Grete's Great Gallop

This used to be the only Women's Half Marathon in the country, and the decision to go co-ed was highly controversial.  This is by no means the end of the story, as the fight to reinstitute the Women's Half Marathon continues.

FIVE MILES IN THE RACE

  • Photo 1: Yumi Ogita runs behind a pack of men.  Even at this point, it was pretty sure that she would finish second behind Kim Griffin but considerably ahead of third place.   More importantly, Yumi would be the first Central Park Track Club, male or female.
  • Photo 2: Our leading male runner is Jack Brennan.
  • Photo 3: Sarah Gross found herself running with Jack Brennan in the first mile.  She asked herself, "Am I running too fast?  Or is Jack running too slow?"  When she heard that the first mile split was 6:25, she suspected the former to be the case.
  • Photo 4: Adam Bleifeld and Paul Sternberger came by immediately afterwards and complained that they did not get their photos taken.  In hindsight, we made it up to them.
  • Photo 5: In 1987, this writer ran his first 10K race.  All through the race, he kept hearing people cheering for someone named Irene all over the course.  That would be the Irene Jackson.   That race was how the writer first found out about the Central Park Track Club.   So what?  Yeah.  So what.
  • Photo 6: Fasil Yilma is going the wrong way on the course!  Actually, his race number is for the accompanying 5K fun run, and he is jogging in the opposite direction to cool down.

EIGHT MILES IN THE RACE

  • Photo 11: Yumi Ogita
  • Photo 12: Jack Brennan
  • Photo 13: The inseparable ones: Adam Bleifeld and Paul Sternberger.
  • Photo 14: Sarah Gross
  • Photo 15: Irene Jackson said to the photographer who was stationed at the crest of the hill to capture the painful expressions, "This is so mean!"
  • Photo 16: Carol Tyler

FINISH LINE

  • Photo 21: Bola Awofeso and Fasil Yilma thought that they had plenty to laugh about.  In particular, Bola stood near the finish line of the 5K race and observed the finishing time of somone who does not like to talk about his time.
  • Photo 22: Erika Maple-Ogita Yamazaki is waiting for mom to show up, as Alan Ruben and Casey Yamazaki check their watches too.
  • Photo 23: Yumi Ogita arrives in second place with an exceptional time of 1:23.  This is her first race in over six months, and she supposedly did not know what to expect.  Well, her teammates at the workout two weeks ago would have predicted this one, because she dusted everyone else then (for further details, contact Jud Santos).
  • Photo 24: Jack Brennan finished in 1:26.  This was the first time in over nine years that he ran a race this long.  "It felt good", he said.  "Of course, this was substantially slower than how I used to do it."  Specifically, Jack had a marathon PR of 2:20, which would have been meant a 1:10 half marathon split assuming an even split (the fact that he had a hurricane-force wind behind his back all the way in that race is not germane to the issue).
  • Photo 25: Adam Bleifeld and Paul Sternberger decided to run this race at their projected marathon race pace (7:05).  But the real question afterwards is, "Do you think that you can go out and do another half-marathon at the same pace immediately?"
  • Photo 26: Irene Jackson was surprised that she ran her fastest half-marathon this year.  She felt good until she reached the eleventh mile.  At that point, she thought, "Another two miles?   I'll never be able to finish this."  She finished.  Mind over matter, or was it matter over mind?
  • Photo 27: Early in the race, Sarah Gross saw Jerry Marcari running in the opposite direction, telling her that she was in third place.  Sometime later, Jerry came around again and told her that she was in the top ten.  All Sarah could hope for is that Jerry would not come around again because she really would not like to hear what his count was ...

POST-RACE

  • Photo 31: Yumi Ogita hugs Erika Maple-Ogita Yamazaki
  • Photo 32: Irene Jackson said that she did not think that salted fish was not exactly what she had in mind after a race.  However, since she paid for it already, she would have it.  As it turns out, the Norwegian salmon was not salty at all.
  • Photo 33: Alan Ruben stood at the podium, having just received his plaque from Grete Waitz, our coach George Wisniewski's favorite Norwegian woman.  He finished 2nd overall in the accompanying Norway Run 5K race in a time of 16:12.
  • Photo 34: Alan Ruben in his orange Central Park Track Club jacket and the Norwegian flag formed a very colorful combination.  This may just be the best photo that we took this year.
  • Photo 35: Margaret Nolan and kids have Norwegian flags painted on their faces.
  • Photo 37: Of course, we would have been disappointed not to see Audrey Kingsley.  She said, "Be good!   I was out there cheering for you!"  Yeah? What has that got to do with it?

PRESS COVERAGE

  • Photo 41: This photo appeared in the January/February 1999 issue of New York Runner.  The guy in the middle with the smirk and the swinging elbow is Roland Soong.  To his left, his teammates Fasil Yilma and Alan Ruben are less conspicuous (and a lot faster).  The guy to his right is Paul Stuart-Smith.
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