1998 Outdoor Track Workout

Outdoor Track Workout

What happens at the outdoor track workouts? These photographs were taken at the East River Park track on June 23, 1998.

East River Park is located down in the lower east side, and quite far away from the home turf of Central Park. It is therefore advisable for people to allow for extra time and to arrive earlier. Of course, this is the opportunity to socialize ...

Photo 2: Jud Santos makes an appearance at the track, hauling along a laptop computer. Why? He needed to work on the Club Newsletter every moment that he can find.
Photo 1: Carsten Strandlod said that he has heard so much about the Club Newsletter, but has yet to seen a single issue since he joined the club. In his own defense, Jud said that he had to work 55 hours a week, do his running and go out to Fire Island on weekends. Couldn't he work on his laptop out there on weekends? No, he says, the humidity is too high. Hmmm. Really? Let's check out the hardware specifications ...
Photo 3: Jud Santos rushed over to have his picture taken with Brian Marchese, who just ran the Grandma's Marathon (Duluth, Minnesota) in 2:44, a personal best by 5 minutes.
Photo 4: Here is a chance for two long-time friends to catch up: David Blackstone and John Kenney.
Photo 5: Carmine and Giuseppe Petracca posed for a family picture. Eight-year-old Giuseppe won the junior division of the Father's Day Race on Saturday in a time of 2:58 for 800m, while dad was fourth overall in the Four Mile Race. Giuseppe wanted to know why this photographer was not there to record this major event. Answer: Nine a.m. was way too early for the guy to get out of bed ...
Photo 6: As always, this camera ineluctably drifts towards people in various stages of undressing. Here we have Tony Ruiz and Dan Hamner ...
Photo 13: ... and who else is undressing in public? Well, it might be that Sid Howard ...
Photo 7: Frank Schiro lives right across the street. Even though he does not do the evening workouts, he is nice enough to volunteer as a timer for us. For this evening, Frank had promised his many fans that he would wear his 1982 NYC Marathon t-shirt to prove his long-distance running credentials. Well, if our eyes do not fail us, this t-shirt reads Chase Millrose Games! In his own defense, Frank claimed that his marathon shirt was in the laundry. When John Kenney overheard this conversation, he said, "Frank, was that the t-shirt that I discarded?"
Photo 8: Here is incontrovertible proof that we are being infiltrated by NYU people, wearing their violet shorts.

Sooner or later, the coach calls for the attention of the mob. Usually, he reviews race results from the preceding week, toasts the best and roasts the rest, and then goes on to describe the workout.

Photo 9: Tony Ruiz waves his arms to attract the attention of the mob. The placard next to his feet contains the description of the workouts: 3 times 200m (100m recovery), 1000m (400m recovery), 600m (200m recovery), 1000m (400m recovery), 600m (200m recovery), 1000m, warm down jog.
Photo 10: Why does Tony have to wave and holler? Because these people have attention deficit problems! Just take a look at the mob in this photo. Is anyone listening?
Photo 11: To address a mob of 40 people, it helps to orate from above so that they can all see you. This is the view from the top. Are these people listening? or are they just spaced out?
Photo 12: A very odd phenomenon is that people will yield an empty space in front.

Finally, everybody gets underway. The mob is divided into groups based upon different running ability. There are usually three to four groups. Three people volunteered to yell out split times for this day (Tony Ruiz, Frank Schiro and Brian Marchese).

Photo 21: The first group steps up to the line. Mel Washington on the far left would have been disqualified for stepping past the line. Frank Schiro is providing instructions on the right.
Photo 22: At the word "GO", the mob stampedes down the lanes.
Photo 23: While the mob starts in a row at the same time, they quickly sort themselves into a long file. This is a matter of efficiency since the total distance is shorter in the inside lanes. Jud Santos would like everybody to note that he was ahead of 8-year-old Giuseppe Petracca in this photo.
Photo 24: Only the fearless takes the lead ... and that would be Carsten Strandlod.
Photo 25: Much of the emphasis on the workout is about maintaining good form. After all, nobody on this club is likely to be the next Michael Johnson or Carl Lewis.
Photo 26: Here comes somebody running really fast --- Victor Osayi. It was enough that Tony Ruiz told him to slow down. Unfortunately, he thought that this was a 600m instead of a 1000m, and stopped with one lap to go.
Photo 27: We are always amazed at how people can run with their eyes shut. Leading the eyeless ones are Jud Santos and Fasil Yilma.
Photo 28: One lap later, we have the same situation with Jud Santos and Fasil Yilma. The chase pack is further behind now.
Photo 29: Rae Baymiller is back in serious training again. She is aiming to take the world marathon record for 55-year-olds.
Photo 30: The reason why workouts go so smoothly is the presence of timers (Brian Marchese and Frank Schiro, in this case). These people are volunteers who do this for the pure jouissance. However, it also means that they are amateurs. For the record, we note that Frank blew the specs by telling people that the recovery after the first 1000m was 200m, instead of the prescribed 400m. Frank also talks a lot on the sideline. In particular, he likes to call people out for lane violations, because he is still bitter after being DQ'd for that offense at the national indoor championship in 1998.
Photo 31: All Karel Matousek cared about is whether or not the photographer got pictures of him in his magnificent form.