The Armory

During the winter season, the Central Park Track Club holds its track practices on Tuesdays at The Armory at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.  These photos were taken on December 15th, 1998.  One purpose for these photos is to showcase the new track --- this is a state-of-the-art Mondo track and not the old splintered wood track anymore.   Another purpose is to communicate the esprit de corps of group running.   We hope that these photos will entice you to go to these workouts.  Another good reason to go is because Alan Bautista says, "I wanna see you come and work your butt off!"

THE ARMORY

The new track is a state-of-the-art Mondo track that was made in Italy and then shipped over to New York City with a crew of 20 to lay it down according to specifications.  New Balance is offering $10,000 for any man who can break 4 minute for a mile (4:33 for women) in their January 1999 meet (postscript: both barriers were broken at that meet).  Here are three photos of this very impressive place.

• Photo 1
• Photo 2
• Photo 3

THE CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB SPRINTERS

Our sprinters are coached by Brian Denman, who is an athlete with impeccable credentials (44.7 second 400m, member of 1980 Olympics team, member of Pan-American Games, etc.)

• Photo 11: Some of the sprinters:   (from left to right) Sid Howard, Brian Denman, Frank Shiro, Mary Rosado, Alan Bautista, John Sargent, Darryl Ramsey, Noah Perlis.  At this point, the group is assembled for instructions from the coach.
• Photo 12: The workout is done in separate (but tight) groups, which permits people in the group to work with each other.   This group consists of Luca Trovato, Frank Schiro, Alan Bautista and John Sargent.
• Photo 13: This other group consists of Mary Rosado, Noah Perlis and Darryl Ramsey.
• Photo 14: Sid Howard watches Brian Denman, who is about to start the group of John Sargent, Frank Schiro, Alan Bautista and Luca Trovato.
• Photo 15: Brian Denman is a study in concentration about the progress of his runners.
• Photo 16: Sid Howard, Phil Lee, Jim Aneshansley and Gary Muhrcke blast off.
• Photo 17: The workout was hard enough to make Alan Bautista rush out for rehydration.

THE CENTRAL PARK TRACK CLUB DISTANCE RUNNERS

Our distance runners are coached separately by Tony Ruiz.  These speed workouts should be an integral part of any distance training program, and it helps the runners to cope with severe oxygen debt and to improve leg speed.

• Photo 27: Tony Ruiz addresses the assembly
• Photo 28: Tony Ruiz repeats the question: "When is the workout next week?"  Seven o'clock!   After he went through all this, Edwin Fajardo raised his hand and asked, "When is the workout next week?", enough to make Tony roll his eyes.
• Missing Photo: At one point, Frank Handelman was observed to be doing push-ups in the crawl space underneath the track.  Why?  "To absorb the energy," he said.  So how did this guy ever become the club president?    
• Photo 29: The runners are also divided into groups, with the slower group going first.  Here is Tyronne Culpepper being pursued by Jose Lasalle.  This was not Tyronne's only pursuer of the day, as all the sprinters pestered him about doing sprinting instead.  "The pressure was incredible," he said.
• Photo 30:  The first group is supposed to be those who run 10K at 40 minutes or slower.  Even though Audrey Kingsley is not a member of that club anymore, she decided that she probably is not ready to hang out with Mike Trunkes yet.  Here, Audrey Kingsley is being followed by her shadow Stephanie Gould, with Joey Gonzalez and Bola Awofeso behind them.
• Photo 31: Stephanie Gould is ahead of Audrey Kingsley.
• Photo 32: This is how you put your teammate into good use.

FRIENDS

The Armory is used by a large number of runners who work out by themselves or with other teams.  Within this running community, we have many friends, even ones that we don't know about (e.g. someone from Millrose came over and said, "Central Park Track Club has a great web site!").  Here is one good friend:

• Photo 40: Here is Ed Gonera speaking with Tony Ruiz.
• Photo 41: Frank Schiro insists on getting a photo taken with Ed Gonera, with their Central Park Track Club awards for their 1998 relay performances.  "This photo is for me", Frank said to Ed.  But Ed said, "Well, it doesn't matter because his autofocus won't work."  We were immensely delighted by this piece of criticism.  We had used our new camera for the first time only two days ago and we had posted a technical note about the autofocussing feature.  So it is clear that Ed reads our reports and remembers the details.  Isn't that nice?
• Photo 42: Frank Schiro wants another shot.  "Could you print this out for me?"  Of course, but it has to be cash up front in your case.

The above photos generated these comments from someone wearing a shirt: "I was looking at the new Armory pix today, and a few questions occurred to me: if I ever graduate from the "B" to the "A" group, will I have to take my shirt off at track workouts?  Will I be required to get in the gym and tone up beforehand? and given the apparent positive correlation between a proclivity for stripping and running ability, why does Bola run with the "B" group?"

Bola Awofeso wants to know, "Who is the person who posted the comments about me under the photo above?"  The answer was, "Someone who wore a shirt."  Additional vital hint: The person is also somewhere in the photo ...  Try not to lose too much sleep over that, Bola!