Big 4-0 4 Mile Race

PRE-RACE

Photo 1: When Joe Simonte gets to a race, he starts scouting around for the usual age-group competitors: Joe Burns, Jack McManus, Bill Fortune, etc.
Photo 2: Ramon Bermo makes a pre-emptive declaration of innocence. Whatever it was, he did not do it ...
Photo 3: John Kenney made an appearance so that, in his own words, he "can show the kids how this is supposed to be done." And he did ...
Photo 4: Carsten Strandlod makes as if he is still in bed.
Photo 5: Jud Santos pins on his number. He knows the rules: always in front, no folding, no mutilation, visible at all times.
Photo 6: Carmine Petracca pins on his number too on a team singlet borrowed from Luca Trovato. Everybody has to do that, except for Michael Garland who left his number home. While Carmine brought his number, he forgot to put down his club affiliation so that Ramon Bermo had to get that fixed.
Photo 7: Carmine Petracca and Luca Trovato are apparently conducting an inquisition on persons unseen. Who are their victims?
Photo 8: The subjects of the inquisition are Marianna and Giuseppe Petracca. While the adults run, the kids do puzzles to pass the time.
Photo 9: This is a picture of Jack Brennan. We don't mean the Jack Brennan of the Central Park Track Club, but the other Jack Brennan of the Taconic Road Runners Club. It is a small world in that Michael Garland used to work for this other Jack.

STARTING LINE

Photo 11: Michele Tagliati is a picture of mental concentration.
Photo 12: Ramon Bermo stands out with his shades in a sea of talking heads.
Photo 13: To stand out in a crowd, it helps to be tall like Michael Garland. In front of him, wearing the white hat, is Tim Evans. Also, on the far left, the person who stands head above others is Carsten Strandlod.
Photo 14: Fasil Yilma wonders when the speeches are going to end ...

MILE ONE

Photo 21: As usual, Ramon Bermo prefers to run with wide open space in front of him. He knew that his teammate Carmine Petracca would be able to run slightly faster than him, and so he decided to just hang back 5 to 10 seconds behind. To his dismay, his first mile was a very quick 5:08. At this point, he was probably looking forward to the inevitable collapse that would ensue. Fortunately, it never materialized and he set a PR.
Photo 22: John Kenney is showing the way for Jud Santos.
Photo 23: Carsten Strandlod looks like he has waken up.
Photo 24: Fasil Yilma takes it out conservatively, which is a good idea on this hot and humid morning.
Photo 25: Irene Jackson is our only female representative in this race.
Photo 26: Joe Simonte gets words of encouragement from teammate Lucy White. They are both equally surprised, because neither one of whom have ever heard of the other before today.

MILE THREE

Photo 31: Carmine Petracca is the team leader.
Photo 32: Ramon Bermo is the next guy.
Photo 33: John Kenney is the third guy.
Photo 34: Jud Santos and Tim Evans are fourth and fifth.

200 METERS TO GO

Photo 41: Michael Garland puts in a good effort. As we mentioned before, he left his number home. Before the race started, he was not even sure that he wanted to run the race. After the race, he thought that he would have been the fifth scoring team member. As it happened, everything turned out fine. He had a good race and there were five scoring teammates ahead of him.
Photo 42: Luis Peña dashes for the finish.
Photo 43: Michele Tagliati is chasing Warren Street runner Jean Chodnicki, the third female finisher in the race.
Photo 44: Fasil Yilma's measure of success is the number of times that he has to stop to stretch his painful muscle. For this race, it happened only once. He vows not to stop at all next time.
Photo 45: Doug Kabbash put on a near-orange t-shirt, so he is getting closer.
Photo 46: Carsten Strandlod does not look so comfortable at this point compared to mile one, but there is just a few more steps left. The smile on his face is a smile of resignation, not of triumph.
Photo 47: Phil Vasquez is laboring somewhat at this point.
Photo 48: Phil Lee went out a bit fast, but held back and finished well.
Photo 49: Thomas Pennell and Julie Denney did a long training run in the park, and cheered their teammates in the opposite direction.
Photo 50: Luca Trovato and Lucy White also had alternate plans for the day. Luca would be running later at the USATF New Jersey Masters Track Championship. Lucy went for a long run earlier. Whatever these other plans are, they made it a point to come out to cheer their teammates at the race.
Photo 51: Joe Simonte gets a loud cheer from teammates.
Photo 52: Here is the picture of the most important person of the day, La Signora Petracca escorted by Carmine and Giuseppe.

POST-RACE ACTIVITIES

Photo 61: Carsten Strandlod sits totally exhausted on the ground, while Metta Strandlod offers sympathy. As Carsten says, it may be hot in Denmark but it is never this humid. Metta probably felt just as physically tired as Carsten because she (accompanied by Carsten) ran the Bronx Zoo 5K Run on the day before.
Photo 62: Tim Evans chats with Jud Santos. Tim does not have a team uniform yet, and so donned the Cambridge Sports Union singlet. Well, at least it has some orange lines and letters. In the background, Carsten Strandlod is still sitting exhausted.
Photo 63: Alayne Adams has her hands full with Theo and Charlotte, here to watch daddy Tim Evans race.
Photo 64: Aubin Sullivan came by the finish area. There is a clown named Michael Garland in the background.
Photo 65: Here is another chat group: Lucy White, Mike Garland and Ramon Bermo
Photo 66: Mel Washington is dressed in all black. He said, "I want to imitate the women, because they wear black tops too." Could he be color blind, too?
Photo 67: Sorry, this must be in the wrong publication. This picture of Bola Awofeso should have been submitted to Muscle magazine. Bola did a 22 mile run today.
Photo 68: Here are a couple of newcomers, Phil Lee and John Sargent. This is Phil's second race, and he found it somewhat more difficult than the first (Revlon 5K), but he was happy. John had a specific goal pace (approximately 6:30 min/mile) in mind for this longest race in his entire life, and made it easily.
Photo 69: Michele Tagliati and Luca Trovato make grand gestures. Michele was thinking about bringing his baby down to the race, but then he thought, "Can I trust Luca to be my babysitter?" The answer was self-evident (from Luca's hand sign!).
Photo 70: Phil Vasquez and the topless Fasil Yilma leave the scene after mopping up the free food. Fasil has the usual complaint: the uniform was soaked and it does not dry quickly as advertised.
Photo 71: Yet another topless person: Jud Santos.
Photo 72: Carmine Petracca is being interviewed by the local Italian television channel, as his wife Ornella looks on.
Photo 74: Now it is Ornella Petracca's chance to be interviewed. Please note the number of bottles that she has grabbed.
Photo 73: Please notice that Carmine Petracca dons on the appropriate hat wear for the interview. The interview would be broadcast on local community access Channel 73 in Manhattan.
Photo 75: Carmine Petracca gets on the queue for free food. Yes, after all, it is Italian food. He has changed into what Jud Santos calls his 'killer bee' costume.

Photographer's note: Although there were even more pictures than usual this time, we probably lost about a dozen. One of the biggest difficulties here is the need to run across a couple of times to catch the runners at the other side of the park. For this reason, some of the photographs were unusable because the photographer's hands were still shaking as he tried to catch his breath. He needs to do some biathlons (the kind with running/skiing and rifle shooting).