Long Distance Archive - 2002

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

No track workout on Tuesday (12/31) because the Armory is closed on New Year's Eve.

(Workout of 3/28/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

(Workout of 3/26/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

(Workout of 3/21/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

(Workout of 3/19/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

(Workout of 3/12/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

(Workout of 3/07/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

(Workout of 3/05/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

(Workout of 2/28/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

• Hi, I hope you are all recovered from those pickups on tuesday. Tonight's workout will be completed by only those runners who will not be racing this weekend. If you are racing you will only do the first pickup and then go home and get some rest and relaxation.

  The rest of you will do the following:

  Heading north on the west side you will start a 2 mile pick up from the statue that will take you past the W 102 st cutoff and finish at the top of the hill (where we finish our hill repeats).  From there you will recover to the E 102 st cutoff and do another 2 mile pick up heading south on the east side and running through the 72 st cutoff back to the statue. For all intents and purposes you are finished but I'd recommend that you do 1 lower loop as a warm down. Those training for half marathons and marathons should run the loop at a nice "comfortable" pace once you've recovered from the last pick. 5-7 minutes should suffice. The two 2-mile pick ups should be run at half marathon pace for the first and then 10 mile pace for the second. 
   
  For those men who are debating whether to run this weekend, I would advise that you determine what fits best in your plan. By no means should you feel pressured to race if it makes no sense within the scope of your training program. And also take into consideration that this course (Coogans 5k) can be extremely taxing to your legs so if you are nursing an injury, you should not risk your season for the sake of just showing up.  We've received commitments from enough runners that it would behoove you to come out and give support if you really feel an obligation to your team and fellow athletes!

JOURNAL

• GUERRA SIN FIN:  (continued story)  When I told my doorman to expect a visit from a friend of Silvio Guerra, he shook his head and said, "Look, I'm from the coast at Guayaquiil and I don't like people from the mountains.  He should go and talk to the building's handyman José, who is from Cuenca."  So it is that globalization has still not overcome regional prejudices.  Still, we have learned whom to call upon to fix the dripping faucet.
   
• FEATURED MEMBER:  We have decided not to feature anyone else this week.  Isn't Jack Brennan more than enough?  So far, we have received a new tribute every day this week.  The one on Tuesday comes from this brother Michael.
   
• TRIBUTE?:  Vincent Trinquesse wrote: "It's always a great pleasure to browse the site, updated as soon as the race is over (with great pictures...thks to the photographers!)"
   
• BAGELS IN BROOKLYN  From Kevin Arlyck: "All members (and friends) of the Orange Army are cordially invited to celebrate our anticipated triumphs, both personal and collective, after the conclusion of the Brooklyn Half-Marathon on March 9th. If you can manage to tear yourself away from that tension-filled airline-ticket drawing, come feast on delicious Brooklyn bagels and regale your teammates with tales of the race. Hey, if you're going to take that ungodly subway ride anyway, you might as well get the most out of it...  From 10:00 until whenever 392-406 St. John's Place #4E (about a mile from the race finish) For all you reluctant Manhattanites, my apartment is close to the 1/2 trains."

• STREAK IS BROKEN:  From the results for Thursday Night At The Races #4, we noted that Zeb Nelessen's undefeated track record is gone, as his 800m PR time of 2:16.9 landed him in second place by 0.5 seconds.  He was previously undefeated in his only two ever 800m and mile heats.
   

• WINTER IS OVER?  Given the (relatively, we say even as we can hear the Canadians snicker) frigid temperature outside, you would not think so.  Yet, we noticed that it was not pitch dark outside at 500pm, so the days are getting longer and longer.  And if you think it is cold in the park, just think about our middle-distance runners who have a track workout in East River Park.  Eve Bois said, "It was so coooooooold out there on Tuesday."  This may (or may not) explain why we are winter's team, because we train hard indoors.
   

• CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:  With a 3-0 win over Barcelona, A.S. Roma has just soared to the top of Group B.  Mamma mia!  Meanwhile, Deportiva Coruña beat Juventus 2-0 to go into a tie for the leadership with Arsenal in Group D.  As for Michele Tagliati and Ramon Bermo, we note that one Spanish team won and one Spanish team lost, and one Italian team won and one Italian team lost.  But the important fact is this: the right Italian team won for Michele and the right Spanish team won for Ramon.  It couldn't have been any better.
  
  Shula Sarner: "Ahem ... while going on and on about the Italians and the Spanish, you neglected the rather large contingent of Brits we also have in the team. To wit, one North Londoner who grew up in the shadow of Highbury Fields and thus was rather happy when Arsenal beat Bayern Leverkeusen 4-1 this past week.  Up the GUNNERS!!  And I'll have to see what Ramon says when we play Deportivo at home."
    

• COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:  Noah Perlis: "Did I do something wrong or fail to do something right that caused you to add .01 seconds to my official 60m time at the Mac Champs? (8.56 v 8.55)?"  We think we'll let John Prather compose the abusive response ...
   

• MAC RECORD:  For the record, let it noted that Marie Davis' mile time of 5:55.69 at the MAC Indoor Championships should be asterisked as being run some time after 1:30pm (note: our reporter gave up and went home at that time).  There were actually 11 people in that race which was won by Kim Griffin (WS).  They are all champions!
     

• MINOR NON-GRAMMY AWARD:  We gave the award of the team member who has changed email addresses most often to ... Jim Olson.
   

• NATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:  First the tickets were set at $35 for two days.  Next, those tickets were discounted to $15 to favorite people.  Last Saturday, tickets for 'good seats' were being pushed for $10 after the Snowflake race.  Finally tonight James Siegel could not even give away a free ticket.  At least we know that the price cannot go down any further.
   

• TOP SECRET PHOTO:  A perennial complaint around here is that there are never photos of one particular individual.  Well, some other website has apparently scored a scoop with two revealing photos about what that particular individual really does while on overseas work assignment ...
   

• CHECK YOUR E-MAIL/WEBSITE FIRST:  ... or else you suffer the fate of Sylvie Burlot, who showed up at the Armory to find the workout cancelled.
   

• OVERHEARD CONVERSATION:  Right before yet another scoring race this weekend, 
  Stuart Calderwood: "Alan, are you going to run hard tonight?"
  Alan Ruben: "I'm not going to kill myself."
  Stuart Calderwood (aside): "The only one he's going to kill is me ..."
   

• WORKOUT REPORT:  Forty-four people at the workout.  Quick count includes John Kenney who jumped in at 80th Street, but does not include Monica Bonamego and Frank Schneiger running in the opposite direction.  Oh, we forgot --- we can add one more with Michael Trunkes at East 99th Street: "I came late and I went around hoping to encounter the workout groups.  Now that I don't work in the city anymore, it gets harder to come to workouts.  But nothing beats the Thursday workouts because you really do need someone to run with."

(Workout of 2/26/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

• Due to the USATF National Indoor Championships this weekend, the Armory will be closed during the week for preparations (such as re-painting the lane stripes, etc).  Therefore, our Tuesday workout will be inside Central Park, 7pm at the Daniel Webster statue.
   
• We'll jog north on the westside to the reservoir. Here, we'll regroup and start the workout.
  The first pick up will be 1k from W 86th street to E 90. This pick will be at 5k pace, Recover 10 lamppost. After the recovery we will proceed to do 10 lamppost pick ups with 5 recovery x 10. Your goal should be to run the the first 3 at 5k pace. The 4th thru 8th should be done at 3k pace and the 9th and 10th at 5k pace. Remember that these pickups are relatively short (300-350 yards) so if you are not wise you can develop high levels of lactic acid which is not recommended especially for the men who are racing the 5k sunday. This is meant to turn the legs over with quick comfortable pickups as opposed to an all out sprint. Any track racers should consult with me so I can go over a few details on how to best approach this workout. You will basically run the same workout except at higher speeds and you will only do 8 of the 10 lamppost pickups. For those who have never run a workout on the reservoir, the workout is run counter clockwise. 
• See you all at the statue.
• Help Wanted:  Your regular reporter is on assignment for corporate entertainment tonight, so it'll be nice for someone to volunteer a report.

JOURNAL

We are a closely knitted team

• KNITTING:  If you are sharp, you will notice that this website has a weekly production cycle that generates new content every day of the year.  Our regular features are:
   
       Monday --- Member of the Week feature; middle distance workout program for the week (Tuesday-Monday)
       Tuesday --- long distance workout tonight
       Wednesday --- long distance workout report for last night
       Thursday --- long distance workout tonight
       Friday --- long distance workout report for last night 
       Saturday --- photo cover of the week; Saturday race results, plus race photos if available
       Sunday --- Sunday race results, plus race photos if available
   
  Of course, the front page news (backed up on this journal page) are updated throughout the week as necessary.  Slippage in the production schedule may occur as when race results or photos are delayed, or other unanticipated happenings.
   
  Last Saturday, our new front photo was for expectant parents Stacy Creamer and Stuart Calderwood (see above), with the caption 'We are a closely knitted team', the reference to knitting being also an oblique pointer to Stacy's involvement in wool-spinning and bead-making.  After a couple of days, this photo was replaced by the photo and announcement of the death of our team founder, Jack Brennan.  We now have a tribute page to the memory of Jack Brennan.  The outpouring of emotions communicates the same message, 'We are a closely knitted team.'  And yet of course Jack was much more than just a member of our club, and we hope that his memory will bring us closer to his friends and family.
   
  As a matter of historical interest, it should be noted that our front cover photo has been replaced only once before, on September 11th, 2001.
   
• BIG BROTHER:  Most of the tributes to Jack Brennan came from his teammates and running friends, and are easily recognized and appreciated.  By contrast, the memories of Peggy Brennan Bermel of her big brother Jack was different and overwhelmingly powerful, because this is a Jack that we don't know about.  And even if we did not know Jack at all, her account would have been enough to make us run off to a corner somewhere and cry our eyes out.  
   
• ANOTHER FORM OF TRIBUTE:  For the month of January, we averaged about 330 home page visits per day.  On the days after Jack's death, we had 475 on Monday, 750 on Tuesday, 550 on Wednesday, 550 on Thursday and 550 on Friday.  This is NOT a statement about how popular we are --- we don't care about that; rather, this is a demonstration about how much people cared about one Jack Brennan.
   
• SNOWFLAKE WOMEN'S COURSE RECORD:  The record of 22:01 that stood since 1989 was held by our franchise runner Candace Strobach.  Today, Nicole Stevenson smashed the record with a time of 21:37, which would have been good enough for third place overall in the men's race (one second behind second place).  Although our sentimental favorite for breaking that record might have been Gordon Bakoulis, the next best choice would have been a ... Canadian, a fact that Craig Chilton and David Smith reminded us of in no uncertain terms.  Now, is she a triathlete too ... ?  If so, have we got the right club for her, or what!?
   
• SNOWFLAKE $$$:  Guess who won third-place local open money ($100)?  And who won second-place (upgraded to first-place) local master money ($150)?  And who won first-place local veteran (50+) money ($75)?  The checks are in the mail.
   
• THE FRENCH SYLVIES:  At the Snowflake party:
  Q: "How did the French Sylvie do in the race?"
  A: (pause) "... we have two Sylvies and they are both French ... which one do you mean?"
   
• NEXT SCORING RACE:  The next scoring race is the Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrock 5K on Sunday, March 3rd.  This race starts and ends at the Armory Track & Field facility.  After that, according to the Alayne Adams, we then get to the real matter of the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  Alayne says, "I hate 5K's and I love the longer distance stuff --- except for that Mother's Day Half Marathon!  On Mother's Day, moms are supposed to sleep in and have breakfast in bed instead of running half marathons!"  Yes, we agree, how insensitive those selectors must be!
   
• SERVICE REMINDERS:  Did you lose or find something at a workout?  Do you have a professional service to advertise?  Do you have a brand new pair of shoes that doesn't fit you and you want to sell?  We can publicise all of these things for members of this club ... FOR FREE!

Jack Brennan and John Kenney at East 6th Street

• MORE JACK BRENNAN:  At the Snowflake party, much of the talk was about memories of our departed founder Jack Brennan.  Unfortunately, most of those things were unpublishable due to bad taste or potential precipitation of the next world war.  That, of course, is the Jack Brennan.
   
• INJUNCTION:  Remember the injunction against over-racing over the four weeks in which there are three scoring races?  At the time, an exception was made for Alan Ruben, Stuart Calderwood and others who have shown that they can handle that load?  It was suggested at that time that Alan Ruben would in fact be running all three scoring races as well as the club's sentimental Snowflake race.  Not true.  Even Alan Ruben did not race four weekends in a row, for he skipped the Snowflake race.  Instead, Alan and Stuart went for a 22 mile run on Saturday.  So we'll have to modify the injunction to read: do not race all four weekends and/or do 20+ mile runs unless you know that you can handle the load.
   
• MAMMA MIA:  MAMMA MIA tickets are one one of the hardest Broadway show tickets in town, with a wait-list of many months.  One of our CPTC members (who wishes to remain anonymous) has several extra tickets for sale at the regular box office price for orchestra seats 8 PM Monday, February 25 (of course these would only be offered for an off-running evening).  If interested, you can e-mail abcte@att.net.  These may not be sold on a first-come first-served basis, and due consideration may be given for our injured, recently PR'ed, a good story with your request, children, but not animals or tri-athletes.
   
• MAC CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS:  We understand that the meet was everyone's nightmare, as it went well past 1pm.  Imagine running the mile race after 1pm?  What would your body think?  Lots of people went home before their events, or else switched to earlier events.  The length of the meet was due to high attendance, so that many sessions had to be run in each event.  That should not have any effect on the publication of the race results, since everything was entered into a race management database right there and then, and getting a summary listing for the web is quite easy.  But who knows when we'll find out? 
   
• JACK BRENNAN MEMORIAL RUN:  On Sunday, friends and family ran together in his memory.  There is a photo album of the event.  The collection of tributes that is now  linked from our Member Home Pages section on our home page and kept there now and forever.
   
• SMALL WORLD:  We have been thinking about this non-running story for some time and still can't go over it.  So we want to share this with y'all just to show you how small this world can be.  You may recall that we were in Toronto for a conference in mid-February.  There, we met someone for the first time even though he lives in New York City.  Here was the conversation: 
   
  RS: "I understand that you came to work in the US division of your company from your international division."
  IG:  "Yes."
  RS: "Where were you previously based?"
  IG:  "In Australia."
  RS: "Really?  I went to high school in Australia."
  IG:  "Now, really.  Where were you?"
  RS: "I was in Sydney."
  IG:  "No, that is not what I mean.  I take it for granted that you were in Sydney.  There is no other place, is there?  Where exactly in Sydney?"
  RS: "A suburb named Ryde."
  IG:  "Oh, I live in Glebe Point, which is near Ryde.  What was the name of your school?"
  RS: "It was the one across the Ryde swimming pool."
  IG:  "And what is the name?"
  RS: "I didn't think you want to know the exact name.  It's Holy Cross College."
  IG:  "Now, really, I've been thinking about sending my son to attend that school.  So, tell me ..."
   
  P.S.  We never did get to chat about the Balmain Tigers ...
    
• MONEY IN THE BANK:  This article by Peter Gambaccini contains the paragraph: "Most tristate races (except in summer) are on Sundays, so I could usually recover in the time after a tough Thursday session with my running club. But if we were gearing up for a Saturday race, the seasoned and mature ones among us knew enough to back off on Thursdays. More than once, I watched a pair of overzealous hotshots zoom through a workout ahead of me, and I knew full well they'd be looking at my back on race day. A racer needs to achieve that delicate balance between being well-conditioned and well-rested; the greatest cardiovascular system in the world won't save you if your legs are dead."  Yes, we know the names of those hotshots ... 
     
• PROPRIETY:  When someone just misses a time at a race, anatomical jokes are not permissible --- unless it is made by the subject ...  So, were you there on Saturday to hear it?
    
• USATF NATIONAL INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS:  The Armory, NYC, March 1-2, 2002.
   
  The Central Park Track Club will be represented by two Women's Distance Medley Relay teams scheduled to run at 2:10pm on Saturday (March 2).  Our potential entries are Devon Sargent, Margaret Angell, Margaret Schotte, Lauren Eckhart, Charlotte Cutler, Lee Shearer, Melissa Tidwell, Helene Sisti and ... Naomi Reynolds!  We might have fielded a CPTC "C" team too, but for injuries, colds/flus and some shyness(!?).  There are eight teams in the field, with the other six being also nationally renowned powers: Nike Farm Team, Syracuse Chargers, Boston Athletic Association, Greater Boston Track Club, Westchester Track Club and University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill).  We will be in good company!  Don't forget you can either be there, or watch via the Armory webcam!
   
  There will also be a Women's Masters 400m at 12:48pm on Saturday (March 2) to which Sue Krogstad-Hill was invited.  Unfortunately, she pulled a muscle at the MAC meet, so her status depends on whether her physical therapist can work miracles.  By the way, is it too late to name Alayne Adams as a replacement?
   
• GUERRA Y PAZ:  Our doorman buzzed our intercom and announced: "You have a package downstairs."  Quite puzzled by the unexpected call, we went downstairs and picked up a set of photos.  The doorman then said, "You better tell that cyclist friend of yours to be careful next time, because he nearly ran over someone when he went down the wheelchair."  Cyclist friend?  Who could that be?  Ross Galitsky?  Ramon Bermo?  What are they doing here?  I would never let them know where I live!  So I asked, "So who was that?"  The doorman gave this description, "A tall skinny white guy with blonde hair."  Yes, that would be my cyclist friend Toby Tanser.  For future reference, I emailed Toby: "This is how you disarm the doorman the next time you come.  If he starts giving you a hard time, you say, 'Do you know Silvio Guerra?  He is a good friend of mine.'  And the doorman will roll out the red carpet for you.  Yes, my doorman is from Ecuador where Guerra is a national hero.  It helps to have friends in high places ..."

(Workout of 2/21/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

• Thursday night's road workout will be hosted by Alan Ruben. Coach Tony Ruiz will be at the Armory to assist those people running in the NYRR Thursday Night at the Races Series.

  Tonight's workout will be a tempo run consisting of two clockwise four mile loops.

  The first loop should be done at marathon pace effort and the second loop should be done at half-marathon pace effort (i.e. 10-15 seconds per mile quicker).

  People running Saturday's Snowflake race (Women's scoring race) need not show up for this workout. If you do, the workout will be a jog to the Reservoir, then jog anticlockwise on the Reservoir to 90th Street and then do five sets of four lampposts on, eight lampposts off. Then finish jogging round the Reservoir and then back to the statue. Then go home, plan your race and get lots of rest.

JOURNAL

• EXPECTED FEMALE ATTENDANCE LOW:  ... or so we hope that they would be resting for the Snowflake Four Miler on Saturday morning.  If they do decide to run the race, they are reminded not to follow the footsteps of the Asterisk Girl Shula Sarner, "... once again, I let my boyfriend do the application and leave the team code box blank!"  How about buying her boyfriend a club membership and give him team uniforms, so that he will never forget?
   
• INVITATION TO ALL CPTC RUNNERS & OTHER FRIENDS:  

  The Brennan family really appreciates all your support and would be honored if you would end your run this Sunday (see next item) at our home and join us for some beer etc. Please don't forget to send us any memories or pictures of Jack for inclusion in an album for the children (keep it clean).

  Love, Marian and the kids
   

• GROUP MEMORIAL RUN FOR JACK BRENNAN: This Sunday (2/24) at 9am there will be a group memorial run for Jack Brennan, one of the founders of the Central Park Track Club who died suddenly on February 17th, 2002. The run will be held in the Rockefeller Estates, where Jack would run with his many friends, after moving out of New York City. We are inviting everyone from the Taconic Road Runners, Westchester and any other teams to join us.
    

  If you are leaving from the city, please contact Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com or 212-519-1372 if you have car space or if you need car space.  After 5:30pm Friday he can be contacted at aruben@nyc.rr.com or 212-222-7216.

    

  Meeting Point: Sleepy Hollow High School Parking Lot, 9am.

  Directions: Westside Highway/Henry Hudson  North  to  Saw Mill Pkwy,   follow Saw Mill to  exit 20  ( 287/Tappan Zee Bridge) take exit, this puts you on 287. Stay on 287 for about 1.5 miles and take Exit 9 (Tarrytown, exit is on the right side of the road,  watch for the small sign) at the traffic light make a Left,  at the bottom of the hill (gas station on your right)  make a right onto route 9 North.  Follow 9 North for about 1.5 -2 miles,  you'll enter Sleepy Hollow (look for welcome to Sleepy Hollow sign).  When you get to the intersection with route 448 (about 1/2 mile after welcome sign, you'll also see a diner on the right) make the right at that light. Sleepy Hollow High School parking lot entrance is the second right on that uphill.'
   
  If you are unable to leave town, you can also join Tyronne Culpepper for a run on Sunday, 9am at the Daniel Webster statue.
   
  Here are the directions to visit Jack's gravesite: "From the parking lot, go across the street and enter the Aqueduct trail.  When you get to the paved Gorey Brook Road, cross it and enter the lower (to the left) of the two trails. That is the Aqueduct trail itself.  About a quarter mile later to the left--down the hill---is Wilson Park. A quarter mile or so after that the park ends at a wire fence which separates it from the upper part of  Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  Standing at that spot, looking down the hill some 50 yards is Jack's grave with fresh flowers on it. It is clearly visible and he will have a clear view of runners going by his favorite trail. His grave is the only one all the way over by the Park.  It is just below the upper road that winds around the cemetery. If people want to go to his gravesite, at that point just scramble down the bank to the fence at the corner of the park and the cemetery. The fence has been 'adapted' at that spot to gain access. Otherwise you can enter at an opening in the fence another 100 yards down the Aqueduct Trail.  By car, visitors can enter off Route 9 at the Old Dutch Church. Follow the road along the river. At the wooden bridge, cross it.  Jack is directly up the hill from there."
   

• JACK BRENNAN TRIBUTES:  There is a special section which currently contains entries from Frank Handelman, David Blackstone, Jack Brennan (Taconic Road Runners Club), Stuart Tucker and Alan Turner.
   

• SMOKING & NEVER QUITTING --- NEW CPTC T-SHIRTS:  Margaret Angell will bring those new orange CPTC t-shirts to the Snowflake party for sale at the very affordable price of $10 each.  Since there were only 100 ordered, they may be sold out rapidly.  So bring your cash and invest!
   

• LOST & NOT FOUND YET:  Roger Liberman: "I left my running shoes (Asics DS racers white  and red with blue orthotics inside )  at the Armory on Tuesday. I returned there at lunch time today, but I could not find them. Maybe one of our teammates picked them up.  Please reply if you have it."  
   

• 1992 SNOWFLAKE REPORT:  The following State of the Union address by George Wisniewski appeared in the (printed) 1991-1992 Winter club newsletter:

According to Frank Handelman, founding father and former club president, CPTC was started in October 1972 at the onset of the running boom.  We are now approaching our 20th year and still going strong.  The reason for our continued strength is the competitive core of our team, which has remained as the focal point of our club's activities for two decades.

The Central Park Track Club was started by competitors who wanted to join together as a team for group workouts and team competition.  In the 1970's, our club was noted for great team performances, particularly in marathon and ultra-marathon races; it won the team title in the famed 52-mile London-to-Brighton Race in 1978.

By the early 1980's more and more club members were competing in races shorter than the marathon.  They wanted a coach, and in 1981 I was hired to set up organized workouts and help the athletes to improve their competitive performances.  The workouts quickly became the anchor of this team.  For 11 years now, team members have known they can attend regularly-scheduled, supervised, no-nonsense workouts with people who share their competitive goals.

Our club has won more team races in Central Park during the 1980's and 90's than any other club in the metropolitan area.  Other clubs have had a few good years and top competitors but Central Park has been a consistent team winner year after year.  This winter our men's team won nine straight races in the park.

New York is a tough town; job, social and life pressures produce a burnout that really hits the competitive athletes hard.  The athlete juggles all of the madness of this city along with a training program that saps time and energy.  All of the running teams of this city have lost fine athletes after just a few short years of competition.

Our club has lost many fine competitors too, but we have "built a better mouse trap"; people keep beating a path to our door.  Our workouts have attracted a whole new generation of runners who can't find a quality program as good as ours anywhere else in this town.  Many of our newer competitors joined to be part of the orange wave that sweeps through park races like a tidal wave.  On February 2, we had over 50 competitors in the Snowflake Four Miler, and won both the men's and women's team titles (for the eighth time since 1981!).  Almost half of our racers that day were not even in the Club three years ago!

We are proud that our new members have quickly learned the skills and values of the competitive core of this team.  There has been a wonderful exchange of training, ideas and social activities between the older and newer members on all of our competitive levels.  We are just as proud of a member of the "D" group who breaks 40 minutes for 10K for the first time as we are when a member of the "A" group first cracks 34 minutes.  Keep going, and long may you run!

In the 1992 Snowflake Four Miler, our five male scorers were David Evans (20:50), Peter Allen (20:53), John Kenney (20:55), Hank Berkowitz (21:16), Peter Downs (21:22).  Other noteworthies were Alan Ruben (21:24), Rick Shaver (21:41), Tony Ruiz (21:47), Charlie Stark (23:07), Sid Howard (23:20), Frank Handelman (23:40), Fred Lebow (35:21).  

For our women , the three scorers were Candy Strobach (22:56, 2nd overall), Claudia Porfilio (23:52), Hilde Vintervoll (25:50).  Other noteworthies include Monica Bonamego (26:20) and Stacy Creamer (26:42).

• SIN OF OMISSION:  Dan Sack pointed out that he too was in the Kurt Steiner 50K last Sunday.  In turn, it was pointed out to him that we missed his time because he was not listed as CPTC in his team affiliation.  So, we present our Asterisk Man and Woman of The Week --- Dan Sack and Shula Sarner, and this is not an honor roll ...
   

• THE WORKOUT ITSELF:  There were thirty-one people at the start of the workout.  This number is significantly lower than our average attendance figure, due to the fact that there are three major meets within the next 36 hours.  And can you say ... Michael Trunkes?  This count does not include Michelle Santomassino waiting at the finish nor Fasil Yilma whizzing by with a walkman.  And never mind those heckling cyclists who are supposed to be dues-paying members of our running club.  
   
  A moment of silence was held in memory of our departed founder Jack Brennan.  Michelle Santomassino said, "I was a long time resident of Westchester and I knew many runners, including Jack Brennan of the Taconic Road Runners Club..  For years, people kept telling me about Jack Brennan (of the Central Park Track Club), but it was not until last year's club awards night that I finally met and spoke to him.  Now he is gone.  There are these pictures of him on the website.  But I wonder what he looked like when he was young ..."  The photo collage that can be found right now on this website is culled from the photos taken for this website since 1997.  We'll have to see if his friends have other photos.
    
  This is near the end of February, and winter has not arrived yet.  Today, the temperature was in the 60's.  Quite a few people other than Alan Ruben/Jerome O'Shaughnessy showed up in shorts and t-shirts.
    
  You will not be surprised to learn that the first to finish was Alan Ruben.  According to Josh Feldman, "Alan had vanished over the horizon by the time we reached 102nd Street.  Given that he set a 15K PR last Saturday, there is no reason why he couldn't set a PR in Boston this year."
   

• ICE SKATING QUEEN:  On the way out, our two ad agency personnel wondered if they would have time to catch the women's ice skating competition finals.  Well, this is all about television ratings.  The Winter Olympics coverage on NBC is supposed to go from 8pm to 12 midnight.  Do you think that there is any chance that NBC would be done with ice skating within the first hour and then move on to curling for the rest of the evening?  
   
  Back in 1988, we were working for a television ratings company that had an better-than-state-of-the-art-even-today electronic meter that provided second-by-second ratings, unlike the current minute-by-minute technology.  That year, the skate-off was between Katerina Witt (East Germany) and Debbie Thomas (USA).  Thomas needed a perfect long program to have any hope of winning.  Midway through her program, she had one flawed landing and we saw that the television rating plummeted instantaneously because people knew what the outcome would be and left. 
   
  So it was that on this night, the ice skating was shown at the very end of the scheduled programming, with the national anthem being played for the medal ceremony at 11:59pm.  They are certainly no fools at NBC.
   

• ONLY SPANISH READERS NEED APPLY:  In newpaper Primera Hora, San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 18th, 2002

La dos veces campeona de los Juegos Olímpicos, Derartu Tulu, de Etiopía, estaba en el hotel Intercontinental y miraba a su alrededor: ¡Wow, es como si aquí se estuviera celebrando la final de los Juegos Olímpicos!", exclamó.

Ésta se refería a los atletas que se congregaron en San Juan para correr en el "World Best 10K" sobre el Puente Teodoro Moscoso.

Rara vez uno encuentra tanto talento en un evento que no es un campeonato y se pregunta ¿podría llamarse esta carrera el Campeonato Mundial de 10K?

Paula Radcliffe, de Bedford, Gran Bretaña, quien ostenta varios campeonatos mundiales y récords, concuerda con esta teoría. "¡Aquí está todo el mundo que debe estar, el mundo entero ha venido a Puerto Rico a la carrera!", exclamó.

Radcliffe viajó a San Juan desde Albuquerque, Nuevo México, donde entrena para el Maratón de Londres. "Veo esta carrera como un paso importante en mi preparación, sé que estoy corriendo bien, pero es bueno ponerse a prueba con una carrera", subrayó.

Radcliffe usa una base para su carrera en Albuquerque, por la altitud y el clima. Cada vez que compite gana un promedio de $300,000, por lo que su preparación debe ser impecable, y hay mucho dinero esperando en la meta.

Es un tanto sorprendente que esta carrera sólo lleve tres años. Es relativamente un bebé en el mundo del fondismo. Por lo general, se requiere de una década para que una carrera adquiera reconocimiento en el circuito, pero el "World's Best 10K" ha llegado al panorama con una fuerza espectacular.

Más refrescante aún resulta ver el entusiasmo que rodea el evento. Los atletas son elevados a la categoría de estrellas de rock en la ciudad, al llegar al "pasta party" los corredores reciben el tipo de bienvenida que se les da a un equipo de béisbol que visita la Isla. Las personas en la calle se detienen y preguntan: "¿Estás aquí porque vas a correr en el maratón?, Gracias por venir".

La gente conoce a los atletas también, especialmente al favorito de los puertorriqueños, Khalid Khannouchi. Éste ha viajado en un sinnúmero de ocasiones, pero más recientemente hace dos semanas, cuando ganó el Medio Maratón San Blas de Coamo.

"No necesito una excusa para viajar a Puerto Rico", indicó Kannouchi sonriendo y saludando a sus seguidores. Khannouchi también viajó desde Albuquerque, donde entrena para el Maratón de Londres.

Se anticipaba que la amenaza de Khannouchi en la carrera provenía del continente africano. El nombre que más sonaba era el de Paul Kibii Tergat, de la tribu de Tugen, quien tenía el honor de ostentar el récord mundial para los 10,000m en pista. El hombre, sin embargo, está corriendo con un albatros alrededor de su cuello, el hermano de Tergat, Francis, está en un hospital de Nueva Jersey porque sufre de cáncer del hígado. Obviamente, el entrenamiento de Tergat ha pasado a un segundo plano en los últimos dos meses, por lo que Tergat estaba indiferente acerca de sus posibilidades en la carrera antes del evento.

"Hay muchos favoritos en esta carrera, con frecuencia cualquiera podría ser el ganador", afirmó. Tergat sabía que vacilaba, muchos otros tomarían su lugar. Por ejemplo, se podía hablar de Roger Rop, quien tiene el récord para los 25 kilómetros, o Tom Nyariki, quien ha ganado dos medallas mundiales individuales. También se podía hablar de otros africanos, incluido Hendrick Ramaala, abogado de Sudáfrica, una de las dos personas que derrotó a Tergat en el 2001, y su compatriota Shadrack Hoff, quien tuvo una temporada excepcional en el circuito de fondismo el año pasado. A Ramaala le encanta Puerto Rico. "Es un gran lugar, la gente aquí es tan amigable", acota.

¿Cuáles son las cosas que hacen esta carrera tan popular para los atletas? ¿Por qué esta carrera ha subido como la espuma en la arena del fondismo con tanto éxito? Hablan por sí solos los esfuerzos de los organizadores de la carrera, la gente de San Juan y el espíritu de los puertorriqueños. Los kenianos quedaron anonadados cuando su plato favorito, el ugali, fue servido en la conferencia de prensa y en el "pasta party".

"Ellos (los organizadores del maratón) realmente se esfuerzan para hacernos sentir bien", afirmó Gladys Asiba, de Kenia, quien regresó a competir tras finalizar en cuarto lugar el año pasado. Mientras tanto, Lornah Kiplagat resalta un regalo que le hizo un puertorriqueño. La persona había coleccionado todos los recortes de prensa en torno a ella y le hizo un libro; en la primera página había un escrito en el que le agradecía a Lornah, gracias por venir a la Isla. "¿Se imaginan que hizo esto para mí, tan chulo", reaccionó Lornah con una amplia sonrisa. La prensa de Puerto Rico ha sido fenomenal, los atletas hojeaban los periódicos con asombro ante la cobertura con profundidad y los reportajes investigativos en torno a los líderes en la contienda.

El comité del Maratón ha diseñado un gran premio, un incentivo de $100,000 para quien rompa el récord mundial, gran ambiente utópico. Quién no quisiera viajar a Puerto Rico en febrero.

No sólo se trata de una carrera con atletas de renombre, la participación es impresionante. Este año hay 2,000 participantes más que el año anterior. Obviamente, la carrera atrae. Tal vez es el espíritu de los puertorriqueños, un aura de energía positiva que rodea el evento.

A una hora de la salida, los atletas están comenzando a calentar. Las nubes cubren el Sol y si el viento disminuye, las condiciones van a ser perfectas. Es un momento donde los atletas elite tratan de aquietar la mente, pero preparar el cuerpo para los rigores de una carrera al ritmo de una de envergadura mundial. James Koskei, quien virtualmente fue imbatible en el 2001, estira las piernas en la barricada que se usa para separar el tráfico en el puente: "No hay problemas, ahora debemos correr". Hasta ahora no hay ningún inconveniente. Sin embargo, Tulu está preocupado por el viento. "Va a afectar la hora de seguro". Y Gilbert Koech ya está haciendo planes para el maratón del próximo año. "Si no logro el récord hoy (ayer), lo hago el año que viene", sostuvo.

Diez minutos antes de la salida, en el camión de la prensa no se vislumbraban récords mundiales. "Mira las astas de las banderas, casi se están disipando", señala Lisa Buster, la manejadora de Catherine Ndereba y Gladys Assiba. Sin embargo, no luce prometedor para los organizadores.

Al sonido del disparo, el héroe local se coloca en el medio. Los corredores no se percatan de ese gesto y se agrupan muy juntos al pasar el primer kilómetro en un 2:54 conservador. Esto no es un paso como para obtener el récord mundial. La idea del dinero se va desvaneciendo para John Yuda, de Tanzania, y Gabriel Muchiri, de Kenia. El patrón permaneció igual mientras el grupo se movía a mitad de la meta cronometrando 13:58. El segundo grupo, no obstante, se encontraba a tan sólo varios metros y lucían serenos.

Tom Nyariki lideraba el segundo grupo, junto con él estaban los primeros sembrados: Hendrick Ramaala, Shadrack Hoff, Paul Biwott, Gilbert Koech y Robert Cheruiyot. El único que faltaba era Khalid Khannouchi, y a juzgar por la forma en que el marroquí estaba corriendo, éste no iba a ser un factor decisivo en esta carrera. En la quinta milla los grupos se consolidaron en uno solo, Tergat lucía muy fuerte y a la altura del hombro de Nyariki. El cuerpo delgado de John Yuda parecía que confrontaba problemas con las condiciones del viento, su camiseta amarilla era batida por el viento. Mientras tanto, las mujeres también estaban enfrascadas en una fuerte lucha. Paula Radcliffe tomó control inmediato de la carrera gracias a una rápida arrancada. La keniana Lornah Kiplagat fue la única que pudo mantener el paso de la corredora británica. Pero al llegar a los cuatro kilómetros (12:03), Radcliffe cogió impulso y Kiplagat no pudo responder.

Kiplagat venía de ganar el Maratón de Osaka en Japón la semana pasada con registro de 2:23 y sus piernas estaban cansadas. Tal vez si no hubiera corrido el maratón el resultado de ayer hubiera sido diferente. A los cinco kilómetros, Paula estaba sola y Esther Kiplagat (ninguna relación con Lornah) ocupaba la tercera posición.

Cada vez que Radcliffe rebasaba a algún competidor masculino, éstos se rendían, sorprendidos ante el hecho de que una mujer los dejaba atrás. El esposo de Radcliffe, Gary Lough, un ex fondista irlandés, esperaba a Paula a mitad de carrera para alentarla. "Si tan sólo uno de esos hombres corriera junto a ella. Entonces podrían trabajar juntos", indicó Lough. La meta a la que Lough aludía era la marca mundial y el bono de $100,000 que le acompañaba. Radcliffe guardaba el paso para lograr dicha hazaña.

En el momento en que los hombres entraban en la última milla, Hendrick Ramaala dejó atrás a Shadrack Hoff. Éste estaba marcando un paso récord para la carrera, 28:15, pero estaba alejándose del mejor registro mundial (27:18). Pero en tercer lugar, dos segundos atrás estaba Tergat, quien encabezaba el pelotón de los próximos ocho corredores, todos kenianos. Ramaala estaba gozando, alzando su puño en señal de victoria y sonriéndole a la fanaticada.

"Me sentí fuerte hoy (ayer) y pude haber corrido más rápido si no hubiera sido por el viento", indicó el ganador.

El dúo que fue protagonista en las primeras etapas de la carrera, Muchiri y Yuda, finalizaron en quinta y sexta posición respectivamente.

Khalid Khannouchi se colocó en la decimotercera posición con registro de 29:47. Levantó sus brazos al cruzar la línea de meta a manera de agradecer el apoyo que le brindó la fanaticada que se dio cita en el puente. Fue obvio por su desempeño ayer que el maratón de San Blas lo dejo exhausto. Cuando Khannouchi practica en el "Rockefeller State Park", en el norte del estado Nueva York, registra mejores tiempos que el que logró ayer. Un Khannouchi libre de cansancio hubiera producido un resultado muy distinto.

Radcliffe, por su parte, se encontraba dando el último empuje para llegar a la meta. Su cabeza iba de lado a lado y sus brazos dándole impulso con rítmico vigor. Ésta cruzó la meta unos agonizantes segundos después de la marca mundial. La decepción se dibujaba en su expresión. Increíblemente, Radcliffe tan sólo ha participado en tres carreras de 10 kilómetros en su vida . Ésta ha ganado las tres y sus últimos dos tiempos figuran entre los tres mejores de la historia para dicha distancia. El consuelo es poco, sin embargo, cuando $100,000 están tan cerca y se escapan.

"Sabía que estaba en forma y que podía establecer un récord, pero el viento estaba demasiado fuerte. La ruta estuvo estupenda, no hubo problemas ahí", señaló.

Luego de presenciar su desempeño ayer nadie en el puente puede dudar de sus palabras. Lornah Kiplagat hizo lo posible para mantenerse en el segundo lugar, se relajó un poco luego de abandonar el paso de Paula y entonces hizo un esfuerzo por mantener su posición. El tiempo de 32:17 no fue un verdadero reflejo del esfuerzo que hizo y Lornah sabe que pudo hacerlo mejor. "Estuve bien, no fue tan mal". Ella casi no buscó aire.

Pero lo mismo no puede decirse de los próximos finalistas. Elana Meyer tomó el último lugar del podio (el tercer lugar individual para los sudafricanos) un minuto y medio antes que Esther Kiplagat.

Esther colapsó poco después de haber cruzado la meta y aseguró que fue la carrera más difícil que ha hecho en toda su carrera. "Nunca había corrido tan fuerte. Traté de ir tras el récord, pero fue demasiado para mí".

Federico Rosa, quien maneja un grupo de atletas kenianos que corren para el equipo de Fila, tomó su teléfono celular minutos después de concluida la carrera para informar los resultados a Italia. No se veía contento con la actuación de Tergat. "Los organizadores van a tener que hacer algo para bregar con el viento si quieren que aquí se establezca una marca", opinó. Sin embargo, la actuación de Paula disipó el mito de que un récord en esta ruta es imposible.

El mismo Tergat estuvo más optimista. "No fue un mal resultado para mí. Estoy satisfecho. Hendrick estuvo muy fuerte y mereció ganar".

Así que los libros de récords no serán reescritos, por lo menos no por este año. Sin embargo, exactamente una hora después del tiro inicial, el viento había muerto completamente y las banderas colgaban como estatuas de piedra.

Paula se disponía a empezar su carrera de enfriamiento, miró hacia las banderas e hizo una mueca. "Si la carrera hubiera empezado ahora, el récord sería mío". ¡Y los 100,000 dólares también!

(Toby Tanser es un experto en el tema de fondismo a nivel mundial y ha escrito varios libros sobre el tema).

• WHOOOAAAA!  Lauren Eckhart, 2:26 for 800m on Thursdays!  Major PR time.

(Workout of 2/19/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

• 3x 200m to warm up
• 400m, 200m jog
• 800m, 400m jog
• 1000m, 400m jog
• 1000m, 400m jog
• 800m, 400m jog
• 400m

JOURNAL

• END OF SEASON:  This weekend, we will have the last Thursday Night At the Races and the MAC Indoor Championships and, after that, there is just one minor local indoor track meet.  And it hasn't really even snowed yet ...
   
• CHEST BEATING SESSION:  Periodically, we pat ourselves on our backs (note: not very easy to do when there is only one person) and proclaim this to be the number one running club website.  What is the basis of making those kinds of ridiculous claims?  What are the criteria?
   
  We can use certain objective criteria.  We have 450 megabytes of dedicated content and we have 6,500 photos of our own.  It is difficult for us to imagine how anyone else can be remotely close.  Another standard internet metric is the number of visitors or hits.  It is quite possible that there are some other running clubs with higher numbers, on account of the fact that they are the only running organization in their country or city, or that they list race results, or that they operate races.  We regard our relationship with our visitors to be deeper than just a series of transactions (e.g. look up a race result or download an application form for a race).  In marketing research parlance, the litmus test is the percent of consumers who say, "I would miss this site if it were not there" or "This site is like a very good friend to me."
   
  Someone referred us to the running portal Run-Down.  This portal has an extensive directory of running clubs from all over the world, with a running count of the number of click-throughs to each of the clubs.  In the New York state page, we see that the Central Park Track Club has been listed since May 2nd, 1999 and 369 click-throughs have been recorded as of February 15, 2002.  During that time period, our website has registered over 200,000 home page visitors, so the contribution of the traffic directed by Run-Down is negligible.  Run-Down also permits people to rate websites, and the Central Park Track Club has an average rating of 6.18 from 33 people.  Although these counts are small, they still make the Central Park Track Club website tops in New York state.
   
  How do things look elsewhere in the world on Run-Down?  Apparently, Texas operates in another dimension from everybody else (note: no Enron jokes intended here).  The Cross Country Club of Dallas has 2,450 click-throughs and 1,803 votes at an average rating of 6.75 since April 26th, 1999.  That is phenomenal but their cross-town rival Fort Worth Running Club has 3,651 click-throughs and 2,455 votes at an average rating of 6.99 since January 27th, 2000.  We will note that Fort Worth Running Club's own website visitor counter shows 34,416 visitors as of January 20, 2000.  Did we hear someone mumble, "Stuffing the ballot box"?  By contrast, the website visitor counter of Cross Country Club of Dallas showed about 313,000 visitors as of August 20, 2000.  How could there be such a big difference?  One hint was that the Cross Country Club of Dallas was selected as the 2001 Top Running Club website by the Road Runners Club of America.
   
  Enough people have wondered why we are not the top RRCA website, because they believe that we have a website that is far superior to all the previous winners.  Well, the RRCA requires that (1) all eligible competitors to be RRCA clubs and (2) to have a link to the RRCA from their home pages.  We suppose that we can meet those requirements easily, but we think that we would like to figure what the RRCA has meant or means to us in our daily running lives first ...
   
  As we have told you many times before, we don't care if we are number one or number twenty-nine, as a website or a running team.  All we ever want is to know that we have enjoyed the experience, and it has been quite a ride so far.
   
• AL GORDON 15K:  For the first men's scoring race of the year, we are happy to report that our open and masters men's teams both won.  Historically, we have been a winter team, so we find ourselves ahead once again this year.  Of course, this year's schedule crams three men's scoring race in four weeks.  We will repeat the injunction against running all these races, with dispensations given to Alan Ruben and others who have shown that they can handle the stress.  Remember that our strength is our depth, so choose your races wisely and effectively.  Our strength is also our breadth as we saw far too many of our teammates perched on bicycles around the course today ...
   
• SNOWFLAKE FOUR MILER:  Next week, the Snowflake Four Miler will be a women's scoring race, and we wonder how many of our new fast women will be out there --- Kate Crowley, Clodagh Rafferty, Andrea Costella, Kate Nash, Sylvie Burlot, ...  Unfortunately, this four mile race collides with the final Thursday Night At The Races and the MAC Indoor Track Championship, or else we could have borrowed our middle-distance stars Charlotte Cutler, Sonya Ellmann, Lee Shearer, ... Whew, our heads are spinning at that potential roster ...
    
• MEMBER OF THE WEEK:  Our featured member of the week is Larry Thraen.  Previously, he was identified as an 'intrepreneur' at Sheep Meadow (Central Park) where he worked on his suntan.  These days, he has a more proper title of 'Senior Solutions Consultant.'   To us, Larry is famous as the man who ran 2:59:59 at the 2001 Chicago Marathon.
   
• WHAT IF THEY CALLED FOR A LONG RUN AND NOBODY CAME?: First, the instigator ran off to where the sun is.  Then the main draw --- Monsieur Mileage --- said that he would not be there either, with this explanation: "The advertising only says Mister Mileage.  There are lots of people with high mileage, so who is going to know it was me?  Oh, yes, it reads 'Monsieur Mileage' but there are still lots of French people with high mileage these days.  Besides, I no longer log a lot of miles these days.  C'est tout ..."
   
• JACK BRENNAN, 1949-2002
   
  Jack Brennan, Central Park Track Club founder and member since 1972, passed away after a sudden illness early Sunday morning at 2am.  He was 52 years old.  He is survived by his wife Marion and three children.
   
  Jack helped to found the Central Park Track Club while a a law student at New York University and became a tremendous long-distance runner.  He represented the club at the 1980 US Olympics Marathon Trials and has a marathon personal record of 2:20:50.  He continued to train and race throughout his life.  He contributed tremendously to the atmosphere of the team.
    
  Funeral services are scheduled for Tuesday, February 19th, 2002.  Family visiting will take place at 1130am and a funeral service will be held at 1pm.  The location is:
  The Edwards-Dowdle Funeral Home
  64 Ashford Avenue
  Dobbs Ferry, NY  10522
  (914) 693-3330 / (800) 564-3330
  (see directions)
   
  As one of the longest-time members, Jack has many friends here.  Even our newest members will remember the repartees between Frank Handelman and Jack Brennan at the 2000 Annual Club Awards Banquet.  Please send Roland any memories of Jack that you care to share with us. 

(Workout of 2/14/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

From the Webster statue, run north up West Drive at an easy pace to the Reservoir entrance near West 86th Street. Continue at that pace counter-clockwise on the Reservoir to the entrance near East 90th Street, and then run a series of four lampposts on, eight off, until you've done five four-pole pickups. The pickups should be at approximately 15K race pace (don't you dare back off to 10-mile pace!) and should feel relaxed. The eight-pole sections should be at the original easy pace. This should take you almost back to the 86th Street entrance; finish the lap, exit the Reservoir, and continue back south to the statue. The total is about 3.3 miles.

From the statue, run north at an easy-to-moderate pace up West Drive to the 102nd Street Transverse. Continue north and complete two laps of the Northern Hills clockwise, running the two big uphills as pickups each time and backing off to a moderate pace everywhere else. The hills are (1--400 meters) from about 75 meters north of the transverse to the top of the Great Hill, and (2--600 meters) from about 75 meters before the Lasker Rink/Pool to the east end of the transverse. (If you don't know where the rink is, start the pickup when you notice that you're running up a hill.) After the second lap, turn left from the transverse onto West Drive and run at an easy-to-moderate pace back to the statue; on the way, beginning at the traffic light near 90th Street, do three pickups of three light-poles apiece with three-pole recoveries. These should be relaxed, possibly even fun, and not in the least bit competitive. The total is about 6.8 miles.

Important: the hills should not be run as sprints--and not nearly as intensely as we do them during the standard 6-hill-repeats session. They should be run at the kind of effort that you'd give them in a 5K race: strongly, with good form (accentuated forefoot-landings, knee-lift, and arm-drive), but not hard enough to wipe yourself out; you should be able to continue at a moderate pace immediately after each hill without gasping for air and hanging on for your life. These two laps are an excellent facsimile of the Boston Marathon's four-hill section, incidentally. The effort and the times should be similar for the two laps. I recommend that a different member of each group lead each uphill, and that group members work together to pull one another along, rather than race. If your group does spread out during the uphills, try to regroup during the recoveries, even if it means that some members back off slightly more. Remember, it's Valentine's Day--no one gets dropped.

JOURNAL

• EXPECTED ATTENDANCE LOW:  Since the Al Gordon 15K is a scoring race on Saturday morning, we hope NOT to see too many people running this road workout ...  but maybe it is a good time for the legendary Clodagh Rafferty to finally show up?  The other big event this weekend is the USATF New England Indoor Track & Field Championships, where we will once again field a distance medley team of 'fast women.'  This will be an especially sweet occasion since some of them will be going back to their 'home' court at Harvard University.
    
• SPLIT TIMER:  Finally, the results for last Thursday's track meet have been posted.  Let it also be noted that we also published the split times for some of our members, courtesy of Jeff Wilson who diligiently hit the buttons and recorded the times.
   
• SELF-ABSORPTION SECTION:  For each of the first three days of this week, our homepage visitor count exceeded 450.  To put this in perspective, this website has more visitors than MasterTrack.com, the website for ALL masters runners around the world.
   
• FASTER THAN THE WORLD RECORD AGAIN:  Remember that Alston Brown ran faster than the existing world 400m record (52.72) at Thursday Night At The Races #2?  For Thursday Night At The Races #3, the 'official' result for him was 51.9! Unfortunately, this was not a USATF 'sanctioned' meet, so nothing counts.  Our own handtimer has Alston for 53.4, so there was a major divergence.  All should be resolved at next week's MAC championships, which will be manned by an official USATF crew.
   
• CONVOY WANTED:  From www.tanser.org : "I have a new idea that I spun out to a few random email addresses last night; starting on this Sunday why not everyone who wants to run long meet up and see if there is someone who is going to go your pace, or come with someone? If people come to 90th & 5th Avenue to start the run at 9 A.M. sharp we could have... a convoy! Afterwards we could have a coffee shop as a meeting place for those who would like to be social.  So to throw a coin in the pool I am tentatively suggesting 11 A.M. at Starbucks on 98th & Broadway - the bagels from Lenny's (on the otherside of Broadway) are sublime, check out the Ali Baba. And Monsieur Mileage is going to come. An added attraction!"  Madame Mileage said, "I can't believe that Monsiuer Mileage is the main draw.  What if nobody came?"
   
• 250,000:  Current projections suggest that we may reach this landmark over the weekend.  We'll just issue fair warning that anyone who wants to attack the goal by multiple rapid clicking will simply see the counter being reset backwards.  Let's play fair ...
   
• UNDEFEATED IN CAREER:  Amongst us, we have one runner --- Zeb Nelessen --- who has never been beaten on the track at 800m/mile.  He has run only exactly one 800m and one mile in his life.  Since he had no idea how good he was (and obviously lacking any historical benchmarks), he was assigned to the slower heats in which he simply ran away from the rest of the pack (debut times of 2:22 in 800m and 5:10 in the mile).  He was, of course, a triathlete ...
   
• THE ACTUAL WORKOUT ITSELF:  Thirty-four people showed up, of which seven elected to do the light reservoir workout.  What is our sub-60-second female quartermiler's name?  Lee Shearer, as in NOT Scherrer.  Or is that really so?  In the 1999 Penn Relays, the first place heptagonal 4x400m was Heather Hanson, Brenda Taylor, Lee Scherrer, Marna Schutte from Harvard University in a time of 3:42.84.  Are you reading this, John?  How's the weather like in Nowheresville, Illinois?  Wish you were here.  Really.  And why did we think of John Scherrer just now?  He once entered the 15K road race, thinking that it was a metric mile race and ended up running the second longest race of his life.  Oops, we did it again!  We promised you that we would talk about the actual workout, but we ended up in Illinois instead.
   
• CLUB NIGHT PHOTOS:  The publication of the NYRR Club Night photos is further bogged down over the proper price for the suppression of one photo in a package deal --- either pay up or the picture shows up in (1) the front page for all of next week; (2) the cover page of the photo album of the event; (3) the subject of a trivia quiz item; (4) an essay contest with a copy of Toby Tanser's book for the most imaginative story.  The clock is ticking ... who's worried?
    
•  MEMBER OF THE WEEK --- IT WORKS!  Tuesday down at the Armory track,
  Sue Pearsall: "Hi, Audrey, you may not know me but I am ... "
  Audrey Kingsley: " ... Sue Pearsall!  Right!?"
    
• AL GORDON 15K:  A brief reminder of the basic facts:
  Date:  Saturday, February 16th, 930am
  Place:  Central Park, NYC
  Course: Start at 97th Street and East Drive. Head north on East Drive to the 102nd Street Transverse. Turn left to West Drive, around the southern end of the park and back to the 102nd Street Transverse. Cross the transverse again and turn left (south) on West Drive and continue to 72nd Street. Turn left on the transverse and continue to East Drive. Turn left (north) and continue to the finish at 102nd Street and East Drive.

(Workout of 2/12/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

JOURNAL

• THURSDAY NIGHT AT THE RACES: This is Saturday, and we have nothing to report.  Don't blame us, because the official results are not published yet.  On Thursday night, after we finished writing our regular workout report, we remembered to look at the Armory webcam and everybody was already gone.
   
• CORRESPONDENCE: 
  SUBJECT:  The NYRR Collegiate Invitational Women's Open Mile, February 8th, 2002
  FROM Isaya Okwiya: "Just in case you don't have the official results yet.  Charlotte Cutler's official mile time: 4:55.31."
  TO:  Isaya Okwiya: "Thanks, but her official time was 4:55.32.  Please make sure that you double-check your work on all mission-critical tasks in the future!"
  FROM Isaya Okwiya: "YES SIR!"
   
  Although we will have yet to check with our historian, we believe that Charlotte's time may be fastest by a Central Park Track Club woman.  Of course, it is likely that Devon Sargent, Margaret Angell and Charlotte herself may have run faster in their former lives.  We hope that all will run faster in their future lives with us.
    
• EYEING FOR PR'S:  David Howard reports, "I missed Thursday's workout because of  an infected eye.  I was actually about to leave to do the workout until Michelle (Santomassino) walked into the apartment and her first words were, "Oh my God!"  She then tried to get me to the emergency room.  My phobia towards hospitals made me very resistant.  Finally I went to St. Luke's Roosevelt; and because I had to wait so long in the E.R., decided to leave so I could get some sleep.  Again I was resistant to taking any antibiotics to treat the infection.
      
  At 3:45 a.m., Friday, I woke up and was unable to open my eye.  Michelle pushed me to the E.R.  The doctors told me the seriousness of this infection, and so I allowed them to stick me with a needle (I am very fearful of needles) so they could draw blood and feed me antibiotics intravenously.   I was lying on a bed and was fortunate enough to be able to sleep.  Michelle had it much worse; she looked so tired after pushing me to the hospital, and now she was sitting in a chair for almost 7 hours, to await some test results-- they were negative-- the infection had not spread to my eye or my brain.
     
  On Saturday morning, at the ILX Valentine's Day Twosome 10K, Michelle PR'd with a time of 43:58; and I PR'd with a time of 34:57.  Michelle did not expect to do as well in the race as she did, and I think she is very pleased!  I assure you they only gave me antibiotics, and they did not put my blood back in me ..."
    
• EYE TEST:  We know that the ILX Valentine's Day Twosome races are not scoring races, and they are more for twosome partners than for running teams.  Still, we have the responsibility of compiling race results.  Therefore, what you see published on this website is the result of the eye/memory test for us.  But if this were a men's scoring race, then our finish places of 3-4-5-8-13 in the 10K race would have been nice.
    
• WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:  There are six new members for this month:
     Laura Brill
     Glen Carnes
     Armando Oliveira
     John Prather
     Clodagh Rafferty
     Jamie Rosen
  There are some very interesting stories about these people, which we will follow up in the future.  Want a preview?  Well, it seemed that we 'robbed strapped jock's cradle' ... we hope you are sufficiently intrigued to check back every day for the details ...
   
• BOOKWORMS:  Have you wondered what books people check out through our Amazon.com affiliate program?  Actually, we have no idea because Amazon.com won't tell us on account of their privacy policy.  The only exceptions are those situations in which we have set up links to specific items, in which case Amazon.com tell us the number of click-throughs (but not the identity of any person) so that we can monitor and fine-tune our offerings.  For the last quarter of 2001, here are the top 10 titles in terms of click-throughs:

1. Toda Mafalda (comic book), 889 clicks
2. Laundry Service (CD by Shakira), 146 clicks
3. Hombres y Machos: Masculinity and Latino Culture, 77 clicks
4. Con Banda: Grandes Exitos (CD by Thalia), 71 clicks
5. The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City, 61 clicks
6. Much MacHo: Latino Men Confront Their Manhood, 60 clicks
7. 2001 Latin Grammy Nominees (CD), 60 clicks
8. Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics and Identity, 51 clicks
9. MTV Unplugged (CD by La Ley), 47 clicks
10. The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia, 43 clicks

This may be quite puzzling to those who are not familiar with the humble origins of this website as the sub-directory within a Latin Amercian portal.  These specific links appear on that website, and is credited to the Central Park Track Club website.  Our bestselling book (at $50) is a comic book about the Argentine character Mafalda, and we must say that it is the rest of the world's loss that Mafalda has not been more widely circulated (in English, for example).  Four of the top 10 are books about machismo.  Most of the remaining entries are Latin American music titles.

• MEMBER OF THE WEEK:  Our featured member of the week is Devon Sargent.  Since she has been with us for a few years, we should not have to feature her again.  However, since we had seen such rapid growth recently, not everyone may know her.  In fact, we knew that we have a crisis when even Nathan Klejman asked us, "Who is Devon?"  Our task is made significantly easier by the biography on the occasion when Columbia University selected Devon Martin (class of  '90) as one of their two best cross-country athletes for the Ivy League Women's Intercollegiate Competition Silver Anniversary Honor Roll:  

Devon Martin '90: Martin holds the fastest time on the Lions' home course at Van Cortlandt Park with a 1989 mark of 17:49. Martin also holds four school records in indoor track & field and three outdoors. She was All-East and All-Ivy in track in the 1,500 meters and qualified for the cross country nationals as a senior. Following graduation she continued to compete as a member of the Nike Coast track team and won the silver medal at the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival. A bout with cancer, which is now in complete remission, curbed her training in 1992. Devon Martin Sargent is now an attorney at Cravath, Swain and Moore.

To this all-too-brief biography, we can add that she is the 2001 USATF Outstanding Sub-Master Female 30-34 runner, a member of the American record-setting 4x800m Women 30-39 team and, most importantly, the coach/taskmaster of the Central Park Track Club middle-distance runners.

• THE KIM MANNEN SHRINE:  We received this piece of advice: "Better be prepared to do equal homage to the other fast women on the team, lest they put a whammy on your camera if the green monster visits."  We reiterate our general policy:  Anyone can get their own shrine --- provided they can cook (without pay) for 140 people ...
   
• For the New York Road Runners Club Night, the following honors were accorded to us:
  • Men's Open 3rd place team
  • Women's Open 3rd place team
  • Men's Masters 1st place team

Individually, we had the following nominees:

• Anna Fyodorova, female 15-19
• Margaret Angell, female 20-29
• Alayne Adams, female 30-39
• Stacy Creamer, female 40-44
• Irene Jackson-Schon, female 50-54, winner
• Sylvie Kimché, female 50-54
• Mary V. Rosado, female 50-54
• Carol Tyler, female 60-64
• Toby Tanser, male 30-39
• Alan Ruben, male 40-44
• Tom Phillips, male 45-49
• Alston Brown, male 50-54, winner
• Sid Howard, male 60-64, winner
• Guenter Erich, male 65-69
• George Hirsch, male 65-69

• On Sunday, we posted a message saying that this website is being collocated in Toronto on Sunday and Monday.  Nevertheless, we still had 450 hompage visitors on Monday.  Of course, we did add this little sentence at the end of our message: "But we could just be kidding and you don't know that ..."
   
• If Charlotte Cutler is the first sub-five-minute miler for the Central Park Track Club, then Lee Shearer is the first sub-60-second quartermiler for us.  Lee is a miracle worker, because it is a wonder when someone who looked like she was dying on a 2:06 600m tonight could have run a 59.2 400m last Thursday.  Of course, this time of 59.2 is still much slower than her 55 second personal best.
    
• We told Charlotte Cutler that we watched her race live on the Armory webcam.  On this screen capture, the competitors were just brought out onto the track and introduced one at time: "... in lane one, it's Charlotte Cutler from the Central Park Track Club!"  But according to her, this picture did not capture the whole scene --- "The women's open mile race was the last race of the night.  By that time, there were about two people left in the stands.  So it was less than a rousing applause when we were introduced."  Although the runners looked tiny on the webcam, it was impossible to miss Charlotte because of that swirling blonde ponytail.
    
• When asked about how heavy his winner's trophy at the Valentine's Day 5K was, Kevin Arlyck said, "It was in fact smaller than some of the age group trophies that I have gotten at other races.  When my brother tried to pick the trophy up, it almost flew out of his hand because he did not think it would be so light.  He was duly unimpressed.  But a win is a win."
    
• At the middle distance runners' workout, they were doing seven 600m repeats, with Devon Sargent specifying: "Two-and-a-half minutes to three minutes of recovery in between."  The timer therefore put the choice to a vote by the runners, and do we have to guess that the result was three minutes of recovery?
    
• Thirty-nine people were present at the start of the workout.  Two of these people were seen fencing with their water bottles on the A-train platform after the workout.  Both of them giggled at the question, "What are you going to do when you grow up?"  But the big buzz at the track was the Great Ice Rink Robbery last night, when four eastern European plus one French (!) judges deprived Canada of the gold medal.

Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada

• A note about your timers: The Armory is far away from where most of us live, so it is asking a lot for someone to come all the way up here just to time.  Jeff Wilson is currently out with injury, so timing is a way for him to stay in touch.  Our other three timers (Marty Levine, Sid Howard and John Gleason) tonight ran with the middle-distance group earlier and stayed on to help out.  We are sure that some of the long distance runners would have come earlier to time the middle-distance runners, except their Armory passes do not permit them to enter until 745pm.  When we go back outdoors, it would be nice if the long distance runners could come earlier to reciprocate the favor.
    
• We have some photos from the NYRR Club Night.  Their publication awaits the resolution in the matter about the prompt payment of a bribe to suppress the publication of the photo of the person who received the men's open team award. 

(Workout of 2/07/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

JOURNAL

• As for this past Tuesday's question of the day, "Where in the world is Toby Tanser?" the subject himself wrote: "He's fed up with running, fat, and still hasn't run a step since departing from Kenya a week ago.  Waiting for a spark of inspiration but seeing darkness, eating bagels but tasting sawdust, looking out the window and closing the door!"  That was the short version.  The very long version can be read at www.tanser.org, including this relevant paragraph: "I tried to go to the track last night, but I just could not motivate myself to do so. Instead I ate ½-kilo of chocolate and drank ½ a bottle of red wine so I would not be able to run. Yep I have excuses and no doubt I'll be running again soon, but for the time being running has taken a back seat."
   
• Preview of Saturday's twosome race by unnamed person: "Well, on the whole, I'd rather just party all night on Friday.  But then I was notorious in college for showing up for the Saturday morning long run reeking of alcohol to the point where my teammates avoid being near me ..."  Who said that?
   
• It is worthwhile to repeat our "true story" from Tuesday

Although we risk causing trouble, we will relate the following story without comment: "At the 2001 Bronx Half Marathon, it was raining heavily and our photographer was sheltered underneath an overpass with a gallery of spectators.  At one point, Craig Chilton ran by and our photographer heard the woman next to him say, "Oh, my!  Who is that?  He is absolutely gorgeous!"  This is a true story.

According to the following email, trouble #1 has already begun: "For the record, the woman next to your photographer at the Bronx Half is a friend of mine.  She has seen the published account of their conversation and it would seem that your photographer is in danger of bodily harm for relating the story."  Although we could recommend our photographer to wear disguises, we think it is not easy to lose him in a crowd.  Why?  Please see the third photo in the Top 10 Favorite Photos of 1998.  How do you hide that Rambo-esque body?

Trouble #2 followed soon after: "When shown a picture of Craig Chilton, my wife was unmoved - and I in turn was relieved.  Then my wife saw the picture of the Rambo-esque photographer and said, 'Now he's gorgeous!'  The plot thickens."

• TRIPLE TIMING:  John Prather's reminder: "For goodness sake, somebody make sure they get three watches on Alston Brown on Thursday night!!"  If you recall, at the last Thursday Night At The Races, Alston ran a hand-timed, unofficial indoor 400m in 52.3, which was faster than the official world record time of 52.72.
   
• WORLD'S MOST VERSATILE RUNNER:  Another opinion about the world's most versatile runner, this time from Toby Tanser:

According to Stuart Calderwood, "Ovett and Aouita had amazing range; they're my choices for 2nd and 3rd all-time. But the marathon is another huge jump; Rod Dixon medaled at 1500m and probably could've run 1:44-1:45 for 800m, and he later ran a 2:08:59 to win the New York City Marathon. What would that have given him in, say, Chicago, where the men's winning times are generally at least two minutes faster than in New York? Rod might've been the world's first sub-2:07 runner with his '83 NYC effort.  Haile G. will have to run awfully well at the marathon to match Dixon, whose record at 1500m looks as good or better."
 
OKAY!  Dixon did not run anywhere near 1:44 for the 800 - fact.  Fact Vincent Rousseau ran 1:46 for the 800m and 2:07:19 for the marathon against a headwind(!).  I will bet my last dollar that Haile G will run faster than 2:08:59 for the marathon... and I think his 1500m time for indoors (the second fastest in the history of mankind behind the incomparable middle distance specialist El G) is rather impressive too... and somewhat faster than Mr D's....  I don't think Rod Dixon broke 28-mins for the 10K, let alone 27-mins, and I know he never broke 13 for the 5K ... A haile improbable conundrum-

• Today is the third Thursday Night At The Races.  After this, the New York City indoor track season will have only the last Thursday Night At The Races (2/21), the MAC Championships (3/22) and the Front Runners Track Meet (3/27) left.  Seize the opportunity!
   
• At the road workout tonight, there were thirty-six people present at the start of the workout.  So we assume that the turnout at the Armory must be fairly decent.  Not included in the count was Stacy Creamer, who had to run up to the Armory.  Stacy thanked us for publicising her African beads (see below).  For the first time, Stacy met our featured member of the week Andrea Costella.  Andrea had been out with the flu for the past 2 weeks, and she'll be rushing home tonight to check out her web story.

Ndebele in Ndebele ... 

• At 7:06pm, coach Tony Ruiz turned to the official timekeeper and asked, "Is it time to start yet?  I know that you are timing me."  Huh?  As educators, we try not to force people to obey rules and regulations; rather, we teach them the discipline to act in whatever manner that is in the interests of everybody.  Actually, for tonight, the greater lesson must surely be this --- it is not when you start, it is how long you take!  But it didn't seem to bother anyone on this fairly warm night.  George Wisniewski's comments tonight cannot be published here, since they involved (as usual) politically incorrect views about drugs, violence and race/ethnicity.  The second great lesson for tonight that the coach's prescriptions for running (with respect to distance, surface, pace, etc) are not subject to haggling.
    
• DENIAL RE-ITERATED:  We are tired of having to repeat this for the umpteenth tiem, but that was NOT Deena Drossin running with our middle-distance group on Tuesday ...

(Workout of 2/5/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

• 3x200m warmup
• 4x(1000m, 400m recovery)
• 3x(300m, 100m recovery) for finishing speed

JOURNAL

I'm training for the 400m ... NOT!

• FATHERHOOD:  Last Thursday, the journal included this entry: "This is the latest Amanda Bermo update.  Incidentally, her dad promised that he would run the 400m at the last Thursday Night At The Races but was nowhere to be seen ..."  Amanda's father clarifies with this explanation: "It is true that Amanda's father didn't run the 400m last week.  He really wanted to, but he couldn't even run a step because he has a bad hamstring injury.  The cause of that injury is laid clearly to Alan Ruben, whom he had to run at race pace to keep up with at the last road workout.  Hopefully, he will be good enough to climb ---  (let us rephrase that) --- to snail (definition = pathetic intent to move forward) up some stairs next Tuesday.  Besides, there will are a couple more Thursday Nights At The Races left on the schedule.  But the truth is that fatherhood has caught up to him, about which he had some enlightening discussions with Michele Tagliati, aka Roma fan number one."

PROMÉTEME (vallenato song written by Aurelio Nuñez and sung by Adriana Lucía)

Qué piensas esta vez que me prometes
confiesa de una vez que el amor habla sin necesidad
respóndeme por Dios que te parece
abre tu corazón y me respondes con sinceridad
Prométeme esta vez
que no te vas a ir
que ya te quedarás en mí
que tanto es esperar
el que quedó en venir
buscando el amor junto a tí
Prométeme que nunca, nunca
te vuelves a ir de mí
promémete que nunca más, nunca más
te vuelves a ir de mí
Arrúyame en tus brazos
para sentir, como un canto de cuna
de mi mamá
prométeme que nunca te vas a ir
que cada día que pasa
me adoras más

• PRIDE:  Over the last two weeks, we have seen the females sprinters and middle-distance runners debut their new uniforms.  Stunning looking, to say the least.  What about the men?  Are they second-class citizens who don't get their own uniforms?  Well, as it turns out, they have new unitards but they have decided not to wear them until as such time when they feel that they can come up performances to match ...  How long must we wait?
   
  Although we risk causing trouble, we will relate the following story without comment: "At the 2001 Bronx Half Marathon, it was raining heavily and our photographer was hiding underneath an overpass with a gallery of spectators.  At one point, Craig Chilton ran by and our photographer heard the woman next to him say, "Oh, my!  Who is that?  He is absolutely gorgeous!"  This is a true story.
   
• MEMBER OF THE WEEK:  This week, we are featuring Andrea ("Andy") Costella who has so far ran one race (Frostbite 10 Miler) for us.  We feature members who have interesting web-available stories.  Here is a story of an exchange of running and ornithology, from her side and by a third party.  She is also interested in lifesaving stations.  Her favorite food is the banana: "The perfect food, it's high in potassium and comes in its own package."  Unfortunately, since she has been coming only to the road workouts in winter, we have no pictures of her to show you (this photo of her in Europe does not do justice and we challenge you to pick her out from this NCAA Leadership Conference photo).
   
  Although she is young, she has a very mature attitude about running that many of our veterans don't have.  When asked if she was going to running indoor track this year, she said, "For the last eight years --- high school and college --- I have been running three seasons each year: cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.  I think I deserve a break."
   
  P.S.  She may not be a regular user of this website, so her 'fast women' friends should tell her that she is being featured here. 
   
• MOST VERSATILE RUNNER IN HISTORY:  According to Stuart Calderwood, "Ovett and Aouita had amazing range; they're my choices for 2nd and 3rd all-time. But the marathon is another huge jump; Rod Dixon medaled at 1500m and probably could've run 1:44-1:45 for 800m, and he later ran a 2:08:59 to win the New York City Marathon. What would that have given him in, say, Chicago, where the men's winning times are generally at least two minutes faster than in New York? Rod might've been the world's first sub-2:07 runner with his '83 NYC effort.  Haile G. will have to run awfully well at the marathon to match Dixon, whose record at 1500m looks as good or better."
    
  John Prather makes this suggestion: "I can't help but wonder if the real answer, albeit at a not-quite-world-class level, is right under your noses.  Alston Brown is absolutely amazing.  Enough said.
    
• THE FELDMAN REPORTS:  When we published Josh's story last week, our most ardent reader Audrey Kingsley demanded to know, "Where are Crain and Darley?"  Wherever they are, they are not running for the Central Park Track Club.  In response to popular demand, we are publishing another episode of the Feldman story, where you can read about how Josh fell down on the track, got up and continued to run.
   
• EAST HARLEM SCHOOL AT EXODUS HOUSE:  We challenge you to read this list of contributors carefully and see how many names you recognize, of celebrities and Central Park Track Club members.  Next, we challenge you to put your name on that list.
   
• BOOK REVIEW:  Challenging Inequities in Health : From Ethics to Action, edited by Timothy Evans.  Reviewed by Steve Wing in the New England Journal of Medicine, December 20, 2001

Counters and classifiers of deaths and diseases, including demographers and epidemiologists, have long been fascinated with the statistical regularities of social inequalities in morbidity and mortality. The earliest studies of social class and mortality coincided with the development of the life table in the 1600s. Interest in the subject has waxed and waned over the centuries, stimulated in part by economic conditions and political movements. In the context of growing economic inequalities during the past decade, the demise of the Soviet Union, and the dominance of capitalism under the military and ideological leadership of the United States, academic interest in inequalities in health has grown rapidly. Challenging Inequities in Health is an attempt to summarize the theoretical and quantitative work on health inequalities, in the context of ethical considerations, for the purpose of reaching national and international policymakers. The book is a project of the Global Health Equity Initiative, an international group of scholars with strong connections to the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the King's Fund in London, and the Bellagio Study Center in Bellagio, Italy.

A large part of the book is devoted to analyses of health inequalities in specific countries. Although the quantitative analyses, particularly in the case of developed countries such as the United States, Britain, and Sweden, cover familiar ground, chapters devoted to South Africa, Tanzania, Russia, China, and Bangladesh, among others, give a broad international perspective and a variety of methods that derive, in part, from a lack of population-based data on morbidity and mortality. The chapter on Japan provides historical perspectives on social, economic, and health indicators for that nation as well as comparisons with other countries. Together, the country-specific chapters, although not intended to be comprehensive, provide an interesting sampling of research on health inequalities around the world.

The greatest tensions in the book occur over issues of ethics and policy. In their introductory chapters, the editors distinguish health inequality -- differences in disease rates among social groups -- from health inequity, defined as those inequalities that are unfair. The attention given to this distinction is useful, because it highlights the ethical issues inherent in quantitative studies of health inequalities that have received inadequate attention in the past from epidemiologists, demographers, and health policy analysts. As Peter and Evans note in their chapter on ethical dimensions of health equity, ``A comprehensive theoretical framework for health equity analysis faces the challenge of bridging moral and political philosophy and epidemiology.'' Among the ethical theories considered by Peter and Evans, the work of philosopher John Rawls provides the most sophisticated basis for evaluating equity by defining fairness as an outcome of basic social, economic, and political institutions that are not exclusive. From this perspective, differences in health that arise from the victimization of some social groups by others through institutions that do not meet the basic requirements of fair social cooperation can be considered inequities in health. The authors of the book explore how inequalities in morbidity and mortality according to sex, race, and class are connected to social institutions through mechanisms involving differential exposure to adequate nutrition, safe living and working conditions, educational opportunities, and medical services.

Unfortunately, this useful theoretical basis for bridging ethics and epidemiology is undermined in most of the book by the use of functionalist social-science theory in which dominant economic and political arrangements are not subjected to critical analysis. References to the importance of social justice and to health as a basic human right appear to be more rhetorical than substantive in the context of assumptions that political efforts to reduce power differentials are ``unrealistic'' and that the present form of economic globalization is ``inescapable because it corresponds to the present phase of historical development.'' Chapter authors identify, for example, the inequity inherent in the fact that, under current health care systems, the fewest medical services go to segments of the population with the greatest needs, and pharmaceutical companies have little motivation to focus on diseases of the poor. Yet the for-profit status of the medical care and insurance industries receives little attention as an explanation of health inequities or as a possible target for changes in policy.

Functionalist social theory can be contrasted with conflict-based theories developed in Europe and prominent in analyses of health inequalities from Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Mexico. Instead of viewing health inequities as controllable side effects of the lack of democracy that accompanies vast inequalities in power between social groups, conflict-based theories consider the health states of dominant and subordinate social groups to be causally related to each other through relationships of exploitation. Although this perspective is not commonly invoked by the authors of Challenging Inequities in Health, its power is evident in the chapter by Gilson and McIntyre on the health consequences of apartheid in South Africa, which describes how ``the creation and maintenance of a cheap labor system to secure industrial profits . . . was achieved by forcing the majority of the black population to live in specified rural areas and then limiting their access to urban areas as part of the broader control over the employment opportunities offered to black, colored, and Indian people.'' The authors report that ``61 percent of the black, 38 percent of the colored, five percent of the Indian, and only one percent of the white population'' live in poverty. They document the effects of this system on employment, education, environmental conditions, infant mortality, and diarrhea.

This book opens the door to a fundamental debate about how to reduce health inequalities by discussing ethics and policy. However, by restricting the potential partners of health researchers to policymakers in governments and international bodies, the book limits its attention to modest, incremental policy changes that might be implemented in the context of current global and national economic relations. Health inequalities are to be explained and reduced through policies enacted by elite segments of dominant social groups, assuming that members of these groups will be motivated to improve basic living and working conditions for subordinate groups because those conditions are unethical. Although this is a laudable goal, its success hinges on the assumption that the material basis of health inequalities is unnecessary to the health of current economic systems. If exploitation of inequities in economic relations, race, class, and sex is viewed as key to the health of current economic systems, the managers of these systems cannot be expected to bring about fundamental changes in order to reduce inequities in health. Quantification of social inequalities in health, however sophisticated, cannot provide the tools to fix problems that are inherently ethical and political.

An alternative approach to ``bridging moral and political philosophy and epidemiology'' is to recognize that popular struggles for democracy, including the women's, civil rights, anti-apartheid, and labor movements, have a tremendous potential to affect the root causes of health inequalities by improving living conditions and access to services for groups with the poorest health status. Partnerships between medical and public health researchers and groups suffering from social inequities can identify research needs and provide quantitative analyses that can be used by communities involved in movements for democratic social change. Such partnerships, which require clinicians, epidemiologists, and health policy analysts to establish working relationships with groups outside elite institutions, have the potential to enrich the hypotheses, methods, substantive content, and policy implications of research on disparities in health. Although Challenging Inequities in Health does not explicate a model of improved equity in health based on the empowerment of socially disadvantaged groups, it does show why such an approach is important.

• MURPHY'S LAW WORKS HARD FOR MARTY LEVINE:
  "I ran the Gridiron Classic 5K, but my time was not reported on the NYRRC website.
  It was my fastest 5k and my first sub-7-minute-per-mile race (6:56) pace in 17 years.
  I am a permanent chip and bib owner and a benefactor member of NYRRC.
  I don't need to pay for any races and I don't need to pick up numbers.
  All I am supposed to do is sign up for the race, which I usually do online for all the races of a given month. 
  Apparently, I never signed up for the February races so even though I was wearing a chip, no results were recorded.
  There is no need to add my name and time to the Central Park Track Club website.
  Next time I will try not to be such a bonehead and I will sign up for the race.
  It is not the fault of the NYRRC.
  It is only my fault."
   
• SCORING RACE SCHEDULES:  Looking at what is coming up in the near future, we have
  Feb 16: Al Gordon 15K men only
  Feb 23: Snowflake 4M women only
  Mar 3: Coogan's Salsa & Blues 5K men only
  Mar 9: Brooklyn Half Marathon men & women
  Let us state for the record that no one on the club should feel the pressure in running all of these tightly spaced races.  We would recommend people to select those races that fit their current goals (e.g. run a half marathon if you are training for a marathon, run the 5K if you are involved in the track races).  We are a large enough club that we don't have to run our runners down by making them race every time.
    
• EMPIRE STATE BUILDING RUN-UP  Five of our teammates completed this quartermile race this morning.  We counted one, two, three, four, five triathletes among them.  That part does not surprise us, but we were shocked that the majority of these people are supposed to have running injuries that prevent them from running with us!  What does it take to motivate a triathlete!?  Apparently, the allure of this running club is not as strong as a wacko race ...
    
• GETTING LOST?  So you thought that you joined a running club and you were looking for the group workout, but something (actually, a lot of off-subejct, off-topic things ...) got in the way.  Well, such is life, in as much as you wanted to become a great runner and your career/diet/partying/fatherhood/etc got in the way ... 
   
• THE WORKOUT  Oh, yes, there was a workout where we had forty-three people at the start.  For once, we have a surplus of timers --- six of them.  Of course, the world wants to know where Toby Tanser is.  According to our private sources, he is depressed to come back to a wintry New York City.  Well, he would be more depressed if he had to go to Canada like we will have to next week.  So far, our conference information packet reads: "The conference hotel is immediately adjacent to the Eaton Center, the largest shopping mall in the center.  If you can't find what you looking for in the three levels of the Eaton Center, it probably isn't available in Toronto.  The Eaton Center is worth a visit ... it's really huge.  The airport duty-free store has good, but not great, prices.  The exceptions are cigarette and booze prices.  For almost everything else, you probably will find better prices downtown in the Eaton Center."  Originally, we thought that Margaret Schotte had promised us that it doesn't snow in Toronto.  She quickly corrected us and said, "I did not say that it doesn't snow in Toronto.  What I said was that, due to the lakeside effect, Toronto gets relatively less snow than Buffalo."  Meanwhile, a Canadian in Brazil informs us, "Yonge Street is the longest street in the Americas.  It is just that the Americans are not aware of the fact, or else they would have tried to outdo this."  By the way, there will not a contest for the correct identification of the conference, because the information is plastered all over the Internet already  Hint: Don't try type our name and "canada" as keywords --- this search does not work because the word Canada appears only in a graphic!  By this time, you must be wondering how your reading of that all too brief workout description has somehow landed you in Canada ...  If we can have food reviews that covers everything but the food, why can't we have workout descriptions that covers everything but the workout?

(Workout of 1/31/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

JOURNAL

• Maybe you are one of the regular non-member lurkers who constitute the majority of visitors to this website, and you have read so much about those 'fast women.'  Is this a myth to generate buzz?  Is this a recruitment ploy?  Well, here is one section of that team of 'fast women' ...

The Central Park Track Club Women's Distance Medley Team
Melissa Tidwell, Margaret Angell, Devon Sargent, Charlotte Cutler
January 26th, 2002: Boston Terrier Classic

• LOST & FOUND:  Isaya Okwiya wrote: "Someone left a pair of Mizuno Wave Phantom racing flats at the Armory last night.  I'll have them at the Armory on Thursday, or if they belong to a roadie, arrangements will be made for special delivery at the statue."  And if no one claims those shoes, they may just land in the Armory's famous collection with the rest of David Pullman's stuff.
   

• MILLROSE GAMES: A final reminder about the start times of the events in which our team is represented:
  5:25pm Women's Masters 4 x 400m relay (tentative lineup: Sue Krogstad-Hill, Denise Whittaker-Crain, Sylvie Kimché, Mary V. Rosado)
  5:35pm Men's Masters 4 x 400m relay (tentative lineup:  Tony Ruiz, Richie Hamner, Craig Plummer, Pat Lewis)
  5:55pm Men's Open 4 x 800m relay (tentative lineup: Oliver Martinez, Erik Goetze, Isaya Okwiya, Alston Brown)
   

• The NYRR Club Council scoring races in the club championships are as follows:
   
  Feb 16: Al Gordon 15K men only
  Feb 23: Snowflake 4K women only
  Mar 3: Coogan's Salsa & Blues 5K men only
  Mar 9: Brooklyn Half Marathon men & women
  April 13: Queens Half Marathon men only
  April 13: Skaggs-Walsh 5K women only
  May 12: Mother's Day Half Marathon women only
  May 18: You Gotta Have Park 5K men only
  June 8: Mini Marathon women only
  June 29: Gay Pride 5M men & women
  July 7: Bronx Half Marathon men only
  Aug 17: Club Team Championship men & women, double points
  Sep 22: Fred Leow Cross Country 5K men & women
  Oct 13: Staten Island Half Marathon men & women
  Nov 3: New York City Marathon
  Dec 15: Joe Kleinerman 10K
   
  Please mark your calendars and make your plans accordingly ...
   

• Next week, the Toby Tanser column will be back in publication again at www.tanser.org.  Right now, he is in transit on the following travel route: Eldoret to Nairobi to London, to Reykjavik to Boston to Atlanta to Austin (Texas) and back to New York City.   A direct flight it isn't.
   

• Tonight's workout took place under drizzle/sleet conditions.  What is your guess at the attendance figure?  Would you believe forty-seven people came out?  This count does not include Amy Sheeran playing catchup ...
   

• Kevin Arlyck said, "You know, it always makes me nervous when some new guy --- and there are always new guys at every workout these days ---shows up and runs in baggy pants and training shoes."  The prototype of that model is Josh Feldman, who even ran the two miler last week in 'baggy pants and training shoes.'  Kevin added, "What bugs me about Josh is that I KNOW that he has lighter shoes ... what is he saving them for?"
    

• Rick Shaver said:  "Twenty years ago, under coach George Wisniewski, I was running on the 'A' team.  Today, under coach Tony Ruiz, I am running on the 'D' team."  The preceding is a statement of the facts.  Any inference that you make are completely your own.  Rick Shaver was injured last year at the Bronx Half Marathon, and today was the first time in a long while that we have seen him.  We found out that the 2001 New York City Marathon was number 25 in his consecutive string, which we believe to be the longest current string among our team members (note: before you try to tell us about Michael Koenig, please bear in mind that he did have a one year break somewhere in the middle).
   

• Josh Feldman wondered after the race just who the next Member Of The Week will be.  He said, "Actually, anyone is fine except me."  Is Josh so shy about being in the public eye?  He said, "No, that is not the point.  If I get featured, then I don't get to read about someone else."  Actually, Josh will not be featured next week, but we will offer some reading material for his fans.
   

• There were many more other things being said, but George Wisniewski said, "You are sitting on a gold mine with all the things that I tell you, but unfortunately you can't print any of it."  Yes, this is killing us ... NOT!  But here is an innocent enough quotation: "I once asked Alan Ruben why he moved to here from England, and he said that he hated the weather there.  Well, he must be loving it here tonight."
   

• This is the latest Amanda Bermo update.  Incidentally, her dad promised that he would run the 400m at the last Thursday Night At The Races but was nowhere to be seen ...

(Workout of 1/29/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION (from Tony Ruiz)

• Before I give you the workout description, I first want to congratulate both the womens sub master and the mens 60 + 4x800m relay teams which established American and World Records respectively last Thursday night at the Armory. I also want to congratulate Alston Brown for also going under the world record mark for 50-55 indoors. Although his performance cannot count as an official world record (the officials need to have three timers just for him alone), he clearly has established himself as the premier over 50 year old runner in the WORLD.  I look forward to seeing his assault on the existing WR? How can a WR be a world record if it wasn't the fastest time ever run? Just some food for thought. 
   
  Here's the deal for to night.

  3 x 200m, used as warm up.
  3 x 800m, recover 400.
  2 x 600m, recover 200.
  3 x 300m, recover 100.

  The 1st and 2nd 800's should be at 5k pace. The 3rd 800 should be at 3000 mtr pace.Both 600's should also be at 3000 mtr pace. The 300's should be done at finishing speed for all road runners. If you are planning to race shorter indoor races such as the 800 mtrs, then you should run the 300's at a higher intensity but certainly not at 400 mtr pace. See you all at the track tomorrow.

JOURNAL

• Last Thursday (1/24/2002), this news item appeared in Runner's World Daily: 

Relay records challenge: Two 4x800 relay teams will try and set new indoor world best performances tonight in the Thursday Night at the Race series sponsored by the New York Road Runners at the Armory in Manhattan. Under attack will be the 60-69 men's age group record of 10:32.8 and the 35-39 women's AGR of 11:01.44.

What struck us was that the names of the individuals (which understandably may be changed at the last moment) or the team (namely, the Central Park Track Club) were not mentioned in the news item.  This is not the first time that there was an item/article in which the name of our club was removed.  On one hand, it is perhaps understandable that a media site would not want to give free advertising to one club at the expense of the other.  On the other hand, clubs are the grassroot organizations which makes track & field into mass participation sport.  Unless the clubs flourish, track & field will just be a spectator sport.

• On Friday (1/25/2002), this news item appeared in Runner's World Daily:

Relay records fall: The New York Road Runners Thursday Night at the Races was the stage for the shattering of two 4x800 meter indoor relay records, by two Central Park Track Club Teams, last night at the Armory Track and Field Center. The men's team, anchored by Sidney Howard (2:19.6) with Norman Goluskin, Dan Hamner and Jim Aneshanley, broke the U.S. and world record for the 60-69 age group by 17.6 seconds, with a time of 10:15.2. Howard said, "I want people to know age has no barriers in completing a task. No record means as much as a team record." On the women's side Devon Sargent, Kim Mannen, Julia Casals and Sue Pearsall smashed the U.S. record by 27.24 seconds, with a time of 10:34.2.

This news item was accompanied by a photo of the men, but without a photo of the women, whereas we knew that both photos had been supplied.  Of course, media sites have the editorial right to publish what fits into their space.  But this would not have been so annoying as when we saw the white space for unsold banner space to the right:

So, on the whole, content which would have pleased quite a few people was sacrificed to the requirements of advertising space management.  This is supremely dumb to be dictated to by a piece of crappy software.  After all, are there white space in newspapers or magazines, or dead air time on radio or television?
 
There are actually more reasons for us to characterize that piece of software as crappy.  That website underwent a re-make at the beginning of the year.  Unfortunately, the new and improved version loads very slowly as it composes the pages.  Worst yet, the website is no longer viewable from my home computer as my browser will reload the page over and over again until I jump out.  So now you know why our website has ZERO programming, in spite of having the entire Walrus programming staff at our disposal.

• Are we whiny?  You bet.  Did it take you that long to figure this out?  Afterwards, Frank Handelman said, "I'm impressed by that diatribe of yours ..."
   

• By way of comparison, here is the story on the New York Road Runners' website

The stage was set: with speakers blasting music from the Rocky soundtrack, Ian Brooks on the microphone, the local running community out in full force and an injury-related drama unfolding, NYC track force Central Park Track Club (CPTC) was up to the task last night, January 24, 2002, when two of its relay teams smashed 4x800m records on the 168th Street Armory's lightning-fast track.

Buoyed by Sid Howard's sparkling 2:19.6 (his first race of the indoor season), the men's 60-69 team broke the world record of 10:32.8. The team, comprised of Jim Aneshansley (66), Dan Hamner (62), Norman Goluskin (63) and Sid Howard (62), ran 10:15.2.

The women's team, inspired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore attorney and CPTC middle distance coach Devon Sargent's 2:31.84 lead off leg, ran 10:34.2 flying through the U.S. record for 30-39 of 11:01.44. Sargent's (34) teammates: Kim Mannen (36), Julia Casals (37) and Sue Pearsall (36) continued to chip away at the record with each 200m.

The drama began for the men's team on Tuesday night, when team and NYRR Board member, Goluskin pulled his hamstring chasing down women's team member Mannen at the team's final tuneup before the big night. Fortunately for all, stretching and strengthening guru Jim Wharton was in town and rescued Goluskin, treating him Wednesday and until the final moments before the race on Thursday. CPTC had a backup plan, with NYRR Executive Bob Laufer (63) warming up in case his friend and teammate Goluskin faltered. With luck and good therapy, Goluskin was fine, and the team went on the victory. Laufer celebrated with a beer-saving his effort for another day.

We'll have to say that we love the label of  'NYC track force.'  Of course, we must point out that there is the perception of numerous conflicts of interest due to the interlocking of organizational directorships between the New York Road Runners and the Central Park Track Club, of which the following people are (or were) dual members: Fred Lebow, Norman Golushin, Bob Laufer, Claudia Malley, G'mo Rojas, ...

• While coach Tony Ruiz encouraged our group to show up at the Armory last Thursday, there was still a large turnout in Central Park.  It was perhaps unfortunate that the news about the record attempts went out rather late, or else we may have a few more people up at the Armory.  For whose who were at the Armory, it was EXCITING as the whole place rocked with the people lined up all around the trackside for the relay teams.  First-timer Michael Rosenthal said, "I had no idea that the atmosphere was like that!  I am going to bring my digital camera next time ..."  Well, it may not be as exciting next time because record attempts do not happen every day.
    

• Last week, we featured new member Sara Grillo on the home page with this link.  This caused her to wonder, "What else is known about me out there?"  Well, how about some capoeira?
   

• This question came from G'mo Rojas (NYRR and also CPTC): "When we tried to use a digital camera inside the Armory, the photos always come out dark and grainy.  Why are you the only one who doesn't seem to have that problem?"  Answer: "When we used a digital camera inside the Armory, the photos always come out dark and grainy.  But there is nothing that Adobe PhotoShop cannot fix ..." (example: see before and after picture of Dave Howard)
   

• At the Lucky 7-Mile Reversible on Saturday, we listed the second-place finisher Erica Merrill in our results, with an asterisk because she did not sign up for the team.  Anyone who joined within the last five years or so might not have heard of her before, so here is an explanation.  During the early 1990's, Erica was an active member of the Central Park Track Club and her contemporaries were names such as Candy Strobach, Diana Nelson, Claudia Porfolio, Laurie Jones, Jane Ellen Hickey, Martha Murphrey and, of course, Stacy Creamer.  On our list of top women's marathon times, her best time was 3:04:06 in the 1993 New York City Marathon.  In the late 1990's, she moved out to Connecticut.  In the last two years, she has come back to running again (including 3:11.37 at Chicago in 2001).  Even though she lives in the 'burbs, she still could not get away from the Central Park Track Club --- this news release about the Rowayton (CT) Community Pool Committee lists Erica Merrill as the secretary and her neighbor (and active Central Park Track Club member) Hank Berkowitz in charge of promotion.
   
  That list of our top women's marathon times began as a famous saying about two years ago, but the information in that list has been continuously updated since.  This lsit should dispel some confusion about who did what --- here are our top 10 all-time marathoners: Candace Strobach, Yumi Ogita, Alayne Adams, Rae Baymiller, Margaret Angell, Shelley Farmer, Diana Nelson-Fitzpatrick, Cynthia Willis, Sally Strauss, Audrey Kingsley.  Any more questions?
   

• The first individual road win of the year goes to Steve Paddock.  How will we get another 49 wins ...?  At today's workout, coach Tony Ruiz said, "Now that Steve has run 10:13 in a two miler on Thursday, and then won his first race (a five miler) on Saturday, he should be able to erase any notion of marathon running from his head ..."
    

• What is the impact of these two records on the website?  On Friday (0000-2400), we had 1,029 user sessions at an average time spent of 10:20 per session for a total of 13,576 hits.  So it took the relay teams just over 10 minutes to set the records, but it took (1,029 user sessions) x (10:20 per user session) = 208 hours to read about it.  This just adds to our discomfort that if we had spent those 208 hours training instead, we would get more records (or, at the very least, many personal records).  Postscript: Although we haven't gotten an exact count for Monday yet, the numbers are even higher than last Friday.

• On this year's indoor track schedule, we had left the USATF Eastern Regional Championships as TBA (to be arranged).  At this point, though, it would appear that this meet will not take place this year because there are no available facilities that meet the standards.  Neither the Armory nor Reggie Lewis Center are available.
   

• Once upon a time, it was warm and sunny in New York City ... and then winter came ...

 
Jane Monti at the Naples Daily News Half Marathon

We would rather be in Florida too, although we probably would not have run a half marathon race in 80-80 weather (temperature/humidity).

• Two weekends ago, we reported race results for two track meets in New York City as well as road races in San Diego, Houston and Bermuda.  This past weekend, we reported results for track meets in New York City and Boston, and road races in Central Park, East Meadow (Long Island), Ridgefield (Connecticut), Naples (Florida) and Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan).  By now most of you are so blasé about this sort of geographical coverage that you probably think this is normal.  Well, let us tell you:  THIS IS NOT NORMAL!  Do you know of any other team in New York City (or anywhere else, for that matter) that reports global results on a near-real-time basis?  So the next time that you read about some race results here, just think how EXTRAORDINARY this club is ...
   

• Our featured member of the week is Sue Pearsall.  For us, this was certainly a quicker, more efficient way to field those questions of "Who is she?

  This week, the featured member is Sue Pearsall, the newest member on that record-setting relay team.  Sue is an associate art director at McGraw-Hill (see the pentagon diagram for a sample of her work).  According to her company bio, "On the competitive side of things, I train for road races. I ran in the New York City Marathon in November 1998, finishing in 3:32:44, placing in the top 300 women. This is the first of many to come!"  There was a story on her company website that, on September 11, upon hearing about the World Trade Center events, she put on her running shoes and ran downtown from her Penn Station office to pick up her daughters from school.  Sue joined our middle-distance group last year, so there may not be many more marathons to come.  Exactly one year ago, at the Thursday Night At The Races meet, she was DQ'd in the two miler for 'laps'.  Today, she is an American relay record holder.  Sue is also one of the few people who can time two different groups simultaneously at workouts!

  At today's workout, Sue made this clarification:  "I'm addicted to track!  There will be no marathons for me PERIOD."
     

• The headcount tonight was thirty-eight people at the start of the workout.  Most significant presence was Alayne Adams, running with the "D" group.  Obviously, even after her leave of absence, she is still in the class of fast women, perhaps holding back in the first 800m but definitely back to form in those 300m's at the end.  Although it may be too late for her to run in the Women's 40+ 4x400m relay this Friday, she should definitely consider the event next year (that is, if it is still around then).  Now Alayne will probably say that she has never run a 400m track race in her life, but lack of prior experience did not seemed to have stopped her winning a 5K race in 18:17 while pushing a baby carriage.  Meanwhile we understand that Tim Evans is running up and down a certain 2400m hill in Ethiopia, which is crowded with runners.
    

• After the workout, it was announced via cellphone that there will be a new member added to the Stuart Calderwood-Stacy Creamer running team in about four-and-a-half month's time.  For the longest time, we have always thought that Stacy would be the perfect mom (see photo of Stacy with Sammy Ruben), in fact much better than Nathan Klejman.  And we also know that pushing a baby carriage is great for strength building (ask Alayne Adams).  When we immediately began to poll people around us to see if they are next to go, they (Josh Feldman, Adam Newman, ...) seemed to find the notion outlandish and/or hilarious.  That is the way it always seems until it hits you ...
   

• The homeward bound A train arrives only infrequently, so there is always keen disappointment when you hear the rumbling sound of a train leaving as you walk down the passageway.  On this night, when Margaret Schotte, Lee Shearer and Jesse Lansner arrived on the platform, some teammate told them: "Oh, you just missed the train --- that is, the garbage collection train!"  Our past experience is that this means a fairly long wait for the real A train to arrive.  While we stood on the platform, the subject of the recruitment scoreboard came up, specifically about whether everyone received credit for all their referrals.  All of that is irrelevant as we made this solemn promise to Margaret Schotte: "If Heather Hanson joins this club, we promise you that we will personally obliterate the names of all the other recruiters from the scoreboard!"  At this point, most of you are undoubtedly asking, "Who is Heather Hanson?"  We hope to provide the answer someday (and not soon enough!) in the MEMBER OF THE WEEK section. 

• For the second week in a row, our MTA employee spilled his fruit drink on the A train, and our other MTA employee had to come to his rescue again with a paper bag.  Teamwork is everything.  Our heroic rescuer said, "I hope you realize that this sort of thing gets written up on the website!"  Not that the speaker is perfect, as this other MTA employee apparently has no idea on how to swipe a Metro card!

(Workout of 1/24/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

This Thursday night our coach Tony Ruiz is encouraging all the roadies to try out a track race at the 'Thursday night at the races' series organized by the NYRR.

This meet will take place between 8pm-10pm at the Armory indoor track facility at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue. The events are: 2 mile; 800m; 400m; 4 x 800m relay. Entry fees are $10 per night (you can run one or up to all 4 races) or $8 if you are a member of the NYRR (must bring membership card) and FREE if you are a fee paying athlete at the Armory for the indoor season. These are low-key races in which they will schedule as many heats as there are entrants. It will be a warm affair as you will have many teammates cheering you on, and coach Tony will be there to soothe any butterflies in the stomach.

For those people whose addiction to the road is too great to allow for such a fun experience, Alan Ruben will be at the Daniel Webster statue at 7pm to dispense the road workout.

The workout will begin with a 1.7 mile warm-up of the full lower loop in an anti-clockwise direction.

On returning to the statue begin a 2 mile pickup North up the west side and across the 102nd street transverse finishing on the East side.

Then recover 1.4 miles through the Northern hill loop by heading North from 102nd Street on the East side and then back through the 102nd Street transverse.

Begin the second 2-mile pickup heading South down the East side and across the 72nd Street transverse finishing back at the statue.

Total workout 7.1 miles.

The first 2 mile pick-up should be done at half-marathon pace, the second 2 mile pick-up should be done at 10 mile pace. The warm-up and recovery should not be done at pedestrian pace, in fact the best way to view this workout is as a 7 mile effort, with an increased pace for the two 2-mile segments.

JOURNAL

• We have heard this story many times before by different people, but that doesn't mean that we like it any less.  Adam Newman narrates, "I was inside Central Park, wearing my orange team jacket.  A total stranger walked up to me and said, 'Great website!'"
   
• We don't know if our constant needling had anything to do with it, but MAC has posted results for the last two meets (1/18 and 1/20).  Of course, the needling does not stop here because those results are sloppily incomplete as there are events and people missing.  A case in point:  we have a photo of the open women's 1500m start --- where did they all go?  We don't understand why this should be a problem, since the results were entered into the Hy-Tek Meet Manager database and the result posting is generated directly from the database.  P.S.  There are some typographic errors (Kim Manvew? Charlotte Cutrer?)
   
• NATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:  This is when the best of USA come together for the indoor championships.  If you are interested in going, please email Eve Bois (ebois@dosomething.org) by Monday, January 28th with the number of tickets you wish to purchase and the day (Friday or Saturday or both) you'd like to attend.  Tickets are $35 or $20 reserved admission per day ($50 or $30 for a two-day pass).  We will purchase the tickets on Tuesday, January 29th at the Armory to ensure seats are together.  For payment, send a check payable to Eve Bois at 319 West 100th Street, Apt. 3B, NY NY  10025 or you can bring it to the indoor track on a Tuesday or Thursday.  In order to avoid a $6/per ticket surcharge from Ticketmaster, all checks must be sent before the 28th.  Ticket pickup will be arranged.  Any questions: 212-523-1138.
   
• For the two major local events of the winter track season (Millrose Games and the National Indoor Championships), we have volunteers (Kim Mannen and Eve Bois) to purchase group tickets to ensure that we sit together.  Please remember that Kim and Eve are volunteers, not bank loan officers, and you should not unreasonably expect them to front the money for dozens of people.  While it is true that the Central Park Track Club is known to have its own ATM machine at our workouts, there are limits on the total amount of cash that can be withdrawn per day (=total amount in the guy's wallet on that day).  So please make an effort to get your money to the volunteers on time.
    
• ETIQUETTE LESSON #11:  There are many ways to refer to new members, but 'fresh meat' should not be used.
   
• Although we have described Thursday Night At The Races as low-keyed, we will have two very high-keyed record attempts at relay records.  Based upon their times so far this season, these are very realistic projects, and your cheering will help them.
   
  Men's 4 x 800m (for age group 60-69)
  Current World & American Indoor Record: 10:32.8 (2:38 per leg)
  Order of Relay: Jim Aneshansley, Dan Hamner, Norman Goluskin, Sid Howard

  Women's 4 x 800m (for the age group 30-39)
  Current American Indoor Record: 11:01.44 (2:45 per leg)
  Order of Relay: Devon Sargent, Kim Mannen, Sue Pearsall, Julia Casals
   
  The long-distance runners' coach Tony Ruiz has designated this night to be the key indoor competition for his runners, so we will give large vocal support to these efforts. 
   

• POST SNOWFLAKE PARTY: This year's Snowflake Race on Saturday, February 23rd will be a scoring race for the Women, and as always, a team-unity race for the Men and Women.  After the race we will be holding our Annual Snowflake Party at The Parlor (86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue) from 1pm - 5pm. A portion of the team prize money from the New York City Marathon will be used to subsidize the purchasing of drinks for our members.
   

• The workout report came from Yves-Marc Courtines

So, since my hamstring is getting slightly better (partly) and since I wanted to come out and represent (mostly) I decided to attend tonight's workout -- originally intending to hit the Armory. However, upon calling Big Man Jerome tonight to arrange to pick up my brand-spanking new CPTC orange wrap-around (you know - the jacket) when he presumably went to the Armory, he informed me that he was skipping the Armory and attending the park workout led by Mr. Ruben. Considering I could bike to the Daniel Webster statue (slowly and carefully to avoid hamstring pulls as well as yellow fenders) rather than trudge on mass transit to the Armory (too far), I opted for the park.  Listed below is my amateurish attempt at a description. Hopefully, the powers that be at THE WEBSITE will find it marginally useful.

By 7:03 PM, the group had amassed a nice pack of runners (approximately 26-30, give or take 3, by my novice crowd-estimating) whereupon Mr. Ruben launched into a description of the workout. Although I was distracted from hearing the exact details due to my chatting with Mr. Siegel, I did pick up the following: Engage in a 7-mile run with a series of components. It is important to keep them all in mind as components of a whole 7-mile run, rather than a warm-up, 2 pick-ups and a warm-down -- was Alan's recommendation. First, the lower loop would be run at a better than warm-up pace leading into the first pick-up. This 2 miles at 1/2 marathon pace starts at the W. 72nd turn and continues to the Northeast corner of the 4 mile loop. Then, the next 2 mile portion at 10-mile pace (or 10 seconds faster) goes back down around to the 72nd street Daniel Webster statue. Finally, run the lower loop again at steady-state/warm-down pace.

Four groups went out - the first one leaving at a very punctual 7:07 and the fast group at an equally punctual 7:15.  Since yours truly was sitting around staring at his bike after everyone started the lower loop, I was able to direct late-arriving traffic (namely John Kenney at 7:16 and Harry Morales at 7:20) to rejoin the group. They were both nicely appreciative of my working on Tony-Standard-Time rather than EST. A short while later, three groups crisply rounded the 72nd street turn and smartly picked up the pace. (yeah, I know they started with 4 groups but I can't tell you who merged with whom) The 1st group came through with 12 gregarious types (including Jerome, Eve, etc.) and smartly commented on my cheering them on. The second group clipped along with 5 nice runners but they looked like newer runners to me, so I couldn't crack too many jokes. And, the third and final group had a nice 14 runners to take the turn and click up the pace including John Kenney, Harry Morales, Alan Ruben and Olivier Baillet.  (yes folks, that adds to 32, so my initial crowd guesstimate was almost Roland-esque in its accuracy)

Actually, if I should be more precise about the fast group clipping around the corner, there were only 13 that passed on the roadway proper. The 14th, a certain unnamed person who's fast, represents the club well and has a twin brother, ducked behind the bushes for 10 seconds or so before rejoining the pace -- apparently better off for his housekeeping stop. Well, hope all was well at the Armory. See you soon, especially if my acupuncture continues to yield results on my left hamstring and maybe my right shoulder, too.

(Workout of 1/22/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

• Workout for TUE, Jan 22, 2002:
• Warmup: 3x200m
• set 1
  800m [recovery 400m]
  400m [recovery 200m]
  200m [recovery 200m]
  pace: 800m @ 5K pace, 400m & 200m @ 3000m pace
• set 2
  800m [recovery 400m]
  400m [recovery 200m]
  200m [recovery 200m]
  pace: 800m @ 5K pace, 400m & 200m @ 3000m pace
• set 3
  800m [recovery 400m]
  400m [recovery 200m]
  200m [recovery 200m]
  pace: all @ 3000m pace
• set 4
  800m [recovery 400m]
  400m [recovery 200m]
  200m [recovery 200m]
  pace: all @ 3000m pace
• warmdown

JOURNAL

• WEEKEND RACES:  The Chicken Soup Loop 10K scoring race was turned into a fun run due to 'slick conditions', so there are no results to report.  We note that there were about five Central Park Track Club runners among the top 20 finishers, including Alan Ruben (from United Kingdom, fifth place overall, in shorts), Craig Chilton (from Canada), Kevin Arlyck (from Brooklyn) and Tom Phillips (from Bronxville).  There were a number of photos taken, but they are stored on a CD that will be processed with the photos for  Thursday Night At The Races later this week.  Of course, this is your cue to look your best this Thursday (see recommended smile).
   
  There were two MAC track meets this weekend, but we have no results for them yet (nor for the MAC meet on the previous weekend).  If you think that this is pathetic, please tell MAC that.  We do have unofficial results recorded by our teammates and some photos taken, and you can check out the awesome new women's track uniforms.  Unfortunately, there are no more MAC meets until the MAC championships on February 22nd.  To see the new uniforms in person before then, you can always go to Thursday Night At The Races.
     
  Without the Chicken Soup Loop 10K, there were no local road race results to report.  But we did not get shut out (nor have we ever been shut out in the history of this website), because we had runners in San Diego, Houston and Bermuda.  Are we a global powerhouse, or what?
    
• We have just updated the collage at the top of our photo gallery with a selection of photos from the second half of last year.  Did you make the cut?  See below.

(top row, left to right) Charlotte Cutler, Victor Osayi, Shelley Farmer, Amy Sheeran, Kevin Arlyck, 
Margaret Angell, Phil Vasquez, Sue Krogstad-Hill, Monica Bonamego, Audrey Kingsley
(bottom row, left to right) Sid Howard, Kim Mannen, Diane Leibowitz, Shula Sarner, Stuart Calderwood, 
Adam Newman, Peter Allen, Jesus Montero, Alayne Adams, Paul Sinclair

• What is the significance of appearing in that photo panel?  According to the 2001 annual web log report, that page was accessed 16,397 times that year, and every visitor had to look at those handsome faces.
   
• Since we have a couple of hundred members and we composed a collage of twenty persons, the choice-making procedure is obviously subject to speculation and second-guessing.  If we assert that the process was random, you won't believe us.  In fact, you would be right because the choice was obviously biased in favor of females (eleven out of twenty).  What did you expect anyway?  After all, this is supposed to be our recruitment poster and we have to show ourselves in the most favorable light.  Also, we are trying to redress historical wrongs, as embodied by the fact that this year would be the first time that the Millrose Games will have a women's masters relay team.  So shut up already if you were shut out ...
   
• At last Thursday's road workout, Harry Morales asked, "Who are all these young women?  Where do they all come from?"  For the last few months, it has become quite obvious that we have experienced a significant increase in that demographic group.  The impetus of that shift may perhaps be laid, directly or indirectly, at the feet of our Recruitment Officer, Margaret Angell (note: in the collage above, she's the one looking straight at you from behind her cool shades).  Regardless of the causes, the results are good not just for our club.  What we have is a whole generation of recent college graduates who did track and cross-country in school, but seemingly lost the environment to continue until they found us.  We are happy for them and for us (and they are now us).  We hope that there are more of you (or us) out there and will find us after you read this ...
   
• Armory Track Webcam: Some of you who have tried the webcame encountered some technical glitches (for example, audio only without image).  You should bear in mind that this is a free service whose bandwidth is provided by Syracuse University, so this is not exactly like paying real money to watch the live webcast of Ironman championships.  You just have to take what you can get.  Also, given that this is bandwidth-intensive, you cannot get the images if you have only 56K dialup modem; you will need to have cable, DSL or T1 access, and even that may be spotty at time.  We have cable access here, and we have seen the video feed.
    
• Question: Who does not have the cold, flu or some other problems?  I know I am dying here ...
    
• From Margaret Angell: "I thought you were stealth and able to find all race results ... my last TWO endeavors didn't cross your radar screen?  Are you feeling OK?"  The answer to the second question is no --- I'm dying here.  The answer to the first part is that she has been able to duck behind the imperturbable stone-faced sphinx known as MAC from which no race results can be extricated, now and forever.  Of those two endeavors, courtesy of our clerical staff who copied down the results by hand while on site, we know that she ran 4:44.17 in the 1500m on January 13th.  She also ran the mile last weekend, but we were not fast enough to write it down before the officials took the race results off ...  You will note that, as of this evening, we have our team's unofficial results for the Joe Yancey Meet as well as the last three MAC meets, and we are the only team in this universe that can make this claim.  Did we forget to say that we are Numero Uno?
   
• And now, after a very long series of digressions, we move to talk about the actual workout itself.  Given that there is a track meet on Thursday, we have forty-one runners at this workout.  Good, eh?  The more impressive statistic is forty-nine, which is the number of people who have signed up for the Millrose Games group tickets (where were you, Margaret Schotte and Jesse Lansner?  Kim Mannen was looking for you!  No money, no ticket!).  There will be a lot of orange on that day!
   
• Let's do some simple arithmetic.  Forty-one divided by eight persons per group gives five groups.  We have only four official timers, which leaves one group on auto-pilot.  So the message is: we always need volunteer timers.  There is no such thing as too many timers.
    
• The voice on the PA system came on at 8:45pm to declare, "You have until 9pm to finish your workout ... (silence) ... sorry, I must have eyesight problems ... you have until 930pm to finish your workout."  But then the voice did not deliver the usual message of "There will be a fire alarm test in the next building at exactly 9pm.  Please disregard any alarm that you may hear at that time ..."
   
• Here is a demonstration of why teamwork is important.  When one of our female runners realized that she had lost an earring, her teammates did a complete end-to-end sweep of the grounds to locate the item as well as numerous running shoe spikes.  Kate Nash was the finder, but not the keeper.  We are good at something ...
   
• You want another demonstration of teamwork?  Easy as pie.  On the A-train going downtown, one of our male runners spilled his bottle of fruit drink on the floor, whereupon David Bosch offered his paperbag to wipe the floor dry.  Of course, the problem would have been avoided altogether if our polluter had remembered the warning, "No Food or Drink Allowed In The Subway" but that would be too much to ask of this MTA employee ...
    
• This week, our home page features a link to a story from the Harvard University Gazette about student-poet Sara Grillo, who is one of our new teammates.  Her part of the story: 

A junior concentrating in English, Grillo composes most of her poems in her head, writing them down only when they have taken on finished form. "I think poetry is a manifestation of being in touch with your emotions, of being able to express them in a coherent manner," she said

She describes herself as very sound-oriented, a dancer who listens to the radio constantly and usually composes to a beat. The rap music of Queen Latifah and Wu Tang Clan are important influences, along with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Pablo Neruda, and Langston Hughes.

Currently putting in 20 hours a week as an intern at Fidelity Investments, Grillo plans to enter the corporate world after she graduates, and is considering a career as a lawyer or a money manager. The choice hardly seems to go with her love of rap music, her ambition to write the first musical about child abuse, or the cowry shell choker she wears around her neck. But the incongruity does not seem to bother her.

"Human beings are complex," she said, "especially me."

About that story, Sara said, "Before this, I was hoping that no one here would find out how crazy I am!"  As for her teammates, the feedback seemed to be quite positive about learning more about each other.  One unnamed male said, "Did you say that she is one of those fast women that my mother warned me about?  Well, my mother never told me to stay away from fast women.  She would have told me to look for them ..."
 
Next question:  So who will be up next week?  Surprise, surprise, surprise ... stay tuned ... we actually have a long list of personalities already in the pipeline ... and it may be YOU!

(Workout of 1/17/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

• Head North up the West side.
  1st pickup is 1K from 86th Street to 97th Street. Recover to 102nd Street cutoff.
  2nd pickup is 1K North up the small hill and down the big hill finishing at 110th street - the Northernmost point of the park. Recover to 102nd street on the East side.
  3rd pickup is half a mile through the cutoff and South to 97th street on the West side. Then recover to 86th Street.
  Last item is a Reservoir loop with 6 lampposts on, 3 lampposts off, then recover back South on the West side to the statue.

  The two 1K pickups and the half-mile should be done at 10K pace. The last item should be treated as a 1.6 mile effort, with the 6 lamppost pickups being done at a comfortable pace so that you don't have to slow down too much for the 3 lamppost recoveries.

  For those people running in Sunday's scoring race you should do the two 1K pickups and just 3 sets of 6 lamppost pickups on the Reservoir.

  Total workout distance is 6.4 miles.

DIARY

• Three days before the first scoring race of the year, we had forty-five people at the start of the workout.  This time, there was no mystery as to where Margaret Schotte materialised because the exact spot was at the Marionette Theater.
   

• Dan Sack said, "Happy New Year!  I know this is a bit late, but it is actually prepayment for next year ..."
    

• Olivier Baillet said, "I am so glad that I am not in Buenos Aires right now.  That was in fact the reason that I left because we could all see it coming as early as 1995."  As for bringing back Menem, the prevailing opinion seems to be that he was the problem, not the solution.
   

• Newcomer Andrea Costella led the team in last Sunday's Frostbite 10 Miler.  She said, "I almost forgot to put down the team name on the entry form" and thus she avoided the dreaded asterisk.  Our team members should always put down our team code, but we related to her a true story:  There once was a triathlete in New York City.  Like most triathletes, he spouts the "I am not a runner" slogan and therefore never considered to join our club.  Nevertheless, this triathlete always runs the New York City Marathon and he would always put down CPTC as  his team.  Many years later, we finally met him in person at a Christmas Party and we asked him why he did that.  He answered: "There was a white space in the entry form for team code.  The only team that I was familiar with was the Central Park Track Club.  That was why I put down CPTC."  After reading this story, you have no doubt reaffirmed your belief that triathletes are strange people ...
   

• The idea is that the Sunday racers to run easy tonight.  First to reach West 86th Street was James Siegel, who said, "We actually took the short cut."  Soon after Craig Chilton and Kevin Arlyck came flying in, but they insisted that they were really not running that fast.  An observer had to butt in, "Hmmm, why then is that vein popping up on your forehead?"  Scandalous!
     

• ACHILLES MARATHON:  A representative from the Achilles Track Club came to our workout to promote this race.  This marathon will take place on April 28 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  The major attractions are (1) it is local so you won't have to get on a plane; (2) it can serve as a time qualifier; and (3) it has prize money.
   

• DEAR DIARY:  Whereas this particular section used to be mostly a set of workout notes, it will now become the general diary for the team.  Major news items will continue to be published on the home page, but they will also appear here for two reasons: (1) there are people who don't look carefully enough, so redundacy (=nagging) will help them; (2) these pages go into a historical archive.
    

• SUGGESTION BOX:  Question:  "There are so many people on the team now.  How about giving name tags for people to wear?  Of course, only newbies have to wear them!"  Answer:  "Excuse me, but who are you?  Oh, yes, of course, you are a former president of the team!  No wonder you look familiar, but we have not seen you in ages ..."
   

• CLUB NIGHT:  While we are at this, why should we not boast a bit?  We have fifteen individual nominees: Anna Fyodorova, Margaret Angell, Alayne Adams, Stacy Creamer, Irene Jackson-Schon, Sylvie Kimché, Mary V. Rosado, Carol Tyler, Toby Tanser, Alan Ruben, Tom Phillips, Alston Brown, Sid Howard, Guenter Erich and George Hirsch.  This is at least twice as many as the next team.  So when you wake up tomorrow morning, you go to the bathroom and you look in the mirror and repeat, "We are good ... we are very good ... we are the best!"
   

• THURSDAY NIGHT AT THE RACES:  Our long distance runners'  coach Tony Ruiz has designated Thursday, January 24th for our field (track?) trip.  This meet will take place between 8pm-10pm at the Armory indoor track facility at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.  The events are: 2 mile; 800m; 400m; 4 x 800m relay.  Entry  fees are $10 per night (you can run one or up to all 4 races) or $8 if you are a member of the NYRRC (must bring membership card) and FREE if you are a fee paying athlete at the Armory for the indoor season.  This is a low-keyed race in which they will schedule as many heats as there are entrants, and it will be a warm affair as you will have many teammates cheering you on.
   
  This is the second in the meet series.  After the first meet last week, the middle distance runners are mumbling about whipping the long distance runners next time.  Well, well, well ... but as much as we would like to, it has become quite difficult to stir up any intergroup rivalry these days because it is so hard to tell who belongs to which on any particular day; in the end, we are all ... triathletes!?  (Note: This thought came to us while we stood on the A-train platform after last Tuesday's track workout, surrounded by Lauren Eckhart, Sylvie Burlot, Bodil Arlander, David Smith, Zeb Nelessen, ...  By the way, these individuals are classified as a Canadian triathlete, a French triathlete, a Finnish triathlete, another Canadian triathlete (or, at least, he is married to one), a hippie triathlete, ...).
   

• CORRECTIONS:  The finish line management at the first Thursday Night At The Races was somewhat chaotic.  Chris Sicaras brought to our attention that the times for two teammates had been shifted to the next persons, and he knew that because he handtimed them.  So, Sue Pearsall ran 2:42 (not 2:44) and Mary Diver ran 3:06 (not 3:26) in the 800m race.  From experience, race management tends to improve over time.
   

• GRASS:  No, we don't mean that illegal drug.  We were informed that when we get back to the East 6th Street outdoor track in April, the dust bowl in the infield is gone!  The whole infield has new ARTIFICIAL grass on it now!  Won't that be something!?
    

• MILLROSE GAMES:  The Central Park Track Club will have three teams at the Millrose Games: Women's masters 4 x 400m relay, Men's masters 4 x 400m relay, Men's open 4 x 800m relay.  The women's masters 4 x 400 will be a historical first, thanks to the lobbying by our teammate and MAC representative Mary V.  Rosado to get this on the program.  
   
  We would like to get a block of tickets (which we can get at $15 instead of the regular $25) for the Central Park Track Club, to have a sea of orange color.  If you want to join us, please email Kim Mannen (kimberleymannen@hotmail.com ) by Friday (January 18) the number of tickets that you wish to purchase.  We will purchase the tickets on Tuesday (January 22nd) to ensure that the seats are together.  For payment, send a check payable to Kim Mannen at 415 East 90th Street Apt #A NY NY 10128 or bring in person to her at the Armory workout on Tuesday (January 22nd).  Ticket pickup to be arranged.  Any questions, please call 212-348-9863.
   

• Armory Track Webcam:  There is a MAC meet on Friday and another MAC meet on Sunday.  In between the two MAC meets, the high school meet on Saturday features two special New Balance Elite Invitational Meets.  If all works well, you can see all of that on the webcam installed by TrackMeets.com.

(Workout of 1/15/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

• 3x200m warmup
• 4x400m w/ 200m jog recovery
• 1xMILE w/ 600m jog recovery
• 4x400m w/ 200m jog recovery
• warm down
• pace: all 400m at 3000m race pace, 1xMILE at 5K race pace

FIELD NOTES

• This Sunday's Chicken Soup Loop 10K is the first scoring race of the year.  Our regular coach Tony Ruiz was out sick, and Stuart Calderwood substituted for him.  Stuart positioned this workout as, "Running this workout fast will not help you run faster this Sunday."
   
• Thirty-six people were present at the start of the workout, minus any of the latecomers.  Sid Howard wants you to remember, "While you are trembling in the cold in New York, I am nice and warm in Bermuda."  We have four more new runners joining us at the indoor track this week.  By the way, local triathlete star Bodil Arlander was also running with us tonight.
   

• Quotes from our three timers of the day:
  Jeff Wilson: "Do I really look like a professional timer?"
  Josh Friedman: "It is so much easier from the other side."
  John Gleason: "I have no problem with timing two different groups at the same time."

• Photoplay:  Lately, we have been posting some photos on our workout description pages.  The subjects were probably quite surprised to see themselves, because it is most likely that they have no recollection of having been photographed.  Does the person above remember, for example?  If so, what was he so attentive to?  Postscript:  Upon seeing this photo, the subject said, "When was this picture taken?  And I sure didn't sign any release form!"
   

• Delayed Race Results:  We know that information is everything, but unfortunately we cannot tell you what we do not know.  So while it is true that our Frostbite 10 Mile results appeared BEFORE they showed up on the NYRR website, we were (and will continue to be) handicapped for the other races: Thursday Night At The Armory, the Colgate Games and the MAC meet.  Oh, yes, these are all local track meets, so what did we expect?  P.S.  Rumor has it that the July 2001 Brisbane WAVA Championship results will be available within the next few weeks ... don't count on it!
  P.P.S.  As it turned out, the results for Thursday Night At The Armory was posted around 5pm this afternoon.  One or both of two things must happen: (1) runners need to take penmanship to make their handwriting legible on their entry forms; (2) NYRR needs to hire some data entry person who can actually read and type ...  We are sure that Treussa Tidwell agrees ...
   

• Alston Brown:  We do not have the official results from Sunday's MAC meet yet, but we were informed that Alston ran a time of 52.9 in the 400m.  According to National Master News, the current American indoor 400m record is 52.87.  Great work, Alston!  We note that there are two current American record holders from the Central Park Track Club: Sid Howard's 2:14.85 M60-64 800m and Robin Villa's 5:05.82 W45-49 1500m.  For the record, we note that Alston is not a US citizen, and so he is ineligible for any American records.
   

• Serie A Report:  This past Sunday, we had a choice between going to the Frostbite 10 Miler or watching Roma-Verona on RAI International.  What would you choose?  As far as we were concerned, the word Frostbite made it easy for us.  Anyway, Roma won by 3-2 on an injury-time goal on a midair redirection by ... yes ... Gabriel "Batigol" Batistuta.  It was worth the price of the admission ticket.
   

• Armory Track Webcam:  Please be advised that TrackMeets.com has installed a live webcam at the Armory, which means that anything that you do may be viewed by the whole wide world.  This public service announcement message was brought to you by Margaret Schotte.  Please make sure that you wave to your friends when you go down the  home stretch ...  The technical question of the day was, "Is it possible to record from this live feed?"
   
• Complaint Department:  Question:  "Your road race schedule is impressively extensive, but I don't understand why there are so many races listed for Arizona?  Why don't you have more listings closer to home (e.g. Massachusetts, Maryland, etc)?"  Answer: "Arizona is home."
   
• Lost & Found:  To the person who left a black shirt after last Tuesday's workout at the Armory, it is currently in the safe hands of Kellie Quinones.  While she cannot be there this week, she will bring it to the Armory next week.
   
• Fetishism, Unlimited:  We are happy to report some progress, because we have apparently moved beyond the infantile stage of running shoe fetishism.  Our latest fixation is for running shorts ...
   
• Millrose Games:  CPTC is proud to announce that 3 relay teams will be competing at the prestigious Millrose Games on Friday, February 1, 2002:

  Women's masters 4 x 400 relay
  Men's masters 4 x 400 relay
  Men's open 4 x 800 relay

  NOTE: This is the first time the women's masters 4 x 400 will be an event!  Special thanks to Mary V. Rosado for getting this event added to the Millrose schedule!

(Workout of 1/10/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

• Tonight's workout will be a 6.8 mile tempo run. The second half of the workout should be done at 10-15 seconds per mile faster than the first half of the workout.

  Head South around the lower loop, then North up the East Side, across the 102nd Street cutoff, then South down the West Side, around the lower loop and finish across the 72nd street cutoff.

  The first 3.4 miles to 102nd Street on the West Side should be done at 10-15 seconds per mile slower than your marathon race pace. The second 3.4 miles should be done at marathon race pace.

FIELD NOTES

• On this night, most of the world (that is, our world) is probably at the Thursday Night at the Armory.  So how many were at the outdoor workout?  Forty-five people, plus Kevin Arlyck dashing out of the bushes at 57th Street.
   
• Now you know that we have a vastly popular website, and people spend a lot of time here; in fact, perhaps too much time.  So how bad is the situation?  According to the log report for last year, if we didn't have this website and we spend the time on training instead, we would have logged 292,712 miles!  That's about a dozen times around the world ...
   
• Traditionally, we hold a winter party after the Snowflake Four Miler.  This year, the venue will once again be The Parlor at the corner of West 86th and Broadway.  Of course, the date is February 9th ... NOT!  The date is in fact February 23rd.  The confusion about the date is the result of the fact that the Snowflake Four Miler and the NYRR Club Night used to be on the same day in years past.  This year, NYRR Club Night will be on February 9th and the Snowflake on February 23rd.  So at least this year people won't have to rush from function to function on that one day.
   
• Hassling the runners all over the course was a Russian triathlete on a bicycle, heard to say things like, "Oh, I didn't know that you run?"  Ross Galitsky is currently in serious overtraining because his wife is in Texas, which means that he does not have to take care of anyone except Scott Willett and the two cats ...  Besides, he keeps banker's hours ...
   
• Unconfirmed famous saying by that Scott Willett: "I went out running by mistake yesterday ..."  For him, running is a mistake.  Period.
   
• Serious statistics from Bill Haskins:  "I need to wear at least five different pairs of running shoes during any one week."  Question:  Who holds the team record?
   
• Ramon Bermo showed up for a road workout after a long absence.  He finished the workout right by Alan Ruben tonight.  When told that the workout description will read, "Ramon kicks Alan Ruben's butt," he panicked: "First, I started with the B group and got a handicapped time.  Second, I was racing while he was jogging.  Third, the only reason I am here is that I am training for the 400m at the Thursday Night at the Armory meet in two weeks' time.  If you publish that headline, I will have to stay away five, ten weeks until he forgets about it ..."  All was not lost for Ramon as he learned a new Spanish term tonight.  Even though he comes from Spain, he had never heard of 'papa chips.'  Have you?
   
• Spam Cop:  Michael Rosenthal confirms that our Coollist mail service is identified as a spammer, which is why some of you cannot receive email notices.  We'll have to work something out ...
   
• Nagging Repetitious Messages:  Okay, no nagging repetitious messages tonight.  If you insist that you must have a fix, you can go back to the Tuesday workout description.
   
• Occasional Notice:  Here is a reminder about the most typical (but not the only) way to join this team.  Generally speaking, we think that it is a bad idea for anyone to want to sign up sight unseen and that is why we encourage people to show up at our open workouts to see if we have the right environment for you.  After all, people have different needs, styles, forms, etc.  If, after a few workouts, you feel that we are right for you, you can then fill out the application form.  In spite of the long list of names that get published in these workout descriptions, we do not do roll calls or conduct ID checks.  That means people can continue to come to these workouts without signing up.  Ethically speaking, in the long run, it is unfair to the team to freeload.  Since we do not strong-arm people to sign up, you  will have to act on your own initiative.  This notice is being posted since we did notice quite a few people who have been around for months and they are not members yet.  You know who you are ...
   
  By the way, you should not even think about aiming to become the person who ran with the team for the longest time without becoming a member --- some person (who shall go unnamed) had done it for over 20 years!  In fact, it would have been a serious letdown if he sends in an application form now (and we will probably turn him down!).

(Workout of 1/08/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

FIELD NOTES

"GO AWAY!  No paparazzi allowed here!"

• Wet and slippery outside?  Warm and snug inside ...  And, after the workout, the blast of wind that hits you in the face as you exit the Armory was no fun!  Forty-five people were present at the workout.  Margaret Schotte reports, "I'm on time!  I'm on time!"  Season debuts for Kellie Quinones, Tom Hartshorne, Harry Lichtenstein and Charlie Stark.  Actually, it was a lifetime Armory debut for Charlie.
   
• Kellie Quinones did not realize that she had a picture on the NYRR site for the Fred Lebow Classic on Sunday.  She asked, "How did I look?  I hope I looked mean, like I intended to ..."  You can look at the photo and decide for yourself.

Upon seeing this photo, Jay Borok said to her, "Kellie, you must have spoken to Roland!"

• Don't ask us about the results from last Friday's Joe Yancey Meet because we don't have any.  The New York Elite TC published only the 'top performances' on the Armory website.  Those times sure look as if it was a fast meet with competitors from all over the country.  But we'll never know who else was there ...
   
• Passed inspection!  In spite of exceeding our allotted storage quota of 100 megabytes by over four times, our web hosting service has nevertheless decided to keep our contract under the same terms.  Phew!
   
• For the middle distance runners' workout, we read that Sara Grillo, Amy Alsip, Sid Howard and Mary V. Rosado have been directed to run with us on Tuesday instead.  What happened to the rest of the team?  They are apparently taking it easy before the Thursday race.  Then we checked our tentative entry list for Thursday --- we have 34 people racing on that day.  Yipes!  Are we ready to talk about the renaissance of track in New York City!?  The Armory will be rocking!!!
  Since this race will start promptly at 8pm, anyone who used to train at the 8pm session may enter the Armory at 615pm and train until race time.  You can still run the race(s) afterwards ...
   
• RUNNING LOG SOFTWARE:  Our teammate Larry King has created an online running log to track running information for runners. Each runner would create his/her user ID and start logging their runs. The system will subtotal daily runs by week along with just showing weekly totals.  Averages are also computed.  Features will be added as the site evolves. As of early Sunday morning, there are 17 registered users and 84 workouts have been logged.  Remember, it's FREE!
   
• A Runner's Diary:  "I was running down First Avenue near 18th Street around 545pm on Saturday when I heard a voice calling out my name.  I stopped long enough to see Jonathan Wells and hear him say, 'Oh, I didn't realize that you run!'  Thanks!  Warren Street people really know how to hit below the belt!"
   
• Nagging repetitious message:  Coach Tony Ruiz has designated January 24th as the team day for Thursday Night At The Races.   This is a low-keyed meet held at the indoor track at The Armory.  On this Thursday, the meet will take place between 800pm and 1000pm, and the events are (1) 2 miles; (2) 800m; (3) 400m; (4) 4 x 800m relay.  For those who are paid users of the Armory, the entry fee is waived.  NYRR members who are not paid users of the Armory pay $8.00 entry fee, which covers one to four events.  Non-NYRR members who are not paid users of the Armory pay $10.00.  Hopefully, we will get a large turnout and everyone will have fun and competition, and some people may even experience the epiphany of realizing that they were born to be track runners ...
  For those who find the idea of running like gerbils around a track to be objectionable, we will still have a coach for the road workout in Central Park.
   
• NYRR Club Night:  This year's NYRR Club Night will be held on Saturday, February 9th.  Central Park Track Club will be receiving the Men's Open 3rd place, Women's Open 3rd place and Men's Masters 1st place awards.  Also, the following 15 members of CPTC have received individual nominations: Anna Fyodorova, Margaret Angell, Alayne Adams, Stacy Creamer, Irene Jackson-Schon, Sylvie Kimché, Mary V. Rosado, Carol Tyler, Toby Tanser, Alan Ruben, Tom Phillips, Alston Brown, Sid Howard, Guenter Erich and George Hirsch.  Ticketing information can be found on our home page.
   
• New Members:  This month, we welcome Guillaume Joly, Harry Lichtenstein, Eugene Lingner, Kevin Maher, Mary Minieka, John Rock, Anna Sank and Brad Weiss.
   
• Going Somewhere?  Robin Nagle is writing a story for Running Times about people who run TO someplace -- like, running is how they commute to or from work, or they run to the airport to catch a plane (Joan Benoit Samuelson has been known to do this), or they run to and from school (as many Kenyans did during childhood).  Running, in these examples, can still be about training but it's also a practical mode of transportation. The editors like the idea because it focuses on one of the original reasons that humans run. Until rather recent history, we ran to get somewhere. That it kept us healthy was merely a side-effect.  Do any of you use your running this way? Do you know anyone who does? If you do, please contact Robin at Robin.Nagle@nyu.edu 
   
• Seeing double?  Our readers will be seeing things in this section that appears simultaneously in the Quick News Items section on our home page.  For posterity, this page goes into the archive, whereas items on the home page may be deleted rather rapidly without the possibility of going back.  So you will have to excuse the double vision.

(Workout of 1/3/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION

FIELD NOTES

Happy New Year!!!

• WeatherChannel.com gave a reading of 34 degrees inside Central Park at 630pm tonight.  But it did not feel cold because there was virtually no wind.  There were 38 people at the start of the workout.  Margaret Schotte, Michael Rosenthal, David Howard and Michelle Santomassimo materialized out of nowhere in the middle of the workout.  Harry Morales was plain late and nowhere to be seen, having relied once too often again on the "I can start late but I am sure that I will run into them coming down the west side" syndrome.
   
• The man of the year's end, Josh Feldman, was here tonight, having grabbed win #50 for the team on the second last day of the year.  "I was getting worried because someone was right next to me at the six mile mark."  Yes, it must have been a tremendous burden to have a whole team's hopes pinned on him.
   
• Question from the back of the pack just 100m into the workout: "Hmmm ... have we already started the pickup, or is this just Shula Sarner's natural jogging pace?"
   
• Running shoe fetishists will have a field day soon, because one of our Canadian triathletes said, "I left my running shoes in Canada over Christmas, so now I have no choice but to ... GET NEW SHOES!"  Stay tuned for more pictures ...
   
• The "We Mustn't Keep Meeting This Way" replay --- two runners crossing each other in the 102nd Street transverse, each saying "I am not going to do any hills tonight!"
   
• Coach Tony Ruiz has designated January 24th as the team day for Thursday Night At The Races.   This is a low-keyed meet held at the indoor track at The Armory.  On this Thursday, the meet will take place between 800pm and 1000pm, and the events are (1) 2 miles; (2) 800m; (3) 400m; (4) 4 x 800m relay.  For those who are paid users of the Armory, the entry fee is waived.  NYRR members who are not paid users of the Armory pay $8.00 entry fee, which covers one to four events.  Non-NYRR members who are not paid users of the Armory pay $10.00.  Hopefully, we will get a large turnout and everyone will have fun and competition, and some people may even experience the epiphany of realizing that they were born to be track runners ...
  For those who find the idea of running like gerbils around a track to be objectionable, we will still have a coach for the road workout in Central Park.
   
• We know the last two weeks have been unusual due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, causing changes in our workout schedules.  A major breakdown occurred yesterday when a Coollist message went out with a Wednesday night indoor track workout, followed immediately by a message of cancellation of the workout.  Today, the workout description went out late in the afternoon, and was posted on the website after 4pm.  What is going on here?  Your coach Tony Ruiz pleads for understanding --- "My computer is in the shop!"  P.S.  His watch should also be in the shop, since he wanted to congratulate himself for starting the runners off at 712pm tonight when the 'official' watch actually read 715pm.  (Technical note:  the 'official' watch is whatever this reporter is wearing, since that is the officially reported time, irrespective of what GMT or EST might be.)

(Workout of 1/01/2002)

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION  

• The Armory will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.  No indoor workout for us this week.  The next team workout is Thursday in Central Park.
   
• Just because we don't have a team workout does not mean that you can just be couch potato.  You need to work off the effects of those "food, cakes and wine" or else your next team workout will be hellish!
   
• As we headed to the end of the year, we have 49 individual road wins.  In last week's workout description, we wrote: "The pressure is on Josh Feldman when he has to take on the Snowball Series 20K in Chesterfield, Missouri this weekend.  Josh said, 'I don't know if I can win the race.  I may have a better chance if I just recruit the winner after the race and pay for his $75 dues myself.'"  When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.  On the last Sunday, Josh Feldman wrote: "I won the Snowball Series 20K in Chesterfield, Missouri in a time of 1:10:05.  I braved the early 7:15 AM start time, the 10 degree starting temperature, the brisk wind, and the tough competition all for the sake of the club!  We can all rest easy now ..."  This is the stuff that legends are made of.