Coach Tony Ruiz, Most Valuable Runners Sid Howard
and Alan Ruben, Coach Brian Denman

RANDOM SHOTS

• Photo 01: Raqui Bermo, half of the Decorations Committee, decks the hall with decorations while decked in workman's clothes
• Photo 02: Then Raqui Bermo does his superman act by switching to party suit and takes photographs for people.
• Photo 03: An honorary member of the Special Task Force of the Decorations Committee is Joey Ruben.
• Photo 04: Prior to the party, we were asked by someone about what time he should show up.  Our answer: "The party is listed as running from 7pm to midnight.  If you show up at 7pm, nothing will be happening.  If you show up at 830pm, there may be no food left because the triathletes will have cleaned up."  Now look at this cleaned-out double decker of plates.  Who does it belong to?  Hint: Ross Galitsky is on one side, and Randy Ehrlich is on the other side.
• Photo 05: ... and not to forget the desserts that came courtesy of the Audrey Kingsley, formerly of the 1998 Decorations Committee ("I spent all of $12 on decorations that year.")
• Photo 06: This party is also about bringing in your non-running family members and friends to meet your running partners.  Here is Nathan Klejman showing off 'his' newborn and demonstrating his parenting skills.  Hey, Nathan, you really should not be feeding Michelob to the baby ...
• Photo 07: After the presentation of the awards came the dancing.  Here are Sr. Raqui Bermo and Sra. Juana Bermo doing their romantic one step/two step strut.
• Photo 08: At the other end, we have the very energetic Eden Weiss dancing with Valli McRoberts.

THE AWARDS

• Photo 11: The first award of the night was presented by our President John Kenney to long-time member Ellen Wallop, for strength and courage in the face of apparent adversity.  A survivor of breast cancer, Ellen found out that she had a relapse this year.  Still, she came back and completed Ellen's Run (a race dedicated to her namesake Ellen Ratner who died of cancer), the Run for the Cure and, after juggling around her treatment schedule, the New York City Marathon.

ROAD RUNNING AWARDS (presented by Coach Tony Ruiz)

• Most Outstanding Long-Distance Male Runner: Craig Chilton, who had a breakthrough year with a 2:39:47 at the London Marathon and still has unlimited potential ahead
• Most Outstanding Long-Distance Female Runner: Audrey Kingsley, team leader at the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon, while juggling her studies with training and team representative duties
• Most Outstanding Middle-Distance Male Runner: Paul Stuart-Smith, for versatility and excellence from the 400m up to the half marathon (and even that one marathon).
• Most Outstanding Middle-Distance Female Runner: Stacy Creamer, for having a dream year at age 39/40 in setting personal records at will, besides being the exemplary team leader and organizer
• Most Outstanding Distance Runner Male 40-49: Stuart Calderwood, for consistently contributing to open/masters team scoring and for exemplary leadership at races and workouts (P.S. Excellent recruitment and interpersonal skills, too)
• Most Outstanding Distance Runner Female 40-49: Sarah Gross, successive improvement over all distances during the year, culminating in a personal best at the New York City Marathon in the time of 3:18:02, good for a top 100 female finish.
• Most Outstanding Performance for Male: Jonathan Pillow, 25:13 at the Club Championships 5 Mile Race.
• Most Outstanding Performance for Female: Alayne Adams, 36:58 to win the NYRRC Twosome 10K in Central Park, but also acknowledged for all her other great races as well as her great personality.
• Most Improved Male Runner: Brian Marchese, for finally having a breakthrough year (34:36 at 10K and 1:15:54 at half marathon) in spite of the difficulties of juggling his running against his work hours.  Brian was not present tonight, precisely because he was working until the wee hours of the morning.  When he was told that he received this award a couple of days later, he said in all humility, "What for?  I haven't done a thing for the past few months."  But that is not what the coach thinks ...
• Most Improved Female Runner: Eve Kaplan, noted especially for her breakthrough of 3:18.22 at the Chicago Marathon
• Best Male Newcomer of the Year: Erik Goetze, picking up running again after high school, with excellent performances of 15:59 at 5K and 1:16:09 half marathon.
• Best Female Newcomer of the Year: Sandra Olivo came to us looking like a recreational runner but astonished us with her race performances (including a 1:31 half marathon as a 45-year-old) while always daring to challenge (such as surging ahead of Alan Ruben and Tony Ruiz in the 'death march' in the Shawangunks).
• Sixth Man Award: Victor Osayi for continual improvement after being the Most Improved Runner, for contributing to the team scoring and for never stopping to aspire ("Coach, what do I have to do to beat Alan Ruben?" and "Stuart, how fast did you run the last mile of the workout?")
• Special Acknowledgements: (Consistency, Persistence, Teamwork, Championship)
  --- Peter Allen for consistency and dependability, this year and past years; please note that he is about to enter the master ranks.
  --- Eden Weiss, for persistency in his now legendary quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon
  --- Bola Awofeso, for helping the coach organize and run the team workouts
  --- Toby Tanser for championship performances at the NYRRC Cross Country Championships and the Peter McArdle Cross Country 15K, as well as becoming a galvinizing force (and we don't mean those quizzes ...).
  This photo shows from left to right: Peter Allen, Eden Weiss, Tony Ruiz, Bola Awofeso, Roland Soong and Toby Tanser.  One of these people is a party-crasher who was hauled into the lineup at the insistence of Toby, who was also very careful (and rightly so) to make sure that the person is not on the outside as we would have undoubtedly cropped him right out of the photo otherwise ...
• Most Valuable Runner: Alan Ruben for continuing to set personal records at age 42, for leading our New York City Marathon team for a record seven times, for being the team leader/scorer and the standard of excellence in races/workouts throughout the year (see photo at the top of the page)

TRACK & FIELD AWARDS (presented by Coach Brian Denman)

• Most Outstanding Middle Distance Runner: Tom Hartshorne for his series of quality performances at 800m/1500m, his relay performances and for being a classy runner
• Most Outstanding Track Runner Male 40-49: Archie Glaspy (see photo below) for his series of quality performances at 200m/400m and team relay efforts (e.g. the stirring anchor leg at the Millrose Games).
• Most Outstanding Track Runner Male 50-59: Frank Handelman for his series of quality performances at top-level meets and for knowing the joy of running good races beyond absolute times.  Frank is shown in the photo with both coaches because he claims dual citizenship.
• Most Outstanding Track Performance: Sid Howard, 2:14.75 (World Record for Men 60+) at the 800m, MAC Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, The Armory, New York City, February 26th, 1999.  He also claims dual citizenship.  Sid received a standing ovation from the team tonight.  There were more than 100 people present tonight.
• Most Outstanding Woman in Track: Mary Rosado for running numerous (and we mean numerous) high-quality track races from 100m to the mile (and we are not counting her road and cross-country races).  Mary was in Los Angeles tonight on official USATF business.
• Most Outstanding Woman in Field: Skipper Clark, for her astonishing range of track and field events (100m, 200m, 400m, discus, shot put, javelin, pentathlon and who knows what else), including first-place finishes in six different events at one meet
• Most Outstanding Sprinter: Val Barnwell, who is the number one ranked sprinter in the USA and number two in the world in 1999, with the world-best times of the year in 100m and 200m.   This photo shows Tony Ruiz, Archie Glaspy, Val Barnwell and Brian Denman.  In appreciation of his award, Val also gave a touching thank-you speech with many fine points that we wish we could have recorded.  All in all, Val is a man with class!
• Coach's Award: Luca Trovato, for showing up at the workouts and putting in a total effort each and every time.  But Luca did not show up tonight, because he was shooting photos in New Zealand (or some place like that).
• Most Valuable Runner: Sid Howard for his indoor 800m world record and for a series of top-quality performances at top-level meet (see the photo at the top of the page).