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

Margaret Schotte, Margaret Angell, Fritz Mueller, Toby Tanser, Sid Howard, Tony Ruiz, Ali Rosenthal, Alayne Adams, Alan Ruben
 The Central Park Track Club's 30th Anniversary Party and Awards Dinner 
Time: Saturday night, November 16th
 Place:  Saint Peter's Church at Citicorp Center (Lexington & 54th Street) 

( Invitations have been sent to all current and many former club members. If you have not received an invitation or are too lazy to look at it you can purchase tickets at $40 each by sending a check payable to Central Park Track Club, c/o Richard Kixmiller, 14 E 96th Street, Apt 14, NY 10128 by Nov 9th. This gala event will combine our annual awards with a celebration of our illustrious and rollicking history. And of course, great food and drink and dancing. Come and party with teammates new and old and experience all that is special about the CPTC.)

WEEK OF OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4, 2002

  • LOST AND NOT FOUND YET [11/04/02]  Sid Howard: "I left my Hind running suit at the Parlor yesterday. The suit color is black and blue."  Has anyone seen it?
     

  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON REPORT II [11/04/02]
     
    Trans-Atlantic Audience  Steven Paddock: "The New York City Marathon website crashed when everyone got to 20 miles yesterday, so my marathon viewing was frustrating to say the least. I was tracking Alan, Kevan, Craig, Ali, Audrey, Kate, Alayne and Gordon all the way through on a painfully slow dial-up connection only to have it die on me with about 2 miles to go.  GO SWINDON athletes as well, Matt O'Dowd in with a debut 2.12.20 for 8th."  By the way, Steven will fly in all the way from Swindon to attend our 30th Anniversary Party --- howzat?
     
    Correction  The initial time reported for Kellie Quinones was incorrect.  She was the Queens representative in the Foot Locker Five Borough Challenge, and they were given around a 17 minute head start over the rest of the field.  Her final time was 3:24:59 and not the 3:07 originally published.  The odd thing was that the intermediate splits were correct so that it looked as if she had covered the last 10K in 30 minutes!  Although the final time was not as fast as she wanted, it was still a very exciting race for her. 
     
    Television Star II  John Prather: "During the obligatory Marla Runyan feature on NBC, there was a brief shot (unofficially timed at 0.734 seconds) of Stuart Calderwood running with Marla."
     
    New York Times Quotes  Each year, we scour the newspapers for quotes from our teammates before and after the race.  It is one thing for Runners' World publisher Claudia Malley to be interviewed about running apparel, and it is another thing for George Hirsch to reminisce about that very first five-borough New York City Marathon.  But Kate Crowley topped everyone by having her quote plastered across the top of page F3.
     

     
    Missing people  We had an list of 108 entrants and 72 finishers.  Some of those missing never made it to the starting line (e.g. Margaret Angell with a stress fracture on her foot).  Others made heroic attempts and had to stop (e.g. Jonathan Pillow with a torn calf muscle).  This marathon thing is a fine, sensitive thing whereupon months of preparation can go to waste in a flash.  But there will always be another marathon in another place at another time ...
     
    In looking at the results for the women, we recognized at least two unattached local (and non-Canadian) female runners in the 2 hour fifty-plus minutes range.  We had some prior correspondence with them with regard to their joining our club.  It would have been nice to have them on our team.  But with these things, they are the people who have to decide for themselves.  Still, we wish they could be with us. 
     
    The Big Hit  Historically, this is heaviest visitor traffic day of the year for us.  Within the last 24 hours we have something like 1,100 home page visits and that does not count multiple visits as with Gordon Holmes: "Thanks as always for displaying the photos and results so soon after the marathon. I have been having a very enjoyable and unproductive morning reliving the experience (minus the pain)."
     

  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON REPORT [11/03/02]  The New York City Marathon is over.  It was a cold, sunny and breezy day.  Suffice to say that it could have been much worse.  There were seventy-two Central Park Track Club finishers in the race.  
     
    Our open men finished second to WSX, thus losing more ground in the fight for second place.  Our open women finished second to WS, but more importantly, we gained three points on MCNY in third place.  With one double-points race left, our women now lead by 24 points and need no worse than a seventh-place in the last race to clinch.  The masters women also put some more points between us and TRR in that fight for third place.
     
    As for the photos, our principal photographer made the classical mistake of leaving the LCD screen on and blew through two batteries before realizing his mistake.  Consequently, there may not be as many photos as we would have liked from our regular staff.  However, everybody and their mothers are taking pictures these days.  So please send your digital or printed photos to us for posting.
     
    ChampionChip Be Praised  We take special note of two people's times ---
    Stefani Jackenthal, 3:00:02 (chip time 2:59:59)
    Paul Sinclair, 3:00:05 (chip time 2:59:58)
     
    Who's keeping score?
    Men's open team: Alan Ruben (UK), Kevan Huston (Canada), Craig Chilton (Canada)
    First woman: Alayne Adams (Canada)
     
    Frequent Travel Mileage
    Highest accumulation goes to Kieran McShane Calderwood, seen in Brooklyn, First Avenue and Central Park
    At the 8-mile mark, we overheard this conversation: "Hey, I see someone in an orange jacket pushing a baby stroller all the way down at the end of the street right in the middle of the road where the runners will be coming through.  Let me guess ... it must be that Stuart Calderwood guy!"
     
    Television star
    Everybody who watched the start on television before coming out to the park told us, "I saw Alan Ruben on television!"
     
    The Preparations
    Kevan Huston: "For this is my first ever marathon, I had a plan about how to prepare myself for the physical aspects of the race.  But I did not realize that it was also such an emotional event."  (note: Kevan ran a strong 2:38:08 for his first marathon)
     

    Wall of Orange cheering squad
      

  • NYC 2012 [11/02/02]  New York City takes another step forward when the US Olympics Committee selected it ahead of San Francisco to bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.  The US choice will go up against Moscow, Toronto, Budapest, Rome, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid./Seville in Spain, and Berlin.  Of course, one of the major factors has to be ... Vancouver, whose bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics could affect the outcome since it is unlikely that the Winter and Summer Olympics will be given to two North American countries.  The impact on New York City is not quite clear, especially when people start talking about a sports stadium on the west side of Manhattan.  What is known in the proposal is that the Central Park reservoir would have to be cleaned up for the triathlon events, and this is something that should happen anyway.  Minimally, something should be done about that fence that obstructs the view from the people.
      

  • 24 HOUR WEATHER FORECAST [11/02/02]
       

     

  • MORE MODELS OF INSPIRATION [11/02/02]  Yesterday, we showed you pictures of our female legends.  Today, we show you some male legends of the Central Park Track Club.  Just remember this --- you are on the same team as these world-beaters ...


Jack Brennan, Bob Meighan, George Wisniewski, Fritz Mueller, Stu Mittleman and John Kenney

  • OCTOBER WEB ACCESS STATISTICS [11/02/02]  We have just looked at what happened last month.  In very simple terms, things have just taken an explosive jump in October.  Compared to the preceding month (which has 30 days):
     
    -- Number of home page visits went up 10% to 12,593
    -- Number of page views went up 18% to 53,776
    -- Number of hits went up 23% to 384,002
    -- Bandwidth went up 17% to 9.6 gigabytes
     
    For this month, we actually did not have too much going on.  There was a relative dearth of photos (except for the Reach The Beach Relay).  The traffic appears to be quite even across the month.  This Journal page increased by 24% to 4,840 page views, but that accounts for only 10% of the total increase in page views.  We are puzzled by the lack of an obvious explanation.  In any case, we are bracing ourselves of the onslaught of the New York City Marathon, which has historically been the heaviest trafficking day of the year for us.  
     
    Incidentally, our contract with our web hosting service has these parameters: 100 megabytes of storage and 10 gigabytes of bandwidth each month.  Our current status is 560 megabytes (!!!) and 9.6 gigabytes respectively.  Pretty soon, we might be evicted ...
      

  • MODELS OF INSPIRATION  [11/01/02]  Some of our runners in this Sunday's race were not even born yet when Central Park Track Club runners first ran in the New York City Marathon.  The photo below shows some of those in the previous generations, and they were battling champions.  On this Sunday, you will go out and do them proud, and they will be proud of you too! 


Claudia Malley, Jane Kenney, Erica Merrill, Laurie Madson and Candace Strobach

  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON BEST WISHES [11/01/02]  From Steven Paddock: "Best wishes to all CPTC runners in the NYCM from over the pond.  I am totally jealous that I am not there to experience the amazing atmosphere of the day.  If I can offer one piece of advice to people for the race, it is to not do what I did and go too hard early as it only leads to the humpbacked, limping being that I became inside the park last year.  If this does happen, however, remember to keep your dignity and at least keep a good face on you, as I am still living down the ugly mess I was a year later (from Victor Osayi and Tony Ruiz).  Good luck again, go get them!"
     

  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON THINGS TO DO [11/01/02]
    We are the Central Park Track Club, our home base is Central Park and our home town is New York City.  This is the New York City Marathon, with the finish inside Central Park.  And if you type 'New York City Marathon' into Google.com, we will be on the first page.  This year, we will have more than 100 runners in the New York City Marathon.  That leaves more than three hundred of you who are not running, and you can all come out to cheer.  The temperature will be cold (in the 30's/40's), so it would be wise to overdress because you can always take off the additional clothing.

    CHEERING LOCATIONS:  There are two strategies.  One is to do what no one else does.  So it is that Stacy Creamer will stand in an isolated section in the Bronx to hand out flat Coke to runners.  The other is to stand together in that eminently visible orange color in a wall of orange.
     
    The traditional group gathering points are:
     
    Brooklyn Academy of Music (8th mile mark).  This is reachable by the 2, 3, 4, 5 and Q trains stopping at Atlantic Avenue.  This is also the point where the men and women merged together in the past.  This year, the thirty elite women will have an earlier start at 1035am.  The projected arrival time at BAM is 11:19 am for these elite woman.  The men will start at 11:10am and the leaders are projected to arrive at BAM at 11:50am.  The 7 minute milers will arrive at 12:06am, the 8 minute miles at 12:14am and the 9 minute milers at 12:22am.  At that point, you can take the 4-5 express train and go back to East 86th Street in Manhattan.
     
    East 88th Street (23.5 mile mark)   
    The race enters Central Park at the East 90th Street entrance.  Our assembly point will be several lampposts further down.  You can get to that spot by taking the entrance at East 85th Street, walk up the steps and go a few lampposts north.  Wear your orange color.  This is the point when the racers make the short turn into the park, they will have a few moments to orient themselves to the fact that they are in our home court and then this wall of orange people will be roaring at them!  
     
    The elite women are projected to reach this point at 12:45pm (which means that the BAM spectators may not have time to get back to see them) and the elite men will get there around 1:05pm.  The 6 minute milers (2:37 marathoners) will arrive around 1:30pm, the 7 minute milers (3:02 marathoners) around 1:55 pm, the 8 minute milers (3:28 marathoners) around 2:20pm and the 9 minute milers (3:54 marathoners) around 2:40pm.  


 2001 Wall of Orange, Central Park, East 88th Street

We have 108 entrants in this race (see the full listing on the journal entry for the date of October 21 further down this page).  Not everyone of them will be wearing orange (e.g. some of them may be running for charity fund-raising teams (e.g. Margaret Angell), and some don't even own any orange gear (Stefani Jackenthal)), so you should keep a sharp eye.  Being in a group means that someone should be able to recognize them.  We will be fielding very strong teams in the men open, men masters, women open and women masters teams.  
 
This New York City Marathon is a NYRR club championship scoring race.  The current standings of our various teams can be found in the journal entry of 10/28 further down this page.  In addition, there is also NYRR member team prize money to be claimed.  We expect to see our lead men to come in around the 2 hour 30 minute mark (or around 1:20pm), with our most likely leaders being Peter Allen, Craig Chilton, Kevan Huston, Isaya Okwiya, Jonathan Pillow, Alan Ruben and Michael Rymer.  Then we may have as many as half a dozen women coming in around 3 hours or faster: Alayne Adams, Margaret Angell, Stefani Jackenthal, Audrey Kingsley, Yumi Ogita and Ali Rosenthal.  Somewhere around the 3:15 mark, we will see Kellie Quinones who, as the Queens representative of the Foot Locker 5 Borough Challenge, may be accompanied by a television crew.  By the way, that television crew has been notified that Kellie's teammates will be waiting at East 88th Street wearing orange colors, so you should prepare a nice little speech for your television interview!  But above all, please remember that we are the hosts and all these runners are visiting our homes.  So let us cheer EVERY runner on, as we are sure Sid Howard will show you how to do it properly.

POST-MARATHON PARTY  There will be a gathering after this year's New York City Marathon to be held at The Parlour, W86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue from 4pm to 7pm.  All our marathoners, spectators and friends are invited. Drinks and food will be available at a cash bar.  The race results and photos will be posted later that evening (in fact, through the night if we have to).

  • HALLOWEEN [10/31/02]  A reminder to everyone: no workouts tonight!  Years ago, we had a track workout when kids were throwing eggs at the runners.  We don't need this ...
     

  • BEATING KHALID [10/31/02]  To the list of people who have beaten Khalid Khannouchi, we can add Adam Manewell, Isaya Okwiya, Steven Paddock, Zeb Nelessen, Jesse Lansner, Craig Plummer and Patrick Cowden, all of whom 'beat' the world record holder in the North County News 5K.  Running in the middle of the pack may be Khalid's best contribution to popularizing the sport during these races.  But at the BIG races this year (London and Chicago), Khalid was THE MAN.
      

  • POLITICAL SEASON [10/31/02]  Our local spy tells us that Central Park Track Club legend Kenn Lowy has been seen obstructing commuters at the steps to subway stations throughout Brooklyn in his bid to run for the State Assembly under the Green Party banner.  Now, we can ask you a 'trivia question' about why Kenn is such a legend.  That would surely be torture, as most of you would not have a clue.  As it turns out, we have asked that question before in Trivia Quiz #1, Item #9 where the answer was that Kenn Lowy, using the pseudonym Wrinklemuzik, hit number one on the charts in Hamilton, Ontario in 1980 with the song "A Move to the Right."  Kenn was also one of our pioneer triathletes; unfortunately, triathlon also had the ultimate effect of drawing him over to swimming over running in recent years.  
     

  • SPOOFING [10/31/02]  The current class of computer email worms/viruses have the ability to 'spoof' the sender's address.  Some of you may have received email from us with attachments (with file extensions such as .exe, .scr, .pif, .vbs, etc).  Well, if we are going to send you any attachments, then the email's text message will be very clear about the nature of the subject (and it will be about Central Park Track Club business).  If you read subject titles such as 'Get a FREE gift!' or 'New bonus in your cash account', then it cannot conceivably from us.  Do not attempt to open the attachment.  Just delete that message.  This type of caution should apply to all of your incoming email.
      

  • CLUB MEMORIES [10/30/02]  There are a number of different projects that are being worked on by various people for the occasion of our 30th anniversary.  A long-term project that was always on our minds is now coming into the forefront because of the party.  That would be the conversion of the many photos and slides from the pre-Internet days into digital images.  They will make their debut at our party, and they will eventually be posted on the website.  Here is an sample (and how young and bright they look!):
     

    1982 Colgate Games 1500m, with Irene Jackson, Wendy Wisniewski and Yvonne Rosen
     

  • HALLOWEEN NIGHT - NO ROAD WORKOUT [10/29/02]  This Thursday is Halloween night.  As is our custom, we will not hold a road workout on Halloween night, because of potential trouble from trick-or-treatsters.  And please don't go out there for a night run by yourself either.
      

  • CPTC MARATHON BUS: This year, the Central Park Track Club will be chartering a bus to take our NYC Marathon Runners to the staging area in Staten Island. This bus will be free to our members. We will be boarding the bus from 5:45am to 6:15am at the SW corner of 72nd Street and 2nd Avenue (outside the Catholic Church). If you have not already reserved your place on this bus, there are still a few seats available but you MUST contact Margaret Angell at Magsangell@aol.com.
     

  • TUESDAY NIGHT TRACK WORKOUT [10/29/02]  By 530pm, cold rain was coming down in New Jersey, but it took a long time to reach Manhattan.  Since this was the first workout after daylight savings time was lifted, it definitely felt pitch dark on the way over to the track.  And because of the pending rain, it was also quite cold because of the wind and the proximity to the water body of East River.  However, the workout took place without the rain ever coming.  The turnout was light right before the marathon, in which we have over 100 people.  Back for her first workout was Margaret Angell, looking strong and ready.  It is raining now, but it is still five days away from Sunday.  According to Weather.com, it will be partially cloudy on Sunday, low of 33 degrees and high of 39 degrees.  Warm disposable clothing is therefore recommended so you won't freeze before the race starts.
     
    Making her lifetime debut as a timer was Sarah Gross.  In this business, there is only one golden rule --- "If you remember who the first and last persons in your group are, you don't have to remember anyone else.  All you have to do is start calling time out (loudly and clearly) when your first person comes around and you can pause after your last person goes by."
     
    After the workout, we had the  year-end dinner at Two Boots with thirteen people (no, we are not superstitious).  When we got out at 930pm, it was drizzling.  But of course Sid's Super Delivery Van took everybody to wherever they needed to go. 
     
    Trivia Quiz:  The following quiz was issued tonight, to which we obtained no response.  "Kevin Arlyck 'beat' Khalid Khannouchi at the Marine Corps 5K last Sunday.  This was the second American-record marathon record holder that Kevin has beaten this year.  Can you name the other?"  This quiz is a test of how well you know Central Park Track Club.  We knew the answer IMMEDIATELY.  What about you?
     
    Slap in the Face:  Q: "Alan, I hear you are a 2:30 marathon runner ..."  For the record, 2:29:54 is NOT 2:30.
     
    Jerome O'Shaughnessy ran a PR of 32:09 on Sunday, but he added: "It's always nice to get a PR but to overtake Sid Howard twice in a race and then to finish that close behind him was its own reward."
     
    Roger Liberman told us that he ran the Intracoastal Yacht Club/Police Officer Assistance Trust 5K in Sunny Isles, Florida.  As if we couldn't find it ourselves ... ?  Roger said that this was the first time that he got an age-group award.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 22 - OCTOBER 28, 2002

  • A TALE OF TWO NEWSPAPERS IN ONE CITY [10/28/02]  The event is the inaugural 5K race that accompanies the Marine Corps Marathon.  
     
    From the Washington Times: "In the accompanying inaugural 5K race, 16 men outran marathon world record-holder Khalid Khannouchi. He came to town to attend the expo for sponsor Clif Bar, and his wife/coach, Sandra, decided to enter the 5K. He ran for fun while she won in 21:10. "I nailed him at the start," Sandra said jokingly. "But I was looking over my shoulder at the end. I kept saying 'Please don't beat me.'"  We ask, "Who won the men's race?"
     
    From the Washington Post: "For once, Sandra Khannouchi of Ossining, N.Y., has bragging rights in her house. Khannouchi, 40, and the wife of world marathon record holder Khalid Khannouchi, was the top female finisher in the inaugural 5K race. She finished in 21 minutes 10 seconds -- nearly a minute ahead of her husband, who set the world marathon record of 2 hours 5 minutes 38 seconds at the London Marathon in April.  "Who's the world record holder?" Sandra Khannouchi said mockingly to her husband. "I set the course record." The Khannouchis were in town on behalf of one of Khalid's sponsors.  Kevin Arlyck, 30, of Brooklyn, N.Y., won the race in 17:16. Arlyck, who ran the race as something to do while he waited for his friend to finish the marathon, was the victim of mistaken identity near the finish line. As he approached, several spectators shouted, "Go Khalid." "At that point I wasn't going to stop and correct them," he said."  We got the answer: Kevin Arlyck.
     

  • JAMES FINALLY DID IT [10/28/02]  On his last and final opportunity, James finally did it.  From the Not Quite The NYC Marathon 5K results, we read: James Siegel 29:50 and Graeme Reid 32.09.  The barrage of excuses that is bound to come in will not be published here.
      

  • WHAT'S ON THE TUBE (IN CANADA) [10/28/02]  Our very noticeable attention deficit these past two weeks can be laid neatly at the feet of the Canadians.  We are presently drawing together a business proposal for Canada, and we needed to learn very quickly about the Canadian television market.  We don't mean Michael J. Fox, William Shatner or Neve Campbell.  Instead, the best book is something titled The American Trojan Horse : U.S. Television Confronts Canadian Economic and Cultural Nationalism.  Oh, yes, it's known as blaming the victim ...
      

  • RESEARCH GENIUS [10/28/02]  In the emailbox: "How in the world did you locate Jonathan Cane running in the Moakley's Run for Research this past Sunday, when the link goes to Moakley's Run for Rerearch and the finisher is named Jonathan Cana?"  As usual, there was no reply to this kind of email but we do seem to hear someone snickering ...
     

  • NYRR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS STATUS [10/28/02]  The current standings after the Staten Island Half Marathon are:
     
    Open Men: 3rd place, 2 points behind WSX and 44 points ahead of NYH.  For all practical purposes, third-place is sewn up (as long as we have either three finishers (and we have over 70 male entrants) in the New York City Marathon for 1 point or five finishers in the Joe Kleinerman 10K for two points).
    Masters Men:  1st place, 37 points ahead of JSRC.  For all practical purposes, this will be a 4-peat.
    Veteran Men:  14th place.  We are not competitive this year.
     
    Open Women:  1st place, 21 points ahead of MCNY
    Masters Women:  3rd place, 17 points behind GNY and 6 points ahead of TRR.  Can we hold on?  We expect to have a great NYC Marathon team this year.
    Veteran Women:  4th place, 26 points behind GNY.  And the New York City Marathon is not our strength this year.
     
    There are two more scoring races left: the New York City Marathon and the Joe Kleinerman 10K (which is a double points race).
     
    For scoring purposes, there are actually two different competitions in the New York City Marathon.  There is the scoring for the regular NYRR Club Championships, of course, subject to the usual rules.  And then there is the NYRR member division for prize money ($1000 for first place, $500 second, $250 third) in which the scorers must have been NYRR members for at least six months and also completed at least six fully scored NYRR races.  In our case, for example, Stefani Jackenthal can score in the NYRR Club Championships but not for the NYRR Member prize money since she does not have those six races.  This means that making your race decisions on the basis of the supposed number of teammates in front of you can be highly flawed (as it always is any time).
      

  • TIME WARP [10/27/02]  We woke up this morning and found out to our surprise that we gained an hour's time.  Ever since the Brazilians put us to work in the silo, we had no idea that the transition would occur this Saturday.  Now we should have known better, because we know that the New York City Marathon takes place next week (or does it?) and that there was no way that they would schedule on the morning when the clock gets set back (think of the number of people, local and international, who could show up late!).  In any case, this has the immediate effect that you had better pay attention to the workout announcement for Tuesday (either through the Coollist email or on the website that morning), as all previous pronouncements from us are obviously null and void.  Okay, now back to bed ...
     
    Wake-up message from Frank Morton: "For a mathematician, you are not very good at math.  If the NYC marathon were held today, if anything, many people would be 1 hour early, NOT one hour late. Let me explain: 11:10 AM + (-1 hour) = 10:10 AM.  Understand?  PS: How many e-mails did you get regarding this error?"  
      

  • BANDITRY [10/27/02]  This linked Washington Post article gives a deeper economic perspective about why race organizers do not permit people to trade race numbers.
     

  • THE MEMORY [10/26/02]  In the invitation to this year's 30 year anniversary party, there are the team photos of the classes of 1972 and 1992 at the top and bottom respectively.  By chance, we had preserved the 1992 invitational card, which contains this color photo.  The exact year of this photo is unknown, but it is probably later than 1972 since there are many more bodies here than the 14 persons in the 1972 photo.  However, based upon the hairstyle, this photo is closer to 1972 than it is to 2002.  Our best guess is 1982.  Within this photo, we can recognize with ease --- Jack Brennan in a light yellow shirt right in front of the CPTC banner, and Frank Handelman standing next to him.  The man in green kneeling to the left is none other than John Kenney.
     
     
     

  • WHAT TO DO ... [10/25/02]  During the Thursday road workout, Sandra Scibelli was heard to say: "I am so tired because I moved today.  It took all day, but I was able to complete the move because I had Sid Howard as my mover."
     

     

  • WHAT NOT TO DO ... [10/25/02]  This one is actually worse than going into the bushes in Central Park.  Upon information and belief, after the Thursday night workout, two team members were running down East 86th Street towards the river.  When they reached Madison Avenue, the light was against them.  So they took a peek at the oncoming car traffic, perceived a gap and dashed across the street ... straight into the arms of two burly law-abiding policemen who were waiting for the light to change before they would cross the street.  The moral of the lesson is --- when jaywalking, please check for cars AND cops (and don't forget about those bikes!). This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.
     

  • COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT [10/25/02]  "You must sleeping on the job.  For the NYRR Kurt Steiner XC 5K photo album, you named Frank Schneiger, Armando Oliveira, Bill Dunlop, Irene Jackson-Schon, Sue Pearsall and Robin Roberts.  But you missed Frank Morton in the photo of female runner #4079."  Well, if you are so interested in nitpicking, how about identifying the owner of the left arm and leg of the teammate behind Bill Dunlop?  Let us know if you found out who it was (and without cheating by looking at the race results!).
     
    Complaint Department (again): "Typo again!  It should be 'Let us know if you find out ...'"  Not so fast.  That was a deliberate hint!  Why don't you solve the quiz and then you can ask yourself if the verb was appropriate?
     

  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON PHOTOGRAPHER WANTED [10/24/02]  Our regular photographer Bola Awofeso will be running this year.  His camera is therefore available to anyone who wants to try this experience.  Being a Central Park Track Club photographer is an easy job --- there is no pressure whatsoever.  If you decide to take photos for us and nothing actually came out for whatever reasons, we'll just shrug our shoulders and say, "No biggie."  But the Sony Mavica digital camera is better at taking race photos than most other digital cameras because it has a 20x zoom lens with which you can focus on someone even if they are on the far side of the road.  Please let us (rolandsoong@centralparktc.org ) know if you are interested.  You will note that we will have multiple photographers out of the course, including people whom we don't even know about yet but who will send in their photos later.
     

  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT [10/24/02]  Ten days before the New York City Marathon and fifty-six people showed up, some of whom are nervous wrecks and others are bemused observers.  Not included in the count are Ross Galitsky on his bike and Fasil Yilma running by on his own.  Fasil Yilma?  Now that is a name from the past, best known for doing only rollerblading for eighteen months due to a running injury and then just showing up to run Boston in 3:06.  How does it do it?  The simple explanation is --- he is Ethiopian!  Need we say more?
     
    Today, Ramon Bermo was formally presented to Adam Manewell: "Ramon, this is Adam.  He is a triathlete."  Ramon said, "There is no need to tell me that he is triathlete.  Our kind can recognize each other."  How so?  Tonight, Adam was perched on his bike ...  It would be more interesting to know how Ramon would react to: "Ramon, this is Adam.  He is Canadian."
     
    This is the pre-marathon workout that is given twice a year, 10 days before the Boston and the New York City Marathons.  The details are: "The first 3 miles should be at marathon effort pace. Head north on the west side and complete the northern hills, head south on the east side where you will receive your 3 mile split at E 102 st. The second 3 starts there and continues south on the east side and goes around the lower loop where you'll receive your 6 mile split at W 71 st. These 3 should be at half marathon effort pace. The final 3 or 10 depending on your mindset(10,10,10:) will continue north on the west side but this time you will go through the W 102 st. cut off and head south on the east side. You will finish the final 3 at E 86 st, around the bend, where the entry to the reservoir meets the road. Remember that if you plan to run 6:30 pace for the marathon you can run 6:40-6:45 pace. This is due to the fact that your effort takes into consideration that you have training shoes and your race face is not in effect. So don't panic if you are not 'hitting' race splits, leave that for THE RACE, when it counts."
     
    For this workout, it may be discouraging if you are obsessed with the micro-seconds on your splits.  This is a simulation of a marathon, but over a much shorter distance.  Normally, you would never do a nine-mile run or race with this script.  As you go through your first six miles, it should be relatively easy.  Heading into the final three miles, you are aware that you need to put in a slightly harder effort.  Yet, in your head, you know that you are not in a race situation.  What happens is that you may let the terrain deceive you into thinking that you are going faster than you actually are.  Imagine going from West 102nd Street through the cutoff to the finishing point --- it is mostly uphill.  At the end of a race, you would have absolutely attacked this mile.  But here you merely put in an effort that feels harder than that in the first six miles.  The final effect is that the split time for the last three miles might seem disappointing.  Not to worry --- this workout has always has that odd outcome.  In some years, the nine-mile workout consisted of a lower five mile loop and a four mile loop (ending at the Bethesda Fountain), and the outcome was still the same because of that long upper westside uphill mile.  And please re-read last two sentences in the workout description.  
     
    Trivia quiz: Who is this?  "This will be my first road workout in several months.  I have to be careful since I am tired of these endless stress fractures.  Plus, I know I would be written up in the workout report if I am seen charging out in front."  Hint:  Seen charging in front of the "C" group during the workout ...
     
    Special award: To the Canadian triathlete who said, "Please note that I am running easy tonight.  But this time, I am just dropping down one (and only one) group, so there is no need to write me up like you did the last time for dropping down two groups."  But that was not the reason that he gets the award of the night.  Instead, the nomination comes from Yves-Marc Courtines, who said, "Tonight's nine mile run is the longest run I've done since the marathon two years ago.  Without David Smith pushing me tonight, I would have just dawdled along."  Special mention goes to Harry Morales, for unknowingly acting as the rabbit for David and Yves-Marc.
     
    Warning: Generally speaking, the idea about a workout is to run with your teammates.  But if in the middle of the workout, the person running next to you makes a sharp turn into the bushes, you are NOT supposed to follow him/her.  We repeat, you are NOT supposed to follow.  Once upon a time, our three Columbia University nursing students received a group award at the annual club awards party for having done exactly that during a workout.  The award was not exactly a trophy and your guess that it was a roll of toilet paper would not be too far off.
     
    Further down this page, we have listed our New York City Marathon entrants.  Some of the known cancellations have been removed already, but that does not mean the 108 remaining people will all be at the starting line the Sunday after next.  Even with the best intentions and the best of plans, one can get sidelined by a stress fracture, or some back spasms, or a broken kneecap, or even just bending over to pick up a box.  Ah, yes, let's find a pub and cry out eyes out ...
       

  • CINDY PUSHES TOBY [10/24/02]  On page 14 of Wednesday's New York Post:
     

      

     

  • CPTC NEEDS YOU [10/24/02]  As part of the plans for our upcoming 30th Anniversary Party (Saturday, November 16th) we are producing a brochure covering our 30 year history. We need someone with computer skills who will be able to take the text of this document (Word file) and produce an attractive booklet. This work would have to be done in the next couple of weeks. If you think you can help, please email Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com or call 212-222-7216 (eve) or 212-519-1372 (day).
       
    Also, we are looking for volunteers to help with the numerous tasks (such as set-up, decorations, clearing up and food preparation) which will be necessary in order to put on a truly special 30th Anniversary Party. If you are willing to help, please email Sarah Gross at SGross@Marakon.com or call 212-683-7026 (eve) or 212-377-5117 (day).
     
  • 350,000 [10/23/02]  We reached 300,000 home page visits for the website on June 25, 2002 and then the next 50,000 occurred on October 23, 2002 in less than 4 months' time.  This projects to an annualized rate of 150,000 home page visits.  Not bad, eh?  Eh?
      
  • NEW PHOTOS ADDED [10/23/02]  
    - One more photo has been added to the Reach The Beach relay with all team members in front of the starting line.
    - One more photo of Kim Mannen at the World Masters Games.  You get to see what the Aussies are charging for $10 per photo print.
    - The Kurt Steiner XC 5K results are not posted yet, but NYRR already has some photos from which we can deduce that our participants include Frank Schneiger, Armando Oliveira, Bill Dunlop, Sue Pearsall and Robin Roberts.
     
  • FINAL TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT [10/23/02]  Since next Tuesday will be the distance group's final track workout at East River Park, Sid Howard proposes that we have a year-end meal at Two Boots (Avenue A and East 4th Street) after the workout.  Everybody is welcome.
     
  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [10/22/02]  Your regular workout reporter was kept in the office until 8pm, so he is clueless about any workout.  The weather seems cool and dry today, but it was really pitch dark by the time he got out of his office.  Next week's workout will the distance group's last outdoor track workout of the year.  Thereafter, the distance group goes into Central Park on the roads during the month of November and then to the Armory from December on.  The following Armory track message is repeated for your benefit:
The road group led by Tony Ruiz will be starting indoor workouts each Tuesday at 8:00pm throughout the winter on December 3rd. The middle-distance group led by Devon Martin-Sargent and the sprinters led by Brian Denman will be starting indoor workouts each Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30pm throughout the winter on November 19th. These workouts will be held at the world-record setting venue of The Armory at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.

In order to participate in these workouts you must be a fully paid-up member of CPTC, and send a check payable to 'The Armory Foundation' along with a passport size photo to Devon Sargent, 190 Columbus Avenue #3C, New York, NY 10023, of $150 to be received by November 22nd for the road group or $250 to be received by November 7th for the middle-distance group and sprinters. If you have any questions please contact Devon Martin-Sargent at 212-474-1764 or dsargent@cravath.com .

The club recognizes that these fees for use of the indoor track may be difficult for some of our members to afford.  Therefore we will be setting up a fund to allow the club to make loans or grants to such members.  If you wish to contribute to this fund, please send checks payable to 'Central Park Track Club' to Alan Ruben, 801 West End Avenue, Apt 5E, NY 10025. If you would like to avail yourselves of such funds please contact Alan Ruben at 212-222-7216 (home), 212-519-1372 (work) or alan@montran.com or Devon Martin-Sargent at 212-474-1764 or dsargent@cravath.com.

Complaint Department:   "Ah, once again, I see that foreigners are in charge of the club; to wit, 'the post-marathon party will be held at The Parlour'."  Yes, indeed, we wonder what the Parlor Moms would say ...

Not only did we miss the workout, but there was really not much else going on today.  But it is a commitment by this website to provide some fresh new content on a daily basis, and so we will link you to a couple of outside stories.

(1)  This story, Athletics: A Pace Odyssey, appeared in the Sunday Herald in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Other than Graeme Reid, it is doubtful that anyone of you visit this website regularly.  But this is an interesting story about Paula Radcliffe at the Chicago Marathon, together with some historical perspectives.

(2)  You know that we complain about not being able to process our large email volume effectively.  Of all the junk mail that come in, easily the most recognizable are the Nigerian 419 scams.  This story, The Nigerian Nightmare, is a light introduction to the industry that is among one of the top five largest ones in Nigeria.  The 419 scams have produced a cultural industry, in which specimens of the letters are being collected (see, for example, www.419fraud.com ).  Where are the semiotic analyses?  (Note:  Any prospective Ph.D. candidate who is inspired by this suggestion owes us an acknowledgement ...)

Frankly, this report is no different from the usual workout report, in that it has everything but the workout itself ...

WEEK OF OCTOBER 15 - OCTOBER 21, 2002

  • WORLD MASTERS GAMES PHOTOS [10/21/02]  Although we would like to say that they contain sex, violence, rock 'n roll and drugs, that is not true.  But we can say that they contain pretty women, pain and gold.
     
    Devon Sargent
      
  • NEW YORK CITY MARATHON WATCH LIST [10/21/02]  According to the entrants' database, we have these runners:

RUNNER #

LAST NAME
FIRST NAME
AGE
CITY
F98 ADAMS ALAYNE  F41 NEW YORK
312 ALLEN PETER M42 MORRISTOWN
34863 ALSIP AMY F28 NEW YORK
F213 ANGELL MARGARET  F26 NEW YORK
4251 AWOFESO ADEBOLA  M41 NEW YORK
1330 BAILLET OLIVIER M31 NEW YORK
667 BERMO RAMON  M35 NEW YORK
11055 BERNTZEN JARL M36 NEW YORK
6043 BOROK JAY M39 NEW YORK
4710 BOYER BLAIR V M43 NEW YORK
5756 CARNES GLEN M35 NEW YORK
403 CHILTON CRAIG  M35 NEW YORK
43351 COHEN SHARONA  F27 BROOKLYN
150 COMESS NOEL M44 NEW YORK
2459 COWDEN PATRICK M45 NEW YORK
F633 CREAMER STACY F43 NEW YORK
F358 CROWLEY KATE F23 NEW YORK
2385 CULPEPPER TYRONNE M39 NEW YORK
F1023 ECHEVERRI ANA F32 NEW YORK
F156 ELMALEH MAUREEN  F40 NEW YORK
17026 ERICH GUENTER  M69 PEQUANNOCK
F220 FARMER SHELLEY F32 NEW YORK
2494 FINE RICHARD M30 NEW YORK
15295 FLANAGAN BRIAN M56 NEW YORK
8629 FRAZETTA JOSEPH M39 NEW YORK
5866 FREEMAN KENT M39 NEW YORK
F766 FYODOROVA ANNA F21 BROOKLYN
1593 GRANADOS RICARDO M44 NEW YORK
4008 GRAVIER JOSEPH M32 NEW YORK
F669 GROSS SARAH F45 NEW YORK
6247 HAGIN GREG M40 NEW YORK
26316 HAIG ROBERT M55 NEW YORK
11535 HARTENFELS HOLGER M41 KOELN
914 HOLLANDER RICHARD M39 NEW YORK
13478 HOLMES* GORDON M33 DUBLIN
10781 HOLMGREN JOSEPH M28 BROOKLYN
5178 HOMSHER PETER  M35 WEEHAWKEN
1206 HOWARD DAVID M30 NEW YORK
387 HUSTON KEVAN M30 NEW YORK
F294 JACKENTHAL STEFANI F36 NEW YORK
5014 JOLY GUILLAUME M34 NEW YORK
37385 JONES DALE M54 NEW YORK
F1709 KAICHER ELIZABETH F27 NEW YORK
1415 KING LARRY M41 NEW YORK
F301 KINGSLEY AUDREY  F33 NEW YORK
F126 KIZAWA ETSUKO F33 NEW YORK
1058 KOMAROFF WILLIAM M36 NEW YORK
10172 KONIG MICHAEL M56 NEW YORK
5043 LANSNER JESSE M26 NEW YORK
14034 LEVINE MARTIN  M42 BRIARCLIFF
16042 LIMA LUIS M43 BROOKLYN
4122 MANGOLD ALEXANDER  M29 NEW YORK
2247 MAYORKAS ANTHONY M33 NEW YORK
5017 MCQUADE JAMES H M33 NEW YORK
F435 MILOSKI DARLENE  F34 NEW YORK
34080 MINIEKA MARY F44 NEW YORK
41078 MITCHELL THOMAS M49 BRICK
2376 MODICA CHELE M30 NEW YORK
10057 MOJICA JR RAUL M48 NEW YORK
1492 MONTERO JESUS M34 NEW YORK
2701 MUNK ANTHONY M42 TORONTO
2915 NEWMAN ADAM  M41 NEW YORK
2449 NICHOLSON ROLAND M53 NEW YORK
3084 O'CONNOR DEREK  M34 NEW YORK
4029 O'SHAUGHNESSY JEROME M48 NEW YORK
F336 OGITA YUMI F41 NEW YORK
1142 OKWIYA ISAYA M32 CHARLESTON
1332 OSAYI VICTOR M45 NEW YORK
494 PENA LUIS M40 NEW YORK
4172 PETERHANSL ALEXANDER M32 NEW YORK
601 PILLOW JONATHAN  M27 NEW YORK
4032 PLUMMER CRAIG M43 NEW YORK
1838 PRICE CHRISTOPHER M24 NEW YORK
F128 QUINONES KELLIE F41 EAST ELMHURST
771 REID GRAEME M41 NEW YORK
1081 ROSEN JAMES M32 NEW YORK
F325 ROSENTHAL ALISON  F26 NEW YORK
9017 ROSENTHAL MICHAEL  M39 NEW YORK
110 RUBEN ALAN S M45 NEW YORK
539 RYMER MICHAEL  M27 NEW YORK
147 SCHAAF WILLIAM M29 NEW YORK
2056 SCHMITZ ERIK M M31 NEW YORK
2733 SCHULZ ROBERT E M45 NEW YORK
F1525 SCIBELLI SANDRA F35 NEW YORK
3062 SHAVER RICK M50 NEW YORK
27273 SHEVLIN KATHARINE F26 NEW YORK
1164 SIEGEL JAMES M37 NEW YORK
2265 SIEGELL MICHAEL M37 WILMINGTON
2689 SINCLAIR PAUL M27 NEW YORK
3207 SMITH PETER  M35 NEW YORK
4212 SOMMERSTEIN PAUL  M33 NEW YORK
10471 STAFFORD CARLOS M57 NEW YORK
1915 STARK CHARLES M46 NEW YORK
919 STREETER GORDON M34 NEW YORK
1075 TAGLIATI MICHELE M42 NEW YORK
34040 TRABER HEATHER F36 NEW YORK
6073 TRILLI FRED M56 BROOKLYN
3541 TRINQUESSE VINCENT M38 MONTCLAIR
896 TUMBARELLO JOSEPH M28 BROOKLYN
29063 VARNISH ELECTA F41 NEW YORK
650 VASQUEZ PHIL M50 NEW YORK
3127 WEILBAKER JON M44 NEW YORK
8711 WEISS BRAD M28 NEW YORK
3917 WINFIELD KEN M31 FOSTER CITY
8049 YAMAZAKI CASEY M40 NEW YORK
25790 ZUCKERMAN JONATHAN M45 SCARSDALE

That makes a grand total of 108.  While not all those listed will actually run, this is still a large number relative to prior years.
 
The race numbers represent the corrals for runners, based upon the predicted finish times.  So our lowest numbered, highest ranked runner is Alayne Adams (F98), whose 2:51 in her last marathon would put her among the top female masters.  Our highest ranked male runner is Alan Ruben (110).

  • POST-NYC MARATHON PARTY [10/21/02]  Continuing our annual tradition, there will be a gathering after this years' New York City Marathon to be held at The Parlour, W86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue from 4pm to 7pm. All our marathoners, spectators and friends are invited. Drinks and food will be available at a cash bar.    
      
  • REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST [10/20/02]  It is about two weeks before the New York City Marathon.  Most of those who are entered in this race are tapering down.  All those heavy-mileage weeks should been paying off in the additional strength and energy as those miles are cut down as the big day approaches.  Or, if you will, you are bouncing off the wall, not knowing what to do with yourselves.  But someone has figured out a solution --- he/she bought the entire set of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past from our Amazon.com affiliate program.  If and when you get to the starting line and this intense-looking teammate is whispering: "Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n'avais pas le temps de me dire :  « Je m'endors. » ...", you will know what he/she has been reading ...
     
  • THE INVITATION IS HERE [10/19/02]  A couple of weeks ago, a postcard was sent out to all members and friends announcing the upcoming 30th Anniversary party.  The invitation itself should be arriving now (it just showed up in our mailbox today).  Please make sure that you send in your reservation in order to lock in on the discount.
     
    On the invitation card, the top has a photo of the 1972 inaugural members, all fourteen of them.  The bottom has a photo from the 2002 Club Championships, in which only a fraction of the 414 current members were present.
      
  • MASSAGE TABLE [10/19/02]  Toby Tanser: "I'm looking to borrow a massage table for the New York City Marathon week.  Can anyone help?"
     
  • PSAL RESULTS [10/19/02]  Following her seven Van Cortlandt wins in the summer, Naomi Reynolds is now 3-0 in PSAL (2.5 mile) races
    - 9/21, PSAL Group Run,16:26.37
    - 9/28, PSAL Invitational,16:14/29
    - 10/12, Manhattan College Invitational PSAL section, 15:55
     
  • MAC INDOOR TRACK SCHEDULE [10/19/02]  This is now available at their website.  The unusual item is that the championship meet is for MAC/LITF together, and we thought that they had gone to Splitsville.
      
  • THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT [10/17/02]  Last Thursday, we said that the question "Why does it start to rain as soon as I get here?" is unanswerable.  So tonight, when the rain started to come down around 710pm, the question can only be "Why ask why?"  And it was a strange rain, because we can barely feel it on us but we can hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees.  
     
    The weather tonight was the kind that drives people to distraction.  So do you overdress or underdress?  The temperature was in the 50's.  But because of the humidity, you would start to sweat as soon as you run a few steps.  But then the rain was cold and the northwest wind made it feel worse.  Let's hope that no one catches a cold after tonight.  For the record, the total number of people at risk was fifty-five at the start.
     
    The first part of tonight's workout consisted of a three mile run in the lower loop.  The starting point is the standard "S" letter on the roadway just past Tavern On The Green (where we heard on the PA system on the way up that there is a gambling operation tonight, but legal because it was for charity purposes), with the first mile ending at East 72nd Street (with a 1 mile sign on the road right before the traffic light).  The next two miles is covered by going through the lower loop again and ending about two lampposts before the Daniel Webster statue, with a clear 3 mile sign marked on the roadway.  So next time, if you need to have a timed tempo run along a fairly flat course, these markings should come in handy.
      
    Club membership applications come in continuously, and the executive board meets on the first Monday of every month to consider these applications.  This month, the following new members were accepted: Bethany Aquilina, Lawrence Chandler, Vito Iacoviello, Peter Rodrigues and Gabe Sherman.  On the application form, each applicant can list sponsors.  It is not compulsory to have a sponsor, and an applicant may list none, one or more than one sponsor.  Every month, the list of sponsors are filed into the recruitment scoreboard.   At the end of the year, the person with the largest number of sponsored new members will receive a free membership for the next year.  Of course, you do know that this is always about the honor and never about the money.  This month, the following people were sponsors:  Margaret Angell, Ramon Bermo, Marty Levine, Michael Rosenthal, Toby Tanser, Scott Willett.  Historically, we do not publish the linkage between new members and their sponsors, since this may cause some turmoil in personal relationships.  In fact, we have requested that we not be told.
     
    Notwithstanding the long explanation above, we asked Ramon Bermo tonight which new member(s) was (were) sponsored by him this month.  He was quite surprised (if he were French, he would have said, "Moi?") that someone named him.  Actually, we would not mind giving Ramon Bermo a free membership, provided that he could deliver those fast young female runners who will be freed up after the Marine Corp Marathon.  This is not entirely up to Ramon, as these runners are supposedly concerned that the Central Park Track Club is too 'serious.'  Oh, yes, 'serious' is our middle name and it is such a 'serious' drawback ... We understand that Ramon has told them to check out the website to gauge the level of seriousness, which means that we will be on our worst behavior ...
     
    Speaking of club membership applications, this is the proper occasion to issue another reminder.  There are presently a number of people at the workouts that are not yet members.  We leave it up to them to sign up whenever they decide.  While they can continue to run in the workouts indefinitely, it is unfair to the dues-paying members who enable the workouts to take place.  But there is a special deal right now --- anyone who applies in November will be given membership for the next 14 months for the same dues.  So what are you waiting for?  Apply now!
     
  • NOT BORN BUT MADE IN AMERICA [10/17/02]  In today's RunnersWorld, Toni Reavis made an interesting observation about the Chicago Marathon: "'Here comes the first American,' intoned the P.A. announcer at last Sunday's 25th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. 'Alan Culpepper.'  Certainly, Alan ran a magnificent marathon debut, but the first American crossed the line 3:45 ahead of him. The first American won the race!  So, too, with the local television coverage. Graphic: World record - 2:05:38, American record - 2:07:01. No, wrong. World and American record - 2:05:38. Khalid Khannouchi is an American, and was in London this past April."
     
    Such faux pas are unlikely to occur in New York City.  Here, everybody seems to come from somewhere else and there is less obsession about the first 'American' finisher'.  Even people who look and talk like All-American types may turn out to be ... Canadians who have put away their "Eh?"s temporarily.  
     
  • WHAT IS IN A NAME?  [10/17/02]  A perplexed Canadian wrote us: "While I am well pleased with the success of my compatriots Margaret Schotte and Adam Manewell in the Central Park 'Biathlon', I am confused as to where the cross-country skiing track is and how they are allowed to use small bore caliber rifles in the heart of New York City???"
     
    Our Canadian friend is obviously following the Canadian conventions.  According to the officious Canadian website Biathlonworld.ca, biathlon is defined as follows:
     

     
    The aforementioned event in Central Park consisted of a two-mile run, a twelve-mile bike ride and then another two-mile run.  Skiing and shooting were definitely not part of that event, and therefore it does not qualify as a biathlon in the Canadian sense.  According to the officious Triathlon Canada website, the proper name for this event should be the Central Park Duathlon.


     
    All of this assumes that Canadian rules apply universally.  But we are here in New York City and we play by other rules.  The official event organizer --- the New York Triathlon Club --- posted this event description:
     

     
    So for the past 18 years, this same event has been operated as a 'biathlon'.  Anyone who shows up with a pair of skis will be at a severe handicap against the cyclists, unless it was snowing in October that year.  But of course they would cancel the event in case of snow.  We are positive that anyone who shows up with a rifle could have claimed the prizes hands down, but the police would have not let them leave the premises ...
     
    How do we bridge the vast linguistic-cultural gap between two countries?  According to a recent poll, the end is in sight.  But, of course, that was before the Americans were apprised that they would have to translate everything into French (to be more precise, Canadian French) ...
     
    A separate question is whether all events should carry correct and proper descriptions.  Off hand, we could think of some local events that would fail --- how about the Wall Street Rat Race?  Where are the rats?
     
  • OLEY VALLEY [10/16/02]  

Paul Sinclair: "I ran in the Oley Valley, PA 10-miler on Sunday, Oct. 13th. The course was advertised as "flat and fast, with a few rolling hills" (wasn't the Reach The Beach Relay  supposed to be "a few rolling hills"???), but I must've zoned out during the flats because I ran 10 miles of continuous rolling hills. There were approx. 250 people at the start, and I went out with the chase pack. Around the 2m mark I had a Reach the Beach moment when we found ourselves off course and doubling back. We lost approximately 30 seconds and luckily were able to make up the time and places in the next mile. I ran the next 7 miles completely alone, taking in the incredible scenery of the Amish Country.   I finished 9th overall in 1:03:33, and 1st in my AG (M25-29). At the awards ceremony I was presented with an iron and ceramic hot plate/pot holder-thing with the award painted on the ceramic, along with the info that I was now the "2002 RRCA 10-mile PA State Champ, M25-29"...I guess it pays to run a race when you're out of town. I didn't notice when I registered that this race was serving as a RRCA state championship."

  • HOW DID YOU FIND US? [10/16/02] 
     
    Conversation at East River Park track
    Person 1: "Hi, are you guys the Central Park Track Club?  How can I join?"
    Person 2: "Yes, we are the Central Park Track Club.  How did you find us?"
    Person 1: "Oh, I went to your website."
     
    More and more frequently, our typical newcomer is this: "I recently moved to New York City because I got a new job here.  I wanted to find a running club, but I don't know anyone.  So I did some searches on the Internet.  There were quite a number of directories, such as this one maintained by the New York Road Runners.  After going through all the websites, it was clear that the Central Park Track Club has the best website.  If the website reflects their organization, that is the club I want to be with."
     
    If anyone still wonders whether an Internet presence means anything, this is a clear demonstration that the answer is Yes.  Of course, this is very much a function of the goals and the operating environment, and may not be applicable to everyone.  On our part, our gratification is not to sign up that 1,000th new member this year.  Rather, we are happy to be the organization which permits all these runners to continue to practice the sport that they love.
     
  • HM CPTC TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [10/16/02]  Steven Paddock: "12 x 400m with 60 seconds rest.  All went well again, as I ran all of them at 69/70 which was pleasing as we get much more rest then that usually.  Also after saying it is never foggy in the UK and it is a movie misnomer, last night was like a scene from An American Werewolf in London. Fog everywhere."
     
  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT  [10/15/02]  This is the lowest attendance of the year at 42 people.  But if Darlene Miloski is here, then that should make up for everything.  The light turnout was undoubtedly due to people taking a day off after the Staten Island Half Marathon.  Most people would rest after a long race, unless your name is Alan Ruben, in which case you run the full speed workout and then you run home while declining the offer to ride in Sid Howard's famous delivery van.
     
    The victory speech tonight covered the best weekend of the year for the team.  The maximum four wins in the two NYRR races over the weekend, plus three individual race winners (Alayne Adams, Margaret Schotte and James Siegel).  
     
    The sharpest "C" group runner tonight was Margaret Schotte.  When asked if she would switch to indoor track now, she made a counter-offer, "Why don't you sponsor me instead?  I need a multi-sports sponsor now."  Hmmm ... is anyone out there reading this? ... 
     
    Worst behavior of the night:  No, it wasn't that soccer ball that flew by our ear.  It was Graeme Reid coming up behind Victor Osayi and saying, "I'm gonna get you!  I'm gonna get you!"  Just because Graeme is upset that he will never match James Siegel's number of race wins is no excuse for such behavior. 
     
    Complaint Department: "So there I was running late to the workout along fourteenth street.  I was carrying a heavy backpack.  I was overdressed and I was sweating.  So I stopped to take my jacket off at which point my water bottle fell to the ground.  At that exact moment, some guy in an orange jacket came along and told me to get moving again.  So I ended up running with him all the way to the track, as that guy would not even stop for red lights ..."
     
    Non-Quiz:  What is the name of the person who only says, "What?  What?"?  And this is not a "Who's On First?" play.
     
  • THE KEANE SAGA [10/15/02]  Better than any soap opera are the life and times of Roy Keane, the Manchester United midfielder.  Maybe this is not running, but we doubt that running can ever attain those heights.
     
    Greatest Keane historical moment --- sent home from the 2002 World Cup for cussing out Irish coach Mick McCarthy in front of the other players (full story and quotations can be found in Nick Hornsby's New Yorker story)
     
    Current playing status --- suspended for an intentional elbow on Irish international Jason McAteer and took the time out to have hip surgery
     
    Future playing status --- received another five match suspension and also fined US$233,000 for admitting in his book that he had deliberately hurt Manchester City player Alf Inge Haaland in a game (see quote) and therefore bringing the game into disrepute.
     
    How can he beat that?  Just watch ... we are confident that he will ...
      
  • CPTC MARATHON BUS [10/15/02]  This year the Central Park Track Club will be chartering a bus to take our NYC Marathon Runners to the staging area in Staten Island. Depending upon numbers, we will be sharing the ALS charity bus organized by Margaret Angell.  Bathroom facilities will be available. We will be meeting at 6:15am on the Upper East Side. If you wish to take this bus (which is free to our members) you MUST notify Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com or 212-519-1372 (day) or 212-222-7216 (eve).
     
  • EXPRESSIONS BY ELYSE [10/15/02]  Getting a little enthusiastic, aren't we ... ?
     
  • AXE OUT [10/15/02]  We will simply provide this link without comment, lest the subject should jump out of the bushes on Thursday night to attack us.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 8 - OCTOBER 14, 2002

  • TWO MORE WEEKEND RACE WINNERS [10/14/02]  
      
    The first one is James Siebel at the Carlos Negron Memorial 5K.  Yes, that's right --- the last name is spelled Siebel on the official race website.  Although this person has the same age and lives in the same county as James Siegel, we are sure that Graeme Reid would continue to doubt that James Siegel has more wins than him.  While it is true that data entry people occasionally make mistakes, it is beyond chance that the names are always misspelled when those two are involved.  Thus, it is still not resolved whether James has ever beaten Graeme in any head-to-head competition, as James has finished ahead of someone who looked and talked like Graeme but whose name is Graeme Rasulo.  And time is running out ...
      
    Our second winner is Margaret Schotte at the Central Park Biathlon.  After a second-place finish in her first ever duathlon, she moved to the top spot almost four minutes ahead of second place.  Her ninth place overall finish is also the highest by a woman in any New York Triathlon Club event this year.  Jonathan Cane puts in this claim: "I fear that those of us on the dark side may have won her over for a while. "  Really?  Well, we checked the weather almanac --- it's getting cold and multi-sport season is OVER!  And indoor track season is about to start!
      
    Adam Manewell was second in the Central Park Biathlon.   Now, if only the run portions were longer ...
     
    And ... oh, how silly of us to almost forget! ... happy thanksgiving to our Canadians, most of all Margaret Schotte and Adam Manewell ...
      
  • CHICAGO MARATHON REPORT [10/14/02]  Patrick Cowden: "My actual chip time was 3:00:31 for a 6:53 pace (although I like your time of 3:00:11 on the website better).  It was also a PR by four minutes.  I was right on target for 2:59:59 when I was hit with a leg cramp at mile 24.  I was not able to loosen up enough to make up the time.  I am still very pleased!"
     
  • WORLD MASTERS GAMES [10/14/02]  It's Monday morning and the Aussies have headed back to work on the website.  So we now know
    - W30 1500m: Devon Sargent, 4:53.37, 1st place
    - W35 1500m: Kim Mannen, 5:02:04 (lifetime PR, faster than even her high school days), 5th place
    By the way, this 'shrimp on the barbie' stuff is a myth (except for tourists).  We have never been to one of those in four years down there.
     
  • STATEN ISLAND HALF MARATHON WRAP-UP [10/13/02]  Since we stayed home this week, there is no first-hand eyewitness report.  Instead, we read the tea leaves (sorry, we mean results) on the NYRR website.  
     
    Subject one: Team standings.  Men, 1st place.  Women, 1st place.  Yipes!  And we already thought we were such hot stuff for sweeping men and women in yesterday's four miler.  
     
    On the men's side, we saw that WS went 1-2-3 individually and then 28-47 for third place team.  We were 5-8-12-13-16 for first place.  WSX was second.  Overall, we are now two points behind WSX in the scoring championships.  Of course, the WSX 'big guns' were elsewhere today (e.g. Jorge Real at the Hartford Marathon) and in the New York City Marathon, they will be fielding the likes of Paul Mwangi.   According to our quick count, our men's masters also won to increase their big lead in the scoring championships.
     
    On the women's side, we went 1-6-14, ten points ahead of NYH and MCNY.  Our lead in the scoring championships goes up to 21 points with two races left (including a double points 10K race).
     
    Subject two: Individual men's results.  Top five were Alan Ruben, Kevan Huston, Craig Chilton, Michael Rymer and Andy Merrifield.  The last is an unfamiliar name in race results, but he has been showing up at the Thursday road workouts for a few months.  Apart from Toby Tanser on our team, he may be the best credentialed runner amongst us.  We note that without that fifth runner, both WS and WSX would be ahead of us.
     
    Subject three:  Individual women's results.  Alayne Adams rule!  She won another scoring race.  If she was crowned Queen of Van Cortlandt Park on the other website, she can now add the title of the Queen of Staten Island.  And --- Stuart Calderwood would surely insist that we mention --- she's 41 years old.  Rounding out the top three were Ali Rosenthal and Lauren Eckhart.  According to our quick count, our masters women team of Alayne Adams, Kellie Quinones and Stacy Creamer finished second (yes, having that number one overall finisher helped!).  
     
  • A BUNDLE OF JOY [10/13/02]  The mystery of the Texas barbeque is revealed to be Amalia Prescilla Johanna, born on 1 October, 6:21am, to Tyronne Culpepper and Bernadette Wehr at  7 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 1/2 inches (or 3185gm and 52 cm for our metric members).
     
    Amalia Prescilla Johanna
       
  • CROSS COUNTRY WEATHER [10/13/02]  At the Fred Lebow Cross Country 5K a few weeks ago, we lamented about how the hot weather was simply not "cross country weather."  This week, cross country runners got a lot more than they bargained more --- over four inches of rain, strong winds and cool temperatures.  Take a look at this photo from the high school meet at Van Cortlandt Park.  But we suspect that our runners would not have minded this kind of weather at all, and that Alayne Adams would have looked like a wonderfully fierce winner.
     
  • CHICAGO MARATHON COVERAGE [10/13/02]  Unless you were in Chicago, Japan or England, there was no broadcast coverage.  The web coverage was somewhat spotty, as there was a sudden blank when the leaders were even before the halfway mark to the nineteen mile mark when it was declared that there was an uncatchable breakaway by the Japanese runner.  The next report came after the finish when the breakaway was caught and demolished, with the intermediate action being filled back in.  It was pretty disconcerting ...  Meanwhile, the initial result listings were messed up with multiple people finishing in the same positions with very different times, etc.  Who are we to complain anyway?
     
    Complaint department: "I read through your coverage and I did not find out who won ..."  Okay, so the item was not labeled clearly --- it is really our coverage of the Chicago Marathon coverage.  P.S.  We are still not going to tell you who won.  And if you don't already know by now, you can't possibly be genuinely interested ...
     
  • WILT, LINDA AND JIM [10/13/02]  In the New York Sunday Times, Robert Lipsyte wrote a story about Wilt Chamberlain and Linda Huey.  Tangentially, Jim Brown was mentioned because Linda once beat him in a footrace.  We don't have much to say about Wilt, Linda and Jim.  But we remember having been through a Thursday night workout when our two running partners carried on and on and on about the greatest lacrosse player that ever lived. ---  Jim Brown (and not Wilt Chamberlain).  For the little time that Brown played lacrosse, he changed the nature of the game because --- just like but much more so than in football --- he was unstoppable.  On our part, though, we never thought that we would get a lacrosse history lesson when we joined a running club.
     
  • NOBEL LITERATURE PRIZE [10/13/02]  Earlier in the week, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the Hungarian Imre Kertész for "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history."  Whatever else, the Nobel Literature prize serves to introduce people to writers who would otherwise toil in relative obscurity.  Imre Kertész was unknown to many, but the Nobel prize attracted someone to purchase his translated books Fateless and Kaddish for an Unborn Child through our Amazon.com affiliate program this week. 
      
    As it turned out, we once saw a Susan Sontag booklist of Eastern European authors and that got us to buy these books:
    - Imre Kertész: Fateless
    - Aleksandar Tisma    : The Book of Blam
    - Danilo Kis    : Hourglass
    - Andrei Bitov    : A Captive of the Caucasus
    - Peter Nadas    : A Book of Memories
    - Ivan Klima    : Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light
    -     W.G. Sebald: The Emigrants
    -     Nadezhda Mandelstam: Hope Against Hope
     
    It may be customary to wish you happy reading on this list.  Unfortunately, that will not happen --- if you read them, you won't be happy, because these books are singularly depressing.  But "if summer were an axiom, what sorcery had snow?"
      
  • FITNESS MAGAZINE GAMES REPORT [10/12/02]  From Frank Morton: "Unbelievable weather. By the one mile race at 8:40 AM it was raining harder than ever. Of course I was trying to stay warm and dry so I only warmed up for about 2 minutes before the start of the race. There were 3 key points where I had to slow way down to make sure I didn't fall: the sharp right to go north on the West side, the turn around, where I made a complete stop, and the sharp left to go head back east on 72nd. I passed one guy with about a quarter to go (a kid of 28) and finished at what I thought was fourth. I was kicking myself, because there were awards to the top 3.  When the awards were given out, I found out I was third so either all the rain caused me to hallucinate or one of the guys ahead of me wasn't entered.

    I then had 55 minutes to stiffen up until the 4 mile race started. After warming up again (with JR), I was busy changing my socks (probably a waste of time) while everyone was lining up so I didn't get to the front before the gun went off. During the race I had to stop twice to tie my shoes: first my left shoe, and then later my right shoe. But even with all that I ended up getting 2nd in my age group for another award, plus we won the team award.
     
    The rain never stopped, even during the awards ceremony. Everyone had shopping bags from Crunch Fitness with various free goodies in them. One by one, the bags would break because they were wet and everything would fall out while people were holding them. It was pretty funny."
     

  • WORLD MASTERS GAMES [10/12/02]  It's Friday night on the final day, and the Aussies must have abandoned their website in order to hit the pubs.  But we did get a flash message from Devon Sargent that Kim Mannen got a lifetime PR of 5:02 in the 1500m.
     
  • CENTRAL PARK WINS [10/12/02]  We note in passing that our men and women team won the Saturday four miler in the park.  These are the records that we don't keep track of, because there are simply too many of them.  
      
  • 1992 AWARD WINNERS [10/12/02]  Every year, the team gives out awards to exceptional performers and others.  As we head towards our thirtieth year, we look at the list of award winners 10 years ago.  
     
    MVP Open Women: Candace Strobach and Claudia Porfolio
    MVP Open Men: Alan Ruben and Fred Schuler
    MVP Veteran Men: Rick Pieschel and Duane Green
    MVP Veteran Woman: Mary V. Rosado
    Most improved: Laurie Jones and Ricardo Granados
    MVP Triathlete: Richard Kixmiller
    MVP Ultra-distance: Miki Shiraki
    MVP 50+ woman: Bunny Franco
    MVP 50+ men: Sid Howard and Dan Hamner
    Men's Performance of the Year:  World record sprint medley: Lester Wright, Sid Howard, Dan Hamner, Cliff Pauling
    Women's Performance of the Year: Martha Murphrey
    Founder's Award: Frank Handelman
    Athlete of the Year: Sid Howard
      
    Back then, Alan Ruben was a youngster, Rick Pieschel was the dominant local master, Claudia Malley was still Claudia Porfolio, Mike Shiraki could not run marathons because they were too short and ... Sid Howard ruled, then and now!
     
  • HMCPTC TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [10/11/02]  From Her Majesty's Central Park Track Club's Steven Paddock: "GO ALL CPTC'ers in the race this weekend, especially the Open Men.  Get us closer to West Side as I will be back definitely for the Joe Kleinerman 10K and after one week of training with the new squad here I should be in good form.

    The session we did was 17 x 300m @ 49 - 50 seconds (with very strong winds) with a minute's rest.  I am still in pain today from Tuesday.  I was about the 6th fastest there and was totally battered by the people ahead, so hopefully they should pull me to a better level of fitness.
     
    Good Luck, I feel PR's in all your futures.
      

  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT [10/10/02]  The question "Why does it start to rain as soon as I get here?" went unanswered, as it was indeed unanswerable.  Still, that little rain did not stop 48 people from showing up a workout just before the Staten Island Half Marathon.  Not included in the count was Yumi Ogita whizzing around the reservoir.
     
    If you are running the half marathon, then it is recommended that you run with a group slower than your usual one.  If you not running the half marathon and you drop down two groups, then you are subject to harassment without end.  This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.
      
    The subject of the first 1.7 miles of the workout was, "Bola, you got a haircut!"  So, for the first and last time, we will simply say: Bola Awofeso got a haircut and could we now go back to running?  But we will note that out of the many questions, Bola did get one encouraging comment: "When I cut my hair, I got faster.  So it could happen to you too."
     
    On the way back, there was a poetry reading as one team member recited from memory to us: "Chicken soup.  Then fly the coop and run a loop ... "   Ahem ... with due respect, poetry is not our strong suit.  Already, we were served with a death threat, although it was for a piece of prose about someone pushing a baby stroller at high speeds and not for that piece of bad poetry.  This week, we won't talk about the baby stroller (although we could), and we will tell you a story about chicken soup instead.  Once upon a time, a friend came down with a cold, so we quipped the standard "Take some chicken soup.  It's good for you."  My vegan friend said, "That may be good for me, but it would not be very good for the chicken."  We will let you think about what else you have eaten recently ...
     
    Other forms of bad behavior were also rampant today.  Case in point --- crowding the entire road way and resulting to one collision with another runner coming in the opposite direction.  Case in point --- our star half-marathoner needed to practice the finishing-line lean at the end of tonight's workout.
     
    Person #1: "I used to run marathons, but I now run only shorter races."
    Person #2: "That's good.  You need to persuade [Person #3] to do that too."
    Person #3: "Me?  Do I look as if I need to be convinced?"
     
    The ChampionChip.  Do you want one of your own?  Out of a voting population of two, both voted "No!"  One was the coach, who did not think he needs a chip because he doesn't race.  Fair enough.  The other one said, "What if you got a bad number and it becomes yours forever?" and "That also means that you may not get the good number that proves to help."  What did she mean?  In 1998, when numbers were still randomly assigned each race, this runner received the lucky 747 which propelled her to her first sub-40-minute 10K race.
      
    In Massenet's opera Manon Lescaut, the famous aria goes: 

Adieu, notre petite table 
Qui, nous réunit si souvent! 
Adieu, notre petite table, 
Si grande pour nous cependant! 
On tient, c'est inimaginable, 
Si peu de place... en se serrant... 
Adieu, notre petite table! 

Goodbye, our little table 
At which we met so often! 
Goodbye, our little table 
Yet so large for us! 
One thinks that it's unimaginable, 
So small a space...when we're embracing... 
Goodbye, our little table!

We don't have any tables to say goodbye to, but we wish that we had the chance to say goodbye to the now-shuttered Coliseum Bookstore at 57th Street & Broadway.  This bookstore has been our favorite ever since we started running with the Central Park Track Club.  You see, we live downtown and we take the subway uptown to do the Thursday night workout.  Since we don't control the subway time table (nor does anyone else), we always leave a little bit ahead of time.  In deep winter, when we emerge out of the N/Q train station at 57th Street & Seventh Avenue, we would dash over to the Coliseum Bookstore.  We would browse the books in the Deconstruction section until 6:54pm and then we would run to the Daniel Webster statue for a just-in-time arrival.  Over the years, we observed that the Coliseum staff had amazing knowledge about all sorts of books and subjects and they had a genuine love for books.  This was not Barnes & Noble and the massive armies of part-timers.  Now that the Coliseum Bookstore is closed, what are our alternatives?  Slim pickings indeed.  There is the supermarket ...there is the Duane Reade ... there is Planet Hollywood ... there is McDonalds's ... ah, but there is also that newspaper/magazine shop on Eighth Avenue where we will be able to catch up on the cricket scores in Australia!

  • BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING [10/10/02]  Not that we have a great love for pudding nor is our house beautiful in any sense, but we follow the photographer.

  • INDOOR TRACK INFORMATION [10/09/02]    The road group led by Tony Ruiz will be starting indoor workouts each Tuesday at 8:00pm throughout the winter on December 3rd. The middle-distance group led by Devon Sargent and the sprinters led by Brian Denman will be starting indoor workouts each Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30pm throughout the winter on November 19th. These workouts will be held at the world-record setting venue of The Armory at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.

    In order to participate in these workouts you must be a fully paid-up member of CPTC, and send a check payable to 'The Armory Foundation' along with a passport size photo to Devon Sargent, 190 Columbus Avenue #3C, New York, NY 10023, of $150 to be received by November 22nd for the road group or $250 to be received by November 7th for the middle-distance group and sprinters. If you have any questions please contact Devon Sargent at 212-474-1764 or dsargent@cravath.com .

    The club recognizes that these fees for use of the indoor track may be difficult for some of our members to afford.  Therefore we will be setting up a fund to allow the club to make loans or grants to such members.  If you wish to contribute to this fund, please send checks payable to 'Central Park Track Club' to Alan Ruben, 801 West End Avenue, Apt 5E, NY 10025. If you would like to avail yourselves of such funds please contact Alan Ruben at 212-222-7216 (home), 212-519-1372 (work) or alan@montran.com or Devon Sargent at 212-474-1764 or dsargent@cravath.com.
     
    If you have not been to the Armory before, enjoy this picture ...


Isaya Okwiya at the 2002 USATF National Indoor Championships held in the Armory Track & Field facility in March 2002
 

  • OUTLEANED AGAIN [10/09/02]  Yesterday, Devon Sargent described how she was outleaned at the tape in Australia, with a wishful comment that only she can make.  Today, closer to home in the great city of Newark, Laurie Jones was outleaned 20:38 to 20:39 at the Newark Corporate-Individual 5K.  It is not true that we don't practice leaning during workouts --- we can immediately name a couple of people who would try to outlean their teammates in workouts ...
     
  • WELCOME NEW MEMBERS [10/09/02]  The following people were accepted at Monday's executive board meeting:
    Bethany Aquilina
    Lawrence Chandler
    Vito Iacoviello
    Peter Rodrigues
    Gabe Sherman
     
  • NOTHING IS FOR FREE!  [10/09/02]  We had just offered this two days ago:
     
    - Monday:  Toby Tanser takes charge of the great Nike Run NYC giveaway at the Wollman Rink (Central Park) at 6pm
    - Tuesday: Water at the fountain is free at the Central Park Track Club workout in East River Park
    - Wednesday: ???  Does anyone know what is free ???
    - Thursday: Jonathan Cane takes charge of the great Nike Run NYC at the Wollman Rink (Central Park)/Equinox (Amsterdam Avenue) at 6pm
     
    and then the Reality Principle struck.  On Tuesday, the water fountain in East River Park was turned off!!!!  And next Monday, the Nike Run NYC giveaway will go on hiatus on Columbus Day.
     
  • FOOT LOCKER FIVE BOROUGH CHALLENGE [10/09/02]  During the New York City Marathon, a sub-story will be the challenge among five people chosen to represent the five boroughs of New York City.  Each runner is chosen from amongst those with about the same projected finishing time, which makes for an even competition.  This year, the Queens representative will be our own Kellie Quinones, who is a member of our very strong New York City Marathon masters women squad this year.  
     
    As part of this story, Foot Locker would like to interview the friends and families of these five runners along the course.  We will suggest to Foot Locker that Kellie will have her teammates stationed inside Central Park on the east side of East Drive near 88th Street.  We will be easily identifiable as the Wall of Orange.  This becomes now an even better reason for us to congregate there this year.


 2001 Wall of Orange, Central Park, East 88th Street

  • STATEN ISLAND HALF MARATHON PREVIEW [10/09/02]  This Sunday race is a NYRR Club Championship scoring race.  After this, there is only the New York City Marathon in November and the double-points Joe Kleinerman 10K in December.  Our current standings in the various divisions are as follows:
     
    Open men: 3rd place, 5 points behind WSX and 36 points ahead of NYH.  We are unlikely to be caught from behind, but it will take a major effort to move up
    Masters men: 1st place, 34 points ahead of JSRC.  Sure bet to 4-peat.
    Veteran men:  12th place.  Oh, well ...
     
    Open women: 1st place, 16 points ahead of MCNY.  It's not over yet.  Don't fall asleep now!
    Masters women:  3rd place, 27 points behind MCNY and 2 points of TRR.  It will be a fight to keep that third place.
    Veteran women:  4th place, and we will probably be no-shows for the next two long-distance races ...
     
    For those who have never run on this course before, this is our memory --- this is the flattest of all the New York City half marathons (i.e. Central Park, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and definitely so if you include the New Rochelle, Westchester or Yonkers races).  Most of the time, you are running up and down a highway with no car traffic.  There is essentially just one short hill which is around the 12 mile mark (note: you will be going down that hill somewhere around the four mile mark, so you should make a mental note that this is what you have to cope with on the way back).  The things to watch out for --- one is wind which can be a problem if you have to run five miles into it on an open highway, but it is beyond your control; the other is sun, since much of the course is the unshaded highway but you can at least prepare for it by putting on sunscreen, wearing a hat and drinking plenty of fluid.  This course is especially favorable to people who like to set and maintain a steady rhythm on a straight line, and quite the opposite of the turn-turn-turn up-and-down Queens Half Marathon.
     
    How fast is fast?  We asked our senior runner who owns multiple Half Marathon Grand Prix patches (note: you get a patch each year if you complete all five half marathons) and he said, "Oh ... let me see ... Staten Island 1:20, Brooklyn 1:27 and that was completely flat out and back on Ocean Avenue/Ocean Drive without the loop inside Prospect Park, Manhattan 1:28, Queens 1:29, Bronx 1:39 (okay!  it was hot as hell!), Westchester 1:43 (okay! it was hot and hilly as hell!)."  
     
  • FAMOUS HISTORY [10/09/02]  We came across Famous Saying #1443 about Alston Brown's race in Buffalo by random chance.  We wondered if Alston knew about the original newspaper article or about our re-publishing of it here.  No matter, because ... well, the explanation will have to take the form of another story ...
     
    At the Tuesday workout, Herbie Medina said, "So I got on Google.com and I searched for 'Herbie' and 'Medina' and I ended up with dozens of links to the Central Park Track Club website.  There was a picture of me with Efrain Gonzalez that I have never seen before.  There were all sorts of sayings attributed to me.  I had a great time reading it."  So Alston may not know today, he may not know this week, but one of these days, he is going to sit down in front of a computer and search for 'Alston Brown.'  Those photos and stories will be all the more sweeter if he reads them for the first time many years from now ...
      
  • BIG HEAD [10/09/02]  According to our local West 58th Street reporter, there is a very large (Nike propaganda) poster of Joseph Kozusko's head in the Columbus Circle subway station ...
     
  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [10/08/02]  A slightly listless workout took place as the half marathon scoring race looms over the coming weekend and the middle-distance runners' coach is in Australia.  The attendance was recorded at 43 persons, including one person with a brand new haircut.
     
    Last week, the workout consisted of 1000m's and 600m's, which provided ample opportunity for the timers to run their own workout during the recoveries.  Tonight, the workout was 5x1200m with 400m recovery.  The timers were as stationary as Long John Silver on one wooden leg (correction: they actually walked their group ten meters down the runway at the start to avoid the soccer goalmouth).    Bad idea, because they did not get any exercise and just might have caught a cold standing out in the cool windy evening.
     
    5x1200m = 6000m to be run at 5K race pace.  Yes, we mean your "REAL" 5K race pace!  Looking at the "B" team, our coach calculated --- if you run 4:00 for 1200m, that translates to a 16:30, which is probably faster than they are doing right now.  With that benchmark, it was gratifying to see them actually come in between 4:10 and 4:20 in a tight pack.  Then, the last one became an all-out sprint in under 4:00.  The coach was not particularly upset, because he at least got them to do just one set too fast instead of all five repeats being too fast.  Ah, yes, in Chinese, there is the concept of 'sufficiency' --- sometimes, it is sufficient to be sufficient ...  But in English, "Enough is enough" is used as a term of aggression.
      
    Brad Weiss wants to know: "How do you find the time to update the website?  There is so much stuff that I don't even have time to read it ..." 
     
    Chris Price wants to know: "If I had the same turnover rate as Alayne Adams, then how fast can I run?"
     
    Paul Bendich wants to know: "Did you see how Sid Howard destroyed us in the final 1200m?"
     
    Sid Howard     already knows, "When I grow up, I want to run like Ali Rosenthal --- in perfect control of my pace!"
     
    Since we do such a wonder job on reviewing eateries, one might suggest that we also review public restrooms.  This is a joke --- that is, until you need to use one!  While there are already a number of websites on the best public restrooms in New York City, we are sure that nobody has the same eyes and angles as we do.  Tonight, we got four of our fast women to review the East River Park restrooms.  They went to the women's restroom and ... it was locked!  So much for our major project of the year.  Not to worry, as our women proceeded to the men's restroom while their chaperone guarded the gate against male intruders.  As soon as they walked in, they screeched, "EEEEWWW!  DISGUSTING!"  So ... there you have the inaugural public restroom review.  Next up --- the public restrooms in Central Park on top of the hill between Sheep Meadow and the Daniel Webster statue.
     
  • WORLD MASTERS GAMES [10/08/02]  The World Masters Games are going on right now in Australia.  On Tuesday, Devon Sargent finished second in the W30 800m final and Kim Mannen in 5th place at 2:29.26 in the W35 800m.  Both have the 1500m to run on the last day of the games.  Meanwhile, they get to spend some time in our home country, although they are in the wrong city (Melbourne).  
     
    This email came from Devon all the way from the other side of the world:

One event down, one more to go.  Kim took 5th in the 800m (35-39 age group).  She ran like an animal----very aggressive (35, 70, 1:47)-----gave everything she had.  I am very, very proud of her.  This was her first 800m race in 3 months (post-concussion) and her second fastest time this year (2:29.26).   Not bad on a very cold, wet and windy day! 

While Kim was calm as a cucumber before her race, my heart was racing before the gun.  The race was a bit tactical, but fortunately I took the Silver in my age group (30-34)---2:21.90.   Got outleaned at the tape (2:21.73 was the winner).  Clearly, a large chest would have come in handy! 

  • THAT EMAIL [ [10/08/02]  People listed in the Central Park Track Club email directory received this email today: "I got your e mails from the Central Park Runners Web Site. I was hoping you could help me with my desperate search for a bib number to run in this year's New York City Marathon. I missed the registration lottery and am hoping that a year's worth of training won't go to waste! Obviously I would pay for the bib number, chip, etc... I would GREATLY appreciate any ideas or suggestions you guys might have. Thanks."
     
    There are at least two issues involved here.  The first is about the message.  We will publish the response from Robert Laufer:

As a long-time member of the Central Park Track Club -- and currently general counsel to New York Road Runners -- I thought you should all see the following response which I sent to the recent email we all received from someone seeking to "buy" a bib number in the 2002 NYC Marathon.  I hope no member of our club will be a part of such a "sale." Thank you

"Sir, I was one of the recipients of your email seeking to purchase a number for the upcoming NYC Marathon. As it happens, I also am legal counsel to New York Road Runners. As you should be aware, buying or selling numbers in the Marathon violates NYRR rules. Any person selling or buying a number is subject to being disqualified from the 2002 Marathon and/or being barred from future NYRR events, including the Marathon. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you not proceed with any plan to buy a number in this year's event. While your attempt to do so is sufficient basis for NYRR to refuse to accept future applications for the Marathon from you, I am prepared to recommend that no such action be taken if you will assure me by return email that you now understand NYRR's policy and will not proceed with any purchase of a number. I await word from you in this regard."

Once upon a time, when we started this website, we had a guest book in which visitors can write in their comments.  One of the first messages was exactly an attempt to buy a New York City Marathon number.  From that moment, we quickly abandoned the concept of the open, unmoderated guest book for this website.  This is not to say that we deny requests for information and assistance, for it should be clear that we will publish all reasonable announcements including events, products and services of all types.  In this instance, if this request had gone directly to us only, we would have informed the person that this is a violation of NYRR rules, that we will not publicize this request and that we would urge him/her to cease this effort. 

Apart from the sender, Bob Laufer's response applies to all others.  When a New York City Marathon runner enters the starting area, a photo is taken.  If it should turn out that the person in the photo does not match the registrant, then the registrant may be subject to sanctions such as being barred from future NYRR events.  So for everyone else, we emphasize you cannot sell or even just give your number away, for this is no trifling matter.
  
The second issue is about our email system.  Our email directory was constructed as an open area where people can look up another person easily.  We could have used a password-protected page, but the administration of the password becomes a job-and-a-half for someone.  In contrast,  our Cool List opt-in email list is self-administered, so no team member is bogged down --- people can just opt in or out on their own.  The open email directory was meant for someone to communicate with a few others, but not to spam the entire list.  Perhaps this was not clear before, but we have now posted this message:

FAIR USAGE WARNING:  This electronic mail directory has been placed here to permit people to contact specific individuals quickly.  It is NOT intended for spamming.  If you have a group message that you want to send out to our people, please make that request to  rolandsoong@centralparktc.org and we will distribute your message to the opt-in Cool List members.  If you decide to spam the group from this directory anyway, we guarantee that we will denounce you and your message for everyone to see!

So, if you spam us with a product, we will tell everyone on the email list as well as all our website visitors to boycott that product.  If you spam us about an event, we will tell everyone on the email list as well as all our website visitors to stay away from that event.  If you have a sponsor, we will tell your sponsor that you have spammed us and that we have told all our people about that sponsor's relationship with this spammer.  We think you all get the idea ...

WEEK OF OCTOBER 1 - OCTOBER 7, 2002

  • PEPPER [10/07/02]  Rich Joseph and Maggie Kundtz had a baby girl on August 28, 2002 named Pepper Caylie Kundtz Joseph weighing 5 pounds 12 ounces, and measuring 19.25 inches.
     
  • A TALE OF TWO BOOKS [10/07/02]  Most books are published for mass markets.  After being introduced to the market, several things might occur.  One possibility is that the book turned out to be not as good as it seemed and received scant notice or even bad reviews.  The publisher disposed of the remainder copies as expeditiously as possible.  Such a book will have a re-sale value that is much lower than the original list price.  At Amazon.com or eBay, there may not be a resale market as the fair price may be lower than the shipping fee.
     
    Another possibility is that the book turned out to be much better than it seemed and continued to receive rave reviews.  All copies of the book were sold out.  Such a book may have a re-sale value that exceeds its original list price.  Unfortunately, the added value will not show up in royalty checks to the author.  Such is the case of Toby Tanser's book, Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way.  Whereas the original list price for the out-of-print first edition was $20, the current lowest price on the Amazon.com market is $75.  Lest we forget, the updated and enlarged second edition is available at only $22.
     

     
    Oddly enough, the price of a book does not necessarily suffer a purely monotonic decrease or increase over its lifetime.  The same author Toby Tanser has a new book scheduled to be released in February 2003.  Titled The Essential Guide To Running The New York City Marathon, this is still an unseen sight.  But already at Amazon.com, this book can be pre-ordered at a 30% discount.  Your investment counselor tells you that the key to success is to 'Buy low and sell high.'  Given this author's track record (pun intended!), buying a bunch of this new book may be a much safer bet than buying stocks these days.  But, of course, your stockbroker would always qualify by stating that 'Past performance does not guarantee future returns.'
     

     
  • FREEBIE REMINDERS [10/06/02]  
    - Monday:  Toby Tanser takes charge of the great Nike Run NYC giveaway at the Wollman Rink (Central Park) at 6pm
    - Tuesday: Water at the fountain is free at the Central Park Track Club workout in East River Park
    - Wednesday: ???  Does anyone know what is free???
    - Thursday: Jonathan Cane takes charge of the great Nike Run NYC at the Wollman Rink (Central Park)/Equinox (Amsterdam Avenue) at 6pm
     
  • SOME PSAL HISTORY [10/06/02]  At the Run To Liberty 10K over the Labor Day weekend, the fourth-place finisher was Nnenna Lynch.  Nnenna and her sister Shola are legends in New York City and also around the Central Park reservoir.  This PSAL girls' all-time cross-country list shows the Lynch sisters in the top two positions by wide margins.  Further down, in 21st place, is Naomi Reynolds.  Mind you, Naomi won her two championships as freshman and sophomore, and she looks like she will 3-peat as a junior this year.
     

     
  • WANTED: A PROFESSIONAL BABY-SITTER [10/06/02]  Stacy Creamer: "A professional or volunteer babysitter for Kieran McShane Calderwood on Sunday, October 13. Both Stuart and I would like to run the Staten Island Half.  We can take Kieran to the race (in his Baby Jogger) and would appreciate it if someone would look after him while we run.  If you're interested, please call me at 212-782-8218 (day) or 212-749-8145 (evenings)."
      
  • HARRY MURPHY CROSS COUNTRY 5K [10/06/02]  This preliminary report is based upon an email from Frank Morton.
      
    This was much more like cross-country weather today --- sunny, cool and windy.  Even though there were two races (5K and half marathon) in Central Park today, more than 100 people showed up at Van Cortlandt Park.  Central Park Track Club runners included: Armando Oliveira (our team leader in the last cross-country race ran easy today), Alston Brown, Chris Potter, Frank Morton, Sid Howard, Brian Barry, Jonathan Federman, Sue Pearsall, Mary V. Rosado, Mary Diver and Andrea Ostrowski.  Most of them picked up individual hardware, including Andrea who doesn't even know that she won 6th place in her age group in her second ever cross-country race since she left before the awards were given out.  

    The official results should be posted sometime in the middle of the week.
      

  • MORE REACH THE BEACH RELAY PHOTOS:  You are invited to look at the album of 15 pictures from Tom Phillips at Ofoto! 


      
  • GRETE'S GREAT GALLOP REPORT [10/06/02]  This is a non-eyewitness report since we were sleeping like a log when the race was going on.  The results were quite astonishing.  Before this year's race, the previous men's race record stood at 1:06:46 by Tesfaye Bekele in 1998.  Right on Friday, it was announced that Mark Carroll, who owns the Irish records for the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters will be running the New York City Marathon.  Part of this preparation includes running Grete's Great Gallop which he covered in a time of 1:03:11.  Although it was supposed to be a tempo run with the first eight miles being paced by a friend, this may just be the fastest half marathon time ever in New York City.  The financial rewards included $100 for breaking the race record and $100 for finishing under 1:09:00.  
     
    On the women's side, Canadian Carol Howe ran a very fast 1:14:58.  Unfortunately, the race record was a sparkling 1:12:33 by Junko Asario in a tune-up for a major marathon.  When Junko ran that time in 1995, there was no pre-race publicity and the spectators on the course simply thought that she must be that fast Japanese woman (Yumi Ogita) on the Central Park Track Club.  Junko must have been quite confused by the calls of "Go, Central Park!" along the way.  For her efforts today, Carol Howe collected $100 for finishing under 1:19:20 as well as $100 for top NYRR member.
     
    This brings us to the subject of our team in this race.  We had dreaded the prospect of looking at the race results today.  This half marathon race was scheduled one week before the Staten Island Half Marathon which is a NYRR Club Council scoring race.  For most people, it was a choice was between one of these two races.  So we assume that anyone who ran today would not be scoring for us next week.  However, this is a team of grown-ups who have the free will to decide for themselves.  If someone prefers to run one race rather than the other, then so be it.   
     
    On the women's side, which is of maximum interest to us since our women are leading in the standings, we were led by the two Japanese women (Yumi Ogita and Etsuko Kizawa) and then one triathlete Nicole Billman.  Yumi Ogita was first female master, for which she collected $100.  Her time of 1:26:19 would be equivalent to 1:24 on the flatter Staten Island course, and we could have used that time next week.  But we now know that Yumi will be sharp for the New York City Marathon!  On the men's side, we have fewer runners and Mr. Walkman (aka Brad Weiss) continued to impress in 1:23:26 (PR) while Jay Borok had a five minute PR.  Otherwise, it looked like a regular training run for most people.
     
    By itself, a 1:03:11 half marathon is still a long way from the sub-one-hour world record for the distance.  But this time was achieved today on a reputedly tough course in an unchallenged fashion with a winning margin of nearly three minutes.  How tough is the Central Park course?  Everyone who has run in Central Park knows that it is a series of undulating hills, not terribly steep but unrelenting.  The fastest men's 10K inside Central Park is a 28 minute effort, although no one has come anywhere close in recent years.  But history has also shown that determination and competition can overcome any physical inconvenience.  Witness the Women's Mini-Marathon -- In 2001, Paula Radcliffe set the course record of 30:47 in a bold solo front-running effort.  In 2002, Asmae Leghzaoui ran the world best time of 30:29 after being pushed by Lornah Kiplagat to a 15:07 5K split.
     
  • CITY/STATE RANKING OF RUNNERS [10/06/02]  Craig Chilton points out this interesting internet tool in the 10/4 edition of RunnersWorld.com, 
     
    "A partnership of Running USA, a trade association of major races and the running industry, and USA Track & Field, the governing body of the sport, has produced a new tool to provide recognition and motivation for runners of all ages and abilities: City and State Road Running Rankings.

    Currently the City and State Rankings contain more than 2 million fully searchable running performances that are updated daily from electronic results received by the USATF Road Running Information Center. In the past only the top five percent of road race times were compiled for national rankings purposes, but with the explosion of technology, it has become more feasible to keep track of thousands more events and millions more participants.

    The 2002 City and State Rankings can be accessed from www.runningusa.org , www.usaldr.org  and www.usatf.org  (via the "long distance running" link)."
     
    To start things off, we checked for women in New York City for the year 2002.  Hmmm ... seven of the top 10 belongs to Gordon Bakoulis and the other three to Kim Griffin.  But Margaret Angell and Alayne Adams accounted for five of the next ten.  Yes, we can see that this will be a time-waster of an order of magnitude worse than our website ...
      

  • WORLD MASTERS GAMES [10/06/02]  This schedule of events is available in Adobe pdf format, which cannot be searched.  We have identified these events:
    - Event 27 (Monday, Day #2) Kim Mannen in W35 preliminary 800m
    - Event 166 (Tuesday, Day #3) Devon Sargent in W30 800m final
    - Event 170 (Tuesday, Day #3) W35 800m final
    - Event 431 (Friday, Day #6) Devon Sargent in W30 1500m
    - Event 432 (Friday, Day #6) Kim Mannen in W35 1500m
      
  • BANDWIDTH CONSUMPTION [10/05/02]  To put in simple words, "We are pigs."  The amount of website traffic can be measured in terms of the number of hits, which is the number of files (included .htm as well as graphics), but this is misleading because files come in various sizes.  It can also be measured in terms of the number of page views, but this is misleading for the same reason.  Therefore, web hosting services prefer to use the total amount of kilobytes transferred as the measure of traffic volume.   
     
    This year, our month bandwidth usage has varied from 4.5 gigabytes in January to 7.5 gigabytes in September.  But there are certain patterns that can be seen in the following time-series chart of daily usage.  
    (1) Over the long term, there is a secular trend of increasing bandwidth consumption over time.  As pigs, we are getting fatter and greedier every day.  This has been the case since day one, and the end is nowhere in sight.
    (2) There is a weekly pattern in which the traffic peaks on Monday and dips on the weekend.  As pigs, we binge.
    (3) There are spikes which corresponds to major events in our lives.  The heaviest consumption will occur when lots of graphic files are downloaded, which means these spikes can be synchronized with the photo albums.  Can you identify from this chart: (1) the Snowflake Four Miler; (2) FRNY Lesbian+Gay Pride Run; (3) The Club Championships; (4) the Fred Lebow cross country 5K?  As pigs, we binge even more on special occasions.
     

     
  • EVEN MORE REACH THE BEACH RELAY PHOTOS [10/04/02]  This set is taken by a professional sports photographer.  There are no Central Park Track Club people in these photos.  However, you will get a much better sense of the weather and road conditions during that race, especially on Leg 1.  P.S.  We didn't see any moose ...
     
    Erratum:  Steven Paddock points to photo 12 and writes: "How could you fail to recognize your teammates!?  
    It should be clear that
    (1) I am the person on the table in the purple sleeping bag in the far corner 
    (2) Danny Campos is the person in the opposite corner in a black bag.
    (3) Kevin Arlyck is on the floor, risking the baby snapping turtles that were being cleaned up around people by the volunteers
    I know how you like 100% accurate reporting, so I just thought I would point this out to you."
     

     

  • REACH THE BEACH RELAY STORIES [10/4/02]  Not that we have any stories to tell, but we do have lots of questions, beginning with:
    (1)  Did Victor Osayi really run across a moose in Leg 1?  Or is this the start of an urban legend?
    (2) What was the sound that was not the snoring of a triathlete? 

Ali Rosenthal, Victor Osayi, Noah Lansner
Ali Rosenthal, Victor Osayi, Noah Lansner at the starting line

  • MORE REACH THE BEACH RELAY PHOTOS [10/04/02]  The latest additions come from Jesse Lansner.  As we say, different photographers have different styles and personalities.  We like especially the night shot (209) and the human cocoon (210).
      
  • 360 NO RESPONSE [10/04/02]  Most of you are not old enough to know the subject title, but it is the standard message on the IBM mainframe computer console to tell the operator that the machine is down.  We literally receive several hundred emails a day from our various websites, and we are simply not able to process and respond to each and every one of them.  If you send us a message with a request (such as a listing/de-listing on the email directory or posting a message), we will simply fulfil that request without responding via email.  We don't mean to be rude, but we have observed that a response usually generates another thank-you and this simply increases our incoming email traffic.  You should check to see if your email address has been corrected or see that the message is posted.  But if you ask a question (such as where to send your dues check), we will provide an answer if we can.
     
  • SECRET TRACK WORKOUT TIP [10/04/02]  Yves-Marc Courtines: "I run the designated sets slower than my group and I jog the recovery fast."  What is the theoretical basis of this approach?  How much faster will that make him?  "Our timer uses our recovery to run his workout.  I am trying therefore to make him work harder with less rest ..."
     
  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT [10/03/02]  From early afternoon, the skies turned dark and the humidity increased.  With all signs pointing to rain again, how many people would show up at the workout?
     
    At 700pm, there was no precipitation yet.  We counted seventy-five people when we started off.  This was in fact highest road attendance number for the year, with quite a few new faces as well as long-lost returnees.  There are only four more weeks left before the New York City Marathon and so this must be the final panic period to get prepared.  The final count was in fact higher, because we know that Frank Morton joined us at East 96th Street with zero warm-up.  And was that Frank Handelman who asked about the workout at East 92nd Street?
     
    The latecomers were somewhat astonished by the sight of everyone standing in the grassy areas behind the barricades.  It was not as if anyone initiated a new routine deliberately.  It all began innocently enough with Heidi Newell and Fred Trilli arriving early and sitting down on the grass (as opposed to the concrete path) to stretch.  Soon, other people came over to talk to them and before we knew it, this became the new assembly point.  A social psychologist would regard this as the natural group behavior known as social imitation, where a physicist might call that spontaneous self-organization.  In truth, this was a better meeting place because we had such a bad reputation for clogging up the pedestrian walkway when we gather in front of the Daniel Webster statue.
     
    We asked Mr. and Mrs. SOS why they did not survive this year.  Mrs. SOS said that the 21 mile run was a bit too long for her right now.  Mr. SOS claimed a running injury, but declared that it should have enough for him to have delivered the winner to our club.  The winner Olivier Baillet's thank-you speech was enough to make Mr. SOS blush with pride.  And Mr. SOS's face will probably blush ever redder when he reads this paragraph.
     
    Lauren Eckhart hailed one runner as, "Hello, Mr. GQ!  Where is your tie?"  That would be Erik Schmitz, who made it into the New York Times fashion section.  His photo in the newspaper had him looking down.  When we asked him about it, he said, "They took seven photos of me and that was the one they used!"  Yes, we know all about reporters/photographers who are amnesiac, biased and/or capricious, especially those who write about workouts ... you know ... they can't remember the workout, they won't report on the Tour de France and they only mention the most trivial of things ...
     
    By the time we reached the northern end of the park, there were a few large raindrops.  The rain was not coming heavily like last week.  A few minutes after the workout ended, the rain drops came down in higher intensity and we got out of there.  But not before we overheard the beginning of this conversation: "Hey, you see that guy on the bike over there.  He is the one that did the triple ironman triathlon!"  "What?  A triple ironman?  There is no such thing ..."  Yes, there is ... see proof.
     
    We had a couple of unusual encounters tonight.  Not so unusual was the French soccer player at East 102nd Street who wanted to know about our team.  At West 102nd Street, we saw two Warren Street runners trying to read something.  We would have dearly loved to know why and what they were reading in the dark under the rain.  Later, as we ran down West Drive, a cyclist pulled up next to us and began to enumerate why runners are strange and unusual.  After several different ploys did not shake him off, we had to resort to the final weapon: "Hey,  your wife is running with us tonight.  Shall I tell her what you said?"  At that point, he sped off in a hurry.  You should remember this trick in case you too are caught in this situation in the future.  This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.
     
    A couple of people came over to thank us for the extended discussion of the Second Mat (see items further down this page).  One person's comment for our 'balanced treatment' drew our total incomprehension --- as far as we are concerned, all media coverage is about setting agendas PERIOD.  The Second Mat thread shows our characteristic traits --- detailed consideration of the facts which are separated from speculation; plenty of room for human frailty; and, in the end, an uplifting tone.  That is our essence, of course.
     
    Unresolved question:  How many different people has Stuart Calderwood said "You're the first one to be blown away by Kieran!" as he rolls by with the baby carriage?
     
    P.S.  Marty Levine wants to know, "Where is Brian Barry?" 
     
  • MANHATTAN 1 BEDROOM APARTMENT AVAILABLE FOR 1-YEAR SUBLET [10/03/02]  
    A 1-bedroom apartment in pre-war building; approx. 700 square feet; fully furnished; part-time doorman; full-time super; laundry on-premises; elevator. 
    Near Columbia University, #1/#9 subway, shops, Riverside Park. 
    Perfect for single person or couple.  Maximum two people allowed.  Dogs okay. No cats. Must get co-op board approval. 
    $2,500/month with 1st, last, and 1-month's security deposit required. 
    January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2003, with possibility of 1-year renewal.
    Call Jennifer (212) 665-9142 or jennanyc@hotmail.com
     

  • MAGIC HANDS [10/03/02]  A recommendation from Stephanie Gould:
      
       Massage Recommendation
       Magic Hands Licensed Massage Therapy 
       214 E 82nd street. 
       (212) 650-1620. 
       A reasonable $70/hr. 
      
    All the people there are good (especially Eugene).
     

  • NEW YORK TIMES PHOTO PERSONS [10/03/02]  Erik Schmitz got his photo in the Fashion section this week.  So who else do we know have made it into the New York Times?  (Photos, not just quotes).  Our memories are necessarily dim due to old age, so our readers may have to help us.  
     
    Here is what we know for sure
    (1) Stacy Creamer made it onto the front page of the New York Times in a photo of President Clinton running around the Central Park Reservoir with local runners.  We remember that she was ribbed for weeks afterwards for the sharp elbows that she must have used to fight through the Secret Service cordon.
    (2) Margaret Angell made it in a human interest story about the New York City Marathon with this photo.
     
    We are not sure but --- 
    (1) Since Grete Waitz won the New York City Marathon nine times, her photos must be all over the New York Times.  By extension, Fred Kolthay must always be somewhere near her.
    (2) Jeans model Tom Phillips had his likeness plastered all over town on bus shelters and newspapers, so surely he must have appeared some time.  Moreover, Tom was the publisher of the gossipy Spy magazine, and so must be a regular feature in the Society page.
     
    P.S. The single most viewed photo on this website that continues to draw the "Ohhhhhs" and "Ahhhhhs" is that of Stefani Jackenthal in New York Magazine (1997).
      

  • DAVID BOWIE'S NEW YORK CITY MARATHON [10/03/02]  From Peter Gambaccini:  "I noticed a full-page ad in the Village Voice today for David Bowie's 'New York Marathon,' which in fact includes concert appearances in each of the five boroughs, beginning with Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens just as the runners do. Did David Pullman have anything to do with this idea? The dates are between October 11 and 20.  I don't know if any performer of Bowie's stature has ever done a concert in Staten Island, and probably not in the Bronx since Pink Floyd played Yankee Stadium and I could hear it in my apartment."
     

  • CASUAL IS FOR FRIDAY ONLY  [10/03/02]  The New York Times item on Erik Schmitz was forwarded to us by Audrey Kingsley, with this remark: "I know you couldn't have missed this one!!!"  Well, we disagree because we believe the correct characterization is: "You couldn't have found this one because it was in the Fashion section."
     

  • FAREWELL MESSAGE FROM STEVEN PADDOCK  [10/03/02]  

"Thank you everyone for making my time in New York the time of my life.  I have had the best experience ever hurting myself daily with you all. 

I am 100% the runner I am today because of the group structure that we have and all the support which can be received, whether that be during the dark times of September 11, 2001 or a rainy Thursday in a February.  We all should keep the benefits of the team in our minds as it is only after leaving you see what a truly wonderful entity it is.

Thank you to both Tony Ruiz, who has helped me endlessly to get as fast as I am, and to Roland Soong for the first website that I go to every single day.

I will be back numerous times to race for the mighty Orange as I still have some scalps to collect properly (and after Alan Ruben handed me a terrific beating at the Reach The Beach Relay, his photo is being placed above my treadmill as motivation).

Please feel free to use me as a free hotel if you are coming to the United Kingdom for the Marathon or any time as although not actually in London, I am only an hour away.

Goodbye and Happy/Fast Running from Her Majesty's Central Park Track Club (HMCPTC) newest member."

Deep down inside, we recognize that that this club is in fact a way station for many.  People come and people go, and other things have (and should have) greater priority over membership in a running club.  Yet, of all the comings and goings, Steven Paddock is someone in whom we can claim a certain pride because this was one of the few times that we succeeded in a construction project.  We have noteworthy failures as in the case of Shula Sarner, although we have not abandoned hope yet.

The story is fairly typical.  Along came this man, who like so many before him thought that he was a marathon runner when it is abundantly clear to everyone else that he has better talents at the shorter distances.  In the beginning, it was too late to prevent him from running that 3:08:03 New York City Marathon.  But later, we did everything within our power to push him in the 'right' direction.  Sometimes we badgered, such as listing him on the roster of the middle-distance runners' group.  To be fair, we usually added "(although he doesn't know it yet)" behind his name to highlight attention.  And then we launched frontal assaults such as this 1/29/02 workout report: "At today's workout, coach Tony Ruiz said, 'Now that Steven has run 10:13 in a two miler on Thursday, and then won his first race (a five miler) on Saturday, he should be able to erase any notion of marathon running from his head ...'"  Before we knew it, Steven was our first finisher in the Brooklyn five mile scoring race and Steven Paddock's name began to appear among the elite athletes listed in the Great Britain Athletes In The USA website.  Our only unfulfilled goal is to see him break into a 15 minute 5000m while he was with us.  But we are sure that we will be hearing very son that he has done so, and we will be gratified that we had something to do with it, or so we would like to think ...

  • THE SECOND MAT (CONTINUED):  (Note:  Original item appears a couple of days ago further down this page)
     
    From Noah Perlis: 

"Thanks for the detailed theory of the mat/timing discrepancy. I suspected that I fell victim to something like that this past Saturday when I did my "fun run" for the Fifth.  I started out at the back of my group (6:30 to 7:30 pace) and crossed the starting line about 3 or 4 seconds after the gun. When I approached the finish I was very aware of the clock since it was counting up toward 7 minutes and I was wondering if I would do a 6:59 instead of 7 something. I did not sprint the last part since it was a first time run for me and I thought it would be bad form to show off a sprint when you should be fully taxed at the end. I crossed under the clock in 7:08 and thought I had a real 7:04 or so. (Wouldn't you know, this was the only interval, including all practices, in the last 10 years over any measured distance that I did not have my stop watch on me, in the spirit of the event.)

This was the first time I ever used the chip and thought I should focus on returning it before I forget, and I stopped a few feet after the clock and looked around for where to place the chip and I also walked backwards a few steps looking for my personal cheering section, then turned back and continued to walk down the lane from the clock. I did not understand my official time of 7:16, but can now surmise the reason. 

I ran a controlled pace behind my pack for the first timed mile in my life, and thoroughly enjoyed every second being on Fifth with no traffic on a beautiful day, and I now hope to race it next year with the plan to list the CPTC affiliation on the entry form and finish in the top 10 in my open age group, rather than 23 this year.  I would recommend it to all, even the sprinters among us, and if our 40 vacationer/relay team members did not have the conflict, CPTC would have dominated the results."

From G'mo Rojas: 

"The simple answer is: the chip system is the correct time, the clock is a visual tool.  When you look at NYRR results, finish times are based on the time you cross the finish line (the first mat).  The clock is manually set, so it may be one-second fast or one-second slow. 

The Fifth Avenue Mile is a tough event, the finish line clock is set via a voice command over a radio.  That's why finish times on finish line clocks are hardly ever official times.  At most races (road & track) the clock is never the official time, it is always confirmed by another system, our official system is the ChampionChip system (the results that you see on our website). 

I do agree that you should run through the finish line, but the second mat is only for back-up, so don't push anyone over trying to get to the second mat.

But what do I know? I'm the marketing guy....."

From Roland Soong:  

"G'mo Rojas is correct about the status of the clock.  Last Saturday, we were standing at the 1500m and watching the clock.  For each heat, the clock was reset to 3:00.  Then the clock setter listened to the voice reading the times over the radio: 2:55, 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 2:59, 3:00, ... At which point, the clock setter hits the continue button.  Clearly, there are lots of room of advanced or delayed human reactions.

The worst mistake that you can make is to look at the clock and then cut back on your effort because you don't need to go so fast in order to reach your goal time.  I can tell you a personal story that is directly to point (and therefore not one of my many digressions).  Some years ago, the Turkey Classic Five Miler on the Sunday before Thanksgiving was sponsored by American Express, which promised to donate a turkey to a food kitchen for homeless people for every male runner who finished under 32:00.  Quite a few Central Park Track Club people showed up (including Peter Gambaccini).  Even though we were not in the best of shape, we knew that a sub-32 minute run should be easily achieved.  But I had decided that I would do the minimum possible, and I paced myself perfectly as I monitored the clock from afar to cross in a time of 31:58, with two seconds to spare.  Final official time: 32:00.  It was not under 32:00.  Emotions of shame, disgust, embarrassment, guilt, ... rushed up.  In other words, I felt like a turkey.  But I was quite relieved to hear that American Express changed the rules to 32:00 and under, and one extra turkey was donated.

The main moral of the lesson is this --- once upon a time, a corporate executive made a seemingly trivial act of generosity which has long since escaped the corporate memory.  Many years later, this act would be recalled to a much larger audience for goodwill that far exceed the value of the original donation.  Thank you, American Express!"

  • NO MORE REACH THE BEACH RELAY PHOTOS TODAY [10/03/02]  Due to a wildly hilarious technical glitch, none will appear today.  If we did publish those photos, our club membership will probably swell a thousand fold ...


Injured but overexposed ... who might that be?

  • MORE REACH THE BEACH PHOTOS [10/02/02]  The latest additions comes from Erik Goetze.  As he is an advertising creative, his collection has a style that is radically different from our standard top-of-Cat-Hill-looking-down race photos.  Instead, you get really close up and tight with the people.  Note:  This sample item below was enhanced by someone (not Erik Goetze) who has just let Photoshop run wild.

Alison Rosenthal

There are still more photos to come --- next up is the Steven Paddock collection.  We had it hand-delivered to us but we confess that we have even taken a peek yet.  We do know that Steven is no longer a rookie photographer when his maiden effort several months ago turned up a lot of photos of the ground during a race ...  And after that, we still have the eagerly anticipated Margaret Angell collection to come ...

  • SEPTEMBER 2002  [10/02/02]  We just generated the web visitor analysis report for the month of September.  Another record-setting month ...  yawn ...  Just in case there is anyone who still doesn't get it, it is CONTENT that draws people day in and day out.  And we've got A LOT OF CONTENT!
     

  • DUATHLON REPORT [10/02/02]  At the Pine Barrens Autumn Duathlon, Margaret Schotte finished in seventh place overall and second female.  Although this was only her debut duathlon, our greed has no bounds and we asked her if she could have won the race.  She said, "HA! [add extra dose of sarcasm] That first woman Fiona Docherty was the overall winner of the entire race, male and female.  She was first overall in both runs.  At the start of the race, I looked for someone to run with.  She was wearing unitards, so I thought I should stick with her.  The gun went off and she took the lead and she kept leading and leading.  I had to let her go.  Well, I hear she is on her way to the World Championships."  Jonathan Cane said, "I've never seen anything like this in any multi-sport event ..."  What is in Margaret's future?  She says, "Wait till I get a real bike ..."
      

  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [10/01/02]  Some nice weather drew fifty-six people at the workout.  The coach gave special acknowledgement to the approximately forty people who were up at the Reach The Beach Relay this weekend.  He said, "I have lots of stories to tell, beginning with Victor Osayi's leadoff leg.  In fact, there will be stories coming out for the rest of the year."  Special thanks go to the team captains --- Tom Phillips, Erik Goetze and Sarah Gross-Paul Sinclair.  There are more Reach The Beach Relay photos in development, because everyone and their grandmothers own digital cameras these days.  Furthermore, everyone and their grandmothers have unique styles of photography that will astonish you ...  just wait and see!
     
    Alan Ruben's review:  "So there I am running in the middle of the night down this unmarked road.  There is no light anywhere.  The rain is pouring down.  It is pitch dark.  What can I do but just keep running?"  The good thing is --- "The whole time, I only saw only one car coming from the opposite direction.  There were several cars going in the same direction, and I assumed that they were connected with the race."
     
    Among the Fifth Avenue milers, Devon Sargent's pre-race analysis was extremely  helpful.  Or it could have been extremely helpful for a rookie: "I sure wish I had read Devon's advice before I ran that race.  As it was my first time, I had no idea what to expect, and when that gun went off, I started running like my butt was on fire. Unfortunately, the fire was in my lungs, and I couldn't keep up the pace, and of course, the pack caught up to me, exactly as Devon described it.  It was hilarious (after I caught my breathe of course)! Now that I've got that one under my belt, I'll know what to do for next year."  Another rookie said, "I could not believe that Jerome O'Shaughnessy told me near the 1200m mark that I had a good smile.  I guess he could not think of anything else good to say."
      

  • THE SECOND MAT [10/01/02]  At the Tuesday workout, a large part of the conversation was dedicated to the discrepancy between the official times for the Fifth Avenue Mile versus the observed times on the overhead clock.  We know that Devon Sargent told you: "Don't stop before the finish line---Run 'through the line' (i.e., pretend the finish line is 10m farther)."  But perhaps you don't understand that the material importance of "running through."  
      
    If you are a long-time fan of this website,  you would know the legend: "When you cross the finish, there is a mat right underneath the finish clock and there is another mat a few feet ahead.  We believe that your final time is based upon when you cross that second mat.  It is therefore possible for you to get a faster time than someone who crossed under the clock before you but whom you beat to the second mat (and we know of several instances).  Please bear that in mind in your next race!  It cannot hurt you to go all the way through.  (2/01/2000 workout report)"
     
    Photographic Evidence:  Plowing through the finish 'tape' is Toby Tanser in a time of 1:08:14 to win the 2000 Manhattan Half Marathon.  To be more precise, he reached the clock in 1:08:14; this picture was taken just a half step past the clock but still on the first mat, and the clock read 1:08:15; his official time was 1:08:16.  Yes, this is an empirical confirmation of the 'second mat' theory.
     
    More Photographic Evidence:  From the 3/02/2000 workout report:  "    If you look at the NYRRC photos for the Snowflake 4 Miler, there is a finish-line photo of Stuart Calderwood (21:44) ahead of Craig Chilton (21:45).  To finish only one second behind, Craig must have a finishing stride that is about ... say, 50 feet long?  Ever thought about doing the long jump instead?  Tonight, Craig Chilton revealed his secret --- he continued sprinting after he passed under the clock until he reached the second mat whereas Stuart Calderwood probably slowed down between the two mats.  So this is another empirical confirmation of the 'second mat' theory.  This item has been deliberately buried in the midst of a lot of verbiage (yes,  we had to write all those things before and after for camouflaging purposes) on our workout page so that only true Central Park Track Club road runners will learn about this secret weapon for future races.  Dear Reader, we ask that you (and we mean you, Stéphane!) to not divulge this secret to anyone who doesn't have an orange handshake."

    We should clarify that the second mat theory is just a theory of ours.  We may have some anecdotal evidence, but they are not conclusive proof.  For all we know, this is just urban legend.  But surely there can be no harm in running past the finishing clock at full speed with good form?
       

  • A SERIOUS QUIZ [10/01/02]  We are going to present a situation and ask you for an answer:
     
    Enumeration of Facts:
    (1)  The East River Park track has six lanes on the track
    (2)  The "C" group has nineteen runners in the group tonight
    (3)  At the start of the 1000m set at the end of the final straightway, those nineteen runners were strung out covering lane 1 through lane six
    (4)  Three sprinters (Oliver Martinez, Alan Bautista and Melissa Tidwell) are running down the middle of the track at full speed
     
    Question:  Where can the sprinters go?
     
    Multiple choice answers:
    (A) They can run over the people standing in lane 1
    (B)  They can run over the people standing in lane 2
    (C)  They can run over the people standing in lane 3
    (D)  They can run over the people standing in lane 4
    (E)  They can run over the people standing in lane 5
    (F)  They can run over the people standing in lane 6
    (G)  They can run over the timer standing on the inside of the track
     
    Correct answer(s):  Any of (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and/or (F), as long as it is not (G).  
     
    Disclosure:  This answer was supplied by a timer, although it is arguably the timer's job to keep an eye on things and warn his group.
     
    Moral of the lesson: Stay alert and be considerate!!  If you are waiting to start, turn around and keep an eye on who is coming.
      

  • AGISM [10/01/02]  Overheard at the track:
    "Hey, [name withheld], why do you look so beaten up after a simple workout like this?"
    "Well, [name withheld], in twelve years' time, you will be at my age and you will feel the same way too."  (Technical note:  The twelve years will be reduced to eleven years on October 5th ... tick, tock, tick, tock, ...)
      

  • UPPER NORTH SIDE [10/01/02]  Let's count our team members ... half of the team is from the Upper East Side ... half of the team comes from the Upper West Side ... and half of the team is from the Upper North Side ... 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 ... it works out perfectly ... 

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