(Acknowledgement of priority to M. Tagliati)

1. Which of these Central Park Track Club runners is not Italian?
   (a) Edwin Fajardo
   (b)Carmine Petracca
   (c) Luca Trovato
   (d) Michele Tagliati

2. Carmine Petracca set a personal record at the Joe Kleinerman 10K, 1998.  It was the first time that he broke 34 minutes.  What was the reason?
   (a) He carbo-loaded with pasta the night before
   (b) He was smoking cigarettes with his brother the night before
   (c) He worked the night shift at the United Nations right before coming over to the race
   (d) He wore a Central Park Track Club singlet on race day

3. Who is the only Italian marathoner to win the Olympic Games?
   (a) Dorando Pietri
   (b) Gelindo Bordin
   (c) Orlando Pizzolato
   (d) Carmine Petracca

4. Which is the fastest member of the Tagliati family?
   (a) Marco Tagliati
   (b) Michele Tagliati
   (c) Stefano Tagliati
   (d) Isabella Tagliati

5. Which one of these CPTC people is not a professional photographer?
    (a) Ellen Wallop
    (b) Luca Trovato
    (c) Roland Soong
    (d) Audrey Kingsley

6. A major competition is milestone-claiming on the Central Park Track Club home page visitor counter.  People who have favorable work arrangements and/or schedules enjoy huge advantages.  Who is the champion?
   (a) An Italian who works the nightshift at Mount Sinai
   (b) An Italian who works the nightshift at the United Nations
   (c) An Italian who travels all over the world to do photo shoots
   (d) A Spaniard who has access to multiple computers at his data processing company

7. Who ran the fastest 200m at the 1998 Turkey Classic?
   (a) Alan Bautista
   (b) Lindsey Scherf
   (c) Pietro Mennea
   (d) Luca Trovato

8. Who was the legendary athlete who won two Olympic Marathons, one of which running barefoot?  (Hint: at Rome, the hometown of Michele Tagliati)
   (a) Waldemar Cierpinsky
   (b) Abebe Bikila
   (c) John Kagwe
   (d) Carsten Strandlod

9. Which former Central Park Track Club president did 8-year-old Giuseppe Petracca almost catch at the end of the 1998 Lamisil Twosome 2 mile race?
   (a) Norman Goluskin
   (b) Betty Marolla
   (c) Ed Coplon
   (d) Mike Blake

10. Which is the best football team in the universe?
   (a) A.C. Milan
   (b) Juventus
   (c) Inter Milan
   (d) Lazio

ANSWERS

1. (a) On paper at least, Edwin Fajardo hails from Ecuador.   However, this belief may be false based upon what we observed on the Thursday workout right before the 1997 NYC Marathon.  We were graced by several Italian visitors that particular day.  During the run, Edwin was heard to be speaking what he believed was Italian.

2. (d) With the new club singlet, Carmine finally got the hundreds of teammates on the course cheering him, whereas in previous races they used to curse at him for his idiosyncratic selection of psychedelic-colored singlets.  Items (a), (b) and (c) were all true, but he does them all the time.

3. (b)  Gelindo Bordin won the marathon of Seoul in 1988.  In 1990, he became the first Olympic gold medalist to win Boston. Dorando Pietri crossed the finish line first in London in 1908, but was later disqualified because he was helped by the officials in the final meters of the race. Orlando Pizzolato triumphed twice in New York. Carmine Petracca is the best Italian scorer for the Central Park Track Club at the 1998 NYC Marathon.  Based upon the preceding question, in order for Carmine to win the Olympics, he will have to start learning to carboload, not to smoke and to work regular hours ...  but the Central Park Track Club singlet is optional.

4. At the 1998 New York City Marathon, the Tagliati brothers had these times: Marco in 2:54:10 (502nd place overall, 492th male), Michele in 2:56:15 (603rd place overall, 573th male, PR) and Stefano in 3:27:52 (3479th place overall, 3221th male, PR).   With a superwoman development program, Isabella may turn out to be fastest Tagliati yet and time is definitely on her side.

5.(c) Ellen Wallop shoots race photographs for the NYRRC, including the NYC Marathon.  Luca Trovato actually makes a living in photography.  Audrey Kingsley is a landscape photographer.  The only loser here the guy who takes photos for the web site, because he certainly won't be able to make a living out of that ...

6. None of these people (nor anyone else) will ever win anything again, because there is a Java Script in place that will reserve that honor and glory to the webmaster alone.  Of course, the guy says that he did that to help other people run better without these distractions ...

7. The Italian Pietro Mennea held the 200m world record of 19:72 for many years before Michael Johnson smashed it at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  The Turkey Classic was a five mile road race, although a couple of people (Alan Bautista and Luca Trovato) treated it as 4.9 mile jog + 200m sprint.  That mad sprint did not significantly close the gap between those two and the 12-year-old girl Lindsey Scherf, who had finished minutes ago.

8. (b) Abebe Bikila astonished the world in 1960 by winning the Olympic Marathon on bare feet on the cobblestones of Rome. He became the first black african gold medallist. At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, no longer bare-footed, he became the first man to win a second Olympic Marathon. The feat would be repeated in 1976 and 1980 by Waldemar Cierpinsky (the subject of file number 61) of East Germany. John Kagwe won twice the NYC Marathon, in one of which he was often busy tying his shoes.  Carsten Strandlod probably felt as if he was running barefoot during the last miles of the 1998 NYC Marathon …

9. (c) 59-year-old Ed Coplon eked out a one-second victory (see Photo).

10. F.C. Barcelona rules!  (Note: This item was deliberately inflammatory.  Please do not send any e-mail on this topic)