1998 Run for the Rainforest 5K

Pre-Race Activities

Photo 1: Carsten Strandlod's idea of warming up is to chat with the girls (not shown in this picture to protect the innocents).
Photo 2: Jud Santos is practicing the high hurdles, which is another event that his rival Casey Yamazaki avoids. Yet another act of desperation?
Photo 3: Jud Santos is practicing a pagan ritual, uttering a prayer: "O Almighty Zeus, I prostrate myself before Thee. I beseech Thee to give me strength and speed for this day in order to bring honor to Thy Name ..."
Photo 4: The starter's horn goes off and away they go. Charging up front, way ahead of the pace vehicle is ...none other than Jim Olson!
Photo 5: Here come the real runners, with Jud Santos buried amongst the inevitable pack of Mexicans.

W102nd Street (almost halfway in the race)

Photo 11: Ramon Bermo runs by himself ...
Photo 12: ... whereas Jud Santos runs with a group.
Photo 13: Jeff Kisseloff is dressed in a bright red t-shirt today. He just moved recently to Westchester, and his team uniforms are packed away somewhere. So red is the closest color to orange that he can find. It would not have made any difference for the team, because he was not listed as a Central Park Track Club runner by the NYRRC, as usual. Although this is the hilliest 5K course inside Central Park, Jeff's new house is next to the Rockefeller estate where there are many, many hills. So these hills mean nothing to him.
Photo 14: Carsten Strandlod had very good form in this picture. Of course, it is easier to maintain good form rolling down to the bottom of the hill. Carsten's major achievement is that he was the fifth scoring member in a first-place finishing team, thanks to a lost runner (Luca Trovato) and a delisted runner (Jeff Kisseloff).

E102nd Street (less than 800m left)

Photo 21: This is a photo of Ramon Bermo, and has to be one of our best photos in terms of quality (of the picture --- not necessarily of the running).
Photo 22: This picture of Jud Santos is the usual grainy stuff. Look how much space is in front and back of him. Nobody is around him because people usually do not take such narrow margins (Jud's time is 16:59, one tick under 17 minutes).
Photo 23: Look at how much respect and space the competitors give Jeff Kisseloff.
Photo 24: Is this Yumi Ogita's first race back? Not bad at all, being the leader of a first-place team.
Photo 25: Aubin Sullivan is in PR-setting form.
Photo 26: Here are Aubin Sullivan and Bill Engeler running in sync.

Post-Race Mischief

Photo 31: This is a group picture of Ramon Bermo, Aubin Sullivan and Scott Willett. Aubin is beaming with delight. One reason is that she set a PR today. Another reason is that she is always happy just being with her friends. By contrast, Scott looks very unhappy. This is in spite of the fact that he set a PR today, this being his first 5K race ever. While Scott is not normally the morose type, he is always unhappy when he sees the web photographer there.
Photo 32: Ramon Bermo is gesturing wildly and articulating his discontent with the web site, with Aubin Sullivan as his captive audience. "There are these long words that I can't even find in the dictionary," he complained. You betcha, buddy!
Photo 33: Scott Willett, Ramon Bermo and Jud Santos are caught in flagrante. Scott was talking to Ramon about poofters. Ramon, being a family-oriented Spanish macho man, had no idea what Scott was talking about. Judging from the smirk on Jud's face, he probably knew. It was unfortunate that we did not bring a tape recorder ...
Photo 34: At this race, they were handing out popsicles to the racers. See how Jud Santos' eyes absolutely sparkle as he sucks on one!
Photo 46: Aubin Sullivan with the remnant of her popsicle. With her fierce loyalty to her friends, Aubin cut in front of the long line and grabbed five popsicles for everyone. "What line? There was a line?" she said.
Photo 35: Here is the Luca Trovato, posing as the "Tower of Power." Luca thought the race was going to be around the lower loop and showed up at Tavern on the Green. Nobody was there. ( ... paging Audrey Kingsley ... paging Audrey Kingsley ...)
Photo 45: Luca Trovato even had new racing shoes for today. It does not matter how light and responsive your shoes are if you don't get to the starting line on time. By the time he ran all the way around the park and found us, the race was over a long time ago. He was also quite exhausted and dehydrated. So he cut right in front of the long line and grabbed a popsicle for himself ... Hey, Luca, behave yourself!
Photo 36: What is the attraction here? Is this where they give out the popsicles? The answer is in the next photo ...
Photo 37: The centre of attraction is Erika Maple-Ogita Yamazaki, equipped appropriately with sunglasses on this bright sunny morning.
Photo 38: Aubin Sullivan cradles Erika, who is reputedly a nice baby. Does Erika find this a hair-raising experience?
Photo 41: Casey Yamazaki pulls out his videocamera to catch Aubin Sullivan and Erika. Meanwhile, Ramon Bermo is impressed at the fact Casey comes prepared with AV-equipment all the time.
Photo 39: This is a group photo of the three team leaders in the race: Ramon Bermo, Carmine Petracca and Jud Santos. Look at the popsicle hanging precariously over Jud's shoulder.
Photo 40: Luca Trovato believed that he would have been among the team leaders if only he had been there, and so he insisted on a second group photo with himself in it. By some account, this is supposedly a Latino group (Ramon Bermo is Spanish; Carmine Petracca is Italian (although he has a Rome accent); Luca Trovato is 100% Italian (so he says); and Jud Santos ... well, he has the last name Santos).
Photo 42: Here is a non-runner type (Scott Willett) who is deeply concerned about his investment holdings in the London stock market. Every moment that he gets, he reads the Financial Times. Actually, he is so good that he can read the newspaper upside down. (Note: in case you don't get it, he was trying in vain not to get his picture taken. Of course, all resistance is futile.)
Photo 44: As Scott Willett would be the first to tell you, it is pointless to turn your back to the camera. The web site guy is just as happy to attack from the rear (no! you should not read too much into that statement, in spite of Scott's evident obsession with poofters!). This picture is not totally pointless. First, you see that Scott is wearing his race number on his back. What kind of convention is that? Maybe he does not want people to know that he is a runner. Second, you see that Scott is wearing his New York University Triathlon Team shorts, without a dash of orange color anywhere. What an insult to us! (Addendum: An astute reader pointed out that there was no hint of the toilet paper strip hanging out, à la Mel Washington. So we will have to give Scott some credit.)
Photo 43: O my God! This is a picture of Casey Yamazaki and Jud Santos talking cordially with each other. What happened to the Great Rivalry? Even Carmine Petracca is shocked. But you should check out this photo very carefully. As we have always claimed, there is nothing we cannot doctor with PhotoShop (TM). So could this myth-destroyer be a forgery?

WARNING: There was a whole bunch of you running without orange color in this race. For example, team leader Carmine Petracca came dressed in purple. Purple? I mean, when Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, Carmine must have been in kindergarten. What is going on here? When Doug Kabbash was yelled at about his (lack of) orange, he claimed to have an orange stripe on his shorts. Listen up! Unless you have some meaningful amount of orange color on you, you will not have any race pictures taken. Is that understood? I am sure that would suit camera-shy people like Scott Willett just fine ...

FOOTNOTE: Upon reviewing the photos, we realized that there were none of Ross Galitsky. Now Ross was definitely there because he was talking up a storm. We are aware that he has this technique of slinking away when a photo op arises, and we used to take extra caution in the past. We must be really slipping ... (Addendum: An astute reader pointed out that one of the pictures actually showed a rear view of Ross, with the very telltale characteristic ...)