we publish here is drivel. Love on the Run Toby Tanser is already well known as a runner, coach and writer. Now he wants to be known as a matchmaker too, with his latest MetroSports article, Romance on the Run. Aattentive readers might identify a CPTC member in the article. Others will notice the recommendation to join a social club like the Flyers of the Hash House Harriers and then "sign up for every single social event they have organized." We already attend every running social event in the city, and we don't have any romance to show for it; just a half-dozen drunken one-night stands and one really embarassing tattoo. Let's Run We're not sure if the rumor about Let's Run shutting down has any basis in fact, but it did provoke one great response from a poster pretending to be sports pundit Jim Rome, who envisions this bleak future: "You're sitting in front of your computer, trying to logon on to letsrun.com, and it doesn't work; it's not there; it's just not there. After you get done crying in whatever God awful replacement fluid you people drink, you'll pick up the pieces and get on with your life." It's not all bad, though, as "The day this site shuts down is the day worker productivity goes up." Though not as much as it will go up if our own site ever shuts down. It's Awesome, Baby!
What's In a Name? Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones has named his new son Shea, in honor of Shea Stadium. Jones chose the name because he hit his first home run at Shea, and added "I love that place." That affection is not returned by the Shea faithful. While the entire Braves organization is hated in New York City – and, indeed, around much of the country, despite (or perhaps because of) Ted Turner having shown their games nationwide on TBS for years – Jones is booed even more than the average Atlanta player, and is often serenaded with chants of "Laaar-ry, Laaar-ry," after his real name (Larry Wayne Jones), which he is apparently ashamed of. Though some people have claimed that Mets fans boo Jones because he often plays well against the Amazins, the real source of the antipathy is that (1) he's a jerk and (2) no adult should ever go by the name Chipper. And, while we appreciate the homage to an underrated stadium (while it's not particularly attractive, it's not ugly either, and we've sat in every part of the stadium and never had a bad view of the field), no boy should be forced to grow up with the name Shea, either. Just Do It! Finally, some good news from the Science Times: "Sex does not impair an athlete's performance." In fact, while many self-professed experts (mainly boxers, who may have been hit in the head a few too many times) claim that abstaining can help conserve energy and increase agression, a 1995 study showed that men's performance on a treadmill test was the same regardless of what they'd been doing the night before. (And why do we never get invited to participate in studies like this, but instead get offers to test new medications that may cause us to grow gills?) This shouldn't be much of a suprise. Pliny the Elder advised as far back as 77 AD that "Athletes when sluggish are revitalized by love-making." More recently the Old Perfesser, Casey Stengel, clarified that as "Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in." And most running books we've read offer the same advice, albeit in more staid prose. As for agression, an Italian study in 1999 found that testoterone levels in men increase as they have more sex, so abstaining before a big competition may actually lower an athlete's agression. On the other hand, as proved on Seinfeld, it can also make him smarter, so there's a trade-off. Runners and triathletes would probably be better served by a little extra agression. Football and baseball players (exempting apathetic teams like the Mets) probably have enough agression already, and should sacrafice a little to improve their understanding of strategy. Now, we just want to see a study that proves that drinking excessively the night before a race will not hurt our performance. Week of August 24, 2004 - August 30, 2004 Mr. Blair, Tear Down This Building! Frank Lloyd Wright once opined that "A doctor can always bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines." That doesn't work so well with the 50-story steel-and-glass-skyscraper-variety of mistakes, so George Ferguson, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects has proposed a new solution: tear down the ugly buildings. Not that he would do it himself. Rather, he suggests the creation of a new landmark designation – Grade X – which would be applied to buildings that are so universally disliked that they simply have to go. Then, perhaps, the government would offer incentives to developers who will replace the offending strucutre with something better (this part of the plan seems a little vague, but Ferguson is an architect, not a policymaker, so he's probably planning to let someone else work out the details on that). We'd like to see some buildings in New York receive a Grade X rating, starting with the Met Life Bulding towering over Grand Central Station, 2 Columbus Circle, and the Family Court Building. Also the Westin Hotel, which might seem too new to be written off already, but we don't think it will ever become any less offensive. Train in Vain Somehow, despite the fact that we take the F train every day, and almost always ride in the front car, we failed to notice that we are smack dab in the middle of the city's hottest dating scene. At least, so says the Post, our usual source for all the latest in cutting-edge culture. So what if the Post is two years late with this story? Perhaps they just now received the email that went around in August 2002:
True, the original email made no mention of the F train, but the people most likely to base their dating strategies on anonymous emails all live along the F, in places like the West Village (West 4th Street station), East Village (2nd Avenue), Park Slope (7th Avenue) or Williamsburg (okay, that's the L train, but you can't expect reporters to ride the L train, even for a story). So why is it that we've never noticed the constant flirtations taking place around us? Maybe because they are all silent. It seems that nobody actually talks to the object of their desire in the first car of the F; instead they just stare longingly and then post a message in the "Missed Connections" on Craig's List. Or, as one woman put it, "Everyone complains that there's all this flirting on the F, but no one ever does anything about it." So here's your chance to do something about it. Next time you're on the F train on your way to speedwork at East River Park, go ahead and flirt with a stranger. Then call up the Post and see if they'll write an article about you. Olympics They're finally over! Now we can actually get some sleep and stop watching so much TV! We'll have some comments over the next few days, but in general everything was exciting enough to even overcome NBC's flaws in coverage. Run Against Bush As always we make no endorsements and take no sides, but we also print almost anything members ask us to:
Heard at Club Champs This note was sent in by someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
Why does this letterwriter wish to be anonymous? Because he does not want to be an easy mark for any triathlete trying to raise false hopes. But, then again, it is not hard to figure who he is. Are You a Marathoner or a Mouse? You may not have to choose just one, now that researchers at the Salk Institute in California have genetically engineered mice to have more slow-twitch muscles. So far the new super-rodents can only run a bit over a mile, but that's pretty impressive for such tiny creatures, especially since they do it without any training. Drug companies, naturally, are hard at work on a pill that will enable humans to get in shape without doing those pesky long runs, but don't expect it any time soon. (Thanks to Stuart Alexander for the link.) October Goal Race We have a goal race for October, and it's the Staten Island Half-Marathon on October 17. This race has the advantages of being flat and a point race, and the disadvantages of sometimes being mismeasured and, of course, being in Staten Island. Olympic 10,000m Races For a change, you can read someone actually write about running. What a novel concept for this website! When I was in New York City, I was able to watch the Men's 10,000m race shown in its entirety on NBC. That was an interesting race, but more or less uncontested as the three Ethiopians did their fartlek program to break the competition. When I got back to Hong Kong, I was able to watch the Women's 10,000 race shown in its entirety. Among the track & field events, the medal possibilities for China were in the race-walking events (note: best finish was a fourth-place finish), the men's 110m high hurdles (note: Liu Xiang won in world-record-equalling time) and the women's distance events. That was why this entire event was shown on television. There were two Chinese female long-distance runners present: Sun Yingjie and Xing Huina. Of these two, Sun has run the New York City Marathon and is noted for that very low arm carry posture. Sun ran a 2:19:39 marathon last year. Xing is a 20-year-old novice. Earlier in the week, both ran the 5,000m race and finished in 8th and 9th place in 15:07. However, both regarded the 10,000m as the better race for them. In other words, they had better strength than speed. In the pre-race interview, both said that they needed to work together to break the race open in the middle because they cannot hope to match the Ethiopians in a kick finish. They remembered that Wang Junxia was outkicked by Fernanda Ribeiro in the Olympics 10,000m. Of the two, Sun was regarded as the better runner at this stage. As the race unfolded, there were seven runners in the lead pack including Paula Radcliffe after the 5,000m mark, passed in 15:34. Thereafter, the tempo increased as Paula was dropped and then dropped out. And then ... gasp ... Sun Yingjie fell off the pace. That left Xing Huina in the company of the three Ethiopians and the orange runner Lornah Kiplagat. When the bell went off on the last lap, this race was reduced to a 400m sprint. To the astonishment of everybody, the winner would be Xing Huina with a 62 second last lap. The last 5,000m was completed in 14:50, which would have been fast enough to win a bronze medal in the 5,000m race. Nothing had worked according to the script. In the post-race interview, Xing Huina explained the secret to her success: an inhumane training regime. Xing and Sun were sequestered away at altitude in Manchuria (northeastern China, near Siberia) and trained in extreme cold. Xing and Sun do not compete regularly on the international circuit and therefore had no idea what their forms would be against the others. The Xing story leads back to the unsolved mystery of the Ma army. In the 1990's, there was a group of Chinese runners who produced some truly astonishing times, including some untouchable times such as the Wang Junxia's 8:06.11 at 3,000m and Qu Yunxia's 3:50.46 at 1,500m. Wang Junxia's 29:31.78 now looks humanly possible as Paula Radcliffe is getting close. The mystery of the Ma army was why were the Chinese so good back then, and then they just vanished from the scene? Was it because they used illegal drugs? Was it EPO? Was it the turtle's blood and caterpillar fungus in the diet? Or was it because Ma had a secret training program that was shunted aside after squabbling with the Chinese sport authorities? This is an unresolved question, as those records continue to sit in the books. But perhaps Ma's secret was that he did not recruit his runners from established school programs in the citiies. Instead, he scoured the countryside looking for young talented peasant girls. Traditionally, females are always regarded as tougher than males in the countryside. Ma's proposition was simple: he has an 'army' of female runners that he took them to an high-altitude camp in the middle of nowhere and put them through 'inhumane training.' Some of these runners will succeed, but most of them will not, and it is up to the individual runners to decide which they want to be. There would be no Starbucks, no McDonald's, no pubs, no discos, no nothing. Life is just three training sessions a day including one session at marathon distance. As punishment, Ma would take a stick to the slackers. It was hard but no tougher than working in the fields. The problem with Ma's program was that it was unbalanced and unsustainable. He had to have access to desperate athletes willing to train under his total control, but China is growing more prosperous every year. He was also not very good at handling the finances of his runners or providing for their post-running careers. Of all those Chinese runners, Wang Junxia is the only one known to have a career, but as an award-winning actress! Wang had left the Ma program after a dispute over her prize money. She won two Olympic medals afterwards and then she retired from running at the age of 23 after being told that she had pushed herself beyond the limits of physical endurance. Cross-Country Races It's cross-country season! First up in the Manhattan Track Club's Bad Boy 10K XC race on Sunday, September 4th at 9:30 a.m. in Van Cortlandt Park. The course will be the same as the one where Steve Prefontaine lost his only cross country race while at Oregon. There will be individual and team prize money and it promises to be a good new event. For other races, see the new cross-country race calendar. Club Champs Team standings are now posted. CPTC men were 6th overall, 4th masters, and 8th senior masters. Women were 2nd overall, 7th masters and 5th senior masters. We also have two updates to the results (Casey Yamazaki and Yumi Ogita, who were not listed originally) and two corrections to the photos (We mixed up Yumi Ogita and Etsuko Kizawa. In our defense, we posted the photos at 3:00 am, so you're lucky we got anyone's name right.). Speaking of photos, folks in orange show up all over the official race photos for both the men's and women's races (there's even a photo of our dad!). And we just got some more photos from the Westchester Track Club, which we'll post over the weekend. Stopwatches Remember the little kerfuffle here last year about runners stopping their watches as they cross the finish line of a race? King Kaufman of Salon.com didn't read any of it, but he did have these thoughts:
We're not getting in the middle of this one again, except to say that people who make it into the Olypmics can do whatever they want as they cross the finish line. The Paper of Record We were going to rant about the Times again, but Gawker beat us to it: "We try not to let the New York Times ruin our weekend, but we'll inevitably run across some piece of inanity that leaves us weeping." Except that the Times' inanity usually leaves us wanting to smack some sense into the paper's editors. Unfortunately, we don't know where to find them, so we tend to just complain here. Today's worst article (on how the iPod shuffle function sometimes results in people hearing songs they didn't expect to) was mostly just stupid, and not worth any more comment. Instead, here's an amusing op-ed piece by John Kenney (alas, not the John Kenney on CPTC) about how NBC comes up with their athelte profiles. Of course, the profiles have been much less offensive this year, but anyone who remembers the profiles from 2000 (and 1998, 1996, 1994, 1992, etc.) will probably get a kick out of this. Surely You Can't Be Serious It's tough to beleive a lot of the stories we see over at Ananova's "Quirkies" section, but apparently they're all true. Even this week's story about a German waiter who was fired for drinking 100 bottles of beer at work each day, then sued for unfair dismissal, and won. (Meanwhile, we do jello shots at the office just one morning, and we never hear the end of it...) However, we had no trouble at all believing that reading Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings at the beach is a major turn-off. Who would ever have guessed that women aren't into guys who read sci-fi and fantasy books and are "so immersed in the world they're experiencing through their book, they forget about real life"? Back and Forth Okay, we said we'd be back on Wednesday, and we were. We were also to tired to even turn the computer on (that 7:00 am flight seemed like a good idea when we booked it...). But at least we're here today. Then we're out of town again tomorrow, and we may have to run away from all the Republicans and anti-Republican protestors next week for a day or two. Or else we'll be working overtime to replace the co-workers who run away before we get the chance. And then we'll probably go away for Labor Day weekend, too. Your best bet is just to assume there won't be any updates for the next 10 days or so, but then keep checking every day to see if you can be pleasantly surprised. Week of August 17, 2004 - August 23, 2004 Like Anybody Reads This In The First Place Blah blah blah vacation blah blah blah no computer yada yada yada lots of drinking etc. etc. etc. no updates for a few days rumble rumble rumble mutiny mutiny mutiny have fun! We're back on Wednesday. Go read something else until then. Club Championships Sue Pearsall wants us to extend her thanks to all the men – from all the teams – who were out there cheering during the women's race today. Good work, guys! In other race news, the team results from the Club Championships still aren't posted. Photos None of our usual photographers made it out to the race this morning (their excuses included "It was too early"; "It was too far"; "I was too hungover"; "I hate you all" and "There was a race today?"). Luckily, the Webmaster Emeritus/Far East Correspondent/Photographer Extraordinaire Sir Roland Soong was there to record the event for posterity. Of course, as befits a site that has always been more interested in trivial matters than in running, we had three photographers at the annual softball game. Yes, the softball game that was rained out. We're so committed to providing photographs of every club event that we even post photos for events that never take place. Olympics Is anything happening in the world that we should know about? We've been a little busy watching the Olympics during every free minute this week. And that's even before the important events start. The coverage has been much better than we feared it would be, but we still have a strong desire to fly over to Athens and slap a number of the commentators. We like the improved live coverage this year, but we tend to be either at work or asleep (or both) during most of it. Why don't they rerun it during prime time? Nobody's watching whatever trash USA and Bravo are showing anyway. Speaking of live coverage, the men's 10,000m will be shown live tomorrow (Friday) at about 3:35. We suspect one of the Ethiopians will win this race, but you never know. In vaguely related news, Steve Martin has a funny op-ed piece in today's Times concerning steroids. Talkin' Softball We know everyone will be out there for the Club Championshps on Saturday morning, either running or cheering (the men run at 8:00 am, the women at 9:00). We just thought we'd remind you about the really important part of the day's schedule: the annual softball game that afternoon, this year against the Front Runners. The game starts at 3:00 pm, at field 2 in the North Meadow. We'll provide some equipment, but we encourage everyone who has them to bring bats, gloves, even softballs. Pine tar, eye black and big league chew are less important, but would still be appreciated. Tuesday Night Downtown Workout Report No. We refuse. The master is in town from Hong Kong and he was at the workout. There's no way we can write a workout report as well as him, so we're just going to leave this space blank until he writes something. Rejoice, We're Not Running This! The Athens Olympic Marathon course has always looked a bit tough. And that we before we read Jim Caple's account of just walking the course. Okay, so he didn't train and probably isn't in the best of shape to begin with, but it still sounds really painful. Citius, Altius, Fortius Two weeks in a row the Science Times has something worth sharing! This time it's an examination of whether we're reaching the limits of human potential, and if we might see an end to world records soon. Or more precisely, how we can expect to see records broken by smaller and smaller increments, as we continually approach, but never actually reach, the human body's limits. Week of August 10, 2004 - August 16, 2004 Ride Wanted Miwa Fujiwara is looking for a ride to the Self Transendence Marathon on Wednesday, August 25. If anyone is driving there, please email her at miwaf@verizon.net Lazy Days of Summer Two weeks after we reported on it, the Times has finally discovered Corinne Maier's book Bonjour Paresse (Hello Laziness – The Art and the Importance of Doing the Least Possible at the Workplace) and its suggestion of "active disengagement" in the workplace. There's not much new in the article, except for one detail that perfectly summarizes the French labor market: Ms. Maier faces a disciplinary hearing at Electricité de France on charges that she has been too avid a practicioner of her own advice. That hearing, originally scheduled for tomorrow, has now been delayed because she is on vacation. Pictures 7 We've got two sets of old photos today. The first is from the NJ International Track & Field Meet on June 12. The other is just of Andrea Haver, taken by the Westchester Track Club at the Freihofer's Race for Women back on June 5. Speaking of the WTC, they have a few nice photos of some CPTCers (including Andrea, Kate Irvin, Sid Howard, Yves-Marc Courtines, and Kieran Calderwood) from yesterday's Fifth Avenue Mile. We'd forgotten about these photos, but after coming across them we did a thorough search of our files, and we're pretty sure these are the only sets left to post. We still have a number of photos that never made it onto the web site, but there aren't enough of any one set to merit their own page. We'll pick the best and post them on a "miscellaneous" page later this year. Meanwhile, we're all caught up with this site for the first time in weeks! Oh, sure, there are a couple of half-written journal entries that we need to finish, but that's the kind of thing we can do at the office instead of actually working. But don't worry about us having too much fun; we're sure to have plenty of photos at next week's Club Championships and Annual Softball Game, and we expect to be sent a slew of photos from Masters Nationals any day now. Open Water Swim Clinic The fastest swimmer in the pool is not always the first to finish in open water. That's why the Manhattan Island Foundation is offering a two-session open water swimming clinic, which will prepare you for a faster swim race through better navigation, stroke technique and race strategy. The clininc will be at Chelsea Piers on Tuesday, August 17 and 24 at 6:30 pm, and cost $95 for the pair. Even better, the coaches include our very own Scott Willett and Ross Galitsky! Running the Avenue Let us put this as simply and objectively as we can: CPTC kicked ass at the Fifth Avenue Mile yesterday! Andrea Haver was first overall, in 4:51, which is both a PR and the new best time in club history. As is so often the case, wherever Andrea is, Kate Irvin is never far away. In this case she was second overall, in 4:54, which puts her in second place in CPTC history. Taking over second place over on the men's list is Amerigo Rossi, whose 4:12 was also good for second place in his age group, and third overall. Catherine-Stone Borkowski and Sid Howard both won their age groups, which shouldn't surprise anyone. Sid's time even beat the best American time for M65-69, although it's not an official record because the course isn't flat. Joe Bolster, Norm Goluskin and Ligaya Mishan all took third place in their age groups. In fact, a remarkable 13 of our runners finished in the top 5 of their age group, and another six runners finished in the top 10. And we're pretty sure that a number of people ran PRs, but we're waiting for confirmation on that. Oh, and we have 112 photos, posted in near-record time for us. Steroid Suggestion There are some practical problems with the idea, but we like Josh Levin's suggestion (in Slate.com) on how to deal with steroid use in the Olympics: let the dopers compete, but with weights attached to them in proportion to the severity of the cheating. So Torri Edwards would run with five-pound weights on each ankle, and Kelli White would get "a suit of medieval armor and a giant cannonball lashed to [her] left leg with five links of rusty chain." CPTC Jog Bras The much-awaited CPTC jog bras are here, just in time for the Fifth Avenue Mile tomorrow and the Club Team Championships next Saturday! To order, or to arrange for pick-up, please contact Sarah Gross at SGross@Marakon.com or at (212) 694-5551 (evenings only). The bras cost $30, payable either in cash or by check made out to: Central Park Track Club. Olympics in Midtown For those who don't have a TV, or who just want to watch some Olympic action during their lunch breaks, coverage will be broadcast live from noon to 10 p.m. on the facade of 30 Rockefeller Center, starting today and running through Sunday, August 22. At this mini-festival you can:
Giant TV screens will also be set up at the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle, although there will not be any of the other events there. Love On the Run MetroSports Magazine is working on a story about married couples who met through athletics and for whom sports is still a big part of their lives together. If you are interested in discussing your romance on the run, please send a short blurb about your story to Jeremy Schweder at jshweder@metrosports.com and put "TANYC Couple" in the subject head. Annual Softball Game A reminder to everyone about our annual softball game after Club Championships on Saturday, August 21. We'll be playing on field 2 in the North Meadow, with game time set for 3:00 pm. This year our opponents will be the Front Runners. As anyone who attended the Thursday Night at the Races can attest, some of these guys are really fast sprinters, which makes them a threat on basepath. So we'll need all of you out there to help us throw them out at the plate, and also to score some runs. Or you can just hang out and cheer for your teammates while drinking Athens Update Presenting the first of what we hope will be many updates on the Athens Olympics from our reporter on the spot, John Affleck:
Quick Note We're starting to think that the little cartoon figure on our shoulder with the horns and the pointy tail may not have had our best interests at heart when he kept advising us to have more drinks tonight. The same goes for the little blonde who was handing us the drinks. But before we pass out, we figured we should remind everyone that the Olympics start tomorrow. Actually, there have already been some soccer games, but the opening ceremonies are tomorrow (on NBC at 8:00 pm). Also, Torri Edwards will not be competing because she received a two-year ban for testing positive for the stimulant nikethamide (not made by Nike) at a meet in April. This is the same penalty that Kelli White received after admitting to being on about three dozen different stimulants and steroids. We're not sure what to think about that right now, but we'll try to come up with something over the weekend. Lost and Found Strange things happen at the downtown track. For example:
Pictures 6 Won't you be glad when we're all caught up with these photos and we can stop numbering the updates? Today's set is from last weekend's Mexican-themed party on Devon Martin's roof. A note on these photos (and the party in general): We go to parties to have fun. We do not go to spy on our teammates or to try to catch you in unflattering poses or saying embarassing things. You do not need to switch to mundane topics of coversation whenver we come nearby or constantly remind us to not print what you're saying. It should be clear by now that we only print comments that are funny when taken completely out of context. The not-nearly-sordid-enough details of your private lives do not interest us in a journalistic sense. Also, we usually drink enough at these events that we can't remember any specific dialogue. And as far as photos are concerned, we alwayse edit out all the embarassing ones, unless they happen to feature our family members. Chicago Marathon We know none of our regular readers are the last minute types, but just in case, we thought we'd alert you to the fact that the Chicago Marathon will reach it's limit of 40,000 runners tomorrow. Therefore, registration will close at midnight on Thursday, August 12. For last minute registration, click here. Otherwise you'll have to run some other race. Thanks With Coach Tony away on vacation for the past two weeks, we almost found ourselves running aimlessly around the East 6th Street Track and the loop in Central Park. Luckily, Frank Handelman and Stuart Calderwood were there to set us on the right path. Thanks for stepping in and taking care of us so well. Tuesday Night Uptown Track Workout Report We're not sure if it's the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, or some other sort of transition, but we've noticed fewer and fewer people showing up at these workouts. Being a bit new to the middle distance group, we find ourself wondering if there will even be workouts after this weekend's final race of the season, or if the runners will just disperse to the far corners of the city, to return only when the days grow short and the runners move indoors. This week saw all of nine people at the workout, although at least this time eight of them were there to run (only Sue P. filled the role of timer this week). Among the runners was our very own Coach Devon, whose running is finally getting back on track (pun very much intended, although we're not proud of it) after a long injury. The rest of the gang was warming up for the Fifth Avenue Mile, except for Micah, who was warming up for whatever race it is that she's eventually going to run in. (Oh yes, Noah and Julio didn't join the main workout either, but then they never do.) And J.T. stopped by in mufti just to say hello, but almost missed the group, as the workout went by fast. So fast, that there is actually nothing else to add to this report. Gold Rush The NYC and Chicago Marathons are teaming up to offer $500,000 to any American who wins a gold medal in the Olympic marathon. This is a nice PR stunt that gets people like us to give them some more free press (like they need it), but we don't think they have any worries about actually having to write a check. The Science of Running The Times examines the extent to which top runners are born, not made. It seems that many of them start out with a VO2 max and anerobic threshold that the rest of us spend years working on. Even more annoyingly, they can maintain these high levels even when they don't train for several months. On the plus side, we can now blame all our slow races on genetics. Also in the Times, see what happened to pro cyclist Tammy Thomas after she received a lifetime ban for using steroids. We think the article was meant to evoke some pity for Thomas, but that's not really our reaction to someone who blames her coaches for her steroid use and responded to her positive test by suing the lab that performed it. Fifth Avenue Mile Spectating Guide Not running the Fifth Avenue Mile? Then come cheer your teammates on as part of the world famous "wall of orange" at 70th Street, right by the 800m mark, where the runners need the most support. Be there by 10:55, wear orange, and enjoy some exciting races. The day's schedule is as follows:
Fifth Avenue Mile Racing Guide As we do every year, we present Devon Martin's guide to racing the Fifth Avenue Mile: FIFTH AVENUE MILE COURSE: Because the first 400m is DOWNHILL, you must be careful not go out too fast. Better to go out too slow for the first 400m, then too fast. Inexperienced runners will go out like rabbits, don't get sucked in! You know your mile pace! Stick to it for the first 400m. OVERALL STRATEGY: 0 – 400m 400 – 800m 800 – 1200m 1200 – 1600m Frequently Asked Question: What should I do if I run the 1st 400m too fast? Do NOT slow down (slowing down doesn't work in the mile). NOTE: If you see the clock at the 400m or 800m mark, you are not running that time! You are actually running a few seconds slower. That's because you are seeing the clock BEFORE you actually cross the 400m or 800m mark. So, in other words, IGNORE the clock! If you can, don't look at the clock. Upcoming Races A collection of upcoming races that we've learned about, presented in chronological order:
Week of August 3, 2004 - August 9, 2004 New Members Welcome to new members Roy Fowler, Michael Franco, Wendi Glassman, Julian Martinez and Robert Tas. Recruitment points go to Nicole Kikoski, Sylvie Kimche, Mary Rosado and Jennifer Smiga, with honorary points to Tony Ruiz (Coaches Division) and Sid Howard (Board Members Division). We're glad to see that Tony is finally on the board in the coaches contest, but he still trails Devon Martin 9-1. The overall leader is still Sid Howard, now with six points, but with the reclassification of those points as honorary, the leader in actual points is John Gleason, with two. Photos 5 Pictures from the last Sunday Morning at the Races are now up. Which means we're almost caught up with all the old photos. Of course, now we have new photos from this weekend to deal with. Nationals Sid Howard picked up gold medals in the 800m and 1500m at Masters Nationals, and set a new American record in the 800m for men 65-69 in the process. Sid's time of 2:21.14 beats the old record by (2:24.78, set by Mack Stewart last year) by 3.64 seconds, and also beat his own unofficial record of 2:21.9, which he ran last month at Sunday Morning at the Race. In other CPTC results, Mary Rosado took home the gold in the 2000m steeplechase (F50-54), and finished fourth in the 800m and 1500m and J.T. Mann won silver (M35-39) for 800m. But We Can't Quite Picture Them Smoking Oh, for the days before the web, when a columnist could write something stupid, the rest of the world would ignore it, and the article would just fade away. No longer. Now, when some no-name, no-brain writer for the Daily Herald ("Suburban Chicago's Information Source," like that's something to brag about) makes the claim that "anybody who ever carried the football once in the NFL is a better athlete than even cycling's best ever," it is deemed to require a response. And so VeloNews publishes a retort which basically ignores the original argument in favor of attacks on the original writer's style (which, admittedly, was even weaker than his argument) and a couple of gratuitous swipes at Cubs fans and a hypothetical "round-shouldered copy editor who subsists entirely on Marlboros and coffee and is counting the hours until retirement." Cubs fans are used to both rooting for a losing team and being abused for it, but clearly the copy editors need some defense, which King Kaufman provides, over in Salon.com. We mention all this here because Kaufman ends his article with this sentence: "If you've got a water balloon and you want to get a good writer wet, throw it at the copy desk." And we just had this great image of our own overworked copy editors, Stuart Calderwood and John Prather, being pelted by orange water balloons. Another Silly Video This one is on the differences between Italians and other Europeans. It's snide, irreverent, mostly accurate, and perfect for checking out on a Friday afternoon at the office when you've given up on doing any more work and are just waiting for happy hour to start. Oh! A Private Buffoon Is a Lighthearted Loon English Heritage, which maintains various historic sites in Britain, is looking for a new court jester. Auditions are this Saturday at the Festival of History in Warwickshire. Applicants must be mirthful and must also provide their own costume and bells. The last court jester served under King Charles I, but lost his job in 1649 when Oliver Cromwell executed the King and outlawed fun. While the monarchy was restored in 1660, fun was granted only probationary status, which left no room for the jester. The new jester will perform at events around the country but will have no connection to the royal family, which, let's face it, is rather full of jesters already. Take This Job and Shove It We tried reading iWorkWithFools.com, but it just reminded us of all the fools we work with (and for). But, if you work with people who are only moderately incompetent, it's worth checking this out to see how much worse things could be. Or else you could just go there to vent about your own job. (Link via New Yorkish.) One non-fool we work with maintains his own blog as Psychic Samurai, and he has this to say today:
We're not interested in federal funding (there's usually too much paperwork involved in getting it), but we wouldn't mind if our readers just sent us some money directly... State of the City Every so often, we get an offer in the mail for two free months of New York magazine. We used to accept it, just as a reminder of why we never pay for that rag. These days, the whole thing is on the web, and we can remind ourself of how worthless it is without killing any trees in the process. Today's evidence: An article asking "Should New York Secede?" Yes, these articles show up all the time in all sorts of publications, but this is the first one we've seen that actually argues the point in a serious manner. Or at least tries to. But the idea that we should secede because New York is different from the rest of the country and because the government often shortchanges us is just too ludicrous for us to devote a serious response to. Tuesday Night Uptown Track Workout Report Most of our workout reports have little to do with actual running. So what do we do when the workout itself contains almost no running? Yes, there were 15 people at the track last night, but only three of them were there for the 1200m time trial, the night's ostensible focus. Another three or four were doing their own workout, but the rest of the people there were just sort of ... there. (Actually, nobody was there until 7:00 pm, which is the latest we've seen, but the workout still got going by 7:30.) Devon was coaching, and we were timing while we rested up for Wednesday's 5K, but the only explanation we can think of for Jess Reifer, John Aflleck, Sue Pearsall and Armando Oliviera all showing up is that they couldn't decide whose apartment to meet at so they just all walked over to the track instead. So Kate Irvin, Andrea Haver, Joe Bolster and Micah Adriani (running 800m while the rest of the gang did 1200m) ended up with six people timing them, which is more than you'll see at most local track meets. Meanwhile, Noah Perlis, Julio Rodriguez, Neil Fitzgerald, Leon Brown and Marvin Cabrerra all did their own runs of various distances and intensities. Really, there was no point in having everyone at the track at the same time except that some of us went out for beer and burgers afterward. Next time maybe we'll skip the running part and just head straight for the bar. Steroids The Times has a very interesting interview with Dr. Thomas H. Murray, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's ethical issues review panel. It includes one of the best explanations we've seen on why doping is wrong:
In other steroid news, Calvin Harrison has been suspened for two years after testing positive for modafinil at the 2003 Nationals. And King Kaufam at Salon.com explains how the steroid scandal is driving casual fans away from track and field. Apartment for Rent Our neighbors are moving out and looking to sublet their apartment. It's a nice apartment, very close to Prospect Park, and has the added bonus that you might bump into us while checking your mail. Details below:
Bob Murphy Certain people become so identified with their jobs that it's hard to imagine there ever was a time when anyone else held the position. In the case of Mets' broadcaster Bob Murphy this was actually true, as Murphy had been around since the very first Mets game, on April 11, 1962. Even though he retired last September after more than 6,000 games, we still never quite accepted the fact that we wouldn't hear his voice when we turned on the game. But we won't; Murphy succumbed to lung cancer this afternoon at age 79. Listening to baseball won't be the same. |
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