PRE-RACE ACTIVITIES

• Photo 01: Paul Stuart-Smith was asking Ramon Bermo about the the race course description.  When he saw the photographer, he said, "I'm not racing today.  I just want to know where to watch it."  Then he added, "Where were you in all those other races that I ran last month?"  P.S.  The guy behind them is Jerry Marcari, who is having the season of his life as an open/masters runner.

• Photo 02: Olivier Baillet walks to the start while talking to a friend.  Ici on parle français, oui?

• Photo 03: Adam Bleifeld wanted to know, "Who's here today?"  There will be plenty of people, except that they have been trained with the Just In Time (JIT) methodology from our workouts.

• Photo 04: According to teammate Harry Morales, Rick Shaver looks like as if he is on a mission this year.

• Photo 05: Theo Spilka has a word with NYRRC officials ("GRUNT") about the very narrow start.  This looked like a single lane start which funnels narrower in about 50 yards, and obviously a prescription for disaster.  Indeed, this was quickly changed to a two- lane start.

• Photo 06: Irene Jackson said, "No, I'm not racing today!"  The shocked Betty Marolla is probably saying, "Do you seriously think that this would stop the camera clicking?"

• Photo 07: Finally, a sight to behold --- Noel Comess wears a team singlet for the first time.  The guy behind him is Brian Marchese.

THREE MILE MARK

• Photo 11: Leading the team is Noel Comess, with Brian Marchese in the background.

• Photo 12: It takes four seconds for the digital camera to reset between shots, so this is a gauge on the gap between Noel Comess and Brian Marchese.

• Photo 13: Rick Shaver, just ahead of women's leader Yvonne Callan-Brito.

• Photo 14: Once again, Harry Morales got a nice view of teammate Rick Shaver ahead of him.

• Photo 15: Olivier Baillet is not speaking French anymore.

• Photo 16: Charlie Stark

• Photo 17: Adam Bleifeld

• Photo 18: Yumi Ogita (no number, training run)

• Photo 19: Michele Tagliati (no number, training run)

• Photo 20: As the slower runners come through, there was a man in orange bursting through at a much quicker pace.  It is that NYU running coach Ramon Bermo looking after this flock.

5.2 MILE MARK

• Photo 21: Alan Ruben tries to fly ... sorry, Alan, that "S" is the personal property of Stuart Calderwood already.

• Photo 22: Here come the real runners, with Brian Marchese making Noel Comess do all the real work ...

• Photo 23: Rick Shaver is still exactly one step ahead of Yvonne Callan-Brito.  If we believe what Harry Morales said in Famous Saying # 750, there is no better person to run with.

• Photo 24: The series of photos composed at this point was obviously designed not to capture detailed features of the runners, but to highlight the Central Park West landscape.  So Harry Morales runs right in front of the tall towers of the 90's.

• Photo 25: Olivier Baillet also gets in the landscape shot.

FINISH LINE

• Photo 31:  According to our original plan, our photographer was supposed to run back to the east side on the reservoir path.  Unfortunately, everything was iced over.  This is a photo of the frozen reservoir, the frozen running path and the frozen lawn.  Oh, we wish we could also show you the frozen photographer and his frozen fingers.

• Photo 32: By the time that we reached the east side, four of our runners have already passed.  But we caught Olivier Baillet in an act of transgression.  "Je m'en fous de ce que vous en pensez"?  (sorry, Olivier does not use such language but we need to practice French ...)

• Photo 33: Charlie Stark goes through the final bend before the straightway.  While there was still snow on the ground, the roadway was clear.

• Photo 34: John Taylor went by in all-black disguise, so all we got is his rear view.

• Photo 35: Everybody assures us that they hate to be photographed (but they come looking for their photos anyway), which has led them to adopt a number of evasive tactics.  In the case of Bola Awofeso, he is adopting the standard military tactic of charging with the sun behind his back.  In the case of Alan Ruben, he uses the alternative of running away from the battle as quickly as possible.

POST-RACE PHOTO

• Photo 41: This is the photo of Sidney Brito and Yvonne Callan-Brito.  She is the winner of the race today.  Neither one of them are members of the Central Park Track Club (but they could be), so what is their photo doing on this website?  No, they didn't pay us (but we would not have refused), if that is what you are thinking.  Instead, they have friendships with various Central Park Track Club members dating back to many years.  For example, the author of these notes says, "At the 1991 Staten Island Half Marathon, I was having the race of my life until about 200 meters to go when I was passed by ... Sidney Brito!  I don't forget this sort of thing."  Also, "Maybe the reason why I ran so well in that race was that I was preoccupied by his loose shoelace rather than with my usual negative thoughts.  I told him about it, but he refused to pause to tie it.  So I was thinking about it the whole way."

MISSING PHOTOS

• Richie and Daniel Borrero running in the bike lane and nearly wiped out by some maniac on two wheels.

• An impromptu conference among three CPTC presidents --- John Kenney, Betty Marolla and Sylvie Kimché --- about the state of the union.