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Week of November 30, 2004 - December 6, 2004 Armory - Late Session Here is the list of runners who are good to go for the late session (8:00 pm) at the Armory, starting tomorrow.
Top of the Times Those of you who are curious about what goes on at 255 West 43rd, where we held our Awards dinner, should check out this article titled "What Would It Take to End Homelessness?" from the January 2003 issue of Fast Company. The article tells a bit about Roseanne Haggerty, who 14 years ago started transforming ramshackle historic buildings in New York City into genteel, safe and affordable housing for people on the fringes of society. Her nonprofit organization, Common Ground Community, has been featured on "60 Minutes" and honored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which in 2001 awarded her one of its $500,000 "genius grants." Common Ground operates The Times Square Hotel (Top of the Times), site of our Awards dinner last Saturday.
Race Calendar New York Road Runners has released their race schedule for January and February. Running Lecture Urban Athletics is offering a free runner's clinic this Saturday, December 11 at 9:30 am at their Upper East Side location (92nd St. and Madison Aven.). John Connors, DPM FACFO, whose patients include World Record Holders, Olympians, and many World Class Athletes!* (Joyce Chepchumba, Lyubov Denisova, Abdi Abdirahman, Lornah Kiplagat, Jon Bon Jovi, Asmae Leghzaoui, Tegla Loroupe, amongst a galaxy of others) is giving a lecture on the running foot, shoes, and all matters pertaining to the joint. You will learn so much about the most important appendix we all rely on for running! Following the lecture Lauren Wallack Antonucci, MS, RD, CDE, CDN Registered Dietitian - Sports Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator and advisor to the New York City Leukemia and Lymphoma Society will give a second lecture on off-season nutrition, avoiding winter weight gain and getting off on the right (nutrition) foot for early season 2005 races. Plus holiday store discounts and bagels. Space is still available. RSVP to Toby Tanser at tobytanser@aol.com. 2004 Award Winners TRACK AWARDS MULTI-SPORTS AWARDS ROAD AWARDS "CPTC" AWARDS SERVICE AWARDS MVP Awards Party Photos We have photos from the party and the after-party. Many of you also have photos from the party and after-party. We want them all. So, all of you who had cameras (and we remember who most of you are), please email any photos you have to us at webmaster@centralparktc.org. Feel free to edit them before sending, but we're happy to deal with all the grunt work like cropping, adjusting the lighting, and eliminating red eye. If you have too many photos for your email system to handle, just send us a note and we'll figure out an alternate method. It's Not Like We Already Wrote Too Much About This Yesterday, Or Anything Alternative titles for yesterday's post about Customized Classics:
Also, for those interested in the Thursday Next novels – which, assuming you have good taste, should be all of you – a much better site is thursdaynext.com. We didn't link to it yesterday becasue their server was down, but it's back up now. Armory Rules The rules at the Armory are mostly the same as last year, but we're printing them again just to remind you:
And there's one new rule: No beverages other than water allowed on the track. So save the gatorade for the subway ride home. Armory Late Session Tony’s distance group will be starting workouts at the Armory this coming Tuesday, December 7. The workout begins at 8:00 PM. Late session runners may be admitted to the Armory starting at 7:45 PM. The following is a list of people who are cleared to be admitted. If your name is not on this list, you’re not good to go. If your name is not here and you want to start running this coming Tuesday night, you must call Stacy Creamer at 212-749-8145. Unless you speak to her directly by Saturday night at the party, you won’t be able to start on December 7.
Steroids He bulked up. He dropped 15 pounds as soon as baseball started testing for steroids. He battled the tendinitis that so often results from steroid use. He missed most of last season with a variety of mysterious maladies. And throughout it all, Jason Giambi denied that he'd ever been on steroids. At least, he denied it publicly. But on Decembere 11, 2003, he admitted to the grand jury investigating BALCO that he had taken steroids for two years. He injected testosterone, human growth hormone, Deca Durabolin, applied "the cream" and "the clear," and took various pills that he could only identify by color, although one was probably Clomid, a female fertility drug that can enhance the effectiveness of testosterone. And he got almost all of it from Greg Anderson, who is Barry Bonds' personal trainer, and was indicted along with Victor Conte in the BALCO scandal. Conte, meanwhile is telling all (or at least a lot) to ESPN and, Friday night at 10 pm, to 20/20 (channel 7 in NYC). Conte says he had no contact with baseball players, but did give steroids to Anderson. He also says he gave steroids to Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Kelli White, Dwain Chambers and Bill Romanowski, and that most of his clients were already using steroids before they came to him. But he doesn't regret it:
A Rose
By Any Other Name Would Be a Really Dumb Idea Don't know what to get your spouse/partner/friend with benefits/person you're stalking for the holidays? If you have absolutely no soul, why not give the Customized Classics version of Romeo and Juliet, now starring you! Yes, for just $29.95 (plus shipping and handling), you can get a copy of William Shakespeare's immortal classic rewritten with your very own name! What could be more romantic than a story starring you and your true love in which you're a murderer, her father forces her to marry someone else, and then you both die at the end? But don't think the folks at Customized Classics haven't thought of that. In fact, for no extra cost you can get their special Happy Ending Version:
Can't understand that faux-Shakesperian dialogue? (Faux because: (1) Shakespeare never included frills like "rubbing their eyes" in his stage directions; (2) We doubt any of this is correct 16th Century grammar; and (3) The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator comes closer to sounding like Shakespeare than this crap.) Don't worry, there's also a version in modern faux-English:
Oh good! Now it's a nice romantic story in which only three people (Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris) are brutually murdered! Thanks, honey! But, you ask, what if I'm not into Shakespeare, but still want to be in a classic work of literature (though not in the Thursday Next sense)? Don't think Customized Classics is ignoring your needs! Check out some of these other titles you can be in: A Christmas Carol (for all of us who've always wanted to be Scrooge), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (for those with multiple personalities), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (for those who think they're smarter than everyone else), and Moby-Dick (for really fat people). Still not convinced? Think that the folks at Customized Classics are desecrating classic works of literature? Not to worry. Just check out their FAQ:
Yes, we can just picture a little girl opening her Christmas present and saying "Gee, dad, I'd always thought Moby-Dick looked boring, but now that the first line reads 'Call me Brittany,' I can't wait to read it. And what's even better is that the whale is now named Pookie, just like our cat!" And we wonder why nobody reads anymore. [Thanks to the orange girl for the link.] And If He Fires You, You Can Always Write for the Post Ever wanted to be a write, but felt that the standards for publication on this page were just too tough? You might consider applying for this job with the Brooklyn Skyline. Some of the requirements:
We might apply (if the job didn't require owning a car), but only to teach the publisher (who we assume wrote the ad) how to use a dash correctly. ARMORY – IMPORTANT If you wish to attend the sprinters or middle distance workouts at the Armory (the 6:30 session) and have not yet sent in your check, you must send it to:
Include a passport-sized photo and a check for $275 made out to "ARMORY FOUNDATION." Do not make the check out to CPTC. Before coming to the Armory, please email Ed Small at ed@armorytrack.com to confirm that your check has been received and that you will be able to run. The Armory staff have been a little slow in processing some of the checks, and some of our members were not able to get into the workout last night, even though they had already sent their checks in. Do not assume that you will be able to get into the Armory unless you have received confirmation from Ed Small. This applies to everyone who sent their checks in to the Armory directly, no matter when you did so. So far, the people who sent their checks in through the club haven't had any problems (listed below), but even if you are on this list you may want to check with the Armory staff in advance, just to be safe. It's not much fun to take the train all the way up there just to find out you aren't allowed to run.
Awards Dinner We have over 100 people attending our Awards Dinner this Saturday and it is still not too late to secure the reduced $40 rate by emailing Sarah Gross at SGross@Marakon.com. WHEN: Saturday, December 4th, 2004, 7pm - 12am Awards Dinner Protest Speaking of the Awards Dinner, John Scherrer has a few comments/complaints. First, "why are there separate gender categories in the road awards while the men and women get lumped together in the track awards?" Not our decision, thankfully. If were up to us, there might be an award for Best Men's Open Middle Distance Runner from Brooklyn, but that 's just because we're a trophy whore. Second, he thinks we "could do so much more" with the Awards Dinner, which implies that he's never been to the after-parties. Sorry, it means we should have more clever (i.e., non-running) awards, like Best British Accent and Best Restaurant Review. And perhaps an award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. There were such awards once upon a time, and they were known as the Website Awards. If you're good (and if you all send us some nominees), perhaps we'll reinstate them this year. Also, he writes "I hope to have an office pool to join soon to see who can predict the winners." So we're setting one up. Email your guesses to webmaster@centralparktc.org, and we'll figure out some prize to give the winner. As a tiebreaker question, you can try to guess who will get the most drunk at the party or after-party. Tuesday Night Armory Workout Report So you know how for those first workouts back at the Armory it just feels so hot inside and the air is so dry and you can't even finish a full workout because of the heat and the dryness and also because you haven't done speed workouts for a few weeks and you just lie there next to the track after your last interval, soaked in sweat, with your heart pounding so hard that you think it might actually pop out of your chest like in the old Looney Tunes cartoons? Could you write a workout report after that? Actually, we could, but the truth is that nothing interesting happened and we're too tired to make up anthing right now. But we've already come up with some good fictional content for the next workout, just in case. Dasypygal Sam Frank sent us this word, which means "having hairy buttocks." Thanks, but we'll stick to callipygian. I'll Take "Waste of Time for $200, Alex" Today's bizarre topic on the Let's Run message boards is "How fast could Ken Jennings run a 5k?" We really should stop reading the forums. 2004 CPTC Award Nominations 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 4th. ROAD AWARDS TRACK AWARDS MULTI-SPORTS AWARDS New Members Welcome new members Lauren Esposito, Edward Kratt and Morgan Neuwirth. Recruitment points go to old members Neil Brenner, Frank Handelman, Andrea Haver, Sid Howard, Kate Irvin and Harry Lichtenstein, with an honorable mention to Tony Ruiz. This does something to the Recruitment Scoreboard, either solidifying Sid's lead at seven, or, if he's not eligible to win (which we think may be the case), giving us a 9-way tie for the lead, with everyone having two. We'd try to figure it out, but we're too busy trying to understand how the BCS works. Photo Andrea Ostrowski writes:
Maybe next time Sean will wear orange and we'll get a photo of him from the front. Words, Words, Words "Blog" was the most-often looked-up word on Merriam-Webster's website this year. (Or at least the first 11 months of the year, as King Kaufman would probably insist upon calling it if he wrote about language instead of sports. By the way, the fact that we have our awards dinner in early December does not mean that we work on an 11-month calendar here. The 2004 awards include all five races that CPTCers ran in December 2003, along with everything so far in 2004.) They provide the following definition for the term:
That's probably a little too narrow, but it's good enough. More interesting was the rest of the list:
Assuming this list is accurate (and the fact that "A Merriam-Webster spokesman said it was not possible to say how many times blog had been looked up on its Web sites" doesn't instill us with too much confidence in the results), we worry a little about America. Sure, peloton isn't the most commonly used word, and cicada only pops up every 17 years, but the rest? Other than the fact that partisan tends to be misused a lot these days, these are the sort of words most people should already know. We would expect the list to be full of either "slightly difficult but still generic nonspecialized vocabulary" or uncommon words that are suddenly thrust into everyday usage (à la chad in 2000). Although neither category explains the presence of defenestration, which we're surprised to see on the list, as we haven't heard of too many people being thrown out of windows recently. In fact, we've rarely seen the word defenestration used in reference to anything that happened outside of Prauge, where throwing people out of windows is the traditional method of sparking religous wars or killing anti-Soviet Foreign Ministers. (Yes, it's possible that Jan Masaryk jumped out of the window of his own accord, although if he did he was just saving the Soviets the trouble of killing him at a later – probably not much later – date.) Two good exceptions that Google turned up are The Unix Guide to Defenestration and this tortured opening sentence from a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Femocrat, by the way, is not to be found in Merriam-Webster, but it seems the term was "originally coined by feminist groups as an insult to women who they believed had crossed over from radical politics to work in the mainstream, to work within the bureaucratic system," and has now morphed into representing the entire Office of the Status of Women, which was, until last month, a cabinet-level department in Australia. As it turns out, defenestration was the winner of Merriam-Webster's "What's Your Favorite Word?" poll earlier this year, which produced this wonderful list:
Thanks to our vast store of useless knowledge, we were familiar with all the words on that list except callipygian, which is now our favorite from the list, since it turns out to mean "having shapely buttocks." Bread The Global Surveillance System may be slow sometimes, but eventually it comes across everything. Like this profile of Noel Comess and his bakery business. Thanks to GSS Agent Margaret Schotte – who's been finding lots of good articles lately – for the link. Week of November 23, 2004 - November 29, 2004 Singles Night Remember the Washington Wizards' singles night we mentioned about a month ago? Laura Boswell (who's no Stacey Pressman) has the scoop on how it all turned out, over at Page 3. We're sure you're all very interested in this. Gunder Hagg Gunder Hagg, who held the world record in the mile (4:01.4) from 1945 until 1954, when Roger Bannister broke it, died yesterday. You Are What You Don't Eat Some guy on the Let's Run message boards doesn't like pasta. If we ever get the restaurant review section going here again, we don't want him participating. Awards Dinner We need to get a headcount of who's attending the Awards Dinner this Saturday so we know how much food to order. We've eaten at Mama's Food Shop, and we can tell you right now that you don't want to miss out on their food, and you really don't want to have to fight us off as we go for seconds (or thirds). If you are planning to attend by haven't sent your check in yet, please email Sarah Gross at SGross@Marakon.com as soon as possible. WHEN: Saturday, December 4th, 2004, 7pm - 12am
Best Times 2 We were so busy focusing on the marathon times that we overooked Andrea Haver's stunning 23:01 at the Race to Deliver 4-Miler. That's good for third place on the Best Times list, one second ahead of fourth place (Margaret Angell) and one second behind second (Laurie Madson). Photos A small set this time, from last Sunday's Race to Deliver, courtesy of Richard Brounstein of the New York Flyers. Best Times The list of best marathon times are now updated. The list of men who've run sub-3:00 in NYC now includes faster times for Joe Tumbarello, Bill Komaroff and Olivier Baillet, and new appearances by Kevin Arlyck, Sam Frank and Neil Brenner. They all make the general sub-3:00 list, as does Mark Yarnell, who ran the Philadelphia Marathon. On the women's side, Kathryn Masselam and Amy Hurtubise join the sub-3:30 NYC list and regular sub-3:30 list. They're joined on the second list by Tiffanee Hager and Anna Shaver, who also earned their spots in Philadelphia. Turkey Trot Okay, your choice for Thursday morning is simple. Watch a bunch of baloons and celebrities (both filled with equal amounts of hot air) wander down Central Park West, or hop over to Brooklyn for a run. Do you even need to think about this? Of course you're going to run the Prospect Park Track Club's Turkey Trot!!! Especially because they're giving away cool backpacks to all the runners. And homemade pies to the top three men and women. Philly Photos Photos from the Philadelphia Marathon are now posted. Running Dogs Tired of working out with your teammates? A new experiment suggests that working out with your dog may be a good idea. It doesn't do the person any more good then exercising alone, but at least it gets the dog in shape. Now if anyone can get our cat to slim down a bit, we'd appreciate it. Apostrophe Abuse If there's one thing that annoys us more than bad grammar and improper punctuation, it's the media attention lavished on obnoxious, talentless celebrities like Paris Hilton. So you can imagine our reaction to these photos of the braindead Barbie herself wearing a shirt that reads "THATS HOT!" on the front and "YOUR NOT!" on the back. Is she so anorexic that she can't fit the extra letters onto her shirt, or is she just so incredibly stupid that she doesn't know the shirt is wrong? We're going with the latter explanation. Week of November 16, 2004 - November 22, 2004 Marathon Photos 3 The third, and probably final, set of marathon photos is now up. These last photos are split between two pages - one covering the Wall of Orange and the other covering the post-race party and Andrea Haver's day at the race. Of course, if you send us more photos we'll be happy to post them, but for the next few days we'll be dealing with everything else that's been filling up our inbox. That includes photos from the Philadelphia Marathon, the taking of which is what kept us from updating the site over the weekend. CPTC Awards Dinner Don't Miss CPTC's Annual Awards Dinner & Party at Top of the Times, 255 West 43rd Street at 8th Avenue on Saturday, December 4th (7pm to Midnight). Food deliciously prepared by Mama's Food Shop, plenty of drinks, dancing to the latest (and not-so-latest) rock, house, latin and hiphop music, and of course, award presentations by Coach Tony and Coach Devon, make this the place to be. Tickets in advance: $40 Checks payable to CPTC can mailed to:
Or you can pay in person at the Tuesday/Thursday workouts to either Sarah Gross or Devon Martin. Cars Out of Central Park Not yet, but we're getting closer. The City announced new rules regarding park traffic yesterday, including allowing cars in the park only from 7-10 am and 3-7 pm. Unfortunately, the new hours don't start until January 3. Until then, we'll have "holiday hours," with the park open to traffic 24 hours a day during the week. But at least cars won't be able to use the entrances and exits at West 72nd Street, West 77th Street, West 90th Street, East 90th Street and East 102nd Street. Sushi Classes at SOY I have scheduled three sushi classes for December.
In two and a-half hours, you'll master the art of sushi roll making. We'll make sushi rice, prepare fish and vegetables, and make cut rolls and Sushi Master Class (1 session) Fee: $50 includes materials To reserve a seat in any of the dates above with a credit card, please call us at (212)253-1158 during our business hours (Mon-Fri 12 noon to 11 pm, Sat. 5pm to 11pm).
The Perfect Answer There's no need to actually read any of this dicussion on Let's Run, especially if you have any self-respect left. But we loved seeing this one response to the question "My girlfriend and her family are weird. What do I do?"
For more humorous stupidity, check out the responses to "My girlfriend runs more than me, is this a problem?" And speaking of self respect, we just thought we'd link to the video of Anna Nicole Smith's drunken appearance at the American Music Awards. Here Kitty We were worried that this was just another example of the bizarre "post photos of cats on Friday" thing that bloggers do, which would have been weird as it's mostly political bloggers who do that and banterist isn't really that political. Luckily the post turned out to be a funny – if rather odd – explanation about the dynamics of bringing a new baby into a household that has a cat. And we thought nothing could beat their grammar cop section. Delayed Muscle Soreness You know how sometimes your whole body is sore the day after a hard workout? The Times offers some insight on why, along with a few recommendations on how to prevent it. Basically you should train more and eat after workouts. Updated Armory Sign-Up Rules EARLY SESSION (6:30 PM-8:00 PM Tuesdays, Thursdays: Devon’s Middle Distance & Kobie’s Sprinters): Please register directly with the Armory. You can do so by mail or in person (at the Armory between the hours of 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM weekdays). You need to submit your check in the amount of $275 made payable to “The Armory Foundation” along with a passport-sized photo. (See the instruction letter and contract, which includes the mailing address). LATE SESSION (8:00 PM-9:30 PM Tuesdays: Tony’s Roadies): Please mail your check in the amount of $175 payable to “Central Park Track Club” along with a passport-sized photo as soon as possible to:
As soon as we have 30 people signed up, individuals may register directly with the Armory at the $175 rate. Please keep checking the website to find out when we hit the 30 mark (which gets us the group discount). Marathon Photos 2 The second set of marathon photos are now posted. There are 92 photos in this set, from Michael Siegell (Mile 16), Jim Rhoades, who always takes lots of photos for his website (mile 22), and Isaya Okwiya and Joe Golden of the Westchester Track Club (mile 23.5), who were kind enough to send us several dozen photos they took of our runners. We've got about a hundred photos left, from the Wall of Orange, the post-race party at the Parlour, and some other spots around the course. And for more photos, check out Men's Racing and fast-women. Born to Run A new study suggests that the evolution of the human body was entirely due to run long distances while hunting and scavanging for food. The full article is in Nature (subscription required), but here's most of the important stuff, from nature.com:
New Sprint Coaches We're pleased to welcome our new sprint coaches, Kobie Fuller and Tony Ruiz. Some of you may be familiar with Kobie, as he's been running with the team for about a year now. And all of you should be familiar with Tony, since he's been on the team forever, and is already the coach for the road group. But, just in case, here are their sprint resumes, courtesy of Devon Martin. Open Sprinters Kobie's Accomplishments:
For those interested in joining CPTC's open sprint group (& to get on the sprint email list), please email Kobie at kobie_fuller@yahoo.com. Masters Sprint Group Tony's Sprint Accomplishments:
For those interested in joining CPTC's masters sprint group (& to get on the masters sprint email list), please email Tony at coachtruiz@aol.com. Tuesday Night Workout Report Talking about this site the other day, Dad said that reads it daily, but often skips over the workout reports. So just for him we're skipping last night's report. Well, there's also the fact that we didn't go to the workout last night (we had a better offer, which involved food), but not actually witnessing an event has never stopped us from writing about it in the past. Black and White Movies Why do we still read the Times? With its moronic statements like this one in an article about the forthcoming Honeymooners movie: "At a time when the best rapper in the world may be a white guy and the best golfer in the world may be a black guy, it should not be surprising that the roles of two men who think their middle-class aspirations are just one caper away from fulfillment are black." First of all, publications like the Times shouldn't be using the word "guy." Second, this comparison wasn't all that clever when it was first being emailed around five years ago. And third, it's completely wrong. Oh, Eminem may be the best rapper in the world these days (it's an entirely subjective title, and we're not about to get into a debate on that right now), and he is white. But Tiger Woods, who we assume is the golfer in question, is multiracial: his father is black and his mother is Asian. Reducing the complexities of race in America to simple black and white – with their attending sterotypes – is a sign of the intellectual laziness that leads reporters to think that having Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps take the place of Jackie Gleason and Art Carney is somehow front-page news (front page of the Arts section, but still). Although it's possible that the point of the article is that such casting should not be a big deal (which makes the piece nearly as pointless as the one we complained about on Monday), which makes the comparisons to Eminem and Tiger entirely misplaced. Yes, Eminem is at the top of his field, but name another successful white rapper. Or another top African-American golfer. There's no reason blacks can't be good golfers and whites can't be good rappers (Vanilla Ice notwithstanding), but at the top levels Tiger and Eminem are solitary exceptions. If those two are the only examples we have, then it should be very surprising that Cedric is playing Ralph Kramden, as we would expect only the biggest stars (Denzel Washington, say) to be offered roles originally written for white actors. But having black actors reprise roles created by white actors stopped been newsworthy a long time ago. Nobody cared when Denzel Washington took on Frank Sinatra's role in The Manchurian Candidate. And when Jonathan Demme remade Charade as The Truth About Charlie, the fact that Thandie Newton was standing in for Audrey Hepburn was mostly ignored, while the ridiculous attempt to replace Cary Grant with Mark Whalberg received heaps of well-deserved ridicule. And if, as the article maintains, "black life is, in the main, a working-class struggle," then casting black actors in a modern-day Honeymooners isn't even risky by Hollywood standards. It's just a case of producers catering to what they think their audience is, and also recognizing that most of the actors playing Kramden-like roles on TV right now (John Goodman, Kevin James, Jim Belushi, etc.) aren't very good, while Cedric actually is funny. By the way, the best golfer in the world right now isn't black; he's Asian (from Fiji), and named Vijay Singh. If Tiger wants the title back he'll need to start winning some tournaments, rather than just lounging around with his beautiful new wife, enjoying his celebrity status, earning millions of dollars from endorsements, hanging out with Michael Jordan — ah, who needs golf anyway? A Lesser Writer Would Have Made a Joke About Earning An "Eh?" In the Class, But We're Above That Also from the Times: "Backers of Canadian Studies Push for Larger Campus Role." That's so cute! It's almost like you guys think you're a real country! But we're all for increasing the number of schools that offer Canadian Studies; it's the perfect major for those people who think American Studies is too serious a discipline. Armory Addendum - Photos Required This year, the Armory will again be producing photo IDs for admission to the early and late sessions. When you first go to the Armory, please take a small (passport-size or slightly smaller) photo with you. Write your name on the back of the photo and leave it at the front desk in an envelope addressed to Ed Small. (You can cut a small head shot out of an existing photo; you don't need to have a passport photo taken). Your I.D. card should then be available at the front desk the next time you go to the Armory. Week of November 9, 2004 - November 15, 2004 Photos Our dinner party ran late, and involved a little too much booze, so the next set of marathon photos will be posted tomorrow. First Race Congratulations to Joe Garland, who took second place in his first race as a CPTC member (the Tarrytown Pilgrim 4-Miler) and just missed out on winning the whole thing. Times to Laugh and Times to Cry We were all set to make fun of the Times moronic article on college students eating cereal, but luckily Daniel Radosh did it first (and far better than we could have). There's still today's piece on how people from Allegany County may be moving to the Bronx but nobody's sure if they really are or not or why they might be moving, especially because the Times reporter was too frickin' lazy to follow up on any of the theories that were put forward, and probably wrote the whole thing just as an excuse to visit some friend or relative in Andover and put the whole thing on his expense account. But the article isn't entirely worthless, since it does contain the claim that Allegany County "has as much in common with the Bronx as a barnyard has with Billy's Sports Bar outside Yankee Stadium." We spent a fair amount of time (and money) in Billy's this fall, and the barnyard comparison is pretty apt. And before any of our devoted Yankee-fan readers write to complain: we'd say the same thing about sports bars outside Shea Stadium if only there were sports bars outside Shea, instead of just a collection of auto supply stores. Marathon Photos We believe we've collected them all, we're editing as fast as we can, and we've got the first set of photos posted now. It consists of 66 photos (roughly one-third of the total), all taken in Brooklyn. We should have more up tomorrow, and the whole set done by the end of the week. And can anyone identify the CPTC runner is this photo that Brightroom is using on their homepage? Athletes Behaving Badly A quick round up of the darker side of sports:
Photo We're not really familiar with xtri.com, but we like any site that puts up photos of CPTC members, like this one of Sandra Scibelli at Ironman Florida. Thanks to Jay Borok for spotting it. The Big Heart of the Big Apple Six days after qualifying for the Hawaii Ironman, Ramon Bermo had his bike stolen. Thanks to some generous New Yorkers, he still made it to Kona, and wrote about it all in MetroSports. Thursday Night Road Workout Report For various reasons, we haven't published any workout reports here for a while. Mainly because we didn't attend that many workouts, we had computer problems after some of the workouts we did attend, and, on one occassion, because so little happened at the workout that even we couldn't find a way to wring more than about two sentences out of it. But we're back at the workouts now, and the computer is working, and there's nothing worth watching on TV these days, so we're happy to announce the return of the workout reports. Thirty-two runners showed up at the statue. Thirty-three, if you count Kieran, who covered about 2 miles just running back and forth while Coach Tony made his announcements. Most of those announcements, not surprisingly, concerned the marathon. Even less surprising was the absence of most of those marathoners. We expected only Alan Ruben, who's probably ready for another marathon by now. But we also got Stacy Creamer, Sam Frank (in street clothes), Russ Pfeffer and Yves-Marc Courtines. Yves-Marc got there a little late, so Tony had to congratulate him twice on his PR. Sam also had a PR. (It was also his first marathon; does that count as a PR?) There were a few non-marathon-related announcements: send in your checks for the Armory, send in your checks for the awards dinner, volunteer at the awards dinner. You know, the stuff we put in the "Important Items" section of the homepage, that you probably never read. Then Tony introduced Margaret Angell, who was in town for a few days. And at 7:23 we were off, for a 4-mile loop followed by the Stuart mile. As always, we ignore the run itself, and take you to the end. By this point, Tony had lost interest in all the marathoners, and was focussed solely on getting Margaret back to New York, or, failing that, at least ensuring that she remains a CPTC member while up in Boston. He offered various bribes, but Margaret had only one request: "I have no one to run with, so I need you to send Bill Haskins and Gordon Streeter up as training partners." It was unclear whether they would have to move there full-time, or if they could just commute for each run. Why We Love New York Among other reasons, because we just read the thread How many people drive to run? on Let's Run, and remembered that we never have to drive to go for a run. Dumbest Sports Rule We thought it was pretty stupid when the Virginia Beach cross country runners were disqualified for wearing Livestrong bracelets (and one, apparently, for having her shirt ride up while running, thereby violating the "no exposed midriffs" rule). Then Margaret Schotte pointed out this story about a North St. Paul, MN, student who was disqualified for wearing the wrong color compression shorts. The student was the 10th finisher on his team, and if he'd only worn white compression shorts under his regular uniform like the rest of his teammates, the North St. Paul team would have won the meet. Instead he wore black shorts, thereby violating the Minnesota State High School League rule that all teammates wear the same color compression shorts, and the team fell to second Also falling to second was NASCAR, in the category of "pettiest way of determining a championship by enforcement of rules unrelated to the actual competition." (And speaking of NASCAR, can anybody explain why the new points system may still enable Kurt Busch to win despite having fewer wins, top 5 finishes or top 10 finishes than any of the next three drivers? Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would be closer if he hadn't been penalized for cursing, but would still trail Busch by 22 points.)
We're all for having rules and having those rules enforced. But the rules shouldn't have pointless rationales or be enforced arbitrarily. There's enough of that in the real world; we don't need it in our games. Swim for the Future This Saturday, from 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm, Asphalt Green is hosting their annual Swim for the Future. Proceeds from the event – which features a lap swimming aqua-thon, activities for kids, a silent auction, and food and drinks – go to support the Andrew Fisher and Doug Irgang Scholarship Fund at Asphalt Green. And there'll be some Olympians there, including Rowdy Gaines and Amanda Beard (she's hot!). Save the Date Our annual awards dinner is just three weeks away!
Updated Less Than Daily The Webmistress complained to us yesterday that this site is no longer updated daily. Our apologies to her and to all of you. A variety of other commitments have been intruding upon our time, and on many nights we get home too late to post any updates. Please don't jump to the conclusiont that we're out having fun as we neglect our duties. We actually know how to balance our social life with work; it's finding time for the all the different types of work that's causing problems right now If it were up to us, we would spend all day posting journal entries and hunting down race results, but nobody's shown any interest in paying us to do that yet. But one of these days we're sure to figure out the perfect time management system for getting everything done. Week of November 2, 2004 - November 8, 2004 Armory Workouts It’s time to re-up for the Armory. If you’re interested in training with Tony’s Distance group on Tuesday nights (“late” session from 8:00 to 9:30 PM) or Devon’s Middle Distance group (including sprinters) Tuesdays and Thursday nights (“early” session from 6:30 to 8:00 PM with workouts beginning at 7:15), please write a check payable to “Central Park Track Club” and mail it to Stacy Creamer as soon as possible. The amount due for Tony’s “late” session is $175; the amount due for Devon’s “early” session is $275. Please send your check to:
Please note: Devon’s group will begin working out at the Armory on Thursday, November 18. Tony’s group will begin working out at the Armory on Tuesday, December 7. In order to get in starting on those days, we need your checks now. So if you want to run indoors this season (highly recommended!) please take care of it now. N.B.: Anyone who wishes to assist members of our club who cannot afford some or all of these fees please send a check payable to Central Park Track Club to:
Individuals who wish to avail themselves of these funds, either as a loan or a grant, should contact Alan Ruben either in person, by mail at the above address, or by email at alan@montran.com. Hat Found Yves-Marc Courtines found a "Pawtucket Sox" baseball cap at the end of the post-marathon party at The Parlour on Sunday. If it belongs to you, please email him at lostcap@courtines.net. Photos We're still working on the marathon photos we have, and we should have them up soon. But it's also easiest for us to post the complete set at one time, so if any of you have photos from the marathon that you'd like to share (and we saw a lot of you guys with cameras on Sunday), please email them to us as soon as possible. Even if you're unable to email them in the next day or two, we'd appreciate it if you send us a quick note so we know to expect your photos later. Thanks! Thanks to Elizabeth Kaicher The club extends a special thank you to Elizabeth Kaicher for coordinating transportation for our runners to the start of the NYC Marathon. Tuesday Night Workouts With the end of marathon training, and with the lack of good lighting at the downtown track, the Tuesday Night Workouts will move to Central Park from November 9th to November 30th. The workouts will start at 7:00 pm, meeting at the statue of Daniel Webster at 72nd and West Drive. Basically it's the same deal as the Thurdsay workouts, but on Tuesday. NYC Marathon Congratulations to all our finishers, and thanks to everyone who was out there cheering, volunteering, and taking photos. We've got the results up, but we're just getting started on the photos. Last year we ended up with over 350 photos from seven different photographers, and we imagine the situation will be similar this year, so it will a few days before we get everything up. Fastest Simpsons Character While you're waiting for the photos, go waste some time reading this discussion on Let's Run about which character on The Simpsons is the fastest runner. Welcome New Members Join us in welcoming our newest members, Luis Gutierrez, Katy Masselam, Russell Pfeffer, Ian Phillips, and Nicole Sin Quee. Recruitment points go to Andrea Costella, Yves-Marc Courtines (2), Marie Davis, Sarah Gross, Tiffanee Hager, Kate Irvin, Brian Maiolo, and James Siegel. Full details at the Recruitment Scoreboard. We know Sid Howard isn't allowed to win, even though he currently leads with 6 points, but there are eight members behind him, tied at 2 points each. Thanksgiving Day Race Those of you find yourselves in Northern New Jersey on Thanksgiving morning should check out the Dick Meighan Memorial 5k Run. That's Thursday, November 25th, at 9:00 am in Upper Saddle River. It's a large event by suburban standards (920 finishers last year) and we're told it has a nice course, good prizes, a cool t-shirt, and all sorts of other stuff. And it's also a drop-off point for Shoe4Africa donations. Quit Yer Whinin' We were so good in not complaining about the Times, but then they went and published this stupid article about a bunch of nitwits who think the world is unfair because they didn't get into the NYC Marathon. The malcontent-in-chief is one Richard Wright, who has gone so far as to set up the website Runners Running New York that aims "to change the New York Marathon entry rules that give preference to non-New York City residents." Basically his complaint is that he pays taxes so he should get to run the race, while those pesky foreigners and non-New Yorkers should be shut out. Of course, Wright ran the NYC Marathon last year through a lottery entry, and it appears that he didn't even apply for entry into this year's race, so we're not sure what his problem is. Anyway, we've put in the link to his site only to encourage people to go there and point out what an idiot he is. But if you don't want to spend the time on that, here are a few highlights: he calls the nine races rule a "complicated prerequisite" (because he can't add that high?), implies that only New York City residents have to pay a fee to enter the lottery, and makes such rational accussations as "We hope that it's not a case of the Fat Cats and Marathon Executives turning The New York Marathon into a cash cow for themselves while New York City tax payers foot the bill." Since the introduction of the nine races rule we can't think of five people we know who had a serious interest in running the NYC Marathon and weren't able to. (Several of our friends who applied for the lottery on a lark, and planned to start training only if they were accepted, didn't get in, but none of them ever minded too much.) And as far as we know, New York is the only city to guarantee spots in the race to local residents, although there are only a handful of marathons that ever reach their maximum field size. What makes the New York Marathon great – and the reason people like Wright want to run it – is that is that it draws thousands of runners from all over the country and all over the world. It might be nice if everyone could run it, but it's not possible. The course can't accommodate many more runners than the 36,000 we already have. This year there were 78,000 applicants for those 36,000 spots. Simple math tells us that , no matter what system Road Runners uses to allot spaces in the race, more than half the people who want to run won't be able to. That's unfortunate, but it doesn't make it unfair. Mind, Body and the Olympic Spirit From our inbox today:
Apparently this Jack Daniels is different from the Jack Daniels that's been getting us through the last two days. Full details of the program:
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