The Presidential Race

The Presidential Race
(February 8th, 1998, Central Park)

The 10K Race Start

Photo 1: John Taylor is waiting at the start. Although John has been running with the club since last April, this is his first race for the Central Park Track Club team. His first questions were: "Where is everybody else? Am I the only one here? What kind of team is this?" Well, he has yet to learn that the veterans do not show up until one minute before the start. In fact, some people have shown up minutes after the start, and even days later. In this photograph, he is standing by the 6 minute/mile pace sign. His next question was: "How come there is nobody up front by the 5 minute/mile pace sign?" Well, John, this may just be your biggest payday yet ... By the way, that all-black uniform will cause you to miss photo ops during the race --- get some orange color, okay?
Photo 2: Tyronne Culpepper and Bola Awofeso are caught in a stiff uncomfortable pose. Don't they look like "The Two Stooges?" (Note: those were Tyronne's own words --- this web site would never abuse people, at least not without cause).
Photo 3: Jack Brennan is chatting with someone in the crowd. Having been running since the 1970's, Jack has many, many friends at the races.

The 10K Race, Half Way Mark

Photo 4: Who is the runner in the white long sleeve shirt and black tights, trailing a Warren Street runner? They are running in fourth and fifth place in the race at this point. His identity will be revealed shortly.
Photo 5: Here comes the first guy in a Central Park Track Club uniform ... and it is ... holy cow! ... none other than Jack Brennan. At the 10K last month, Jack scored for the Central Park Track Club for the first time in 15 years. Now he is leading the team? What next? Is Jack's running career heading towards a renaissance? Or does this really reflect the pathetic quality of the other runners on the team?
Photo 6: What is Tyronne Culpepper thinking about at this point? Is he counting the number of bottles of beer on the wall at the party last night?
Photo 7: We missed Bola Awofeso's photo at the last 5K race. He would not be spared this time.

The 10 K Race, 50 meters before the finishing line

Photo 8: The mystery man is Carmine Petracca, a member of our Italian connection. He finished fifth overall in this race (34:26), looking as if he was just jogging, while Luca Trovato (in the orange jacket) is shouting something in Italian. Luca says that he hates people who can 'jog' 10K at 3 minutes faster than his own PR.
Photo 9: Here is the entire Italian connection: Luca Trovato, Carmine Petracca and Michele Tagliati. Only Carmine ran this race, while the other two wimped out because of the cold temperature. As Luca and Michele saw the times of the lead runners, they regretted not being the race, because they could have finished in the top 20 for the first time in their lives.
Photo 10: Here is Jack Brennan and his version of the sprint finish.
Photo 11: Luca Trovato escorts and shouts encouragement to Tyronne Culpepper for a dignified finish. Tyronne's time was slower than one might expect from him. Luca's incisive analysis was, "It must those beers that he drank last night."
In his own defense, Tyronne writes: "The main reason why I failed to maintain my PR streak was not my beer drinking exploits. In trying to lower my times, I have experimented with various foods to reach this goal. On Saturday night, I tried Jud's specialty (the super Spam (tm)), but all I got to show for it was a sub-par race performance and a bad stomach cramp which plagued me from mile 3 to the finish. I guess it doesn't work for everybody :-( I think I'll think I'll stick to my pre-race beer diet."
Photo 12: This photograph is proof that you don't have to be in the race to get your photograph taken. All you have to do is smile and look pretty, as with Jackie Cortes and Stacy Creamer.
Photo 13: Where is Bola Awofeso's kick? Doesn't he want to get it over with as quickly as possible?
Photo 14: Here is the obligatory group lineup photo. The perps are (from left to right) Stu Calderwood, Stacy Creamer, Jackie Cortes, Tyronne Culpepper, Bola Awofeso and John Taylor. That New York Harrier guy Stu has been featured quite a bit on this web site recently. Maybe he should pay us for the privilege. But then, given the acerbic tone of this web site, maybe he will pay us not to feature him? Whilst the other people in the photo are familiar with the weekly ritual of posing for the web photographer, John had never seen this web site. However, he promised to look at it as soon as he can. Hello, John!

20 MILE RACE, 1st of four 5-mile loops

Photo 21: Even though the 20 Mile race started 30 minutes later than the 10K race, Alan Ruben is already passing some 10K race runners. At this point, it is difficult to tell who is in which race. Alan would ultimately finished 2nd overall in the race, just 11 seconds behind the winner.
Photo 22: And who is this person hiding in the crowd, not wearing orange club colors? Well, it just might be that Casey Yamazaki, who missed the start of the 10K race!
Photo 23: Someone else ran up, said hello and sprinted away. Yes, this is the person that we stood in the cold for hours to catch ... Audrey Kingsley ... hey, Audrey, please come back for another photo ... but she is already on her way to finish 4th overall on this training run in preparation for the Boston Marathon.

At this point, the web photographer had to go and get treatment for his frost-bitten fingers ... so there are no pictures for the rest of the 20 mile race, nor of Frank Schneiger (in the 10K race) ...

Photo ??: Once again, Rick Shaver is AWOL/MIA. He had sworn (with his hand on a stack of bibles) that he would be running the next four races (beginning last week). We are deeply disappointed in Rick.