WEEK OF NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 1, 2003

• CPTC Awards Dinner [12/01/2003]  Remember, our awards dinner is this Saturday, December 6th, at 7pm at Top of the Times, 255 West 43rd Street at Eighth Avenue.  To attend this highlight of the CPTC social calendar you MUST sign-up in advance by 5:30pm Friday.  Please email Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com and send checks ($40 per person) payable to 'Central Park Track Club' to

  CPTC
  c/o Richard Kixmiller
  14 East 96th Street, Apt. 14
  New York, NY 10128

  Also, you may pay Alan Ruben or Sarah Gross directly at either Tuesday night's workout at the Armory or Thursday night's workout in Central Park.

• Monthly Updates [12/01/2003]  It's the first of the month, which means an updated book list, and a new web statistics report.  Also, the Webmaster Emeritus noticed that the homepage still claims "9,600+ photos" and suggests that we update that.  It's hard to get an exact number, but a quick count has turned up at least 10,200 photos on this site!

• Armory IDs [12/01/2003]  A few new names for the Armory list.  Early Session (6:30 pm): Jim Aneshansley.  Late Session (8:00 pm):  Lauren Eckhart, Doron Fagelson and John Roberts.

• Top 10 Photos [12/01/2003]  Thanksgiving is over, the Rockefeller Center tree is being lit this week, and we just opened the first window on our advent calendar.  Despite our best efforts, the Christmas season is here, and the year is almost over.  Which means it's almost time for our Top 10 photos of the year!  Yes, there are still a few photos yet to be taken (the awards dinner, some last races), but we're getting started early.  And this year we're inviting you, the readers, to send in your suggestions.  The Rules:

1.  Any photo on this site from 2003 is eligible;
2.  Decision of the judges (i.e., us) is final.

So email your choices.  It's okay to pick a picture of yourself.  Or one you took.  Or of your best friend on the team.  You should also feel free to lobby us as to why your choice is beter than somebody else's.  Cash bribes will not be accepted, but we are happy to accept gifts.  On a rough scale, homemade cookies will get your picture on the list, acquiring hard-to-get tickets gets you a top 5 spot, and anyone who gives us the Looney Tunes - The Golden Collection DVD gets the number 1 spot.

• Say What? [11/30/2003]  We are constantly mystified by the inability of the English to use their own language properly.  They use made-up words and creative spellings, and stubbornly refuse to pronounce anything correctly.  Why is this?  They've droppd their empire, adopted central heating, and one of these days may even start driving on the right side of the road.  Yet there's still no good answer to Henry Higgins' question:  Why can't the English learn to speak?
  
  Maybe it's because they all suffer from brain damage.  At least, that's what caused Tiffany Roberts of Indiana to start speaking in a British accent.  Mrs. Roberts had a stroke four years ago, and ever since she's spoken in a mix of English cockney and West Country, even though she's never set foot upon the British Isles.  It's called "foreign accent syndrome," caused when a stroke or head injury damages the part of the brain that controls voice pitch and syllable length.  We're not sure how the enitre British populace came to suffer damage to this area, but we're betting it has something to do with their cuisine.

• Awards Dinner [11/29/2003]  We are looking for volunteers to help with party preparation and setup on Saturday December 6th.  Due to an event at the facility earlier that day we are unable to enter the building until 4pm so we do not have a great deal of time to get everything ready.  Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.  If you are able to help please email Michelle Santomassino at michelle.santomassino@rcn.com or bilusinha@hotmail.com, or call her at (917) 254-1294 or (212) 245-8386.
  
  Also, for those planning to attend, plese remember that you must purchase your tickets in advance.  To order tickets, send a check for $40/person to CPTC at:

CPTC
c/o Richard Kixmiller
14 East 96th Street, Apt. 14
New York, NY 10128

As an added bonus, we just may reveal who all the initials and times on the invitation belong to.  Of course most of you probably got on the website and looked them all up just as soon as you got the postcard, right?

• Thursday Night Lack of Workout Report [11/28/2003]  The workout page clearly states that we have workouts every Thursday, with some exceptions, including Thanksgiving Day.  Officially, then, zero runners showed up at the statue and they ran zero miles.  Knowing the members of this team, however, we can't be sure of that. 

• Giving Thanks [11/27/2003]  This seems like a good a day to thank all give credit to those who've helped out with this site over the last year.  Thanks to Paul Bendich, Stacy Creamer and Noah Perlis for their writing, and Stuart Calderwood for both writing and proofreading.  To Bola Awofeso, Stuart Alexander, Jay Borok, Neeraj Engineer, Rich Hollander, Alexandra Horowitz, Scott Johnson, Eugene Lingner, Kellie Quinones, Ali Rosenthal, Michael Rosenthal and Alan Ruben for taking photos.  To Red and the Webmistress for being our groupies.  To Roland for writing, taking pictures, generating the web statistics, and even tracking down race results from half a world away.  And especially to all of you for letting us write about whatever we feel like.  Extra thanks to those of you who actually read past the first sentence of every entry.

• Keeping Their Priorities Straight [11/27/2003] After the University of Southern Mississippi beat Texas Christian University on the gridiron last Thursday, most of us came to the conclusion that TCU was greatly overrated.  Then today we learned that, while we might be right about TCU on the field, we may have underrated them off the field when athletic director Eric Hyman announced that the school would pass up a chance to play in the GMAC Bowl on December 18th becuase the game would take place in the middle of exam week.  Said Hyman, "I have to be sensitive to our young people.  They are student-athletes, but they are also students, and they are coming to school to get an education.  We cannot disrupt their exams.  It's not fair to them."  TCU could still end up in the Hawaii Bowl or the Ft. Worth Bowl (remember the good old days when people only had to pay attention to three or four bowl games?).  Neither of those games would conflict with the school's exams, but they would be less lucrative and offer less publicity. 
  
  Pass up a bowl game so that students can take their final exams?  What a daring idea!  Wonder if we'll see other schools try it. Probably not, since most of them are willing to sacrifice their integrity for a football team with a winning record.  Schools exist to educate their students.  Football, and all other sports, should always be of secondary importance. TCU's decision reflects those priorities.  If only the rest of the NCAA would remember what really matters.

• Tuesday Night Armory and Downtown Track Workout Reports [11/26/2003]  We were up at the Armory last night, where the number of runners had increased from 10 to 20 since last Thursday.  So next time we should have either 30 runners (if we're increasing at a standard geometric rate) or 40 (if we're doubling each workout).  We were hoping that one of those 20 runners (specifically the Uptown Workout Reporter) would write this update, but the best he offered was to write every other word, and leave us to fill in the rest.  Maybe next time we'll get more out of him.  Meanwhile, there was some running — 4x800m, to be exact, or 3x600m for those making their first appearance indoors.  Jessica Reifer did the full workout, which we hear is a little out of character.  But really, what choice did she have after she scheduled her grad school classes around the track workouts?
  
  And downtown?  Michael Rosenthal submitted the following photo of Brad Weiss at the last outdoor workout.  If a picture really is worth a thousand words, consider this the longest workout report ever.
  
  

• Future Perfect [11/26/2003]  From Toby Tanser's website:  "Prediction:  Next year, CPTC on every single podium at the Team Awards."  Sounds good to us!

• NYC Marathon Photo Analysis [11/26/2003]  At Neeraj Engineer's photo album, he keeps a counter of the number of times that each photo has been viewed.  This is a feature that we cannot afford to have at the CPTC website, because we are cheap and because it is too much work (that is, retroactively cataloging 10,000+ photos).  However, those counters enable us to tell who is hot and who is not so hot.  Here is the list of those who received more than 20 hits as of November 25, 2003.

  69 - Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (don't begrudge him that, because he raised US$1 million)
  37 - The Wall of Orange (an exercise in self-absorption)
  33 - Andrea Ostrowski
  29 - The Wall of Orange (another exercise in self-absorption)
  29 - Armando Oliveira (the caption says "Got Balls")
  28 - Vito Iacoviello (the caption says "Unknown CPTC runner" and everyone wants to identify him)
  28 - Marla Runyan (genuine American legend)
  24 - Alan Ruben (president of CPTC)
  23 - Toby Tanser (most famous runner in all of New York City)
  22 - Stuart Calderwood (friends and relatives everywhere)

  And we'll bet that you have no idea that the hottest CPTC runner is Andrea Ostrowski!

• Around the World Update #10 [11/26/2003]  Dear All,

  Australia
  We continued driving South for a few more days, covering the Cairns-to-Brisbane coast in 12 days, for a total of over 3,000km, including the side trips.  The last portion was actually the best, especially Fraser Island, the largest sand Island on Earth, covering a superficie equivalent to Singapore.  The Island can only be visited in 4-wheel drive and is, surprisingly, covered with trees (yes, trees can grow on sand!).  We then headed to Noosa, a lively beach resort place, but soon escaped the crowds in the close mountains nearby, the Glasshouse Moutains.  There, we reached our limit in terms of climbing, as many mountain walks, even short ones, required a minimum of climbing equipment, which we didn't have on hand (Olivier's bag already weights over 25kg and Anne's over 20kg...).  Finally, Brisbane was a pleasant surprise, with beautiful parks and apparently a good quality of living.

  New Zealand
  NZ is VERY different from Australia, in many aspects it reminds us of England.  For example, Christchurch pretty much looks like a small Oxford, endowed with perfectly neat gardens and parks.  We immediately headed to Queenstown, a beautiful city at the foot of a splendid mountain chain, rightly called "The Remarkables."  Queenstown is a perfect starting point for trekking, or "tramping" as they call it here.  Tramping is a very well organized activity here and people come from all over the World to walk the tracks, especially the "Great Walks."  The Great Walks are well arranged 2-to-5-day circuits, with huts in perfect conditions for sleeping and fine sightseeing.  They are unfortunately very busy (some people reserve huts and campsites up to 5 months in advance).  In spite of this, we had the chance to walk one of them, the 3-day Kepler track.  There, we could enjoy a day of typical Kiwi weather (Kiwi=New Zealander), with loads of rain that went through our layers of protection, as well as through the backpack cover, into our sleeping bags... Still, it was well worth enduring the rain.  We then did a lesser frequented 2-day tramp, harder and just as beautiful, if not more.  The scenery along these walks is similar to that of the "Lord of the Rings" (they were shot in NZ), as well as the Eco-Challenge 2001, for those who saw it on TV.

  Bungyyyyyyyy!
  From Olivier:  "Nice present from Anne for my 33rd birthday: a 134-meter (440 feet) bungy jump from a platform into a beautiful valley.  The Nevis Bungy is the highest in New Zealand and one of the highest in the World.  I was relatively serene until I saw the platform hanging between the mountains, when I started to get really excited, but not scared.  However, when my turn came, and I had to walk on a one-meter wide board to jump, I suddendly realized the sheer craziness of that thing.  Although I was told not to look down, I did it all the same and I felt my heart rate suddendly skyrocket.  It was too late anyway, a second after, I was diving.  Spreading my arm as if I wanted to fly, I ... flew!  The descent "only" lasts 8 seconds, but feels like eternity.  I was overwhelmed by new sensations.  From one second to another, I went from the noisy platform, loaded with scared people waiting for their turn, with loud background music, to a sensation of complete isolation, of pure silence, in spite of the air whizzling in my ears. I had expected myself to shout during the fall, but I remained completely silent, stunned by the sensations, staring at the ground, enjoying.  The ground was getting closer and closer, and I was still accelerating, at least it felt like it.  I nevertheless suddenly came to a complete stop, at less than 15 meters from the ground, another unique sensation.  The millisecond of immobility at the top of the first rebound, was also a weird feeling.  All in all, an exceptional moment, that will never be forgotten.  Better than a birthday cake, isn't it?"

  Itinerary:
  Nov 12:  Fraser Island
  Nov 13, 14:  Noosa
  Nov 15, 16:  Glasshouse Mountains
  Nov 17:  Brisbane
  Nov 18:  Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND
  Nov 19:  Transport to Queenstown
  Nov 20:  Queenstown
  Nov 21, 22, 23:  Kepler Track
  Nov 24, 25:  Caples Track
  Nov 26:  Bungyyyyy, transport to Christchurch
  Nov 27:  Christchuch.

  Next time: more walks in NZ, Sydney, before South East Asia...

  Hope everybody is doing well.  Happy Thanksgiving for our US friends!

— Anne Lavandon & Olivier Baillet

• Poetry in Motion [11/25/2003]  Baseball has long been immortalized in verse.  Poems for kids, including Ernest Lawrence Thayer's Casey at the Bat and poems for English majors, like Robert Pinsky's The Night Game, inspired by Sandy Koufax.  There are even odes to specific players, like  Baseball's Sad Lexicon, Franklin Pierce Adams' 1910 tribute to the Chicago Cubs' infield (which gave us "Tinkers to Evers to Chance") and in a bit of doggerel that Gerald Hern tossed off towards the end of the Boston Braves' 1948 pennant run:

First we'll use Spahn, then we'll use Sain.
Then an off day, followed by rain.
Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain,
And followed, we hope, by two days of rain.

It wasn't long before the poem was stripped down to its essence as "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."  Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain responded by pitching three games each over the next 12 days, with the team having three days off and, yes, one game rained out.  Sain went 24-14 that year with a 2.60 ERA, but was never able to top that season in his 11 year career.  Spahn was 15-12 — a bit of a letdown after going 21-10 in 1947 — but would go on to dominate National League hitters for another decade and a half.  In a 20-year career he had 13 20-win seasons, struck out 2,853, and retired with a record of 363-245.  That's sixth on the all-time win list, and first among lefthanders.  Warren Spahn passed away yesterday at the age of 82.

• Updated Armory List [11/25/2003]  Here is the list of those who have registered for the Armory.  Everyone listed will be able to get in as of November 25.  If you haven't yet registered to run at the Armory but would like to, please contact Stacy Creamer at screamer@randomhouse.com or at 212-782-8218.  Armory passes will be issued some time in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, the attendant at the desk will be referring to these lists.

Early Session Alayne Adams John Affleck Mark Albers Alan Bautista Leon Brown Stuart Calderwood Marie Davis Michael Dougherty David Edwards John Gleason Dan Hamner Richard Hamner Frank Handelman Alexandra Horowitz Sidney Howard Jesse Lansner Noah Lansner Bob Laufer Marty Levine Roger Liberman Eugene Linger Jeff Lundwall Jonathan T. Mann Vram Malek Charles Miers Frank McConville Kim McConville Darlene Miloski Janice Morra Jim Ottaway Tom Phillips Noah Perlis Chris Price Adam Raphael Ronald Reid Jessica Riefer Julio Rodriguez Peter Rodriguez Mary Rosado Ken Shatzer Mindy Solkin Carlos Stafford Sebastian Tomac Rob Zand

Late Session Bethany Aquilina Margaret Angel Kevin Arlyck Jay Borok Roland Breitenberger Marvin Cabrera Jonathan Cane Glen Carnes Andrea Costello Stacy Creamer Mary Diver Dawn Eggerts Sean Fitzpatrick Laura Ford Elyse Gagneux Stephanie Gould Sarah Gross Tom Hartshorn Andrea Haver Otto Hoering Robert Jamieson Scott Johnson Elizabeth Kaicher Ed Kasparek John Kerner Sascha Kreideweis David Lansner Harry Lichtenstein Jose Martinez Frank Morton Zeb Nelesson Adam Newman Derek O’Connor Andrea Ostrowski Chris Potter Scott Puryear Kellie Quinones Michael Rosenthal Alan Ruben Michelle Santomassino Sandra Scibelli Margaret Schotte James Siegel Chris Solarz Bob Summers Mark Sowa Gordon Streeter Fred Trilli Joseph Tumbarello Phil Vasquez Brad Weis Jeff Wilson Casey Yamazaki

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 18 - NOVEMBER 24, 2003

• The Great Outdoors [11/24/2003]  The last outdoor track workout of 2003 will be on Tuesday, November 25th, 6:30pm, at the East 6th Track.
  
  Starting Tuesday, December 2nd, 8:00pm the track workouts for Tony Ruiz's distance group will be at The Armory (168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue).  To attend these CPTC workouts you must have paid the $150 Armory usage fee, otherwise contact Stacy Creamer at screamer@randomhouse.com.

• Challenge [11/24/2003]  In her recap of the CPTC-Flyers football game, the Webmistress commented "One is comforted by the fact that we could probably beat CPTC in a drinking contest any day. "  Now there's a contest we'd like to see!

• World Cup Report [11/24/2003]  The Far East correspondent writes:  During my recent three week stay in New York City, many of you told that you missed me.  I dared not ask why, because I suspect that it must those hate-'em-and-love-'em privacy-busting Page Six revelations (after all, this team is surely not counting on my running!).  However, deep in my heart, I am sure that you miss those World Cup reports.  You will recall that unstintingly accurate series of reports on the 2003 Soccer World Cup and that unabashedly anti-pommie series of reports on the 2003 Cricket World Cup.  I regret to say that I could not find the time and energy to report on the recent 2003 Rugby World Cup, even though I have been watching those games live on television here.  The more paranoid amongst you would be right to suspect that my sudden silence was due to the unfavorable outcome.  Indeed, I will not even tell you who the champions are, but I will go as far as to tell you that Shula Sarner and Jerome O'Shaughnessy are drowning in Guinness and not tears.

  But the real story of the Rugby World Cup belongs to a team that did not even get pass the final eight.  From Johannesburg (South Africa), here is the summary of the training camp for the Springboks:  "Upon arriving at Camp Staaldraad (Camp Steel Wire) north of Pretoria, the players were forced at gunpoint to strip naked and leopard-crawl across gravel before getting dressed and repeating the exercise.  Later, the the players were ordered to jump naked into a freezing lake from a helicopter to pump up rugby balls under water.  Players who tried to get out of the water — among them captain Corne Krige — were forced to go back at gunpoint.  They were also told to strip and climb into a hole.  There was little room for movement and recordings of the England anthem and New Zealand haka played for hours.  The cover on the hole was periodically lifted and ice water thrown on the men.  On their last night, the players were dropped off individually in the bush to spend the night on their own, while given half-a-match and an egg with instructions to cook it.  The camp was the brainchild of a security consultant, Adriaan Heijns, who recruited former members of the South African police's elite task force unit to run the camp."  South Africa lost to New Zealand in the quarter-final by 29-9, which was the first time ever that the Springboks fail to reach the final four.

• You Oughta Be in Pictures [11/24/2003]  Chris Solarz engaged it a little celebrity-stalking at the Race to Deliver this Sunday, and managed to get pictures of himself with Joan Rivers and Tyson Beckford.
  
       

• End Result [11/24/2003]  Devon Martin writes, "While I enjoy the football comments, let's talk about cross country!  Catherine Stone-Borkowski won USATF Cross Country Masters Nationals!  What an incredible way to end the season!  We are all very, very proud of her!  Now, if I can get her to focus on track ...  Watch out!"  This is Catherine's third victory in the past month, and if she does decide to focus on track we're glad we won't be going up against her.

• Football! [11/23/2003]  In a hard fought contest, CPTC defeated the Flyers in footabll, by either 35-28 or 5-4.  It depends on how many points you want to award for a touchdown.  Normally it's 6 points, plus 1 for kicking the extra point.  In touch football (where there are no extra points, field goals or safeties) each touchdown is usually worth just 1 point.  The star of the game was probably Armando Oliveira, who scored at least two touchdowns.  We have some photos, but they didn't come out that well.  Next up?  Well, Fran Obeid, the Flyers Member-at-Large (and instigator of this game) has suggested a joint Flyers-CPTC ice skating night.  Anyone who wants to help plan that is welcome to do so.

• Great Books [11/22/2003]  Fromer President Bill Clinton has released a list of his 21 favorite books.  We've read two of them:  Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (which we liked) and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (which we didn't).  We've been meaning to get to Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 (along with Pillar of Fire, which covers 1963-1965, but didn't make the list) and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.  The rest we could take or leave right now.  Well, leave would be better, since we have a number of books on our shelves that we still have to get through.

• Joe K [11/21/2003]  Toby Tanser has suggested that we all wear black for the Joseph Kleinerman 10K in rememberance of Joe.  That's the scoring race on December 14th, that you will all, of course, be running.  For those who still want to wear their orange singlets (which our spectating members will doubtless appreciate), perhaps a black armband, or some sort of mark on the singlet would work.

• Thursday Night Armory Track Workout Report [11/21/2003]  Our first workout with the middle distance group, and it's a whole different world there.  We could remark on the differences in structure between the long distance and middle distance workouts, but we refer you instead to Paul Bendich's explanation from February.  We will comment instead on the sparse attendance, both by CPTC (10 runners, 1 timer and 1 coach) and everyone else (a mostly empty track, though that's probably just because it's so early in the season).  The workout was 2x200m, 2x400m, 2x200m, with 90 seconds of rest between each interval, so the entire workout lasted a mere 15 minutes.  Which makes it all the more odd that we spent an hour and a half at the Armory.  Somehow we have nothing interest to report from thost 90 minutes, although we would like to point out that Armory Scouting Report below was wrong in one important aspect:  there is a sign listing all the rules.  It's on your left as you enter the track area.  We also noticed that, despite all the renovations, the restrooms are completely unchanged.  Those plasma TVs in the lobby are nice, but next time, fix the important things first.

• Hard to Swallow [11/20/2003]  So let's say, just for the sake of argument, that you were a bit of a nerd when you were younger.  At some point, either in high school or college, you probably spent a lot of time watching Monty Python movies, specifically Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  (For reasons we've never quite understood, the other Python movies don't have the same geek cachet, while the TV shows — which in general are much funnier than the movies — are almost entirely neglected.)  And after the 10th or 12th viewing you probably knew the entire script by heart, and you probably showed off that knowledge a little too often, quoting entire scenes for no apparent reason.  But did you ever do any research beyond just the script?  Did you read up on King Arthur (both the man and the legend)?  Study coconuts?  Did you at least develop an interest in shrubbery?
  
  No, of course you didn't.  You grew up and moved on.  Or got beaten up enough times for saying "Ni!" that you repressed the entire movie.  Either way, the Pythons faded back into the recesses of your mind, replaced by running, literature, and actual conversations with people of the opposite sex.  But every now and then one of those old memories breaks out of the attic and scurries into the main part of your brain.  And suddenly you find yourself singing the Camelot song, or blurting out "What, behind the rabbit?" or wondering "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"  This is probably a sign that you need either some serious therapy or a good walloping with a 2x4.  Unless, of course, you happen to be Jonathan Corum, who has actually figured out the the air speed of an unladen swallow.  For those who don't feel like reading the whole article, it's roughly 11 meters per second, which means a swallow would finish about three-quarters of a second ahead of Tim Montgomery in the 100 meter dash.  Or maybe not; the paper doesn't address the acceleration of the swallow out of the starting blocks.

• Football! [11/19/2003]  Remember our big football game against the New York Flyers this weekend.  Sunday, Nov. 23 at 2:00 pm.  We'll be meeting up at E.99th Street and East Drive (where the races start) and then finding a spot to play on the North Meadow.  Come one, come all!

• More Groupies [11/19/2003]  Blogger Paul Frankenstein writes today:

  According to a very reliable source, I'm a rockstar.

  So, like, I'm wondering, where are the groupies?

  Well, if he'd read this page (specifically the October 1 entry) he'd know that we web writers don't get many groupies, and even when we do get them, the groupies don't do very much for us.

• Armory Scouting Report [11/19/2003]  Continuing a tradition started last year, wherein your steadworthy reporter has been the first one in and last one out to use the Armory (or FILO to use accounting terminology), here are the unsolicited observations.

  The Armory has a new partial facelift in the main entrance, staircases, and display areas on the second and third floors.  Be prepared for bright colors and home-grown paint jobs in some areas (looks like someone forgot to use the masking tape by the edges).

  The biggest shock is the replacement of the photo-mural on the third floor with a wall of famous olympic stars, which replaced the marathon start featuring our own Chief John Gleason front and center.  A hurried search of the building did turn up John, but he is now reduced to a head-shot looking at his starting watch, with another of his teammates clearly sporting the FDNY shirt for the team he was previouly representing.  We'll not tell you where to look, but see if you can find him among the crowd.  Could be that some mischievous imp switched his head and torso - we'll have to leave it up to John to verify the new FDNY starter.

  It was hotter than...well, you know, so be prepared for the worst and bring your water bottles to fill up at the cooler, along with a towel or headband, or both.  A few open windows did not help much.

  The track will be painted anew next week, so the Amory will only be open for use next Monday and Tuesday.  This is your unofficial pre-notice.

  The sound system worked fine, with the old favorites of Thursday night races resounding the repeated themes of Chariots of Fire, Indiana Jones, and I think even Victory At Sea.  Missing was the large sign for the rules of the house, so I advise newbies to look them up on our website in the archives to avoid serious and minor infractions, which could lead to yelling, expulsion, or discourtesy, or harmful consequences.  (Of course a conscientious webmaster could take the opportunity to re-post them here for all to see).  [Why don't you just check them out on the Armory's website?- Ed.]

  The Front Runners were there en mass, looking like they doubled in size of their squads, so it may get a bit crowded at 8PM on Tuesdays if they continue to attend at the same rate.

  The inside sprint lanes remain confusing with the starting lines painted in both directions, producing a horizontal type of vertigo for this reporter.  Perhaps they can paint over the old lines and avoid the dizzying effect.  Some runners still persist in runner the old direction, so watch out.

  Remember to go easy on the turns in the first few sessions until acclimated, or your aching calves will yell at you loud and clear.  Let's hope for a healthy and fun indoor season for all.

• Welcome New Members [11/19/2003]  Welcome to our newest memebers Tyson Oberndorfer and Paul Saunders.  Recruitment points go to Devon Martin and James Siegel.  (As always, all the info is on the recruitment scoreboard.)  We've met Tyson a few times at the workouts, and we know that last year, he ran a 1:59.28 for the 800m and 4:05.74 for the 1500m.  We haven't met Paul, so we can't tell you anything about him.

• Tuesday Night Downtown Track Workout Report [11/19/2003]  This is the last downtown workout report of the year.  At least it should be, since we're just about ready to move up to the Armory, and we'll probably be up there Tuesday.  Or certainly by the Tuesday after that.  Or — well, just keep checking here for updates.  We'll certainly be running there one of these Tuesdays.  But we sympathize with those who have to make the choice.  When the weather's as conducive to running as it was last night (low 50s, not too strong a breeze off the river), it's hard to argue against staying in East River Park.  Especially when the 25 CPTCers who showed up only had to share the track with about 4 other people.
  
  On the other hand (there's always an 'other hand,' isn't there?), it is rather dark outside at 6:30 pm these days.  Really, really dark.  Basically night time already.  And the bathrooms at the track aren't open any more.  And the drinking fountains have been shut off, as well.  We can be a little dense sometimes, but we get the feeling that Mother Nature and the Parks Department are both trying to send us the same message:  you don't have to run at the Armory, but you can't run here.
  
  But last night, at least, we still could.  We could even have some announcements:  If you haven't sent in your Armory dues yet email Stacy Creamer to get that taken care of. The men's team won up at Van Cortlandt on Sunday, with our women taking second!  That's some strong running up there.  Remember the next big race: the Joe K 10K on December 14.  It's the last points race of the year.  Coach Tony encourages all the men to show up.  And Noah Lansner won a race on Saturday.  That wasn't an actual announcement, but Tony said that he meant to announce it, so we're putting it in here. ( And Noah's our brother, and we were the race director for said contest, so there's just a little bit of gloating involved here.)
  
  Following the success of last week's 12x400m workout, the coach thought long and hard about what to follow it with.  Then he gave up and modified the old workout slightly to get 6x800m.  We had a few of our NYC marathoners there, including Brad Weiss, Yves-Marc Courtines, Victor Osayi and Michael Rosenthal, all of whom were running a lot harder than we've ever been able to just two weeks after the big race.  Some of them were already talking about running a spring marathon, which led Margaret Angell to relate the story of how the London Marathon gave her a starting number in the 40,000s (that would be starting behind 40,000 other runners, as you probably figured out) before she explained who she was and they moved her to the front of the pack.  Good thing too, since she went on to finish 21st and qualify for the Olympic Trials.  Judging by the blistering times she was turning in at the track last night

• Speak Up! [11/18/2003]  We've heard from the doctors.  We've heard from the officials.  We've even heard a little from the accused athletes.  Why, asks ESPN's Tim Keown, haven't we heard more from the clean athletes?  Baseball's drug testing program is a joke.  Track & Field's is a mess.  Does anyone really think THG is the only (formerly) undetectable steroid out there?  Every time an athlete is cuaght cheating (and that's what steroid use is) it tarnishes the accomplishments of those who play by the rules.  It's time for this to stop.  Athletes and fans need to make it clear that they won't tolerate doping.  This isn't an issue that can be left to the officials or the unions or the media.  They're your sports.  They're our sports, whether we participate or just watch.  It's time to take them back.

• 2003 CPTC Award Nominations [11/18/2003]  Here are this year's CPTC award nominations.  The winners will be announced and presented with their awards at the CPTC Holiday Party on Saturday, December 6th.
  
  ROAD AWARDS
  Rookie of the Year: John Kerner, Catherine Stone-Borkowski, Susan Strazza
  Most Improved Performer: Yves-Marc Courtines, Elizabeth Kaicher, James Siegel, Gordon Streeter
  Comeback of the Year: Amy Sheeran, Mark Sowa, Aubin Sullivan, Takeshi Yamazaki
  Men's Masters Short Distance: Bob Holliday, Sid Howard, Tom Phillips
  Men's Masters Long Distance: Peter Allen, Stuart Calderwood, Victor Osayi, Alan Ruben, Fred Trilli
  Men's Open Short Distance: Kevin Arlyck, Craig Chilton, Armando Oliviera
  Men's Open Long Distance: Kevan Huston, Toby Tanser, Joe Tumbarello
  Women's Masters Short Distance: Stacy Creamer, Sylvie Kimche
  Women's Masters Long Distance: Alayne Adams, Yumi Ogita
  Women's Open Short Distance: Lauren Eckhart, Alexandra Horowitz, Audrey Kingsley, Margaret Schotte
  Women's Open Long Distance: Margaret Angell, Andrea Costello, Andrea Haver, Etsuko Kizawa
  
  TRACK AWARDS
  Best Middle Distance: Clinton Bell, Amerigo Rossi
  Best in Track: Frank Handelman, Sylvie Kimche, Sid Howard
  Most Improved Track Performer: Alan Bautista, Alexandra Horowitz, Darlene Miloski, Jerome O'Shaughnessy
  Best Track Comeback: John Affleck, Jessica Reifer, Tony Ruiz
  Most Versatile: Stuart Calderwood, Stacy Creamer, Armando Olivera, Catherine Stone-Borkowski
  Best Sprinter: Evan Bass Zeisel, David Epstein, Vram Malek
  
  TRIATHLON AWARDS
  Male Triathlete:  Adam Manewell, Gary McCraw, Zebulon Nelessen
  Female Triathlete:  Stephanie Gould, Anna Fyodorova, Margaret Schotte

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 11 - NOVEMBER 17, 2003

• Armory IDs [11/17/2003]  The following CPTC members are cleared to get into the Armory:

  Early Session (6:30 pm) Alayne Adams John Affleck Mark Albers Alan Bautista Leon Brown Stuart Calderwood Michael Dougherty David Edwards John Gleason Dan Hamner Richard Hamner Frank Handelman Alexandra Horowitz Sidney Howard Jesse Lansner Noah Lansner Bob Laufer Roger Liberman Eugene Lingner Jeff Lundwall Jonathan T. Mann Vram Malek Charles Miers Frank McConville Kim McConville Darlene Miloski Jim Ottaway Tom Phillips Noah Perlis Chris Price Adam Raphael Ronald Reid Jessica Riefer Julio Rodriguez Peter Rodriguez Mary Rosado Ken Shatzer Mindy Solkin Carlos Stafford Rob Zand

  Late Session (8:00 pm) Margaret Angell Bethany Aquilina Kevin Arlyck Jay Borok Roland Breitenberger Marvin Cabrera Jonathan Cane Glen Carnes Andrea Costello Stacy Creamer Mary Diver Dawn Eggerts Sean Fitzpatrick Laura Ford Stephanie Gould Sarah Gross Andrea Haver Otto Hoering Robert Jamieson Scott Johnson Ed Kasparek John Kerner David Lansner Marty Levine Harry Lichtenstein Jose Martinez Frank Morton Zeb Nelesson Adam Newman Derek O'Connor Andrea Ostrowski Chris Potter Kellie Quinones Michelle Santomassino Sandra Scibelli Margaret Schotte James Siegal Chris Solarz Bob Summers Mark Sowa Gordon Streeter Fred Trilli Joseph Tumbarello Phil Vasquez Jeff Wilson Casey Yamazaki

  If you're not on one of these lists and want access to the Armory for either session, please contact Stacy Creamer at screamer@randomhouse.com or at 212-782-8218 (day) . Please note that the "early"session runners will be able to get into the Armory this Tuesday, the "late"session runners won’t be able to get into the Armory until next Tuesday.

• Running for a Cause [11/17/2003]  Since I have whipped myself into somewhat decent shape and started running races independent of a collegiate team, I began to ponder how I could put all my hard work to use, to produce some meaningful and tangible good.  My solution: to run for a charity.  If this pilot fundraising is successful, I will choose a few races each year for which I will raise money by asking for pledges.  To make it more fun (and because I have a gambler's spirit in me):  I will also tell you my specific goals for that race and my chances for reaching those goals.  Then, if you wish, you can offer a higher pledge only if I meet that goal.
  
  I will be testing this fundraising idea with the San Diego Thanksgiving Run on November 27th.  All the money I raise will go to the St. Vincent de Paul homeless shelter.  Among other services, this charity runs a soup kitchen for which I volunteered several years ago.
  
  I suggest increasing your pledge 1.5 times if I run faster than 16:20, and 2 times if I run faster than 16:00.  I recently ran a three mile race that converted to a 5k time of roughly 16:25-16:30.  Running under 16 minutes may be less likely considering my recent training has been less than ideal, but it's still within my reach.
  
  Please e-mail me at obernt01@med.nyu.edu if you'd like to make a pledge.  Also, indicate if you'd like to participate in my little wager.  After the race, I will e-mail the race results to everyone who pledged a donation and tell you where to mail the donation.
  
  Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday,

  — Tyson Oberndorfer

• Ugliness Is Only Skin Deep [11/16/2003]  Stopped by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel late last night for a drink at the bar on the 35th floor.  It's a nice space, and it looks like it must have a great view of the park in daylight.  Shame that it's in such an ugly building.  Yes, the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle is finally open (at least in part), and, while we admit that it's not quite as ugly as we'd feared, that's not really saying much.  It's not the ugliest skyscraper in the city (that distinction belongs to the Westin Hotel).  It's not even the ugliest builiding on Columbus Circle, although it may inherit that title after the marble monstrosity on the circle's Southern side (a.k.a. 2 Columbus Circle) is renovated (the current plans suggest that the new design may actually be worse than the current one, but we won't know until it's finished).  None of this excuses the new building.  Columbus Circle is a great location.  It deserves a great building.

• Food for Thought [11/16/2003]  We knew that Atkins Diet wast trouble...  New York Mets' scout Bill Singer claims that the racially insensitive remarks he made to a Dodgers' official were caused by a chemical imbalance due to his low-carb diet.  It's unlikely that that explanation will keep him from getting fired.

• Better Late Than Never [11/16/2003]  The New York Times has finally noticed that Christmas, though it still comes but once a year, it seems to have arrived a bit early this year.  Glad they've finally caught on.  The Pepperidge Farm Christmas cookies started showing up in our office pantry before Halloween, and the holiday blitz began in full force on November 1.  Of course the Times claims that "Though it seems too early for Christmas, the fact is that holiday cheer is spreading through the city at the same speed it always does."  That's not really correct.  What they call "holiday cheer" (and we think of in various less-flattering terms) has been infecting our fair city at the same rate of the last few years, but far faster than it did even as recently at the mid-90s.  There was even a time (and it wasn't all that long ago) that the Christmas season began when Santa Claus made it to Macy's at the end of the Thanksgiving Day parade.  We have nothing against the commercialization of Chirstmas, but couldn't we focus a little more on Thanksgiving?  Now there's a holiday.  No presents, or singing or tacky trees covered with chintzy ornaments.  Just food and football.

• Armory Dues Deadline [11/15/2003]  If you mailed your check for the Armory very recently (after about Wednesday, November 12) please call Stacy Creamer to let her know that it’s on its way.  She's taking Central Park Track Club’s check up to the Armory on Monday so she need to know that your money is coming to include you on the list.  If she receives your check on Monday or later, that will be too late — unless you alert her now, either by calling her at 212-749-8145, or emailng her at screamer@randomhouse.com.

• Thursday Night Road Workout Report [11/14/2003]  Remember a few weeks back when we wrote about the cold wind known as "the hawk?"  Well, the hawk was definitely out last night.  Thankfully, we weren't.  The CPTC rule is that we run unless there is lightning.  Our own rule is that we run unless it gets in the way of our social life, which is why last night found us at a party instead of in the park.  Next week we move to middle distance, so get ready to start writing your own workout reports!

• Fashion Victims [11/13/2003]  We know there are some CPTC members who have reservations about the team color.  We urge them to check out ESPN's Worst Uniform Contest for a glimpse of what they could be wearing.  Orange ain't so bad now, huh?

• The Armory [11/12/2003]  Throughout the winter (starting 11/25 or 12/2 for Tony's distance group and 11/20 for Devon's middle-distance group) CPTC track workouts will be held indoors at The Armory (Ft. Washington Ave and 168th Street).

  In order to use this facility you must pay a fee for the whole season of either $150 for Tony's group (8pm) or $250 for Devon's group (6:30pm).  If you have not yet signed up, please mail your checks, payable to 'Central Park Track Club', to

  Stacy Creamer
  175 West 93rd Street
  Apt. 8C
  New York, NY 10025

  THESE CHECKS MUST ARRIVE BY THIS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH OR ELSE YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO USE THIS FACILITY FROM OUR OPENING DATE AND YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE INDIVIDUAL SIGN UP ARRANGEMENTS BY CONTACTING STACY CREAMER AT SCreamer@randomhouse.com.

  Grants or loans are available for individuals who may have difficulties paying some or all of these fees at this time.  Contact Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com.

• Tuesday Night Downtown Track Workout Report [11/12/2003]  Okay, where was everybody last night?  Was there a party we didn't hear about?  Were there free tickets available to the Islanders game?  A sneak preview of the new Looney Tunes movie?  Whatever it was, we had one of the smallest turnouts we've ever seen.  Rather than a count, here's the names of everyone who showed up:  Alayne Adams, Margaret Angell, Kevin Arlyck, Thierry Beniflah, Sarah Gross, Sid Howard, Elizabeth Kaicher, Jesse Lansner, Noah Lansner, Victor Osayi, Chris Potter, John Roberts, Michael Rosenthal, James Siegel, and Brad Weiss.  Harry Lichtenstein showed up halfway through the workout, and Yves-Marc Courtines bladed over at the end to run a few recovery laps.  Yes, you'll notice that even Coach Tony wasn't there, so the workout was lead by Sid Howard instead.  With so few people there was no point in any announcements, other than a moment of silence in honor of Joe Kleinerman.
  
  And then, with Victor timing, the runners split into their "groups" of 2-3 people, and embarked on the 12x400m workout.  With generally fast intervals, and very short rest, there's really nothing to report about the workout itself, so we move on to what came after...
  
  Then, after the workout (notice who we set up that seamless transition there) Michael Rosenthal tried to explain why running  the Philadelphia Marathon three weeks after he ran the New York City Marathon would not be a monumentally bad idea.  Nobody was buying it, especially not those of us who've tried it.  Then Sid offered to pace him in any marathon he wants in 2005.  Except 2005 is the next World Masters Championshps, so he changed the offer to 2006.  And no doubt something will come up then, too.  In fact, we'd offer odds on whether Sid runs a marathon in the next 10 years, but even at 1,000:1, who'd take them?

• Joe Kleinerman [11/11/2003]  We are saddened to report that Joe Kleinerman, a co-founder of the NYRRC, passed away today at 91.

• Around the World Update #9 [11/11/2003]  Dear all,
  
  Here we are, at the other side of the World, in Australia. It is the first non-third World country in our itinerary, and the only one with New Zealand.
  
  Diving
  We included Australia for a very specific reason: we wanted to dive in the Great Reef Barrier.
  
  We started diving 8 or 9 years ago in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and progressively passed the first three levels of PADI diving (Open Water, Advanced and Rescue), but hadn't dived in 5 years. After a quick refresher course in a swimming pool, off we went for a 4-day cruise exclusively dedicated to diving.
  
  On the boat, we could dive up to 6 times a day: at 6 AM, 8 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 4 PM and 7 PM (night dive). We dived 15 and 16 times, respectively, in 72 hours, which is a lot ! For 4 days, all the conversations were about dive sites, wreck diving, deep diving, dive photography, corals and fish. The cook, the cleaning lady, the skipper were all divers and dived with us at some point during their "rest time". Eat and sleep were side activities only used to get ready for the next dive and lower the nitrogen absorbed by our blood underwater.
  Our favorite dive site was a huge coral block with a mushroom shape. We would start 30 meter-deep and swim in circle around the block, observing the different layers of marine life. There were invariably the sharks (up to 2 meter-long), turtles and rays between 30m and 20m, dozens of barracudas between 20m and 15m, the boxfish, clowfish, triggerfish and surgeonfish between 15m and 5m, plus thousands of colourful corals and animals in between.
  
  Our best dive was the third night dive. Night dives are always exciting because one can see the real colour of corals (the sea filters sunlight in such a way that some colours disappear, especially the red, and only artificial lighting can show the actual colour) . Also, one can get closer to fish, most of them being asleep or sleepy and being therefore slower to react. Finally, one can see murray eels, lobsters and sharks, which are usually hidden during the day. There is also the excitement of being in complete darkness, exclusively depending on the flashlight. The excitement was all the more so important that third night as we decided to dive without instructor and other dive partners.
  
  From Cairns to Brisbane
  Australia is an enormous country, almost as big as the USA, and the distances are so big that if you don't want to spend a fortune in airplane or drive thousands of kilometers without seeing a thing, the best bet is to drive along the East Coast. We rented a car and camped in our tent, more appropriate for trekking than for regular camping but it still does the job.  Compared to all the countries we visited, everything is easy and well-run in Australia, and one does not have to make in-depth inquiry to know where to go and how to go there, as there seems to be only road along the coast. In fact, it is so well organized that we are still looking for some real adventure.  For example, we have tried to find some good bush walking. The "bush" is the enormous eucalyptus forest that one invariably meets as soon as one leaves the coast. However, the walk tracks are no more than 6 or 7 km long and are so neatly arranged that it almost feels like walking in Central Park: beautiful, but not what we can call adventurous. Same comment for the piece of rainforest we visited in the North of Cairns. In general, most interesting places can only be reached through tours, and there is no way we can get to these places on our own and set our own agenda, which is what we like to do.
  
  Still, in spite of the real estate development, the wildlife remains impressive and everyday we bumped into new animals: kangaroos (in our campsite !), snakes, huge lizards (varans), cockatoos, parrots, etc. There is a drawback, though. North, we could not swim because of the box jellyfish or "stinger". Its stings can be lethal and at the very least can cause excruciating pain and permanent scarring. South, we cannot swim either, because of sharks (more aggressive than the ones we saw while diving)...
  
  We should be arriving in Brisbane in 3 or 4 days and leave for New Zealand.
  
  Itinerary:
  Sept 25,26,27,28: Cairns (recovering from Indonesia...),
  Sept 29,30,31,Nov 1: Diving
  Nov 2, 3: Cairns
  Nov 4: Noah Beach,
  Nov 5: Cape Tribulation, Mission Beach
  Nov 6: Mission Beach, Airlie Beach
  Nov 7: Airlie Beach, South Molle Island
  Nov 8: Sarina Beach
  Nov 9: Great Keppel Island
  Nov 10: Agnes Water
  Nov 11: Rainbow Beach
  A lot of beaches, and a lot of kilometers on the road.
  
  Hope everybody is doing well,

  — Anne Lavandon & Olivier Baillet

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 4 - NOVEMBER 10, 2003

• Ad Nauseum [11/10/2003]  Two ads we saw recently:  The one for Citibank, placed on a taxi, read "You could save money by walking, but then, you'd be walking."  The one for Continental Airlines read "Businessfirst has the widest seats.  Go ahead, have the sundae."  Glad to see these companies are so concerned with America's obesity epidemic (not to mention the environment).

• Talkin' Turkey [11/10/2003]  New York Road Runners has dropped their Thanksgiving Day race this year, but the Prospect Park Track Club has come forward with their own Turkey Trot.  Thursday, November 27 at 9:00 am in Prospect Park.  Lots of really large trophies, plus fresh pies to the top three men and women.  See the PPTC site for details and registration.

• Double Trouble [11/10/2003]  From ESPN:

UN officer runs NYC course twice in one day

NEW YORK — A United Nations officer thought running the New York City Marathon was so nice he did it twice.

Kevin Shelton-Smith ran 26.2 miles in the morning before the official race started, then covered another 26.2 miles along with the rest of the field in the actual marathon.

"I'm always looking for a new challenge to find the limits of my body — to be all you can be," said the 43-year-old Englishman, a peacekeeping air operations officer for the UN and an accomplished marathoner.

Shelton-Smith started in Central Park at 5 a.m. ET and ran the course from the finish line to the start, stopping along the way to talk with race volunteers.  He reached the race staging area at Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island side of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 3 hours, 45 minutes.

That gave Shelton-Smith about 90 minutes to rest before taking off with the rest of the 35,286 entrants at the official starting time of 10:10 a.m.

Running conservatively at the start to feel stronger in the later stages of the race, Shelton-Smith finished the official marathon in 3:35:45.  Last year, he finished the marathon in 2:47.

• The Last Picture Show [11/09/2003]  At least we hope it is...  The last 100 photos from the Marathon are now up.  With so many pictures this year (362 at last count), we've split the photos into four pages.  When we have more free time than we know what to do with (and that won't be any time soon) we may add some photos from other sites.  And we may yet receive more photos from our members.  But for now, this is it for marathon photos, which means we can get back to work on the rest of the site.

• Strike One [11/09/2003]  The U.S. baseball team will not be defending its Olympic title in Athens next year, after losing to Mexico in the qualifying tournament on Friday (Cuba and Canada won the two spots open for the Americas).  The International Olympic Committee already tried to cut baseball from future games (a vote on eliminating sports was postponed until at least next year), and the lack of a U.S. team (and the U.S. television ratings that go with it) at next year's games will not help the sport's supporters. It is unlikely that baseball would be on the chopping block if major league players were allowed in the Olympics.  Yet, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and VP Sandy Alderson still refuse to let major leaguers play.  Alderson offered the laughable excuse that "M.L.B. will simply not shut down its season to accommodate an Olympic tournament."  Does he really believe there's no room in a six month season for one week of Olympic play?  The NHL galdly shuts down for the Olympics every four years.  What makes this claim even more ridiculous is (1) the fact that the qualifying tournament started after the World Series had ended, and (2)  MLB's attempts to promote the sport internationally and even to set up a Baseball World Cup.  The only reason we can think of that MLB might want to keep the best American (and Dominican, Venezuelan, Japanese and Korean) players from competing in front of a billion fans is a fear of what Olympic drug testing may turn up in these players.  That wouldn't be a problem if baseball had real drug testing on its own, but, in a rare moment of agreement last year, the owners and players decided to try ignoring the entire issue of steroids in the hope that it might go away on its own.  Yeah, that'll work out well.  The late Bill Veeck once remarked that "Baseball must be a great game, because the owners haven't managed to kill it yet."  If only they'd stop trying.

• A Picture Is Worth 1000 Hits [11/08/2003] The week after the New York City Marathon is the busiest week of the year for our website.  There are a number of good reasons.  The most obvious reason is that our team had 82 finishers this year, which generated lots of interest about them.  More significantly, our website carries a large number of photos.  In fact, by 9pm on marathon evening, we already had nearly 100 photos posted.  It would be days before other local sites had anything up.  At this time, we have more than 250 posted, with perhaps a hundred more left to process.
  
  These happenings can be quantified through our web access logs (see here for details).  Over the five days from Monday through Friday after the marathon, we had:

  • 3,516 home page visits
  • 9,116 user sessions
  • 15,495 page views
  • 236,572 hits

  • 3,720,947 kilobytes (3.7 gigabytes) transferred

  As always, we can reduce the lesson here as, "It's the photos, stupid!"

• Talking About the Weather [11/08/2003]  Here's the deal people:  In the summer it gets hot.  In the winter it gets cold.  When it gets too hot or too cold, then it's a problem.  When it's 31°F (-1°C) in the middle of November, that's not really cold enough that the National Weather Service should be issuing a severe weather alert:

BRONX NY-KINGS (BROOKLYN) NY-NASSAU NY-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN) NY-QUEENS NY-RICHMOND (STATEN IS.) NY-955 PM EST SAT NOV 8 2003

...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM EST SUNDAY REMAINS IN EFFECT...

TEMPERATURES WILL DROP BELOW FREEZING AFTER MIDNIGHT...AND BOTTOM OUT AROUND 30 DEGREES BY DAYBREAK. RESIDENTS WHO WISH TO KEEP ANY ANNUAL PLANTINGS ALIVE WILL NEED TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE COLD.

Isn't a "Freeze Warning" something from either a cop show or a playground game?  And since when is it the government's job to keep our plants alive?  If it is, why doesn't somebody there send me reminders to water the plants at least once a week?  Are we just cynical in thinking this warning was issued only because we're in the middle of Winter Preparedness Week?  We can't wait for next week, when the NWS reminds us to carry an umbrealla when it rains.

• Thursday Night Road Workout Report [11/07/2003]  Thursday's workout had almost as many things going against it as Tuesday's.  It was still dark, again raining, and our 81 marathoners weren't that much more recovered from their race than they were two days ago.  Not that that prevented several of them from being among the 35 runners who showed up at the statue.  (Attendance was helped a bit by the presence of some middle distance runners, non of whom had run the marathon.) The rain had been heavy in the afternoon, but by the time we all started congregating it was down to an on-and-off drizzle.  Which, unfortunately, encouraged Coach Tony to talk for even longer than usual.  Congratulations went out to various marathoners, present or not.  Then there was a lot of talk about the marathon simulator on the Road Runners website.  Then some more congratulations.  And a couple of announcement about the awards dinner and the run at Alan Ruben's this week.  And – c'mon, let's run already!  Even Jerome O'Shaugnessy is complaining about the cold!
  
  So, at 7:20 – finally! – we started the workout of 6.5 miles (up the west side, through the transverse, down to Cleopatra's Needle, and then turn around and go back).  And suddenly our 35 attendees were reduced to about 20 runners.  Well, the fact that Mark Sowa and Neon Dion were in street clothes was a pretty good clue that they weren't there to run, and Stuart and Stacy and a few other runners mentioned they had just stopped by for the accolades before heading off to other functions.  But some marathoners, like Susan Strazza and Michael Rosenthal, did head off at a recovery pace.  The rest of us, theoretically, went off at our marathon paces, being careful to avoid slipping on the wet leaves covering most of the road.  Of course, the runners at the workout didn't run the NYC marathon, and generally don't run other marathons, either, so there was some confusion as to exactly what our marathon pace was.  We realized at the turn around that we weren't all that clear on our half-marathon pace, either, but that was less of a problem since we simply sped up a bit from our earlier pace.
  
  Note:  This is our last Thursday Night Road Workout for a while.  We have a family obligation next Thursday, and after that we're defecting to the Middle Distance Group for the winter.  We'll keep writing Tuesday Night Reports, and we'll also be writing Thursday Night Reports from the Armory, but we'll need someone to take over the reporting duties in Central Park.  Fame and fortune can be yours!  Just send us an email!

• Tuesday Workout Report Addendum [11/06/2003]  Rejoinder:  The original original Tuesday night track workout reporter wrote back:  "Rule #1:  Anyone who ran a marathon on Sunday cannot be at the track workout the following Tuesday.  Therefore, let the record reflect that Yves-Marc Courtines was not there; even if he was there, nobody saw him; even if he was seen, he will not be acknowledged; even if he was acknowledged, he was still not there ..."

• New Members [11/05/2003]  Welcome to our newest memebers:  Ted Bitter (formerly a CPTC member from 1988-1990), Eric Chang, Robert Neal, John Roberts and Erica Tricarico.  Recruitment points go to Margaret Angell, Noel Comess, Yves-Marc Courtines, Stacy Creamer (2 points), Sarah Gross, Sid Howard, Elizabeth Kaicher and Michael Rosenthal.  That's 41 new members this year, with 54 recruitment points.  See all the details on our recruitment scoreboard.

• Correction to the Tuesday Night Workout Report [11/06/2003]  Tony's CPTC teammates did come to his aid – namely in the form of the late, roller-blade arriving Yves-Marc Courtines who accompanied Coach Tony and Coach Brian back to Tony's locked car on Houston.
  
  A few points are worth noting:

  1. Upon reading the Workout Report, Mr. Courtines is perplexed to note that the Original Workout Reporter's reports have gone downhill so fast.  Mr. Courtines actually arrived at practice simultaneously with Jesse Lansner and actively greeted the Original Workout Reporter with a warm and blaring "HELLOOOOOOOOO, ROLAND!!!"  Perhaps Mr. Lansner is more easily recognized by the Original Workout Reporter via some form of journalistic courtesy that doesn't extend to our other teammates.

  Returning to the case of the locked out Coach:

  2. After accompanying Brian and Tony to the car, Yves-Marc was quickly dispatched to speed off on his rollerblades to a local dry cleaners just prior to their 7 PM close and garner a clotheshanger.  Upon his return to the vehicle (a 1995 Saturn), Coach Brian Denman began the process of trying to pry the inner lock open with the clotheshanger while Coach Tony held a flashlight provided by a nice lady that serves as the Security Watch for the neighboring tenement.  Eventually, this passerby even returned with a 2nd clotheshanger which, while immediately pressed into service, was useless in advancing the cause.  Finally, another neighbor casually walked by and freely provided a classic car-stealing "jimmy."  The CPTC community will be happy to note that each of Tony, Brian and Yves-Marc disclaimed any knowledge of how to put such a tool to work – whereupon our original nice neighbor promptly took charge and got the door open in a jiff.

  3. As Coach Tony searched for a $10 bill to reward this nice lady, the CPTC trio found itself with only $20 bills.  Thus, Yves-Marc's rollerblades were pressed into urgent service for the second time in 20 minutes – in order to reach the local bodega on Houston and return with change of the $20.  Tony was then able to do the right thing and reward our helpful neighbor with a crisp $10 bill.

  In summary, what Famous Saying was uttered by Coach Tony on the way back to the East 6th Street track . . . ?
  
  "Wow, it's a good thing you had those rollerblades today."

• Even More Marathon Photos [11/05/2003]  Just in case all the photos on this site aren't enough, check out Jim Rhoad's website.  Jim's posted about 2500 photos he took on the 59th Street Bridge.  Although there are no captions, the photos are all in order, and roughly correspond to the following half-marathon splits (courtesy of Flyer Declan O'Keeffe):  Page 25 – 1:32; Page 50 – 1:44; Page 75 – 1:58; Page 100 – 2:11; Page 125 – 2:30; Page 150 – 2:40.  When you're done with that, check out Men's Racing for photos of Alan Ruben, Stuard Calderwood, Gary McCraw and Victor Osayi.  Then surf on over to Neeraj Engineer's site for some more photos from mile 23.9.  And finally, come back here for the 200 photos we're still working on (they'll be up in a day or two).  And if all that still isn't enough, we really don't know what to tell you.

• Silence is Golden [11/05/2003]  Inspired perhaps by Groucho Marx's quip that "Women should be obscene and not heard," comes the latest way for singles to meet:  silent dating.  Supposedly this craze has taken New York by storm (which may be news to New Yorkers), but its been spreading around the country and across the Atlantic.  Although this strikes us more as a gimmick to differentiate one speed dating company from another than as some commentary on the "curious eroticism of text," we wouldn't mind seeing our favorite bars get a little less noisy.

• Tuesday Night Downtown Track Workout Report [11/05/2003]  This report was filed by the original original Tuesday night track workout reporter, whereupon the job will revert to the new and improved reporters next week.  (In other words, he is just making sure that no one will blame him for the typographical errors in future reports).
  
  Everything was working against people showing up:

  1. this is the Tuesday after the New York City Marathon, in which 80 people had finished under the CPTC brand name;

  2. daylight savings time is now in place, so the East River Track is guaranteed to be pitch black;

  3. in the early afternoon, the temperature began to plunge and a light drizzle was falling down during the workout; indeed, it was a nuisance for the timekeeper, who had to wipe the water off his water every lap in order to read the time.

  Still, the headcount was 15 people at the start of the workout, with Margaret Angell and Jesse Lansner observed to come later.  An advantage of the smallness of the groups was that everybody ran tight together.
  
  Sid Howard was recruiting people for the group run in the Shawangunks Mountain this weekend.  Personally, the idea that we'll have to run 12 miles is hilarious.  However, Alexandra Horowitz reported that it may have beneficial effects:  "In my first long run ever, I was running with a group and I had no choice but to follow because I did not know the place and would have been lost."  Meanwhile, James Siegel said that he would not be there because he has a race in Rockville (comment:  not far away enough to win).
  
  Our coach was somewhat distracted by the fact that he had locked himself out of his car.  His team members were none too helpful, with one female suggesting "I have a coathanger!" and another local denizen topping with "I have a brick!"  His own idea was to go into the housing projects and see if someone would pop the car door for five dollars (which represents a lot of money for less than 2 seconds of work).  We did not see the outcome of his venture, as we raced towards Sid Howard's van for our ride home immediately after the workout.  However, it was later reported that the coach successfully opened the door to his car, although details of said opening were not provided.

• Football [11/04/2003]  The CPTC-Flyers football game is now scheduled for Sunday, November 23, at 2:00 pm. in Central Park (precise location to be determined).  To join the team just send us an email.

• Long-Distance Relationship [11/04/2003]  We're no fan of spam, but sometimes it does brighten up our in box.  Like today's message titled "iSingles has been re-opened."  Of course we're sent ads for dating services all the time, but this is the first one we've received for a dating service in another country (it's actually for iSingles UK).  Perhaps, because we have so many members hailing from the Commonwealth, spammers just assume we have offices around the world as well.  Well, we're happy to sign up for it, so long as the company will pay the transportation costs for our dates.

• Shawangunks Mountain Group Run [11/04/2003]  Anyone interested in a run this Sunday on carriageway trails with breathtaking views, lakes and cliffs, please contact Sid Howard at sidsuper@msn.com or 212-693-0770.  People with their own transport are especially welcome.  We will be meeting at Alan Ruben's weekend house at 10:00 am (about 90 minutes from the city).