1998 New York City Marathon

The web photographer admits that it was an embarrassing experience out there, as he missed many people in the race. In fact, more people came up to him than the other way around. Specifically, he missed Randy Ehrlich twice, which is not easy to do given the guy's physical size.

FOURTH AVENUE, BROOKLYN (credit: Tyronne Culpepper)

Photo 85: Alan Ruben does not have flowers on his mind.

13.1 MILE MARK (HALF MARATHON)

This half-marathon series of photos was taken by Bola Awofeso. At this time, some of these people can still afford to smile, before the grim reaper took over.

Photo 91: Alan Ruben
Photo 92: Charlie Stark
Photo 93: Randy Ehrlich, the man in black surrounded by Warren Street women Jean Chodnicki in front and Joelle Nelson behind
Photo 94: Michele Tagliati. The runner in the white singlet by his side is his brother Marco, who was an integral part of his successful marathon as they paced together for 20 miles before Marco took off to finish in 2:54:10. Another brother Stefano finished in 3:27:50, improving his PR by almost 20 minutes.
Photo 95: Carsten Strandlod, Audrey Kingsley and Kevin Arlyck
Photo 96: Adam Bleifeld and Paul Sternberger

FIRST AVENUE (credit: Tyronne Culpepper)

Photo 97: Carmine Petracca gets some applause, but probably not for his singlet.
Photo 98: Should Hank Berkowitz ignore the red stop light?

18th MILE MARK

Photo 1: This is the lead pack of men, about a dozen in total.
Photo 2: This is the lead pack of women, three in total. You can only see Franca Fiacconi in this photo as the other two were shielded.
Photo 3: Having given perfunctory service to covering the lead men and women, let us turn to our guys. As you would expect, our lead man was Alan Ruben. He was wearing the new singlet, which were delivered just in time this week. The club is not responsible for his turquoise blue shorts.
Photo 4: Carmine Petracca was our second man, wearing his signature purple jersey. Eek! The rest of us should chip in to buy him a singlet.
Photo 5: Peter Allen also wore the new singlet. Because of the way the number is pinned, it is hard to tell whether this was the old or new singlet. However, we all know that the letters on his old singlet have all fallen off, so this must be the new one.
Photo 6: Luis Pena looked very strong at this point.
Photo 7: Hank Berkowitz also wore the new singlet.
Photo 8: Charlie Stark went by with a little smile.
Photo 9: Michele Tagliati sneaked by between a couple of people, but we nailed his backside. His brother Marco is right in front of him.
Missing photo: At this moment, Audrey Kingsley (dressed in black) ran up to the photographer and yelled, "Hey! What? No photo of me?" Where is that orange color, Audrey? That tiny rubber band in your hair does not count!
Photo 10: Kevin Arlyck has his eyes lowered, perhaps because he was looking out for potholes, or perhaps because he was despondent over the fact that Audrey is leaving him for dead, for the moment.
Photo 11: Rick Shaver was sucking on something to help him on his 22nd New York City Marathon.
Photo 12: Thomas Pennell rolled by quickly, and so we only got his backside. Thomas has the old singlet with the leaf logo that is often mistaken for the Canadian maple leaf. Compare this with the back of the new singlet (see Kevin Arlyck below), and you can see that the brand identity will now be more clearly defined.

23rd MILE, BEFORE CENTRAL PARK

Photo 21: Carmine Petracca ran with his eyes down, and almost bowled the photographer over.
Photo 22: Luis Peña was feeling really good at this point, and bolted past teammate Peter Allen.
Photo 23: Peter Allen was more patient, and eventually passed Luis Peña before the end
Photo 24: Hank Berkowitz trailed a New York Harrier guy
Photo 25: Charlie Stark looked over at the photographer
Photo 26: Michele Tagliati probably felt really good, because his current time meant that a sub-three-hour time was well within reach.
Photo 27: Audrey Kingsley had a puzzled look at this point. On this picture, the orange gear on the right belongs to a teammate of hers.
Photo 28: Kevin Arlyck was heading straight towards the camera, but veered away at the last second to say hello to someone whom he hadn't seen since middle school. That was why we only got his backside. We note that Kevin's final time was 3:00:07, so the extracurricular activitiy was a contributory factor for not beating 3 hours.
Photo 29: We got Thomas Pennell's backside again.
Photo 30: Rick Shaver ran his third-worst New York City Marathon out of the 22. Still, a lot of people would like to know the secret to running a 3:04 without serious training.
Photo 31: Victor Osayi ran in spite of a leg injury (see the wrapping on his knee).
Photo 32: This was ex-Central Park Track Club member Oscar Rojas, now with Millrose. When he saw our web photographer, he went up and said, "I want this photograph." People like Oscar Rojas and Herbie Medina are frequent visitors to this web site. We are quite happy to oblige their photo requests, as part of our bait-and-switch strategy to re-recruit members.
Photo 33: Paul Sternberger had a teammate by his side, just out of the picture.
Photo 34: When Julie Denney saw this picture, she said, "This looked exactly like how I felt at that point." A teammate of hers was right by her, but we only see a bit of him in this photo. Can you tell who that is?
Photo 35: Carsten Strandlod looked quite unhappy now, because of the fifteen blisters on his feet.
Photo 36: Of all the people we saw, Aubin Sullivan had the best form at this point. High knee lift, big back kick --- like in a track workout. She wore a white singlet, sans orange. As Ramon Bermo said, "We saw everybody except Aubin." As Aubin Sullivan said, "The only one who saw me was the web photographer."
Photo 37: Adam Bleifeld with a friend by his side.
Photo 38: Maureen Dooley-Elmaleh
Photo 39: Sarah Gross
Photo 40: Someone is trying to hide from us in this mob scene. Who is that? Just a few moments before, Tyronne Culpepper and Roland Soong were talking about who else was going to come around. Tyronne thought of Casey Yamazaki, who had to keep his streak going even though he was not in shape. Roland postulated that Casey would probably want to run incognito in that case. Right at that moment, to the astonishment of the two, Casey came around, dressed in the new singlet over a white t-shirt. When Casey saw the two, he smiled and quickly weaved his way around. This photo was obtained by scaling a lightpole.
Photo 41: J.R. Mojica ran his first marathon, with a dedication note on this back.
Missing Photo: Samantha Peale ran the second half as a training run. When she saw the web photographer perched on a lamppost, she said to herself, "Yes, I will get by without him seeing me. I can do it!" She did.
Missing Photo: No, the sight of Jeff Kisseloff in the back of the pack was not an optical illusion. He was keeping his fiancée Marie company.

Here is the collection of Tyronne Culepper at the same point:

Photo 42: Here is further documentation of the unlimited sprinter potential of Aubin Sullivan
Photo 43: Julie Denney pays no attention to the person waving a placard on the sidewalk.
Photo 44: This is a photo of Roland Soong wrapped around a light pole. No, this is not a form of cross-training. He is just trying to find a better vantage point to locate all the people who are trying to hide from him.
Photo 45: Tyronne Culpepper did not only have lust on his mind when he took this picture. The runner right next to the face of this pretty girl is our Audrey Kingsley.
Photo 46: Here is a clear shot of Audrey Kingsley about to make the right turn into Central Park, with an orange-clad teammate on her left.
Photo 47: Michele Tagliati confronts the loneliness of the long-distance runner. First of all, nobody seems to pay any attention to him. Then, the optical illusion that even a flat road looks like uphill.

23rd MILE, JUST INSIDE CENTRAL PARK

This is the point where a large contingent of Central Park Track Club people were gathered.

Photo 51: Jud Santos showed us a copy of the hot-off-the-press newsletter, while Marty Stanton shielded his eyes. Michael Garland was pretending that he didn't notice the commotion.
Photo 52: Candy Strobach, Eric Stanton and Claudia Malley
Photo 53: Sid Howard, Frank Handelman and Luca Trovato formed the loudest cheering squad. In truth, the statement should be modified to "Sid Howard formed the loudest cheering squad by himself while Frank Handelman and Luca Trovato looked on in astonishment."
Photo 54: Not a moment to lose, Sid Howard gets on the cellular phone while waving the Vive La France placard on the other hand. Frank Handelman and Mary Beth Mulholland have difficulty matching that level of intensity.
Photo 55: Two old friends Suzanne Rohr and Sylvie Kimché now live in different worlds --- one doesn't run and the other plays golf in Ohio.

POST-MARATHON PARTY, THE PARLOUR, BROADWAY & 86th STREET

Photo 61: Audrey Kingsley explained to coach Tony Ruiz about how she blew her pace plan, and ended up four minutes ahead.
Photo 63: Thomas Pennell, Julie Denney and Josh Vendig
Photo 64: Guess who bought flowers for Julie Denney? Hint: The guy drives a van ... in fact, several vans ...
Photo 65: We did promise food and drinks were available at this party. Just check out John Kenney's order.
Photo 70: Alan Ruben wanted us to take a picture of Joey, so that Alan's sister in England can see them. By the way, folks, have you seen Gordon & Joey at the Kurt Steiner 5K?
Photo 71: What is Ramon Bermo reading? The Aqueduct sheet?
Photo 72: Somewhere in the back of this poorly lit bar, money changed hands for a certain controlled substance. The perps did not realize that they were being observed by a NYPD undercover police officer as she sat not more than 10 feet away ...

TV COVERAGE

Photo 81: Michael Konig arrived at the 26th mile mark. Appropriately, this is Mike's 26th marathon in a row.
Photo 82: As the race winner John Kagwe was being interviewed on live tv, Alan Ruben came in with arms raised in the right hand side of the picture.
Photo 83: Never one to be limited to the sideline, Alan Ruben moved to center stage in this sequence. He is clearly identifiable not by his orange singlet, but by his turquoise blue shorts.