1998 Avon Mini-Marathon

PRE-RACE ACTIVITIES

Photo 1: Sarah Gross chats with Bola Awofeso, who is surprised at seeing the ubiquitous photographer.
Photo 2: Laura Miller and Sarah Gross pose for the photographer. Laura's efforts to gain control of the camera are rebuffed firmly.
Photo 3: The tables are turned on Ellen Wallop, as this professional photographer gets her photo taken instead. Unfortunately, the quality of this picture would not match her professional standards.
Photo 6: Alayne Adams does her sprint warm-ups. She has a bottle of water in hand for instant hydration.
Photo 7: Stacy Creamer does her sprint warm-ups too.
Photo 8: Sylvie Kimché does not need to do sprint warm-ups because she considers herself non-competitive today.
Photo 9: As Audrey Kingsley and Stacy Creamer watch, Irene Jackson leaves some gear with the official designated bagman of the day, Stuart Calderwood.

SPECTATOR SPORTS

Photo 11: Here is a most unlikely collection of people: Bola Awofeso in running clothes, Luca Trovato on a bicycle, Casey Yamazaki in street clothes and Erika Ogita-Yamazaki in a stroller. I guess we can also use topless Jeff Johnson on rollerblades to complete the picture.
Photo 12: Phil Vasquez, Luca Trovato and Mel Washington are at the one-mile mark. Mel's question is, "I have not visited the web site for a while. Is there anything about me?" Yes, indeed. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact.
Photo 13: A rear view of the Central Park Track Club cheering squad at the one-mile mark: Phil Vasquez, Mel Washington, Fasil Yilma and Bola Awofeso.

FIRST MILE

Photo 21: Alayne Adams goes through the first mile in about 5:50, under control and leading a chase pack behind the leaders.
Photo 22: Stacy Creamer reaches the first mile in 6:18, looking fresh. Look at those eyes! A teammate has described them as 'hypnotic'. What do you think? Right behind her is Audrey Kingsley (not shown*), whose original plan is to run a 6:40 but some reckless person suggests, "Stick to Stacy!" No harm done, though.
Photo 23: Sylvie Kimché realizes that she has to go easy since she has no training base.

FIVE MILE MARK (EAST 72nd STREET)

Photo 31: For the record, this is the race winner Kim Griffin. Since she is so far ahead, we have time to take her photo too before our teammates come around.
Photo 32: Yumi Ogita always has that very light form. Here she is shadowed by MCNY's Kari Proffitt, who would finish behind Yumi in the identical time of 38:34.
Photo 33: Stacy Creamer leads a pack of three Central Park Track Club runners (Audrey Kingsley and then Lucy White, both not shown*) within seconds of each other. The other two both set PRs today, thanks to that piece of great team running.
Photo 34: Laura Miller looks quite happy.

FINISH LINE

Photo 41: Stacy Creamer and Alayne Adams chat. Our friend Blair Boyer is behind Stacy. We wish everyone could see Alayne's last mile when she chased three people (Jean Chodnicki, Juana Vazquez and Christina Nooney) down from what seemed to be an unbridgeable gap. She said that she just treated it like the last 200m at a track workout.
Photo 42: Sylvie Kimché and Laura Miller talks to someone who must be Irene Jackson on account of that signature long hair.
Photo 43: Stacy Creamer and Lucy White chat.
Photo 44: Irene Jackson must be asking Stacy Creamer why she is yawning ...
Photo 45: Lucy White set a PR today, even though she has not done a 10K since winter.
Photo 46: Aubin Sullivan wanted so badly to finish under 42 minutes for once. Instead, she describes this race as one of her worst and she almost dropped out.
Photo 47: Sarah Gross also had a bad day with blisters. She had to stop three times, but determined never to drop out.
Photo 48: Sylvie Kimché describes this race as the first one in her new career as a non-competitive runner. We think that she is just trying to cultivate complacency among her age-group competitors.

GROUPIES

Photo 51: Luca Trovato's question was: "Why can't we have a Men's team just like the Women's team?" Then he realized that the question is ambiguous and may be subject to misinterpretation(s). He added, "I mean, a team that is competitive?"
Photo 52: Fasil Yilma and Bola Awofeso were all over the course today. Can this be considered cross-training?

*Photographer's note: The digital camera requires 7 seconds between shots. If you want to get your photo taken, please do not trail your teammates. Either keep ahead, or stay together. Get it?

Photo 99: This photo appeared in the October 1988 issue of Running Times magazine. The caption read, "Great athletes realize that the conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time, so they might as well make that thought a positive one." In the photo, Elizabeth Murray of Witold's Runners is in front with a beaming smile. Behind her, our Stacy Creamer looks like she is in serious pain. So need we surmise who has the positive thought? But do you recognize the third person, who is partially shielded by Stacy? You can first look for the shoes, which made their initial appearance at the 1998 Snow Flake Run (Photo). You can also look at the head, which also made a similar sideways-looking appearance at the 1998 Snow Flake Run (Photo). Yes, who else could have the extra energy to look around here, there and everywhere during a race? It's Audrey Kingsley, of course! Lest we convey the wrong impression, we point out that Audrey is indeed capable of looking straight ahead, as in this photo showing her right with the same Elizabeth Murray and our Lucy White at the 1998 Shower-to-Shower Mother's Day 5K Run.

One of our astute readers sent in the following comment; "I thank you for identifying the smiling, presumably positive-thinking runner lauded by the photo caption. I think the most important thing is not how you look, but where you finish. Since you have identified her, I've been able to scan the race results and came up with the following facts: Stacy Creamer, 38th, 40:32; Audrey Kingsley, 47th, 40:53; Elizabeth Murray, 63rd, 41:59. There you have it."