What is wonderful about the Central Park Track Club experience is the opportunity to share a collective experience with people from all walks of life. I have often wondered about some of the other people on the club. Would I ever talk to them if not for CPTC? The answer is an emphatic NO. Imagine if you saw someone like Karel walking towards you on the street --- you would probably run across to the opposite side of the street in terror.

Unfortunately, it has been the tendency even within the club for people to congregate by groups, often stratified by sex or running ability. This is rather unfortunate because there are some really interesting people whom you may never find out about. In this page, we hope to bring you the occupational backgrounds of some club members, some famous, some infamous and most in between. So next time when you see them, you will be able to look at them with greater wonder.

NOTE: Listed in alphabetical order of last names.

• STACY CREAMER: Stacy is Vice President, Senior Editor with publisher Putnam Berkley Group . The star author in the Putnam list is, of course, Tom Clancy, but Stacy is not interested in touching up the life and times of spook-turned-President John Patrick Ryan (aka Harrison Ford). On her job, Stacy has the difficult job of hobnobbing with celebrities. You should not think that this is a piece of cake --- after all, it is hard to refrain from telling ThighMaster (TM) jokes when you are dining with Suzanne Sommers. Working for a commercial publisher, Stacy is highly conscious of the value of media exposure. Among other moments of media glory, Stacy can count on having jogged a lap around the Central Park Reservoir with President Clinton and the rest of the Secret Service and the whole media press in tow.

• TYRONNE CULPEPPER: A biography of Tyronne was given when he was featured as the NYRRC Member of the Month in December 1997.

• RANDALL EHRLICH:  Randy is a doctor who specializes in sports medicine, with his main interest being running injuries.  His office is at:
  
  Randall Ehrlich
  Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery
  Prescriptive Health Associates
  244 W. 54 St.  (between Broadway and 8th)
  Third Floor
  Telephone: 262-9178
  email: retridoc@aol.com
  
  CPTCers will of course get preferential treatment.

• PETER GAMBACCINI: One of the most well-known writers about our favorite sport --- RUNNING. His articles appear regularly in publications such as Runner's World. A regular feature is an in-depth interview with runners who have other lives, and he has interviewed CPTC members such as Ed Gonera and Alan Turner. Many of these interviews are available on the Runner's World's searchable database. A detailed description of his many accomplishments is posted at LifeLong Universe. Peter Gambaccini was also the winner in the Media Division of the 1996 Fifth Avenue Mile.

• STEFANI JACKENTHAL: Stefani is Marketing Director at the Charged catalog of sporting goods. Here is a coy biography stating her qualifications as someone who "could beat the stuffing out of you." She is also listed as the only member on the staff to have appeared in New York Magazine "cavorting around in a bikini." Here is another brief biography with a photo.
  
  Stefani is also listed as a contributor to Transition Times magazine, with the following biography: "Stefani Jackenthal is a freelance writer living in NYC. She is a category 2 bicycle racer, triathlete, and surfer who leads women's bicycle racing clinics and coaches cyclists and racers."

• JEFF KISSELOFF: Check out this link to the interactive CD ROM, "Baseball's Greatest Hits". Can you name those eight marathons?

• MICHAEL KONIG: Michael Konig as featured in the October/November issue of New York Runner.

• HARRY MORALES: The following biographical note appears in Chicago Review (Winter 1997, Volume 43, Number 1, US$6.00): "Harry Morales lives in Manhattan, is a graduate of New York City Technical College, and has studied literary translation under Gregory Rabassa and Ben Belitt. His work has appeared in Ilan Stavan's The One-Handed Pianist and Other Stories (New Mexico, 1996), and is forthcoming in The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays (Oxford, 1997) and A Translator's Portfolio: Stories from Latin America (Curbstone, 1997). He recently completed an English translation of Benedetti's novel, La Tregua."
  
  But what is his work REALLY like? Here is the first paragragh of his Chicago Review translation of Mario Benedetti's story The Rest is Jungle: "From a top floor, something that might have been hot coals or feces fell on his head. He didn't want to know. He just cleaned himself the best he could with a page from the Herald Times and at that moment decided to delay his baptismal meeting with the white night of Times Square. It was now imperative that he return to his hotel and have his third shower of the day." Hey, Harry, you are slandering our beloved home town!!!

• HARRY NASSE: Harry is associated with the Ward-Nasse gallery on Prince Street in the heart of Soho. This is a non-profit, artist-administered alternative space dedicated to the presentation of the visual, spoken, and performing arts. Historically, since the gallery is (more or less) near the East 6th Street Track, people retreat there after the Tuesday workouts.

• HARRIET OSTER: Harriet Oster, Ph. D., is a medical research at the New York University Medical Center. She is listed as a member of the cry research community. She presented a paper titled THE EFFECTS OF CRANIOFACIAL ANOMALIES ON INFANT FACIAL EXPRESSION AND MATERNAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT at the 7th European Conference on Facial Expression - Measurement and Meaning, 16 - 20 J u l y 1997, in Salzburg, Austria.

• TOM PHILLIPS: Tom was a CPTC member during the late 1980's and early 1990's. He was memorable because he routinely ran every winter race. Hence, the appellation "The Iron Horse". What was more remarkable was that he could run fast (10K's in the low 30's) on zero (yes, zero) mileage, thus inspiring hope among lazy people and sowing despair among less talented ones. At that time, Tom was the founder, president and publisher of the satirical Spy magazine and the best-selling Separated at Birth series of books. With his running prowess, Tom routinely demolished his competition in the CEO division of the Corporate Challenge Races and caused the NYRRC to institute the minimum company size rule afterwards (otherwise known as the Tom Phillips rule). He was also a fashion model, and his likeness could be seen on bus stops all over New York City. Later, Tom moved to the Pacific Northwest. According to an article in the New York Times (May 12, 1997), Tom will be back in the New York area to head the ABC News and ESPN Internet Ventures.

• DAVID PULLMAN: David Pullman is with Pullman Company, which is in the business of selling structured assets. What exactly are structured assets? Well, basically, almost everything and anything --- including subprime auto loans, entertainment royalties, music royalties, intellectual property royalties, lease portfolios, business loans, equipment leases, student loans, residential b/c mortgages, health-care receivables, trade and consumer receivables, boat loans, SBA and installment loans. But your old running shoes probably have no sales value ...

• ROLAND SOONG: He has done many forgettable things in his life. Presently pretending to be a Latin American media expert (in spite of not speaking Spanish nor Portuguese), but he wants to switch continents; has published stuff in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (something about the connection among Chinese restaurants, racial segregation and political campaigns), Journal of Advertising Research (something about the statistical reliability of people meter estimates?), Penthouse (in a special article about prostitution in Midtown massage parlors, although he claimed never to have entered one), etc. Oh, and he also operates 5 web sites, including this one.

• MICHELE TAGLIATI: He is a doctor at Mount Sinai Medical Center, with a research interest in neurological aspects of AIDS infection. A recent paper of his is "New HIV-Related Cerebellar Degenerative Disorder Described", as reported by Reuters Health Information Services (01/29/98): "Dr. M. Tagliati of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and colleagues have reported findings of previously unobserved primary cerebellar degenerative disorder without the dementia that accompanies HIV infection. In the January issue of Neurology, the researchers describe cerebellar syndrome characterized by 'unexplained degeneration' in 10 HIV-positive individuals over an eight-year period. The patients had varied CD4 lymphocyte counts, but all showed gait ataxia, impaired coordination, dysarthria, and abnormal eye movements. Although the cause of the disorder is unclear, the researchers suggested a possible association with HIV or related inflammatory products, such as cytokines or chemokines."
  I hope you digest all that information. If you don't understand it, you can start off with the videotape instruction kit.

Would you like to tell us about yourself? If you prefer, you can also rat on someone else. Send e-mail.