SUPPORTING EXHIBIT:  Movie (Strides before the December 18, 2001 workout)

(New York City Hall reception:  Mayor Rudy Giuliani and
Gordon Bakoulis, top New York City finisher
 at the 2001 New York City Marathon)
(photo credit: David Monti)

#1383.  WHO:  Gordon Bakoulis
WHERE:  Running Times, January/February 2002
TITLE:  Racing for Renewal
WHAT SHE WROTE:  "No living American will ever forget Tuesday, September 11, 2001.  I began the day with a run, and ended it wondering how I would ever again summon the energy and passion for something as seemingly inconsequential as road racing.  Many runners shared this sense of the futility and pointlessness of pinning on a number to take in something that thousands will never enjoy again.

I was scheduled to run the Philadelphia Distance Run on Sunday, September 16.  I checked to see whether the race was still being held --- many sporting events in and around New York, where I live, were cancelled --- and finding it was still on, thought hard about whether or not to go through with my plans to compete.  I was in great shape, and Philly was to be my final race before my fall marathon, Twin Cities on October 7.

I did a light speed workout on Thursday to see how it felt to run hard.  Although my Wednesday run had felt awkward and wooden, Thursday's set of 300s were light and zippy, imparting a ready-to-go sensation.  I talked to my  husband, who was also signed up for Philly, and he admitted to having no enthusiasm for the race.  "I'll just be going through the motions," he said dully.  Several of his teammates had bagged their plans to accompany us.

I lined up Sunday morning with no idea what to expect.  I started farther back in the pack than usual and took little notice of the elite field.  As the horn sounded I was wiping tears from my eyes, brought on by a moving tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks, two of whom would have been with us on the starting line.  I really never stopped thinking about the disasters in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania during the next 13.1 miles.  Like many Americans, the events of September 11 were in my consciousness continually for weeks afterward, and are still seldom far from my thoughts.

Yet I had a fantastic race that day in Philadelphia, running faster for the distance than I had in six years.  I don't know why, though the simple fact that I was fit probably explains at least 95 percent of it.  Did my overwrought emotion contribute, either positively or negatively?  I know that I felt better during and after the race than I had anytime in the previous five days.

No one can tell another person how to feel and what to do in the wake of tragedy, whether personal or global.  Tegla Loroupe elected to run the 1995 New York City Marathon within days of the death of her sister, and defended her title.  Other runners I know, who lost friends and family in the World Trade Center disaster, canceled their plans to run this year's New York City Marathon and other races.  I respect both decisions.  Each runner must do what feels comfortable and right.

As I search to define the role of running in this altered world, I've been helped most by reaching out to connect with other runners.  These days I run --- and race --- to seek solidarity, to show gratitude, and to affirm that I am still here.  Seen in this light, running feels far from a trivial pursuit."

#1382.  WHO:  David Smith
SUBJECT:  How to avoid getting your personal information published on this website
WHAT HE SAID: "When you have a name like David Smith, there will be 5000 hits when they enter your name into the search engine."
COMMENT:  Wrong!  Google.com yields 149,000 hits for 'David Smith'.
COMMENT:  When you have a less common name like Lauren Eckhart, you get only 54 hits, most of which come from this website including some gems such as this.  Alas, David Smith is still invisible ...

#1381.  WHO:  Noel Comess
WHEN:  December 1, 2001 Club Awards Banquet night
WHAT HE SAID:  "Although I have not done any running at all today, I feel like as if I had just done a twenty-mile hard run."
COMMENT:  Why?  The food for 130 people was cooked at his apartment by him and other volunteers, and it was not just putting frozen dinners into the microwave oven ...

#1380.  WHO:  Marty Levine
WHEN:  2001 Peter McArdle Cross Country 15K
WHERE:  Van Cortlandt Park

After parking my car at the Mobil station on Broadway I was jogging across the street with my shoes untied.  I stopped at a bench to get ready and a cigar chomping stranger asks: "Are you running in the race today?"

I replied "Yes, why do you ask?"

The cigar chomping stranger said:  "You don't look like a runner!"

"Oh," I said, "What do I look like?"

He replied, "Well you know,  most runners and lanky and thin."

I then said to the man: "And what do I look like?"

"Do you really want to be insulted this early in the morning?" he asked

"No," I replied, and proceeded to jog to the start with motivation to go on another diet!

#1379.  WHO:  Mindy Solkin
SITUATION:  Mindy Solkin is the recipient of the 2001 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) "Community Service Award" for her service to runners and sports medicine professionals in New York City.  
WHAT SHE WROTE: 

How do you thank the thousands of people who have given you the opportunity to build and live your dream? 

How do you thank a city that has enabled you to pursue a career as a professional running coach? 

How do you thank a sport? I believe that having "passion" is the answer to these questions. 

Webster defines "passion" as "an intense emotional excitement" and "the object of any strong desire". And so my strong desire to impart intense emotional excitement to the runners who I've coached, in the sport that I love, in the city that offers the opportunity to do this, has given me the ability to offer passion to people's lives, while enriching my own. 

Through the art of coaching and the science of running, I have added years to my life and life to my years. And it is this relentless spirit that will continue to empower people to pursue their dreams on the open road and the winding trail, as they seek "passion" along the way.

#1378.  WHO:  Stuart Calderwood
SUBJECT:  MAC Open/Masters Cross Country Championships, November 18, 2001
WHAT HE WROTE:  

How to Train Intelligently and Avoid Racing Too Often

     I met John Prather, an excellent Arizona master runner, at a Thursday CPTC workout about a year ago. I've seen him just that once, but we've turned out to have a lot in common, so we pass on our training successes and injury laments via e-mail. A few days after the NYC Marathon, I wrote John that I'd decided not to run the next weekend's cross-country race, and he was pretty tough on me; he'd always wanted to run the legendary Van Cortlandt course, and his sensory nerves were connected to his own quadriceps rather than to mine. I earned back some respect by telling him that I'd be racing three loops of Van Cortlandt's lovely hills in the Pete McArdle 15K two weeks later, and that I might also run the Race to Deliver 4-Mile in the intervening weekend.

     As that next weekend approached, I realized that a good training run in Van Cortlandt would be more valuable to my preparation for the 15K than a race would, so on Sunday morning I reluctantly got on the uptown 1-train. I kept looking at my watch, thinking, "Okay, the four-mile starts in ten minutes...they're on the line...they're definitely running now...well, I missed the race."

     I got to Van Cortlandt and jogged across the big field. I thought I'd do three loops of the hills, something like that. As I neared the trail, I came upon a finish-chute and a couple of bored-looking officials sitting in chairs next to it.

     "Hey, what's the race?" I asked. I was picturing some little kids' age-group thing.

     "No, no, they're lining up right now--they start in a couple of minutes. You get on over there!"

     A couple of minutes! A desperate debate started up in my head. "Of course I should run! (But I'm wearing sweats, training shoes...I don't have my singlet)--Oh, come on, what am I going to do, watch? (But I wasn't supposed to be running a race today...)" This was interrupted by a gang of New York Harriers jogging to the start, among them the always-friendly Liam Kinsella, who I pray never loses his Irish accent:

     I seemed to have no choice. I took off my sweats--I was wearing those Race Ready shorts covered with pockets! I looked like Paul Stuart-Smith!  It couldn't be helped.  I stashed my stuff in the MAC van and did a stiff-legged pickup over to the Broadway side of the park. Suddenly I was happy--I'd get to race without ever having gotten nervous.

     I did the usual size-up-the-field survey: "Okay, Liam will win it; Steve Marsalese will be within seconds of me one way or the other....I can beat this guy with the basketball shoes....Hey, wonder who the masters are in here..."

     As I took my spot on the line, a very fit-looking man jogged up in a pair of spikes. I thought I'd see if I could make out his age on his number-tag. I leaned out, took a glance-- His shirt said "PHILADELPHIA MASTERS."

     A bunch of young college-track types took off fast. Liam cruised through them up toward the front. The Philadelphia Master was about ten yards ahead of me; Steve materialized beside me on cue. We went around the field--I was running on instinct, my mind still saying "They're having a race here today?"--and into the hills; Steve and I started threading through the fast starters. We saw Liam catch the first of them. I said "Liam's got it," and Steve said "We'll get all these guys."

     We passed Philadelphia on an uphill. His spikes made a noticeable crackle on the trail; I'd know if he was nearby. Steve started running the uphills depressingly well. I hung on as we passed a couple more twenty-year-olds. We were in fourth and fifth now, Liam leaving his last two rivals for us to shoot at.  The hills started to be The Hills, and I started to be a very unprepared competitor with training shoes and a flapping T-shirt and numerous other excuses, and I started to dread the sound of those spikes.

     Steve got away. "Yeah, well, I beat him in the marathon. Hey, I just ran a marathon! That's a REALLY good excuse!"

     Long steep downhill to the fence, wild banked turn at probably four-minute-mile pace, then into the last uphill, a long slog back to the bridge over the parkway. I reached a short stretch of asphalt street, ran about three seconds on it...

     Over the bridge, last big downhill, jolt-jounce-bounce, "Hope there's no big rock under these leaves..." I caught up to the fourth-place guy--a smooth-striding kid of about 22, probably some 800-meter runner--and he held me off. "Ah, let him go, who cares, he's no master!--No, chasing him will help; don't let him go!"

     We rolled out onto the last flat stretch--it's a lot longer than it looks, probably a 600--and the kid just cruised away from me. "Damn, your legs can feel dead at the ends of these things....Don't get discouraged! First master, first master..."

     After about a half-hour of perceived time, I reached the end of the quicksand-pit that the trail had miraculously become.  I stopped my watch, looked at it. 18:04--man, it didn't seem THAT slow! Looked back.  Philadelphia was just crossing the line. 

     I was the MAC Masters Cross-Country Champion!

     Nearly as important, I've met the stringent Arizona race-scheduling standards. But thanks, really, John. You, too, Liam.

#1377.  SUBJECT:  Victor Diaz, in memoriam

Victor Diaz,  ahead of Stuart Calderwood, at the Armory in the mile race, MAC Indoor Masters Championships 2001

Among those who perished on American Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor on November 12, 2001 was Victor Diaz, who was a member of the Central Park Track Club in 1997-1998 and then became a member of the A.U.R.A. International team.  He was a top M50-54 local competitor at 400m/800m/mile and XC.  Victor had gotten married earlier this month and was on his way to see his bride in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  This is very sad, and he will be missed by his friends in the running community.     From Frank Handelman: "There seems to be no end to the shocks we are enduring this fall. Like everyone else in the city, I've gone through enormous mood swings and did so again on Monday, when Flight 587 went down. I had spent much of Saturday driving around the Rockaway peninsula, while visiting one of my senior citizen clients. Then I felt the guilt of feeling relief, that this appears to be (can it be said this way?) just a normal crash. And now to learn it's personal, with the loss of Victor Diaz. Victor and I trained together when he ran with the CPTC, and stayed close after he left. I raced against him all the time, as we shared an age group and did the same events. I always feared his finish, with his long, effortless strides eating up the ground. I particularly relish the memory of the masters nationals in 1999 in Orlando. He was the most tenacious of competitors, and the most gracious and friendly of teammates and rivals. I will miss him tremendously at the Armory this winter. May we all be sure to count our blessings and appreciate our lives this Thanksgiving." Originally, we thought that we had only one photo of Victor on our website.  From Jeff Kisseloff: "It's no accident that I'm in that photo with Victor. We used to good-humoredly push each other in races all the time. We'd laugh because I'd always go out fast and finish up slow, and he'd do the opposite, so we'd usually come together at some point. When I was training at the Armory, we'd almost always would pair off.  He was a sweet, warm guy, who always made the hard work challenging and fun." From Jim Aneshansley: "I learned of the death of Victor Diaz at the Armory this evening.  In previous years I had given Victor a lift home to Brooklyn after practice and I had expected to see him this evening......  For those who knew Victor this is a shocking loss. We will miss his gentle heart and competitive spirit.  For those who didn't know Victor,.... you missed a warm and generous man.   For the record, Victor never left the club,.. he simply elected to stay with Howard when the coach controversy erupted.  Although Victor was an intelligently outspoken advocate of Puerto Rican independence, he didn't believe that politics and the sport of running belonged on the same page.  He opted out of the controversy by staying where he was with Howard at AURA.  Victor was a very private and introspective man who really didn't need the social camaraderie of a running club.  As a dedicated athlete he 'marched to his own drummer',  successfully following a program based on Arthur Lydiard's philosophy for periodised training.  He built his seasons intelligently from base to race and knew his abilities and how to peak at the Nationals each winter and summer.  Victor knew how to run track ,...training healthy and racing close to his competitive limit.  I never raced on the roads with Victor but I am told he competed there with the same strength of character.     I'll also admired Victor's inner qualities as a human being.  Those who remember him will agree that he had a hard exterior with a lean, hard  body and a face to match it.  His look belied the gentle man inside.  In many hours of conversation I found him a skilled listener and emotionally available on any subject.  As a runner and as a human being  Victor was 'world class'."

#1376.  WHO:  Bola Awofeso
SITUATION:  Do you wonder how we get photos from those out-of-town races?  What does it take?
WHEN:  November 16th, 2001 (two days before the Philadelphia Marathon)
WHAT HE WROTE: "I plan on being in Philly this Sunday --- if I can catch the 6 a.m. train."

COMMENT:  If you were really checking the results, you will note that the photos appeared just after noon that day.  How did that happen so quickly?  Isaya Okwiya said, "I was staying with a friend who lives right across the museum.  So I just rolled out of bed to watch the marathon.  Afterwards, I got the photos and emailed it through hotmail.com and then I went back to bed again."

#1375.  WHO:  Susan Sontag
WHERE:  Introduction to One Hundred Years of Italian Photography
WHAT SHE WROTE:  Photographs are not windows which supply a transparent view of the world as it is, or more exactly, as it was.  Photographs give evidence --- often spurious, always incomplete --- in support of dominant ideologies and existing social arrangements.  They fabricate and confirm these myths and arrangements.

How?  By making statements about what is in the world, what we should look at.  Photographs tell us how things ought to look, what their subjects should reveal about themselves.

Photographs taken in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries rarely fail to make visible the markers of status.  We associate this with posing.  The process itself took time: one couldn't take photographs on the run.  With posing, whether in a studio portrait or in pictures of people taken on the sites of work and recreation, there can be a conscious construction of what is seemly, appropriate, attractive.  The way most old photographs look expounds the value of uprightness, explicitness, informativeness, orderly spacing; but from the 1930s on, and this cannot only be due to the evolution of camera technology, the look of photographs confirms the value of movement, animation, asymmetry, enigma, informal social relations.  Modern taste judges the way workers in the old photographs of building sites and factories were stiffly posed to be a kind of lie --- concealing, for instance, the reality of their physical exertion.  We prefer to see the sweat, in informal, unposed-looking shots in which people are caught in a movement --- that is what looks truthful (if not always beautiful) to us.  We feel more comfortable with what features exertion, awkwardness, and conceals the realities of control (self-control, control by others), of power --- revelations we now judge, oddly enough, to be "artificial."

COMMENT:  Remember these words the next time you come out of the portosan and see a camera in your face ...

#1374.  WHO:  Brian Barry / Roland Soong
WHEN:  November 16, 2001, 10:45pm
WHERE:  Stuyvesant Town, 14th Street & Avenue C
Brian:  "Hi, what you are doing at this time of night?"
Roland: "Oh, I'm running a couple of loops before I go to bed.  What about you?"
Brian: "I'm going to get a pint of ice-cream ..."

#1373.  WHO:  Roland Soong
SUBJECT:  The Central Park Track Club booklist
WHEN:  November 14, 2001
WHAT HE WROTE:  "The busiest pages on this website are the race results, the workout descriptions and the photo gallery.  These pages interest people because the information are frequently updated --- usually several races every weekend, two workouts per week and an average of one photo album per week.  Actually, our most frequently updated page is not any of the aforementioned pages, but the Central Park Track Club booklist.  On that page, we publish the list of all items, mostly books, that have been sold in chronological order (most recent one at the top) through our Amazon.com affiliate program.  This booklist may be updated several times a week.  The stated reason for publishing this list is to 'let you know what your friends have on their minds these days' and the revenues are only of minor concern.

But that is not the complete story.  Even a cursory examination of the book list would reveal that there is a distinct slant towards Latinamericana.  This is because we share the Amazon.com affiliate ID with our sister (formerly, parent) site Zonalatina.com, a major Latin American portal.  In fact, we cannot tell which site generated the sale of a particular item, but we suspect that most of activity is being generated by the other website because of the strong Latin flavor of the books sold.  On that other website, there is a large number of recommended booklists on specific topics, such as:

P.S.  Now about the person who purchased Leonard Cohen's The Future.  What are you trying to do?  Are you trying to read my mind?  To get inside my head ...?"   From Brian Barry: "I'm the one who purchased Leonard Cohen's The Future.  Great Album."  Roland Soong sent this note of admiration: "Well I'll have to give you a lot more respect from now on ... I had marked you for a country music hick ..."  Brian Barry accepts with a barb: "That's the problem with you liberals --- you think you've got the market on everything, including taste in music.  Actually I'm a rock n roller with a twist."

#1372.  WHO:  Roland Soong
SUBJECT:  Those ~900 home page visitors to our website on the day after the 2001 New York City Marathon
WHAT HE WROTE: "It was a mystery to me how our 66 finishers could have generated interest from such a high multiple of visitors, until one of them (who shall go unnamed) said to me, 'You know, I love to go to the website and read my splits over and over again.'"

#1371.  SUBJECT:  How do you know that you may have had a bad marathon?
WHEN:  Tuesday workout after the 2001 New York City Marathon
WHAT: "You know that you may have had a bad marathon when you see a clean-shaven Kevin Arlyck and you swear that he had a moustache on marathon day.  Were you really hallucinating that badly?"

#1370.  WHO:  George Hirsch
TITLE: We'll Keep On Running
WHERE:  Runner's World, December 2001
WHAT HE WROTE:  

On Tuesday morning, September 11, the president of the United States woke up early in Sarasota, Fla., and went for a hard 4-1/2 mile run before visiting an elementary school.  That same morning my wife Shay joined me on my walk to work as she does every day.  It was a crisp, crystal-clear day in New York after a summer of typical heat and humidity, and I was looking forward to my run at lunchtime.

That run never happened.

Like each one of us, I vividly recall --- and will forever recall --- how the unspeakable tragedy unfolded.  I was beginning my day in the Runner's World publishing office on the east side of Manhattan when we heard the first report about a plane flying into the World Trade Center.  The news sent us to the TV in our conference room, where we spent the next few hours watching in horror and disbelief.

The disbelief turned slowly to harsh reality, as we realized that a tremendous blow had wounded our city and country.  Eventually I left the office, heading for home through a world far different from the one that had seen the day's sunrise.  That innocent world now seemed shattered.

As I walked, I passed thousands of New Yorkers trudging northward in quiet, calm groups.  We all looked up when military jets screeched overhead.  I've lived in New York most of my life, and have learned to accept the sound of sirens piercing the air as no more than background music in this busy city's cacophony.

But I'd never heard such a persistent wailing.  At the same time, thick clouds of smoke loomed over lower Manhattan.

When I reached home, the telephone was ringing.  It kept ringing all night.  Friends from around the world were calling to express their concern and offer their support.  We heard from Idaho and California, and also from England, Italy, and South Africa.  Everyone agreed that he or she had never witnessed such a wanton, destructive act.

For the rest of the day and night, we watched TV, trying to make sense of the senseless.  An e-mail from Joe Henderson told us of friends, two of Dr. George Sheehan's sons, who'd barely escaped the tragedy.  Tim Sheehan was still on the subway heading to his job in the North Tower when it was struck.  Michael Sheehan escaped from his 55-th floor office in the South Tower, helping an elder woman negotiate the last 15 flights of stairs.

The next morning, I jogged to office through holiday-quiet streets.  The National Guard in camouflage fatigues directed traffic as fire trucks and ambulances hurtled by.  Very few New Yorkers reported to their offices that day, so I was surprised to find Claudia Malley, our publisher, and every member of our New York staff at their desks.  I can't say that we got much accomplished on Wednesday, but we all felt better being together as colleagues in our work family.

At midday, I ran to Central Park, my city's refuge and my own country club for the past 35 years.  Unlike the city streets, the park was bustling.  Parents with strollers.  Lovers hand in hand.  And runners --- lots of runners.  Apparently many of us needed to leave our apartments, houses and offices to find something familiar in this unfathomable new world.

The experience reminded me of how running has helped me through other tough stages of my life.  As I settled into a relaxed, comfortable rhythm, I recalled that I'd also gone out for a run the day after my  father died many years ago.  I needed to go off by myself to sift though my thoughts and emotions while doing what comes naturally.  I did  the same after my mother passed away.  My daily runs have always brought me a sense of calm and peace.

Note:  George Hirsch and Claudia Malley are members of the Central Park Track Club.

#1369.  WHO: Guenter Erich / David Obelkevich
WHEN: November 4, 2001
WHERE: Just past the New York City Marathon finish line
WHAT David Obelkevich (MILL) SAID: "Hey, Guenter, did you break four hours?"
WHAT Guenter Erich (CPTC) SAID: "I shitdipped (4:00:47) , but my chip did (3:59:13)!!!"

#1368.  WHO:  Kai Michaelsen
SUBJECT:  His Marathon PR
WHAT HE SAID: "You ask me what my marathon PR was?  That is actually a difficult question.  The simple answer is that my best marathon finishing time was 2:48.  But the fact was that I had reached the 26 mile mark in 2:39, whereupon I collapsed a few steps later.  It took me 9 minutes to cross that finish line, because I was so disoriented that I was running the wrong way when I got up and I was arguing with someone who tried to point me in the right direction."

#1367.  WHO:  Michele Tagliati
SUBJECT: La mia maratona del 2001
WHEN:  November 5, 2001
WHERE:  New York City Site
WHAT HE WROTE: "Ero nato da pochi giorni quando Abebe Bikila conquisto' a piedi nudi la maratona olimpica di Roma e forse non e' una coincidenza che la maratona abbia sempre colpito la mia fantasia, sin da bambino, quando leggevo la storia del mitico Dorando Pietri. Ma da quando vivo a New York mi sono ammalato di "maratonite" acuta. O meglio cronica, visto che quest'anno ho timbrato il mio decimo cartellino: dieci maratone in dieci anni, comincio a sentirmi un veterano.

Quest'anno pero' era una maratona diversa. Ci siamo svegliati tutti molto presto, salutati da una giornata incantevole, con un sole mite, senza umidita' e una brezzolina rinfrescante dietro ogni angolo. Alla partenza si respirava un'atmosfera particolare, impalpabile, la consapevolezza di essere parte di qualcosa di piu' importante della solita maratona. Dopo l'undici di settembre ben poche cose sono di routine a New York. Persino una bella giornata di sole finisce per ricordarti il cielo senza una nuvola di quello sciagurato mattino di fine estate. Ma ieri per la prima volta dall'attacco al World Trade Center, la citta' si riuniva intorno ad una delle sue creature piu' simboliche, il serpentone multicolore che incarna la natura internazionale della Grande Mela e la consacra ogni anno capitale del mondo podistico. Confesso che le note di "God Bless America" mi hanno fatto venire la pelle d'oca sulla linea di partenza.

Ma il colpo di cannone della partenza ha fatto svanire ogni incertezza. E dopo il lungo ponte di Verrazzano, sul quale non puoi fare a meno di notare la silhouette mutilata di Manhattan sulla sinistra, ci siamo tutti immersi nel bagno di folla di Brooklyn. Sara' stata la bella giornata o i pantaloncini a stelle e striscie che mia figlia mi aveva regalato una settimana fa, ma la gente era piu' calorosa quest'anno, piu' rumorosa, piu' vicina alla corsa. Le bande musicali che costellano il percorso avevano piu' ritmo, i colori erano piu' vivaci. Era come se gli spettatori avessero bisogno di tuffarsi in questo rito gioioso per scrollarsi la paura di dosso, almeno per qualche ora e forse, chissa', per i mesi a venire.
Intanto le miglia si succedevano festose. Ecco la Brooklyn Academy of Music che segna l'ottavo miglio, la sequenza multietnica di Bedford Avenue, il fascino post-modern dei magazzini industriali nel Queens subito dopo la meta' maratona, il silenzio del ponte di Queensboro che precede il boato della First Avenue. Sara' perche' abito su First Avenue, ma i cinque chilometri dalla 59ma strada al Bronx sono la parte piu' bella e incredibile della maratona di NY. Nonostante la stanchezza cominci ad affiorare insidiosa, migliaia e migliaia di voci urlanti ti fanno letteralmente volare. Ti senti quasi ubriaco, forse sono gli zuccheri che non arrivano piu' al cervello, ma gli esperti la chiamano "First Avenue High". E forse hai bisogno di ubriacarti un po' prima di affrontare il "muro" del 20mo miglio nel Bronx. Gli spettatori diventano meno numerosi, l'incitamento piu' sparso e tutto d'un tratto ti rendi conto in che pasticcio ti sei andato a cacciare. Le gambe si fanno pesanti, i piedi cominciano a dolorare e facendo qualche calcolo ti accorgi che mancano ancora dieci chilometri! La corsa si snoda per qualche chilometro attraverso Harlem, ma pochi hanno voglia di ammirare il paesaggio a quel punto. Il sole si riflette sull'asfalto disegnando una linea d'argento che - punteggiata di corridori - tira dritta fino a Central Park, la terra promessa . ed il Parco ti aspetta nella sua bellezza impareggiabile, quel verde brillante e riposante allo stesso tempo e di nuovo il frastuono assordante del pubblico che ti prende per mano per le ultime sospirate miglia. Vestendo la maglia arancione del mitico Central Park Track Club mi godo qualche incoraggiamneto extra, ma c'e' ne e' per tutti e per ore di seguito. Piano piano comincio a crederci, anche quest'anno arrivo in fondo ...

Mancano due chilometri, un chilometro, ecco Central Park South, la statua di Cristoforo Colombo sullo sfondo, la curva trionfante che ti riporta nel Parco per gli ultimi cinquecento metri. Ancora una salitina e puoi vedere l'orologio sulla linea d'arrivo. Non importa se ci metti due ore o cinque, a quel punto ti senti vincitore. E la gente ti tratta come tale, con un entusiasmo incredibile e inesauribile, fino all'ultimo metro. Getti le braccia al cielo per la foto sotto al traguardo ed il sorriso sostituisce la smorfia della fatica sul viso. "Ce l'ho fatta!" Quest'anno in particolare abbiamo vinto tutti e New York ha trionfato con noi.

Technical note:  For all you people who don't know the language of Dante Alighieri, Altavista.com offers the following machine translation.  Of course, Michele Tagliati cannot be held responsible for this atrocity.

"I was been born from little days when Abebe Bikila I conquer. on foot knots maratona olympic of Rome and perhaps a not and coincidence that the maratona has always hit my fantasy, sin from child, when I read the history of the mythical one Gilding Stones. But from when alive to New York " maratonite " are sickened to me of acute. Or better chronic, inasmuch as quest.anno I have stamped mine tenth cartellino: ten maratone in ten years, I begin to sentirmi a veteran.

But the gun shot of the departure has made to vanish every uncertainty. And after along bridge of Verrazzano, on which you cannot make less than to notice silhouette the cripple of Manhattan on the left, there are all dipping in the bath of crowd of Brooklyn. Sara. be the beautiful day or pantaloncini to stars and the strips that my daughter had given me a week ago, but people were piu. warm quest.anno, piu. noisy, piu. near the race. The musical bands that stud the distance had piu. rhythm, the colors were piu. lively. It was like if the spectators they had need of tuffarsi in this joyful ritual for scrollarsi the back fear, at least for some hour and perhaps, chissa., for the months to come. While the miles succeeded festose. Here the Brooklyn Academy of Music that marks l.ottavo mile, the multiethnic sequence of Bedford Avenue, the fascination post-modern of the industrial warehouses in the Queens endured after the goal maratona, Hush of the bridge of Queensboro that precedes the roar of the First Avenue. Sara. perche. dress on First Avenue, but the five kilometers from 59ma the road to the Bronx are the beautiful part piu. and incredible of the maratona of NY. In spite of the fatigue it begins to emerge insidiosa, migliaia and migliaia of urlanti voices they literally make you to fly.

Quest.anno pear tree was one maratona various. We have waked up all a lot soon, greeted from one charming day, with a mild sun, without umidita. and one brezzolina refreshing behind every angle. To the departure it was breathed un.atmosfera particular, impalpabile, the knowledge of being part of something of piu. important of the usual maratona. After l.undici of september very little things are of ruotine to New York. A beautiful day of sun even ends for ricordarti the sky without one cloud of that sciagurato mattino of fine summer. But yesterday for before the time dall.attacco to the World Trade Center, the citta. one gathered around to one of its symbolic creatures piu., serpentone the multicolor that incarnates the international nature of the Great Apple and it consecrates it every vital year of the podistico world. I confess that the notes of God Bless America. they have made me to come the skin d.oca on the starting line.  Perhaps you feel yourself nearly drunk, are the sugars that do not arrive piu. to the brain, but the experts call it First Avenue High.. And perhaps you have need of ubriacarti a po. before facing the muro. of 20mo the mile in the Bronx. The spectators become less numerous, scattered l.incitamento piu. and all d.un drawn you become account in that pie six gone to you to hunt. The legs are made heavy, the feet begin to dolorare and making some calculation you notice that still ten kilometers lack! The race snoda for some kilometer through Harlem, but little have want to admire the landscape to that point. The sun is reflected sull.asfalto designing a line d.argento that - punctuated of runners - it pulls straight until Central Park, the promised earth. and the Park waits for to you in its unparalleled beauty, that new shining green and resting at the same time and of the deafening din of the public who takes to you for hand for the last ones yearned for miles. Dressing the orange mesh of the mythical Central Park Track Club I enjoy some incoraggiamneto extra, but c.e. ne and for all and hours of continuation. Slowly slowly I begin to crederci, also quest.anno arrival in bottom...

Two kilometers lack, a kilometer, here Central Park South, the statue of Cristoforo Columbus on the background, the triumphant curve that you filler in the Park for last the five hundred meters. Still a salitina and you can see l.orologio on the d.arrivo line. It does not import if you put us two hours or five, to that point you feel winner. And people deal to you like such, with an incredible and inexhaustible enthusiasm, until all.ultimo meter. Jets the arms to the sky for the photo under to the goal and the sorriso replace the smorfia of the hard work on the ace. Ce l.ho made!. Quest.anno in particular we have gained all and New York has prevailed with we.

#1366.  WHO:  Vincent Trinquesse
SUBJECT:  2001 New York City Marathon
WHAT HE WROTE: "In 1999, I watched. In 2000, I volunteered.  In 2001, I did it.  I remember the best cup of -hot!- Coke I ever had at mile 20 when the pain in my knee (tendonitis) started to drive me crazy! Thanks Stacy (Creamer)!"

#1365.  WHO:  Yves-Marc Courtines (and Larry Thraen)
WHEN: November 1, 2001
WHAT HE SAID: "I was in Chicago last week.  At the time, I was wearing a marathon shirt.  Some guy started to talk to me, and asked me if I run marathons.  I said that I am currently injured, but I belong to a team with many marathon runners.  He said, 'Oh yeah, which team do you belong to?'  I said, 'The Central Park Track Club.'  He said, 'Really!  I am a member of the Central Park Track Club too!'  I said, 'You know, someone on our team ran 2:59:59 at the Chicago Marathon a couple of weeks ago.'  He said, 'But I am that person!'  This world is too small!"

#1364.  WHO:  Stefani Jackenthal
TITLE "Go Hudson"
WHAT SHE WROTE:  They don't need no stinkin' cabs! New York City kayakers prefer to chase wakes from frantic commuter ferries on the Hudson River. And from the river, the fish-eye's view of the scenic skyline can't be beat. Although home storage is not often an option, the concrete jungle has a few havens to store and rent kayaks. The most notable is Manhattan Kayak Company (MKC), owned and operated by Eric Stiller. Based in a barge on the flanks of the Hudson (Pier 63 at 23rd street), MKC offers instruction and guided tours of varying lengths. A popular short tour (1.5 hours) explores the historical USS Intrepid Navel warship-turned-museum. Ultra-paddles (7-9 hours), such as a circumnavigation of Manhattan (28 miles) are also available for strong strokers as is a three-hour weekender to the Statue of Liberty. And, when the pod of a dozen or so sea kayaks reaches the choppy water at Lady Liberty's base, paddlers are awestruck. While they stare upward at her daunting torch and book, fascinated tourists point down to the tiny bobbing kayaks as if looking into an aquarium. Now that's entertainment. For more information on the Manhattan Kayak Company, call (212) 924-1788, or go to www.manhattankayak.com.

#1363.  WHO: Michele Tagliati
WHEN:  October 30, 2001, upon seeing a photo of an Alessandro Del Piero jersey in Venice published on this website
WHAT HE WROTE:  "Del Piero who?  Francesco Totti rules in New York City (and Roma).  See attachments."

Isabella Tagliati

Luca Tagliati

#1362.  WHO:  Paul Stuart-Smith / Roland Soong
SUBJECT:  Serpentine Running Club's Last Friday of the Month 5K series in London (UK)
SUB-TITLE:  How nagging is more effective than coaching

Paul Stuart-Smith, Saturday (September 1): "16:47 - 7th place."

Paul Stuart-Smith, Monday (October 1): "16:34, 2nd overall.  Slowly getting back to full fitness here."
Roland Soong, Tuesday (October 2): "Gotta work up one more spot next time ..."
Paul Stuart-Smith, Tuesday (October 2): "I'm working on it!"

Paul Stuart Smith, Friday (October 26): "First!!! 16:22."

#1361.  WHO:  Adam Bleifeld WHEN:  October 18, 2001 WHAT HE WROTE:  "As you know, I now live in Boston and run up here.  I work for Newsweek magazine as the Boston Ad Sales Manager. In this week's issue (8/22/01 cover date -- ANTHRAX) there is a picture of Tony Ruiz on page 67.  Small world -- eight million people in NYC and someone I know gets pictured in the magazine. Hope all is well with the team. Please say hello for me." COMMENT:  This photo was taken on the morning of September 11, 2001 in the area of the World Trade Center area.  Two days later at our workout, coach Tony Ruiz said, "I was an eyewitness to the second airplane crashing into the World Trade Center.  It was a devastating sight.  After seeing something like that, I must say that running is very low on my list right now.  Nevertheless, I am here today and I just want to run a loop with my friends.  Then I want to go home to my son, who still finds it hard to understand."

#1360.  WHO:  Roland Soong
WHEN:  October 18, 2001
SUBJECT:  Those 192 persons who are delinquent on their club dues on this day
WHAT HE SAID:  "Unfortunately, there is not much that we can threaten them with.  For example, if we say 'Your race results will not be published on the website until you've paid up,' then some people will definitely not pay!"  Ditto for the 'no photographs' threat."

#1359.  WHO:  Richard Shadick, Ph.D., Director of Training, Pace University, Counseling Center
TO WHOM:  NYU Cole Center-Triathlon Club e-list (forwarded by Shula Sarner)
SUBJECT:  Coping with 9/11
WHAT HE WROTE:  "Ann Snoeyenbos thought it might be a good idea to have someone in the field of mental health comment on the effect of experiencing the WTC attack on training might be. As a psychologist, and a triathlete, I think this is a great idea.

Here are a couple of issues to consider. What we all have experienced is a highly traumatic, abnormal yet historic event.  Depending on the level of exposure one has had (e.g., watching it on TV, seeing it in real life, being at ground zero), our minds and bodies will react, for a while.  We may have experienced a whole host of reactions, physically and emotionally, from anxiety, fear, sleeplessness, nightmares, exaggerated startle responses, loss of appetite, sadness, among many other things.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1) Try to get back to a normal routine-first eating and sleeping, and then training. Don't worry about training until your eating and sleeping is normal. Missing some training time is not going to hurt us, after all isn't this the off season?

2) Don't overdo it. While it is adaptive to work out anxiety and fear through exercise, it is important to not over exercise especially since your body is already stressed from the attack and may be prone to injury.

3)  Cut yourself some slack. You are going through an extremely traumatic, historic event and you should not expect to be at 100% during this time.

4) You should be alarmed if symptoms linger or if they get worse. If this is the case, seek professional help.

#1358.  WHO:  Blair Boyer
WHEN:  October 2001
WHAT HE WROTE:  "You should never tell people like me about other's people mileage.  Last weekend, I found out that Alan Ruben covered 34 miles on Saturday and Sunday.  This weekend, for me, 22 miles on Saturday and 13 miles on Sunday for 35 miles total.  Of course, I probably took a couple more hours longer to do this than Alan did." 

#1357.  WHO:  Alan Bautista, Sid Howard, Roland Soong
WHEN:  October 9th, 2001, after the track workout
WHERE:  East River Park
TITLE:  Play in one act

Alan:  Roland, I'll have to ask you for a favor.  Could you post a message on the website to ask whoever took my orange jacket by mistake to return it to me?
Roland: Okay.
Sid:  Oh my, how is that possible?  This kind of thing cannot happen on this team.  Is it one of the new jackets?
Alan:  No, it is an old one.
Sid:  I don't understand who could have taken it.
Alan:  Sid, you are wearing an old jacket.  Is that mine?
Sid:  Hmm, this jacket does feel a bit big on me.  Let me check my bag.  Oh my, my own jacket is in the bag!  So I did take your jacket by mistake!
Alan:  Sid, those pants also look big for you.  Did you take my pants too?
Sid:  Oh my, my pants in the bag too!  So I took your pants too.  I don't know how this could have happened.  I usually leave my pants outside, but this is the only time that I ever put them into the bag.  I must have forgotten, and I picked up the clothes that were lying next to it ...
Alan: Roland, you don't have to post that message now.
Roland:  I won't post a message, but I'll sure write this incident up.
Sid:  I hate to be reading this ...

#1356.  WHO:  James Siegel WHERE:  Central Park, NYC WHEN:  10:47am, October 7th, 2001 PHOTO:  Taken at that very moment WHAT HE SAID: "Yes, you are quite correct --- I was registered to run in the Chicago Marathon today and it is obvious that I won't get to the starting line on time.  By the way, I am also registered to run in the New York City Marathon too, and I won't get to that starting line either. Why do I register for these races that I don't run?  Hmm.  I think it is my mission to give these races a couple of hundred dollars to show my support ..." FOOTNOTE:  Will the Honolulu Marathon be the next race that he won't run in ... ? QUERY:  Yes, this is a free world --- James can choose to enter and not to run those races.  But the big question is, Will he be wearing the race t-shirts?

#1355.  WHO:  Michele Tagliati
WHEN:  September 30, 2001
WHERE:  Central Park bridle path, in the middle of a long marathon training run
WHAT HE SAID:  "It is a sign of the times when people produce GU to share, instead of marijuana to smoke."

COMMENT:  An alternate explanation is that one can never be sure that who is a narc on this club ...

#1354.  WHO:  Peter Gambaccini / Alan Bautista
WHERE:  Runnersworld.com
WHEN:  September 27, 2001

     Dr. Alan Bautista, who races from 200 meters up to 5-K, is an emergency medicine physician in the Bronx who is in Naval Reserve. On September 11, "I was feeling what everyone else was feeling. I need to do something." He ended up going down to the Trade Center in his naval uniform so I could get where I needed to go and wouldn't be questioned."

     "I got a small crew, and they gave us a litter and some ropes and some axes and some fire extinguishers. I said 'okay, we gotta get in there.'  I wasn't even scared." He was actually putting out fires at 7 World Center before he was warned it was about to collapse.

     Bautista made his way to nearby Liberty Plaza, across the street from the now destroyed South Tower of the World Trade Center. "Trauma is kind of my specialty. I had packed a 45-pound medical kit issued to me by the Navy three days before the incident; luckily I had it with me."

     "We found someone in the pile of rubble," notes Bautista." His name was Lenny. I would like to know his last name and who he was. He was in civilian clothes; to my knowledge, he might have been the last civilian pulled out of the wreckage (other than rescuers). They think he might have been from the 70th floor, because the girders around him said 70. I was running back and forth with my pack - I'm training for the Fifth Avenue Mile and I'm trying to get in shape. He had a broken arm, broken leg, and a broken foot and a couple of ribs, but he was alive and talking. We stabilized him, put him in a splint, put in an IV to give him fluids, and put a hard collar on him to protect his neck, and we shipped him."

     "And that was it. We waited for the next one and the next one and they never came. Once I found my usefulness over, I left. There were too many chefs, as it were."

     Bautista the reservist is now on High Alert. "I want to go," he affirms. "I don't want to be stuck on some base in Idaho. I want to be deployed. I want to be where I'm need, where I think I can be of best use. The scary thing is, I'm not scared. I was at the World Trade Center on Day Zero, and now I may be on the other side of the world. They aren't too many people who've had the opportunity to be in both places."

#1353.  WHO:  Peter Gambaccini / Stacy Creamer / Stuart Calderwood / Irene Jackson
WHERE:  RunnersWorld.com
WHEN:  September 26, 2001

Stacy Creamer, winner of this year's Central Park Triathlon and the Race to Home Plate 5-K in the Mets' Shea Stadium, is one of the leading fiction editors in the country. She works at the Putnam Publishing Group, about a mile north of the World Trade Center site.

     "Uncannily, I just got a book, a 600-page manuscript, from a new author of mine who just finished it two weeks ago," she said. "And it opens with a missile attack on the Department of Agriculture in Washington by Osama Bin Laden. I don't think we're going to be able to publish this book."

     At Putnam, she says, "we went through a whole list of jacket art and things we had to change. Some things we've had to postpone."

     Creamer had got a slow heading to work on September 11. She'd paused to vote in the Mayoral Primary to select a successor to Rudolph Giuliani, then she and boyfriend Stuart Calderwood got on the subway headed to her office.

     They soon began encountering switches from express to local trains and other disruptions of service.

     "By now I'm really fuming, because I'm getting to work well past what I thought was an acceptable time," recalls Creamer. "At Christopher Street, they stopped for a long time and made some garbled announcement that I couldn't hear. Stuart said 'I think we should give them a break, they just said two trains crashed at the World Trade Center.'"

     "Then a guy next to us said 'no, two planes crashed.' And even at that moment, I thought two air traffic controllers had sent planes crashing into the Tower," remembers Creamer. "It didn't make sense to me at all."

     "We came up at Christopher Street and one of the towers had already collapsed and the other one was smoking. I never knew from which downtown perspective you can see them or you can't see, but Stuart, who loves the Towers, said 'No, one of them is gone.'"

     Creamer proceeded to work and never left until 4:00 p.m. "My boss thought we should stay. She was more concerned that the streets would be hectic and crazed," explains Creamer, adding "I have a stress fracture, so the prospect of walking 120 blocks wasn't very thrilling. And I felt very safe. Later I talked to people who thought there would be anthrax or more stuff. I figured whoever it was shot their wad. I wasn't concerned."

     Nearly two weeks after the World Trade Center tragedy, she concedes, "sometimes I walk down the street and I still can't believe it. That it didn't happen, I was just having some fantasy."

     For so many New Yorkers like Creamer who escaped physical harm, the September 11 attack still has deep personal resonance. "I love it here so much and I want so much to be part of the rejuvenation and the rebuilding," she affirms. "I have been spending money like mad. I hung the flag from the New York Times in my window, and the 'I Love New York, more than ever' page from the Daily News. I'm more pro-New York than jingoistic."

     Stuart Calderwood had his own perspective on the World Trade Center tragedy when he came to his next workout with the Central Park Track Club. "The disaster made the importance of our team very clear to me in two ways. When I realized what had happened, the first normal thought that I had was there could be people on our team down there," he told his teammates. "And then, coming to this meeting, I realized that our team was the group of people I wanted to see the most, and that I depended on the most right now." Calderwood thanked everyone "who came up to me and made me feel like part of something this good."

     The Sunday after Tuesday's events, CPTC stalwarts met in Central Park, for a kind of a memorial run, reports longtime club member Irene Jackson. "We had about 30 people, and we picked up others along the way. It was really nice. Everybody hugged each other and was glad to see that everybody was alive," said Jackson. While Jackson's club has over 400 members, none were lost on September 11, and the most active members didn't report losing anyone close to them. "We all were commenting that we seemed to have been passed by."

     "I don't know how other people feel, but training for the [New York City] marathon seems like a really frivolous activity right now," submits Jackson. "I can't get my head into it."

#1352.  WHO:  Roland Soong
WHEN:  September 27, 2001
WHAT HE WROTE:  "A couple of people have complimented me about how the website has handled the World Trade Center events.  In my opinion, I deserve no credit when all I did was to try to be very low-keyed.  Although the objective reality was there for all to see, the interpretation of those events is still personal and controversial.  I felt that this website is not the appropriate forum to deal with such issues.

Now, however, a recent event has suggested to me that this running club may not be insulated from what is happening in society at large.  At the last team workout, someone recounted an incident in which one of our teammates said, 'I hope the team doesn't blame me for all this.'  Understand that I (and everyone of you) would regard this person as one of the sweetest persons on this team.  Why would he say that?  He said, 'Because I am of Arab descent.'  I cannot tell you how much it hurts me to hear something  like that.

The four plane crashes were allegedly committed by 19 individuals who died in the process.  There may well be others who acted as leaders and accomplices.  At this time, we can reasonably attribute guilt to a small circle of conspirators.  Neverthess, there is now a mass hysteria directed against entire classes of people (to wit, Arabs, Muslims, Afghans, Sikhs, etc) that number in the billions.  It is not for me to insist on this website that Americans should go out and study up on weighty matters such as the concepts Islam and the sects, the definition of an Arab, contemporary Middle East peace politics, OPEC and oil politics, the Palestine-Israel relationship, the India-Pakistan relationship, Algeria's fight for independence from the French, the Crusades, the history of the involvement of the British Empire, the USSR and the CIA in Afghanistan, the CIA and the Shah of Iran, Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafy and his green book, the Iran-Iraq war, Sadaam Hussein and the Persian Gulf War, the Kurds in Iraq, the concept of terrorism and its historical origins, Edward Said's concept of Orientialism, etc, before they take up positions.  Regardless of how much knowledge we amass, there will never be a consensus on the interpretation of facts.

But I do know that what we say may have an impact in our personal relationships.  Blanket statements and assertions about entire classes of people may turn out to be hurtful to people whom we personally know, respect and would never associate those statements with."

#1351.  WHO:  Toby Tanser
WHEN:  September 24, 2001
SUBJECT: MAC XC 5K, Van Cortlandt Park, NYC
WHAT HE WROTE:  "Well, after last week's episode, where I did not arrive at the race of my destination after a 3-hour drive, I was determined to make the Sunday's race at Van Cortlandt Park.  Why?  Because I needed some speed like a tiger needs his stripes.  So I get up at the required early hour, I take the cross-town bus, and jump on the #2.  Ouch, however a glance at the map and I see I can run across to VCP up somewhere near the top.

At the 149th Street I hear the driver say 'transfer to the #4.' Ah-ha, Houdini pop out the door and I went over to the 4 platform. Already my time schedule is taking a wave to the wild side of the burners . but I know all about MAC meets so I press on unperturbed. The train runs its course and a general look at the map shows me just head East.  Off I go across a golf course, a few accelerations to avoid Percival and his tweeds when I come to a huge fence - the monster is about 12 foot with spikes on the top.  So I run along the fence looking for a break.

There is an old guy who looks like Captain Birdseye dragged through a haystack selling golfballs so I ask him, "Where is Van Cortlandt Park?" The guy just laughs and says 'Far, far away.'  I ask him if I can get round the fence and his answer is simply unacceptable, "No!" - I run along the fence till frustration turns me into a crack unit commando man.  I scale the fence, get Jesus spikes in my hands and throw myself over the other side. I am now in the bush, and we are talking thick, thick growth. It was an overgrown jungle worse than any Rambo movie, but as luck would have it I can hear cars. Thinking it must be Broadway, I set off with a skip in my foot and spider webs broken in my hands. The thorns tear at my flesh and clothes, I get stung more times than a beekeeper with a pot of honey on his head in the hive of all hives.

Finally I get through to the edge of the forest . and there is a 25-foot drop wall down to a highway. I have had enough, I'm risking all - I have been in the bush lost for 20-minutes and the other side of the highway looks like Van Cortlandt Park!

I shimmy down the wall dropping onto knees that have no give, wow it still hurts thinking about it, then dance like a dodging bullet across the busy highway to ..  another Golf Course! I cannot believe it, I do the same fence scouting, and get the same result.  Another climbing job - only this time I get stuck in the ivy on the way down.  I am very nearly upended. By this stage, I would give up if only I could, but I am in the middle of who knows where, and it is still conceivable that I can make the race.  I look with the head of an owl, and all I can see is greenery, this is what country life must be like.  On the new fairway, and this must have been a 56 hole course,