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WEEK OF MARCH 25, 2003 - MARCH
31, 2003
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SIX NATIONS [3/31/2003]
Complaint Department: "England just beat Ireland convincingly
by 42-6 to win the Six Nations tournament, but I didn't see
any mention on your website. You wouldn't be prejudiced
against England, would you?"
Answer: "Prejudiced? Moi? Is the Pope
Catholic? But England winning Six Nations is just like
... let us think of an analogy ... ah, just like being the winning
team at the Central Park Track Club Relays! A 'championship'
is meaningless unless you face up to the All-Blacks marching
up to you and doing the haka war dance. If you
beat them, you may then claim to be the true champions ... P.S.
Never seen the haka? Here are a few downloadable
AVI/MPG film clips.
By the way, Scott Willett can do a mean haka ..."
"We are the All Blacks,
of the New Zealand people.
Here we are to face you.
We will do you the honor of playing to the limits
that our hearts and sinews impose upon us.
We will be very hard to beat.
Whiti te ra! Hi!"
From Jerome O'Shaughnessy:
OK, this time you got me, you have now brought
that finest of games, Rugby Union to the
web site and I feel I must respond to the write up.
First and foremost thank you for acknowledging
'the great game' and the Six nations rugby
championship which drew to a close in Dublin last Sunday
with England defeating Ireland. I do however have a complaint
about your response to the original complaint...are
you biased against the English...
Your response was most interesting especially
the following statement... "But
England winning Six Nations is just like ... let us think of
an analogy ... ah, just like being the
winning team at the Central Park Track
Club Relays!" Not so, it is
true England have won for the last two years but they by
no means dominate the championships like you
suggest. Indeed, had they lost to Ireland
on Sunday, Ireland would have won the Championship because,
like England, going into Sundays match Ireland were unbeaten.
The question now is, are you biased in favour
of the English?
The other comment I found interesting was...
A 'championship' is meaningless unless you face
up to the All-Blacks marching up to you
and doing the haka war dance. If you beat them, you may
then claim to be the true champions... The
6 Nations is exactly that, a tournament between 6 countries,
a European Northern Hemisphere tournament.
It does not exclude the All Blacks for any other reason than
geographical. Of course in October /November this year
the Rugby World Cup will be contested in Australia where
England, Ireland, New Zealand and all other Rugby playing nations
who qualified will be represented and will play
each other. Your disparaging comment particularly
surprises me given that your own 'World series'
is nothing more than a National tournament given a grandiose
title which it neither warrants nor deserves.
The words glass houses and stones come
to mind.
Our comments: Good, we finally found one
person who is passionately interested in rugby, the sport of real
men ...
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SELECTION BIASES [3/31/2003]
Two days ago, we told you that we had just assembled a new photo
collage (see journal entry of 3/29/2003 further down this page).
How did we pick those particular photos? Let us tell you
how we did it. The previous collage was made more than
a year ago, so we looked at the photos that we took since.
In particular, we started from the most recent photo album,
selected the ones with good quality and we kept working backwards
until we reach our quota of 20 individual photos.
We might say therefore that the process was random, but that
would be an obvious lie. There are some obvious selection
biases. First of all, the twenty people are split 50/50
by gender. Since the club has more males than females, this
obviously reflects the preference of the (male) selector.
Secondly, among these 20 people, 17 have run track races but
only 13 have run road races. Since the club has more roadies
than trackies, this does not reflect the preference of the (roadie)
selector but it does reflect that our photographers took
more photos at track meets recently than on the road.
Thirdly, all 20 people are seen wearing Central Park Track Club
uniforms of some sort. This may reflect the bias of the
selector against people who wear white long-sleeved shirts,
but then the photographers always have trouble spotting her.
Of course, we can go on forever with this (where is the geriatric
set? is there too much snow in the background? are
there too many relay batons? etc). But you are probably
every bit as good as we are ...
On Sunday I subject myself to my yearly torture.
I ran the Arakawa Shimin Marathon. The whole thing, start to
finish. OK, I walked at 35k but only because they were giving
out sherbet and I did not want to spill mine. The course is
like Rotterdam, flat, no wind and at a pleasant time of the
year. So no excuses not to finish and finish well.
The fact that the winner finishes in a not so
fast 2:30 does not detract from the enjoyment of 17,000 other
runners some of whom finish in 3:04:15 and others who come in
just under the 7:00 limit. This is really a race for locals
a "citizen's marathon". I did so well up until about
33 k (1k=4:20, 4 :03, 4:04, 4:09, 4:10, blah blah blah to 33k
and a 4:31! then a 4:40 help I am slowing down, a 5:13 I am
doomed then pretty much 5:00s until the end). I really
tried the 10-10-10 method and the first 10-10 was fine, negative
splits. Just the last 10 kind of fell apart. Any answers?
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NYRR 8000 NEWS [3/31/2003]
From Mary Wittenberg (NYRR): "First, we hope to
see lots of you out running and cheering next Saturday, April
5 during out NYRR 8000 featuring the USA Men's 8K championships.
Allowing the Club Team runners to run with the USA Men's Championships
contenders, was one of the primary reasons we decided to run
all the men together this year. Wanted to call to your attention
an opportunity your team members may be interested in - Meb
Keflezighi and Tim Broe will be conducting a free
clinic in our building on next Thursday night April 3, from
6-7 p.m. See our home page and then the NYRR 8000 site for more
info (note space is limited so arrive early)."
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NYRR JOB OPENING [3/31/2003]
As of today, a full time position selling merchandise in the
Running Gallery is available and hopefully filled quickly.
Hours are 12-8 Monday-Friday. $9 an hour. Anyone
interested, please contact Beth Creighton at bethc@nyrrc.org
with resume and statement of interest.
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USATF NATIONAL MASTERS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
WRAP-UP REPORT [3/30/2003]
In our preliminary report early in the afternoon, we reported
two items:
Frank Handelman won the M55-59 race
in a time of 2:13.87 with splits of 32.99, 32.90, 33.28, 34.70.
Three weeks ago, when he won the MAC 800m title in 2:14:40,
he said, "This was my best race since turning 40.
It is true that I ran 2:13 when I was 47, but it was not as
pleasing as this one." Well, it looks like he has
gotten an even better one.
Question: If the results are not posted yet, where does
Frank's time and splits come from?
Answer: Blackberry!
One week ago at the Front Runners' Meet, our men got the world
best time of 8:16.7 for the 4x800m M30-39 relay. On Saturday,
a team from the Running Company in Princeton shaved that time
down by less than a second to 8:16.95. Our team was not
there at this meet, so it will be the proverbial "Wait
'til next year" for us.
The full results have now been posted, so we know
a few more things.
Our 4x400m women's relay team of Catherine
Stone-Borkowski, Stacy Creamer, Sylvie Kimché
and Darlene Miloski now owns the American/world W35-39
record at 4:38.92. Our team consisted of one W55-59, two
W40-44 and one W35-39, so that the team classification is the
age of the youngest runner. According to National Masters
News, the previous record was a very soft 6:21.80.
Our 4x400m men's relay team of Chris Potter, John
Affleck, Frank Handelman and Paul Groce now
owns the American M35-39 record at 3:50.72. National Masters
News does not even have a listing for any previous record.
The overall medal count is as follows:
Three golds: Catherine Stone-Borkowski 800m, Frank
Handelman 800m, Sylvie Kimché mile
Six silvers: Darlene Miloski 800m, Sylvie Kimché
800m, Catherine Stone-Borkowski mile, Darlene Miloski
mile, Sid Howard mile, Stacy Creamer 3000m
Three bronzes: Sid Howard 800m, Ana Echeverri
mile, Ana Echeverri 3000m, Mary Diver 3000m
There were a few lifetime and season bests.
The most remarkable ones are Jerome O'Shaughnessy bringing
his mile time by 8 seconds to 5:24.25 and Darlene Miloski
bringing her mile time by 9 seconds to 5:34.59.
Stacy Creamer's highlight moment: "The
most thrilling moment of the weekend was definitely Frank
Handelman's big move in the third lap of his 800. Wow!"
This has been a long indoor season with many noteworthy
accomplishments. Although we would like to say that this
wraps up our season, this is not true because the most important
meet of the season will take place on Tuesday --- the world-famous
Central Park Track Club Relays!
Top row: Amerigo Rossi, Zeb Nelessen, Clinton
Bell, Armando Oliveira, Naomi Reynolds, Bill Haskins, Alayne Adams,
Stacy Creamer, Catherine Stone-Borkowski, Alan Ruben
Bottom row: Andrea Ostrowski, Jessica Reifer, Ken Shatzer, Margaret
Angell, Chris Potter, Lee Shearer, Victor Osayi, Isaya Okwiya, Laura
Lee Kozusko, Devon Martin
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20th ANNIVERSARY
SLIDE SHOW [3/29/2003] In 1992, when we held the
20th anniversay party, we had a slide show that was assembled
from photographs contributed by various team members.
Today, this is still a source of bitterness since some of the
borrowed photographs have not been returned to their owners
yet. In any case, Noel Comess has kindly converted
all the slides into computer-reader format for your memories.
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INTRASQUAD RELAY [3/28/2003]
Spring is here, spring is here, life is skittles and life
is beer ... Yes, as our runners who enjoyed the pleasant
temperature outside last night (or endured the not-so-pleasant
temperature inside on Tuesday) can attest, spring is –
finally! – here. That means it's only a matter of
time before we move back outside to the 6th Street track (first
we'll make sure Mother Nature is serious about this new weather).
With only a few workouts left indoors, then, it's time for the
ever-popular Central Park Track Club Intra-Squad Relay!
For our new members (and those who have blocked out memories
of last year's race), this is our annual event in which the
track runners and road runners get to compete together.
It's pretty simple. We all gather next Tuesday (April
1) at 7:00 pm. Members are randomly distributed
into teams of five with descriptive names like "Team A"
or "Team 1." The teams organize themselves however
they see fit, and then run a 200m-400m-800m-1200m-1600m relay.
Team members and spectators cheer them on. A great time
is had by all. Check out some photos of last
year's relay to see for yourself.
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PRAGUE SPRING WATER [3/28/2003]
Stuart Alexander adds some more thoughts on the Prague
Marathon: "It was not a cold day. At the first
water stop I was handed a cup of brown liquid. Conscious
of the Czech reputation for fine brewing, I anticipated a delightful
sports drink concocted from local hops. I took a healthy
mouthful and nearly gagged, spitting most of it on the ground.
It was ordinary hot tea! Afterward I stuck with the voda,
and that is not a misspelling of vodka."
The word vodka is, in fact, derived from the word voda,
Russian (and Czech, we suppose) for water. In much the
same way, whiskey derives from the Gaelic uisge beatha,
meaning "water of life" (the French schnapps known
as eau de vie has the same meaning). This may be
why we often drink some of these beverages as if they were water.
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THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT REPORT
[3/27/2003] Finally, a much warmer day without a cloud
in the skies. This workout was enough to draw 51 people
out. By comparison, Laura Lee Kozusko reported
a count of 15 for last week's rainy workout. She also
reported that people were running a lot faster than they ought
to last week, because everyone wanted to get out of the rain
as quickly as possible.
Tonight's workout was not designed for the numerically challenged.
Going out involved running lampost pickups of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
4, 3, 2, 1 with equal recovery. Coming back involved running
lamppost pickups of 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 with 1/2 recovery.
The first challenge was not even numerical in nature, because
it was observed that every pickup seemed to be uphill.
The first major numerical challenge cam at the 102nd Street
transverese. So there you are, counting from one up according
to the lampposts on the right hand side of West Drive going
up north. When you make that right turn into the transverse,
you suddenly realize ... all the lampposts are on the left hand
side. So you are either going to have one very long one-lamppost
pickup or one very long one-lamppost recover. Or you can
be a switch hitter and start counting on the left instead.
And you will not have Paul Bendich to help you on this
night.
Buried in this road running workout report is an item that we
would like to put to a vote --- Should we carry bike race results
on this website? Case in point: The Columbia
University Grant's Tomb Criterium this past weekend,
with Paul Carbonara and Alison Rosenthal (can
this be true?). So, please speak your piece or forever
hold your peace.
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STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN [3/26/2003]
Jonathan Cane: "This weekend I took my insanity
to new heights (pun intended) by doing a three hour stair climb
race in San Diego. The
race was held in a 32 story building - we ran up and took the
elevator down. I
came in 3rd place with 25 trips for a total of 800
flights. The winner
set the new course record and completed 28 trips.
In case you're wondering, my handy-dandy altimeter tells
me that I climbed 9060 feet, average HR was 163 bpm,
average time per climb 6:03, average elevator time (including
waiting) 1:09. I
have a vicious case of jet lag, sore legs and blisters on my
hands to show for it."
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MARATHON REVIEW [3/26/2003]
We are being invited to join the New York Flyers to attend this
play on April 2nd. Details are provided in the journal
item at the beginning of this week further down the page.
Alan Ruben has already seen this play, and writes: "I
saw this play last week and was expecting something pretty silly.
In fact it was surprisingly good. Definitely worth nine
bucks of anyone's money."
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USATF
NATIONAL MASTERS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS [3/26/2003]
The meet site has published the final list of 756 entrants.
The following twenty of our people will be there:
John Affleck, 800m/mile
Anthony Baker, 800m
Alston Brown, 200m/400m/800m
Stuart Calderwood, mile/3000m
Stacy Creamer, 800m/mile/3000m
Mary Diver, 800m/mile/3000m
Ana Echeverri, 800m/mile/3000m
Paul Groce, 800m
Frank Handelman, 800m
Bob Holliday, 3000m
Sid Howard, 800m/mile
Sylvie Kimché, 800m/mile
Marty Levine, 800m/mile
Devon Martin, 800m/mile/3000m
Darlene Miloski, 800m/mile
Jerome O'Shaughnessy, mile
Noah Perlis, 200m/400m
Craig Plummer, 400m/800m/mile
Chris Potter, 800m
Catherine Stone-Borkowski, 800m/mile
Technical notes: There are entries, but we expect
to see a few scratches (e.g. not all those women will run all
three races). We would also like to field a men's and
a women's 4x400m relay team, provided that we have enough healthy
bodies around then.
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TUESDAY NIGHT TRACK WORKOUT REPORT
[3/26/2003]
In "times like these," nothing screams
louder than silence. When a once voluble (loudmouthed, even)
source clams up, willing to say nothing of consequence whatsoever
on the burning issue of the day, then we know that all has gone
wrong. But of course we don't want to abuse our post. Lord knows
Paul Bendich may have an opinion (any guesses?), but
this reporter chooses not to offend with directness. Instead,
he will take refuge in his beloved obscurantism, and offer the
following rumination on "issues of consequence." It
may be relevant, but only from the side, from a very acute angle.
Note the myriad subjects that might play the role, surely against
their will, of young Martin below:
"At such times the thought of death , the
thought that sometime, maybe soon, he would be compelled to
surrender and go through what billions and trillions of humans
had gone through before him-this thought of an inevitable death
troubled him but slightly. It gained strength only toward evening,
and with the coming of night would sometimes swell to monstrous
dimensions. The custom of performing executions at dawn seemed
charitable to Martin: may the Lord permit it to happen in the
morning when a man has control over himself-clears his throat,
smiles, then stands straight, spreading his arms."
-V. V. N. "Glory"
Given that the rest of this report feels a bit
"trivial," to use a buzzword that has an entirely
different meaning among pompous mathematicians, we shall lard
it with a bit of "trivia." Look out for the questions,
there's money involved!
The workout started at 8:17. Only 22 people
were present this time, as the season draws to a close. Next
week, according to Coach Ruiz, is the famous intrasquad relay.
Many club triumphs were announced: Margaret Angell "jogged"
to another victory, Fred Trilli ran yet another PR, and
Zebulon Nelessen took second place (in what? a trivia
question. We will provide one (1) dollar for the proper answer.
You may not ask Zeb. Cast a wide net in your thinking).
The workout consisted of 4 1000's, followed
by three 300's. While these were meant to be run at 5K pace,
Joe Tumbarello complained loud and long that Alan
Ruben was doing them far too leisurely. He was still
talking about it on the train ride home. Two-time quality of
life offender James Siegel (another trivia question!
one dollar. No asking the man himself) made his triumphant return
to the B group.
Earlier, it was alleged by Lauren Eckhart
that she has always had blue eyes. Why was she compelled
to say this at that particular moment? Another trivia question,
one dollar.
Finally, as promised, we shall refrain from
mentioning Joseph Kozusko's name in this report.
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LOATHSOME
PEOPLE [3/26/2003] Given our loathsome reputation
for publishing inaccurate information, we were seriously concerned
that we would be voted in to the New York Press' 50 Most Loathsome
People. Alas, this was not to be. Reading through
the winners and their qualifications, it looks like we would
need to sharpen our greed and meanness in order to have any
chance.
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PRAGUE SPRING [3/25/2003]
Stuart Alexander: "I ran in the Prague Half Marathon
March 22nd. It is a pretty flat course along the river
starting on the Charles Bridge. This was my first time
racing a half marathon. Official time was 1:33:04 and
a PR by definition. There was no chip time but it would
have been about 17 seconds faster. Overall place was 440th
and age group 45-49 was 46th. Upon finishing, I immediately
started sneezing like mad and have been sick ever since with
a terrible cold."
Hmmm ... we remember our Czech member Karel Matousek
telling us that this is the race in which people handed out
drinks that were ... hmmm ... real drinks, as in vodka.
A vodka (or two) would have helped to ward off a cold (or two)
...
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VOR DEM GESETZ [3/25/2003]
Speaking of Prague, we know that there is one ubiquitous cultural
icon, whose melancholy portrait is inescapable, adorning T-shirts,
coffee mugs, posters, shopping bags, puppets and above all,
graffiti. We quote the impossible-to-miss style:
Vor dem Gesetz steht ein Türhüter. Zu diesem
Türhüter kommt ein Mann vom Lande und bittet um Eintritt in
das Gesetz. Aber der Türhüter sagt, daß er ihm jetzt den Eintritt
nicht gewähren könne. Der Mann überlegt und fragt dann, ob er
also später werde eintreten dürfen.
«Es ist möglich», sagt der Türhüter, «jetzt
aber nicht.»
Da das Tor zum Gesetz offensteht wie immer und
der Türhüter beiseite tritt, bückt sich der Mann, um durch das
Tor in das Innere zu sehn. Als der Türhüter das merkt, lacht
er und sagt:
«Wenn es dich so lockt, versuche es doch, trotz
meines Verbotes hineinzugehn. Merke aber: Ich bin mächtig. Und
ich bin nur der unterste Türhüter. Von Saal zu Saal stehn aber
Türhüter, einer mächtiger als der andere. Schon den Anblick
des dritten kam nicht einmal ich mehr ertragen.»
Solche Schwierigkeiten hat der Mann vom Lande
nicht erwartet; das Gesetz soll doch jedem und immer zugänglich
sein, denkt er, aber als er jetzt den Türhüter in seinem Pelzmantel
genauer ansieht, seine große Spitznase, den langen, dünnen,
schwarzen tatarischen Bart, entschließt er sich, doch lieber
zu warten, bis er die Erlaubnis zum Eintritt bekommt. Der Türhüter
gibt ihm einen Schemel und läßt ihn seitwärts von der Tür sich
niedersetzen.
Dort sitzt er Tage und Jahre. Er macht viele
Versuche, eingelassen zu werden, und ermüdet den Türhüter durch
seine Bitten.
Now why would we give you an extended quotation
in German here? How many of you can read this? Well,
we do know that there is at least one person amongst us who can
read Kafka
in the original German ...
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NEXT UP [3/25/2003] Last
year, we followed the soccer world up on this website.
This year, we followed the cricket world cup on this website.
You will be happy to hear that those two events will not be
back for a few years. But what next? This is not
an all-sports-all-the-time website, and we will only cover those
sports in which we have domain knowledge. Our number one
sport is soccer, our number two sport is cricket, and our number
three sport is ... God help you! ... rugby league! However,
you will be very happy to learn that the next Rugby League World
Cup will not occur until the year 2005. Meanwhile, if
you beg us long and hard enough, we just might do this year's
Tour de France. What's your best offer ... ?
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THE PLAY'S THE THING [3/25/2003]
Our friends at the New York Flyers sent us the following invitation:
On Wednesday, April 2nd, at 8:00 p.m., there
will be a special showing of the off-Broadway show MARATHON
for the New York Flyers. The play is showing at the
Producers Club, located at 358 West 44th Street between 8th
and 9th Avenues. We would like to invite members of
CPTC to join us. The show runs for 70 minutes and involves
two actors who run on stage throughout the play as two men
training for the New York City Marathon. Their conversation
explores friendship and self-awareness with a surprise twist
at the end. Tickets are being offered to the New York
Flyers and their CPTC friends at a discounted rate of $9.00.
Promotional items from Asics will be given out to the first
40 runners who arrive at the theater. Tickets may be
purchased at the door the evening of the performance. If you
are interested in attending, please send an RSVP as soon as
possible to Fran Obeid, the member at large of the
New York Flyers, at mal@nyflyers.org.
Be sure to indicate the word "MARATHON" in the subject
header of the email.
WEEK OF MARCH 18, 2003 - MARCH
24, 2003
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DUES/VOTES [3/24/2003] We
begin by repeating the standard message: "By now,
the members of the Central Park Track Club all should have received
a mailing containing two forms - one to submit your 2003 dues
payment ($75) and the other to vote in the elections for the
CPTC Executive Board. It will help us enormously if you
adhere to the March 31st, 2003 date for the return of these
forms to Central Park Track Club, c/o Richard Kixmiller,
14 East 96th St, New York, NY 10128. If you have not received
these forms please contact Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com."
If you have not done that yet, we'll tell you that it is worth
finding that letter just to read the candidates' biographies.
We liked Audrey Kingsley's bio so much that we have posted
it on the Famous Sayings page. But we will print here
just so we can make some comments:
"I began running competitively (or so
I thought) in January 1997, but didn't really compete until
I joined CPTC later that year. I now race distances
from the 5K to the marathon, and the running joke is --- no
pun intended --- all at the same speed. I have served
on the Executive Board as the Women's open rep since 1999
and have seen the caliber of the women's team escalate since
then. I am also responsible for maintaining our ever-changing
membership roster, which is no small feat since you all seem
to move more than the average New Yorker. It would be
an honor for me to continue to serve CPTC in both capacities,
as it would give me the opportunity to give to something that
has given so much to me."
Correction #1: Audrey races distances
from the '2 mile' to the marathon all at the same speed, having
completed two indoor two-milers this season. She also
'competes' in the 800m against David Pullman during our
track workout sessions, which she does at a faster speed since
she is really motivated.
Correction #2: The problem has
less to do with the frequency of moving than your belief that
Audrey is supposed to divine whether you have moved to.
PLEASE! Mind reading is not a job requirement for the
membership secretary! You are supposed to let her know!
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YEAR-TO-DATE ROAD WINS [3/24/2003]
This is the list so far:
1. Stacia Schlosser, ERC New Year's Day 5 Miler, Presque
Isle State Park, Erie, PA, January 1
2. Alan Ruben, Frostbite 10M, Central Park, NYC, January
18
3. Margaret Angell, Al Gordon 15K, Central Park, NYC,
February 1
4. Toby Tanser, Thomson's Valentine Twosome Two Miler,
February 9
5. Ana Echeverri, NWFTC Kiss 'M To The Finish 8K, Destin,
FL, February 15
6. Margaret Angell, Snowflake 4M, Central Park, NYC,
February 22
7. Margaret Angell, Brooklyn Half Marathon, Central Park,
NYC, March 8
8. Margaret Angell, NYRR 20M Run, Central Park, NYC,
March 23
9. Catherine Stone-Borkowski, Equinox 20K Championship,
Piscataway, NJ, March 23
In years past, we are actually not a good first-quarter team
(with the exception of the Toby Tanser). Our strength
and depth are at their best when triathlon season comes around.
Two weeks ago at the Thursday workout, we overheard our favorite
triathlete (note: don't even try to guess who that is,
because all triathletes are our favorites!) say: "This
is my first road workout this year. I have not swim this
year either. And I have completely fallen off the wagon
on the cycling bit." Well, just today, we went out
during lunch and saw people in t-shirts eating lunch in the
sidewalk cafes. So this is the time to get back on the
wagon ... and rack up those triathlon wins!
Rules reminder: Road wins refer to wins in races
off running tracks that involve some degree of running.
Therefore, all road and cross-country running races are included.
So too are duathlons, biathlons, triathlons, ironmans, double
ironmans, triple ironmans, cyclocross, adventure races, etc.
Pure bike races are not admissible, neither are rollerblade
races, baseball/softball games, basketball games, etc.
There are no prizes or awards, and the only pleasure is that
we get to type up this list periodically and write some gloating
article. The all-time annual high number is 50 wins in
one year, most of which are by someone named Toby Tanser.
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RUNES [3/24/2003] Several
people have told us some of the splits for the 4x800m relays
do not add up correctly. One person suggested that we
can ask Paul Bendich to check our math. Well, the
problem has less to do with needing a mentally sound professional
mathematician. Our problem requires someone who can decipher
the handwriting on the slips of paper that were handed to us
after the track meet. We didn't think that those chicken
scratch marks were numbers. We brought in our Chinese-language
expert but he swears that it was not any Indo-European/Asian
languages. Any rune readers out there?
But of course we can take the easy way out. We may not
know any rune reader, but we happen to have a professional statistician
on staff. We have asked him to look into the problem,
and he said, "No problem. I can run a splineless
interpolation on those numbers." Hmmm ... we think
this means that he is going to 'cook the books.' See,
we are the 'can-do' guys around here ...
Question: "What is a splineless interpolation?"
Answer: "We were just trying to be cute by combining 'spineless'
with 'spline interpolation.' As to what the latter is,
here is a java demo.
-
OUT OF TOWNER [3/24/2003]
As our membership secretary says, you people move far too often.
Sometimes people move to faraway places, and you would think
that they would forget about them and vice versa. Well,
neither usually happens. On one hand, there is that Chinese
saying, "Once you have been a deep, wide ocean, you can
never be a little puddle of water again." Indeed,
we find our alumni dispersed all over the world still competing
under the Central Park Track Club brand name. Below, we
have a photo of Isaya Okwiya running in CPTC colors at
the Back Bay Snowflake Sprint 5K in Morgantown, West Virginia
last December.
On the other hand, we don't forget about them either.
How else did you think we found Isaya's race result? You
didn't think he would tell us, do you?
-
RUNNING THE SIDEWALKS [3/24/2003]
The organizers of the Washington Marathon canceled the race
last week, but that didn't stop 500 runners from showing up
anyway to run the course on the sidewalks. Co-winners
Paul Rades and Kevin Kozlowki reached the finish
together in 2:55:50, a time that included stops for red lights.
-
LOST AND RECOVERED [3/23/2003]
On Saturday, Stacy Creamer went to the Front Runners
Track Meet owning a world record in the W35-39 4x800m relay
that she set with her teammates in late February.
In this meet, Stacy lost that record when a team of four other
Central Park Track Club runners took that record further down.
But in the time of exactly 14.8 seconds, Stacy's new W40-49
team finished in world record time in that same race.
What an exciting moment it must have been for Stacy's son Kieran
Calderwood!
-
ANOTHER ANOTHER WIN [3/23/2003]
Chalk up another win for Catherine Stone-Borkowski.
On Saturday, she was the anchor leg of the world record 4x800m
W40-49 team. On Sunday, she won the Equinox 20K Championship
in 1:16:53 (6:11 min/mile), which is the opener for the USATF-NJ
road championship series. The next woman was about 1:45
behind. She powered through the first 9 miles in 54:44 and then
pushed through to the finish. We even found some photos
of her in that race.
-
ANOTHER WIN [3/23/2003]
Chalk up another win for Margaret Angell, this time at
the 20 miler in Central Park. 4-0 so far this year, two
training runs and two scoring races.
-
AUSTRALIA RULES [3/23/2003]
The anticlimactic climax came and went as Australia wins the
Cricket World Cup today. Indian captain Sourav Ganguly
will be second-guessed to death by arm-chair cricketers
for his decision to send Australia to bat first on a lively
pitch. The open pair of Adam Gilchrist and
Matthew Hayden brought up almost a century. The captain
Rick Ponting and Damien Martyn went the rest of
the way to bring the total to 359-2, the highest ever in a world
cup final. The latter overs were especially rough on the
Indians --- Ponting reached 50 in 64 balls and his next 90 runs
came in only 57 balls. In reply, India got off to a bad
start when their man-of-the-tournament Sachin Tendulkar
was dismissed for only four runs. In total, India was
all out for 234 runs. Not a bad total, but it was a large
losing margin.
We called this an 'anticlimactic climax' because the atmosphere
was listless. It is true that the large Indian population
showed up to watch this match at Johannesburg's Wanderers grounds,
and there were chants of 'Australia, Australia, Australia ...
oi, oi, oi.' But outside the grounds, there were also
protest chants of 'Howard is a coward' in reference to John
Howard's decision to send Australian troops to Iraq, in
spite of the fact that the Australia people's sentiments were
against that.
This type of ambivalence is in fact embodied in the definition
of the Australian person. Most commonly, the colloquial
term for Australians is 'diggers.' Where did that come
from? Our well-thumbed copy of the Dictionary of Australian
Colloquialisms has five definitions:
(1) An Australian gold-miner of the 1850s and later. That
is to say, they 'dig' for gold.
(2) An Australian soldier in World War I, especially an infantry
man; an Australian soldier in any later war.
(3) A private soldier, as distinct from one with any rank.
(4) An Australian who is not a soldier: used as a mode of address
like 'mate'. Example: "What's up, digger?"
(5) Anyone thought of as showing typically Australian characteristics.
What does that mean? What are the typically Australian
characteristics? The dictionary offers this: "The
Diggers: anti-English, anti-establishment, anti-everything except
amber fluid." We must be looking at a mirror ...
-
FRONT RUNNERS TRACK MEET WRAP-UP REPORT
[3/23/2003] We have finished posting the results and the
photos, and now
we get to write the report. This was the last local indoor
meet of the season, where many unfinished businesses were taken
care of. Going into this meet, we had four major individual/team
goals and we were successful in all of them. Below, we
have the individual reports.
W55-59 800m In this event, Sylvie Kimché
ran 2:37.5 to establish the new American record. She just
fell short of the world record of 2:36.75, which means that
Sylvie's business is still not finished. She has one more
shot at the National Masters Indoor Championships next week.
This has been a long long journey for Sylvie. In her youth,
she was a competitive skier. Running came to her much
later in life. In her first years as a masters runner,
she was dominant in the local scene with a range that goes from
track sprints to the marathon. Then came the years when
she had physical problems and gave up running. Instead,
she moved to Columbus, Ohio and took up golf. In the last
couple of years, she was able to run a bit and then some more
and then some more even faster. In 2002, she was the NYRR
W55-59 Runner of the Year, wining 15 out of 16 local road races
(note: the lone loss was to an out-of-town runner). This
indoor season was her first serious comeback on the track.
After finding that she could run 2:41 for 800m at the MAC Indoor
Championships, she made a dedicated effort to go for the record
this time. Yes, happiness can come again and again in
our lives ...
W35-39 4x800m relay At the last Thursday Night
At The Races meet in February, 2003, the team of Kim Mannen,
Darlene Miloski, Sue Pearsall and Stacy Creamer
set the world best time of 10:23.3. Today's meet was
the last chance to improve on that record. For this race,
Stacy Creamer joined the W40-49 team and Devon Martin
took her place as the anchor leg runner.
On the first leg, Kim Mannen followed
the lead of teammate Jessica Reifer and came through
with a personal best of 2:22. That time would move her
up to 8th all-time best in club history. More importantly,
it was a 5 second improvement in time over that previous race.
On the second leg last time, Darlene Miloski
surprised us with a 5 second improvement on her season best.
In this race, Darlene once again had an improvement of ... 5
seconds to 2:29. Question: Can we find yet another
race for her? But we wouldn't be surprised anymore, would
we?
On the third leg, Sue Pearsall held the
same 2:43 pace as in the previous race.
When Devon Martin took over, there was
already 10 seconds on hand. In the previous race, Devon
was held out for the distance medley relay team at the USATF
National Indoor Championships. Today, Devon improved on
Stacy's time by 12 seconds by running 2:26. There was
no suspense in this race, except whether they may come under
10 minutes. Their final time was 10:01.9, a new world
best.
W40-39 4x800m relay Our original
plan included only two 35-39 teams. At the MAC Indoor Championships,
Catherine Stone-Borkowski indicated to us that she wanted
to join our club. Since she had won the 800m race easily
in 2:21, this led to look us at the possibility of forming a W40-49
team for record purposes. The American/world record was
10:26.5 or 2:37 per person. For our previous personnel,
this was not impossible but we would have to twist a few arms
for a quixotic project. With the arrival of a 2:21 runner,
this became quite feasible.
On the first leg, we had a total rookie in Alayne
Adams, who has no previous 800m/mile times in her long illustrious
career. But if she runs 17:XX for 5,000m road races, how
slow can she be? She did have a 400m time of 70.5 at the
2003 Millrose Games. On that basis, we had projected that
she would run in the low 2:30's. But we were wrong!
That 400m time was run when she was running a 101.5 degree fever,
after which she came down with strep throat and bronchitis.
Today, Alayne's time was 2:28.08, nearly ready to move into
the top 10 best in our history!
On the second leg, Stacy Creamer transferred
from the W35-39 team (note: an older runner can run for a younger
team, which is classified according to the age of its youngest
runner). But it was a risky affair today, as she pulled
a calf muscle more than a week ago. At the Tuesday practice,
she was unable to do the baton passes. Her preparation
for this race consisted of NOT running at all for the last four
days. She was just going to warm up and see how she felt,
with Sylvie Kimché ready to step in if needed.
She was good enough to go, and her time of 2:37 today was even
one second faster than that previous race.
On the third leg, Sue Krogstad-Hill had
one of those races after which she asked us to destroy her splits.
Unfortunately for her, we won't do that. Not because of
any journalistic ethics, but because somewhere we have to take
revenge for the many years that she tortured us on the road
and track while wearing the colors of that other team in town.
Kidding aside (because we really like her), her time was 2:44
at the MAC Indoor Championships so her 2:50 today was somehow
slower. But not that slow.
The average pace for the first three legs was 2:39, slower than
the 2:37 needed. If we had Sylvie Kimché on the
anchor leg, we would probably fall seconds short. We don't
know what Yumi Ogita or Kellie Quinones might
have done instead. But no matter, for on this day we had
the MAC champion to run the anchor leg. Catherine Stone-Borkowski
ran steady splits of 33.06. 34.49, 36.90 and 36.17 for 2:20.62,
which puts her in 6th all-time best 800m in club history in
her first ever race. The final time for the team was 10:16.7,
a new world best.
We believe that the business for this team is
not finished yet. The first three legs can each be substantially
faster and, if they stay together, they will probably break
10 minutes next year.
M35-39 4x800m relay When our men
set the American record at the last Thursday Night At The Races
meet, they were probably aghast afterwards when they read their
splits. 56 seconds for the first half and 68 seconds for
the second half is no way to run a race. All of them knew
that they could pace themselves better. Today, they went
in with the same line-up. Things also got a bit interesting
because there was some competition from one other team.
On the first leg, Paul Groce went out
in 57 and came back in 63 for 2:00, which was a 3 second improvement
over his previous race. Actually, he looked a lot more
smoother too. The competition was nowhere in sight.
On the second leg, Chris Potter went
out in 61 and came back in 63 for 2:04, which was a 4 second
improvement over his previous race. The competition still
has not appeared yet.
On the third leg, Glen Carnes went out
in 66 and came back in 63 for 2:10, which was a 1 second improvement
over his previous race. Also, this was the first leg in
which anyone ran negative splits. This was motivated by
the runner on the other team making up a huge gap although once
he caught up, he could not pull away. The negative split
was achieved by Glen through battling back and forth with the
other runner.
On the fourth leg, Armando Oliveira stayed
right behind the other runner for two laps. At 500m, he
probed by making a move to pass. When there was no response,
he put in a sustained drive in the last 300m. As seen
in this photo,
the margin of victory was in fact quite large. Armando's
splits were 62 going out and 60 coming back for 2:02, which
was a 4 second improvement over his previous race. The
final time was 8:17.6, a new American record, which was an 11
second improvement. It was a happy way to close the books
for the year.
Other events There were many other
events today. Our best performances came in the 49.0 400m
and 22.4 200m by Evan Zeisel, which was characterized as
"When I see Evan run, it just inspires me ..."
Meanwhile, this was the first time that we met the Jessica
Reifer in person. Although we went to the MAC Indoor
Championships with the hope of seeing her, she was busy that weekend
being a soccer tournament MVP elsewhere. Prior to seeing
her race, we had received contradictory reviews. One version
says that she is an absolute novice in running, but with unbounded
enthusiasm (such as doing hurdles after the workout). The
other version says that she ran a 5:15 mile as a teenager in high
school. What one is right? Today, in the 400m race,
she was about 5 meters behind after 200m, but she had the courage
to fight her way back on the third turn to go even up and when
she got a slight lead at the last turn, she looked confident that
nobody would ever run her down. Her time of 1:00.5 puts
her into third all-time best in club history. Jessica is
important to this website because she says, "My mom reads
the website every day." Jessica also begs us not to
post any photos of her, but then her mom would be quite disappointed,
wouldn't she?
-
BRAZILIAN
FOOTBALL FANS [3/22/2003] We get these occasional
rude comments, "What do you know about other sports?
How dare you write about the World Cup soccer!?"
Well, in that specific case, the fact was that we were able
to obtain substantial help on a daily basis from a self-anointed
expert with a record of publication (see link). In fact,
we know quite a few self-anointed experts in various other areas
too. A partial list of the credentials of our panel of
experts can be found here.
-
ROOM FOR RENT [3/21/2003]
Jesse Lansner has a room for rent in his new apartment,
available April 1. The room is 12' x 9' with a large closet
in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn
(Ocean Parkway and Caton Avenue). The apartment is fully
furnished, and has a dishwasher, washer/dryer, terrace, large
living room, lots of light and central air conditioning.
It's 3 blocks from Prospect Park (Great for running & cycling!)
and 2 blocks from the F Train (Ft. Hamilton Parkway station).
10 minutes to Park Slope, 30 minutes to downtown, 45 minutes
to midtown. The rent is $850/month (includes gas and electric).
Contact Jesse Lansner at lansnerj@yahoo.com.
-
NATIONAL
MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRANTS [3/21/2003] There
are still more than four days before the Boston meet and registration
closes on 3/24. As of 3/20, there are 712 entrants, including
these 16 Central Park Track Club members: John Affleck, Anthony
Baker, Stuart Calderwood, Stacy Creamer, Mary Diver, Ana Echeverri,
Paul Groce, Frank Handelman, Robert Holliday, Sid Howard, Sylvie
Kimché, Marty Levine, Devon Martin, Craig Plummer, Noah
Perlis and Catherine Stone-Borkowski.
-
WASHINGTON
DC MARATHON CANCELLED [3/21/2003] Due to security
concerns during a time of war, this Sunday's race has been cancelled.
The entry fee ($65 to $95) will not be refunded and will be
deferred to next year's race instead. 6,801 people had
entered this race. This race is staged by a private company,
H20 Entertainment and we will observe that these folks were
one of the few national races that sent this website constant
requests for publicity. Great selling job, lousy
customer service.
As a friendly gesture, the Marine Corp Marathon (October 26,
2003, Washington DC) will guarantee entry to 1,000 runners registered
for the Washington DC Marathon. Nobody is happy, for many
reasons --- the entry fees, the booked airplane tickets and
hotels for out-of-towners, the expenses already incurred by
the operator, the weeks of training without yielding any result,
the apparent victory of terrorism over normality, elite runners
losing their paychecks, etc.
Update message: "Not only did they cancel it without
consulting any government agencies, they have shut down their
website (washingtondcmarathon.com). However, web hunters
have found it relocated to www.miami-marathon.com
instead. Meanwhile, their only listed phone number plays
a recorded message. Some runners might want to run this
marathon next year, but many others can't or simply wouldn't
want to. If road race events are now a business, those
businesses must accept the risks associated with their enterprise,
including the advance 'costs.' They should also accept
the consequences of their own business decisions."
Could this happen elsewhere? We suspect that it could
have been handled better. Much better, in fact.
Our hometown New York City Marathon is a non-profit organization
which has built a race that is an integral part of the city,
a focal point of civic pride and a proven source of revenue
from the runners and tourists. If there were security
issues, we are sure that the city government will do everything
possible to allay those concerns. If the security issues
were insurmountable, we are sure that all the runners and visitors
will be treated gracefully and fairly. Short-term losses
are not the issue because the long-term reputation of this city
and its race is what matters. Boston Marathon is just
like the New York City Marathon. The Boston Marathon is
Boston, and they would never let this happen. In the case
of London and Chicago, those races have big sponsors (Flora
and LaSalle Bank) and there is no way that those sponsors would
have permitted the disgraceful actions that are being seen now
in Washington DC. The Washington DC Marathon is a for-profit
commercial enterprise, with no roots in the community.
In time, they could have become more involved in the community
but they might have burnt the bridges this time. Last
year, in the inaugural race, H20 Entertainment scheduled the
race on Palm Sunday, drew protests from local religious leaders
but steamrolled ahead anyway. As a commercial enterprise,
their only calculation is the bottom line and everything else
be damned. So is there anyone who still thinks totally
de-regulated free enterprise capitalism is the way to go?
Mind you, H20 will probably slink away but another fly-by-night
operator will come into town when this blows over ...
P.S. We read through the list of tri-state entries and
we didn't anyone from our team.
Update message: "I think that the no refund policy
is outrageous. I don't know how the entry fees were paid, but
if anyone used a credit card, they should dispute the charge
and it should be refunded. Unless the fine print in the entry
specifically mentions that there are no refunds for a cancelled
race, then the merchant is obligated to refund the money, and
even if they don't, the credit card company MUST give the cardholder
a credit on his bill."
There are apparently two paths to obtain a refund. First,
through the credit card company for an undelivered service.
Second, through active.com which processed the entry.
Please note that the registration page on the re-located www.miami-marathon.com
says, "Registrations are non-refundable, non-transferable
and non-deferrable with no exceptions." On the printed
registration form, there is a fine print clause: "H20 Entertainment
Group, Inc. reserves the right to reject any entry, and further
reserves the right to change the details of the Marathon without
prior notice. I understand that my entry fee is nonrefundable
and my registration is nontransferrable." However,
it is difficult to construe that this includes the cancellation
of the entire event without refund --- just imagine that you
sign a contract to purchase an automobile and the seller decides
that they can't deliver your car now but they will hold on to
your payment and deliver some other car to you next year; furthermore,
they did it to all their customers.
-
MASTERS TRACK RECORDS [3/20/2003]
With respect to our listing of masters world track records,
let us explain our sources of information. Where would
anyone start? Go to USATF.org,
the official organization for track & field in the USA.
Among the various menu items on the home page, one directed
us to Masters.
On the menu items on that page, we see Records.
Unfortunately, there are no entries for indoor or outdoor track
& field. The menu directs us to a possible alternate
(but unofficial) source: the venerable National
Masters News. That site contains pages linked
to the USA
outdoor Records (as of 11/2001), the USA
indoor records (as of 11/2001), world
indoor records (as of 9/15/2002) and American/world
indoor relay records (as of 12/2002). Are these
records up to date? Obviously not, as some of them are
more than a year old. Are these records accurate?
We don't know unless we want to make it our job. And it
isn't our job.
Is there a more up-to-date and accurate source out there?
We looked. The premier US masters website Masterstrack.com
leads us right back to National Masters News adding the
qualifier '(Note: Some superior elite marks are not listed).'
Thanks, guys. Another potential source is the World
Masters Athletics site. There, the indoor records
are listed as of September 24, 2002. However, those items
that we were interested in appear to be the same as the National
Masters News records. In a bit of sniping, Masterstrack.com
describes WMA as 'beset by problems.' If you have
the stomach to follow a detailed dismemberment of the WMA world
best lists, you can read this blog.
If anyone out there knows of a better source, please let us
know. If you think that our reports are erroneous, please
let us know so that we can verify and correct them. More
importantly, please let the people at the principal resources
(USATF, National Masters News, MastersTrack.com, World Masters
Athletics) know too so that the correct information is shared
by everyone. Furthermore, the current situation is that
USATF does not collect and maintain such information sytematically,
leaving it up to ad hoc efforts by volunteers.
If you believe such information is valuable, please urge the
USATF to get its act together.
-
FINALLY, A BIKE DATE [3/20/2003]
Hurrah! After weeks of snow, cold and rain, we have a
bike training date for this Saturday. From Ross Galitsky
and Olivier Baillet: "Weather permitting (there
might be some rain), we will be riding on Saturday (10am, Engineer's
Gate at 5th Avenue and 90th Street). As for some of us it will
be the first or second time on the bike outside in months, we
will content ourselves with going to Nyack the usual and easy
way (maybe through Riverroad if it's dry)."
-
THURSDAY NIGHT ROAD WORKOUT NON-REPORT
[3/20/2003] Finally, we got an evening without snow on
the ground. Unfortunately, it was raining buckets outside.
We tried our best not to go out to the workout, and we succeeded.
Therefore, there is nothing from the regular workout reporter.
But if some of you fools would care to inform us about who you
and the other fools are, just let us know ...
-
RELAY TEAM ROSTERS [3/20/2003]
At the Front Runners' Meet on Saturday, three Central Park Track
Club relay teams will be going after American/world records
in the 4x800m relay event. The rosters are:
M35-39: Paul Groce to Chris Potter to Glen
Carnes to Armando Oliveira
W35-39: Kim Mannen to Darlene Miloski to
Sue Pearsall to Devon Martin
W40-49: Alayne Adams to Stacy Creamer to
Sue Krogstad-Hill to Catherine Stone
The M35-39 team has the identical line-up as their American
record run on February 27th. This time, they will have
the benefit of that previous experience, which was their first
time together as a team. Their target is their own time
of 8:28.3, or 2:07 per person. Please, fellas, hold back
on your youthful exuberance on the first lap!
The W35-39 team has one change in the line-up in their American/world
record run on February 27th. They lose Stacy Creamer
(2:38.3) and gain Devon Martin. Last time, Devon
was part of the open women's distance medley relay team at the
USATF National Indoor Championships that weekend. Devon
has no 800m time this season, but she has two miles: 5:12.6
and 5:16.9, which translated to ~2:36 and ~2:38 at the halfway
mark of those races. So the prospects for breaking the
record are good.
The W40-49 has just been assembled this week. The new
name to the team here is Catherine Stone, who has just
joined the Central Park Track Club. Her presence enabled
this team to be formed to go after the American/world record
of 10:26.5, which is 2:36 per person.
What are the prospects? We can look
at their individual records this season.
First, Alayne Adams does not have an
800m time in her Central Park Track Club career. She does
not have a mile time, either. She was drafted (dragged?)
into the Millrose Games, where she ran a 70.2 400m relay leg
on the small track in Madison Square Garden. She was a
nominee for the 2002 NYRR W40-44 award. When Devon
Martin asked our club historian about her times while trying
to form the Millrose Games teams, the response was: "No
known track times. What is known that she runs those 5x800m
track intervals under 2:40 while carrying on a conversation."
Our projected time for her is in the low 2:30's.
Second, Stacy Creamer was part of the
W35-39 team last time, with a time of 2:38.3. Under USATF
rules, an older runner is permitted to be part of a younger
relay team which is classified according to the age of the youngest
runner. Now she gets to move back to her own age group.
Third, Sue Krogstad-Hill ran 2:44.22
at the MAC Indoor Championships two weeks ago. We expect
her to get stronger over the season.
Fourth, Catherine Stone's time at the
MAC Indoor Championships was 2:21.10, which was the winning
time for the masters division by a wide margin. She also
won the 1500m easily in that same meet. Catherine is a
well-known local racing figure, and was also a nominee for the
2002 NYRR W40-44 award. Catherine will be at the National
Masters Championships next weekend, where she will run the individual
800m and mile. She has a listed time of 4:55.97 for the
mile, compared against the American record of
4:59.9 by Madelyn Noe-Schlentz
and the world record of 4:57.71.
Wouldn't that be exciting!?
Her listed time of 2:21.10 for the 800m may not have been a
full effort, so she has an outside chance at the American record
of 2:16.01. But the world 800m record is a seemingly unreachable
1:58.37 by Helena Fuchsova (CZE). How impossible
is that? Maria Mutola won the 2003 World indoor
800m championship last weekend in 1:58.94. [Technical
note: Our research department points out this discrepancy:
National Masters News lists Fuchsova as being in the W40-44
group for that time of 1:58.37 in 2001, but the IAAF gives her
birthday as 3-6-1965, which would put her in the W35-39 group
instead]
So the prospects for breaking
the 4x800m record are also good for this team.
And we won't let them run alone. So let us show up in force
on Saturday to support them! And don't forget that before
the relay events, Sylvie Kimché will be going for
the individual 800m American record of 2:39.54.
-
WORLD CUP FINALISTS [3/20/2003]
Everything has worked out according to our script so far.
Today, India handily defeated Kenya and set up the final on
Sunday against Australia. The India star was captain Sourav
Ganguly who slogged a century. Australia and India
have met in the first round, whence Australia won by a landslide
margin of 9 wickets. After that match, Sourav Ganguly
was burnt in effigy back home. That was then, but now
India has gotten into form. Our full script predicted
that these two nations will meet in the final, after which Australia
will hoist the cup. If this second part does not work
out, we happen to live in a high building and so it will be
quick and easy to step out the window ...
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ANOTHER 10,000 [3/20/2003]
Remember that we hit the 400,000 home page visitor mark on March
1, 2003? It took just twenty days to get the next 10,000.
And we love you too ...
-
CHINAMAN [3/20/2003] In
one of our discussions of cricket terminology, we said that
a left-handed googly is known as a chinaman, because
the pitch was first thrown by a person of Chinese descent in
the West Indies. This led a thoughtful readers to write
in: "Reading your latest journal entry
on cricket (which, for the most part, still remains beyond me),
I was reminded of an uncomfortable moment during ESPN2's coverage
of the World Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham
over the weekend. In remarking upon Liu Xiang's
third place showing the men's 60 meter hurdles, one of the commentators
informed viewers that this was the first time a "Chinaman" had
medaled in the history of the indoor world championships.
I was pretty shocked to hear such an archaic-and I thought,
pejorative-term used with apparent impunity. While
you're edifying us culturally, would you mind putting on Randy
Cohen's ethicist hat and let us know how radioactive (if
at all) the ESPN2's commentator's word choice was?"
Whew, where do we even begin to talk about several hundred years
of solitude? Without getting into the etymology and evolution
of the term Chinaman, we will lead you to a short and readable
essay. Appropriately for our thoughtful reader, this was
linked from the English
450b class at Yale University in 1998:
Someone once asked me about
the difference between a chink and a Chinaman. "I
know the word chink is offensive," he said. "But
what's wrong with calling someone a Chinaman?"
To illustrate the difference between the two, I decided to
tell him a story:
There was once a superhero
named Chinaman, like there once was a superhero named Superman.
Superman could lift cars and fly and run real fast, while
Chinaman did nothing cool at all. He only built miles and
miles of endless railroad tracks, like his ancestors who once
built miles and miles of endless stone walls. Back home in
China he pulled rickshaws for miles and miles as extremely
fat men sat in the back and yelled at him to go faster. When
he moved here he slaved away on sugar plantations in Hawaii,
fishing canneries in Alaska, gold mines in California, and
hand laundries everywhere for half a penny an hour. This meant
it took him two hours to make any real money. And while Superman
didn't have to take shit from anybody, Chinaman took shit
from everybody, kind of like Jew Man. Chinaman was thrown
down wells, deported about fifty million times, excluded from
America for sixty years, beat up for his money everyday, and
taxed for all the gold he ever found in the lonely Californian
hills. And if Superman and Chinaman ever got into a fight,
Superman would win because he can punch Chinaman all the way
to the moon while Chinaman can barely dent the Man of Steel.
So how can Chinaman even be considered a superhero if he was
such a loser? Superman would have done everything a zillion
times faster and better than Chinaman, right? I'll let you
think about this one.
And just like Superman had
an arch-nemesis in Lex Luther, Chinaman had an arch-nemesis
in a villain known as the Chink. Everybody hated the Chink.
The Chink would take away jobs from another superhero called
White Man by flooding the whole country with his evil yellow
brothers. The Chink would marry White Man's sisters and make
evil little half-Chinks. The Chink would open opium dens,
gambling parlors, and whorehouses, and the innocent youth
of America would go to these places and be corrupted. The
Chink also ate rats and dogs and anything else that crawled
because he was not human. Chinaman, however, had a hard time
fighting the Chink. This was because the Chink was a part
of Chinaman, just like Mr. Hyde was a part of Dr. Jekyll and
the Nigger was a part of the Negro. What made it worse was
that Chinaman could turn into the Chink at any time. Someone
only had to call the Chink's name, or get angry at Chinaman,
and the Chink would magically appear. Pretty soon Chinaman
became inseparable from the Chink, and their names became
interchangeable. Realizing that he would never win the war
against the Chink or the people who could summon his enemy,
Chinaman retreated to his Chinatown base. He hid there in
fear of himself and other people.
Chinaman passed away many
years ago. Nobody killed him; he just grew old like acid-washed
jeans and went the way of Negro and Red Indian (You'll have
to ask someone else about these two other superheroes). Chinaman's
children are still around, but are no longer referred to by
their father's name because it was so synonymous with the
Chink. Many of them also moved out of Chinatown, living wherever
they want. But the Chink never died. He's a part of Chinaman's
children, and if you want to see him you simply have to say
or think Chinaman or Chink. Instantly the Chink will appear
to you, one billion strong, ready to take over your world
and your jobs, eat your dogs, breed you out of existence,
drive in the wrong lane, take a zillion pictures of the same
thing, and do better than you on the hardest of math and science
tests. That's what the Chink means to you. And that's why
he still exists.
We can also share some of
our personal thoughts. For a moment, we will shift to
the first personal singular: I am 100% Chinese. My maternal
grandmother was born in Sacramento, California in 1889; I was
born in Shanghai, China; and I have lived for many years in
Hong Kong, Australia and New York City (USA). All of these
biographical details are relevant to this discussion.
The first point is that this unusual mix means that my personal
response below is probably atypical. Under contemporary
standards, I would say that the term 'Chinaman' is pejorative,
evoking the image of the 'number one' Chinese cook Hop Sing
in the old television western series Bonanza.
However, the reaction to an ethnic slur should be considered
in light of the intent --- Is it social custom? out of
ignorance? or out of malice?
Social customs It is possible that an apparently
pejorative term is extensively used by everyone because it is
the social custom. This does not apply to the word Chinaman
in this age because everyone should know better. Here,
the example that I can think of is the word Kwei-Lo that
is used to refer to white people by the Hong Kong locals.
The word Kwei-Lo literally means 'foreign devil' (or
ghoul) and cannot possibly be considered complimentary.
Nevertheless, its pervasiveness has meant that it is neutralized
to the point where even the white people in Hong Kong referred
to themselves as such. Among the Chinese people themselves,
there are lots of pejorative terms. The local Hong Kong
people have a whole slew of slurs aimed at Chinese people from
other areas, including referring to everyone else as 'Shanghainese',
which is pejorative because it evokes the image of brash and
uncultured nouveau riche. All of you will almost
certainly know a whole bunch of unfavorable terms that unfairly
bracket entire groups of people (e.g. referring to cyclists
as gearheads, triathletes as trigeeks, runners
as joggers, etc). The force of ethnic slurs is
also different by locale. A newcomer to Australia might
be appalled at the stream of venom that comes from the typical
Australian, when this is in fact the land of equal opportunity
--- nobody is superior because everyone falls into one or more
brackets. The book on Australian slang is phenomenally
thick (here's one word that you're not like to know: boong,
which rhymes with my last name and therefore I have had to endure
many times). That being the case, you might as well as
lighten up and play the game. Conversely, you may wish
to study up (e.g. this guideline
from my alma mater) and be studiously correct all the time.
Ignorance The case of the ESPN2 commentator must
almost surely be a matter of ignorance about the contemporary
usage of the term. I do not believe that there should
be a single style of response to this type of situation.
Some may prefer vociferous protests, while others may prefer
sarcasm. Generally, my feeling is that I don't have anything
to lose, and it is the speaker who is diminished. I know
that I will react to the use of the word Oriental. The
word itself is not necessarily virulent, but it is pejorative
courtesy of the deconstruction conducted by Edward Said.
But I react because I consider the standard repartee to be absolutely
brilliant: "I am not an Oriental! I am an Asian!
An Oriental is a rug, and an Asian is a person!"
Malice Again, there are different styles of response.
There will be situations in which vociferous protests are essential;
after all, it is a pleasure to see politician-types squirm their
ways out of their slips. But there are other times when
it is even more effective to let someone alone. Consider
the case of Pauline Hanson and the One Nation political
movement in Australia, with a white Australian slant.
The movement itself is a minor force that gets a very small
percentage of the popular vote, but it is treated as leprosy
by everyone else. After all, Australia as a country relies
heavily on trade with its neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia, China,
India, etc. and every time that Hanson woman opens her mouth,
the government has to prove otherwise to the world, in words
and by deeds.
This item arose from a discussion
of cricket terminology. While we may have positioned cricket
as a gentleman's sport, we cannot pretend that cricketers live
in glass houses. During the current World Cup, there were
two major racial slur incidents. Case #1:
Australian Darren Lehmann was run out (i.e. "stranded
between the bases") in a One Day International match against
Sri Lanka just before the World Cup tournament began.
After Lehmann got back into the dressing room, he was cursing
aloud. Unfortunately, the walls of the room were so thin
that the Sri Lankans heard him. We will not print the
words he used (but you can read them here
and follow a discussion).
Lehmann received a five-game ban that included some of the earlier
World Cup matches, reduced from the maximum eight with some
character testimony from the Sri Lankans. Case #2:
In the match against Pakistan, Australian wicketkeeper Adam
Gilchrist charged that Rashid Latif used a racial
slur (you can read the words here,
which were Lehmann's words in reverse color). Latif was
exonerated in a board hearing, with the incident being attributed
to a misunderstanding. It has since been speculated that
the incident would later motivate Gilchrist to take that famous
walk
two days ago after being given not out.
-
ANOTHER RECORD ATTEMPT [3/19/2003]
We have told you previously that at the Front Runners' Meet
on Saturday (March 22nd) at the Armory, three of our relay teams
will be going for American/World records: the M35-39, W35-39
and W40-49 teams. It has come to our attention that we
also have an individual 800m runner who has a good opportunity
to break a record: Sylvie Kimché. At the moment,
the current American
indoor record for W55-59 is 2:39.54 and the current
World
indoor record is 2:36.75. At the MAC Indoor Championships
on March 8, 2003 Sylvie ran 2:41.40. So with some cheering,
it would seem that the American record should be within her
reach. We hope people will come to cheer Sylvie on!
Historical note: Sylvie is number 10 on the all-time
best 800m CPTC list at 2:26.73, dating back to 1991. Between
then and now, she had some injury issues, moved to Ohio and
played golf. She was the 2002 NYRR W55-59 Runner Of The
Year.
-
ROOM FOR RENT [3/19/2003]
Laura Ford writes: I'll have a room available for
rent May 1. It's a beautiful, newly renovated two bedroom
apartment with lots of light. Located in a great, safe
neighborhood close to the 77th St and 86th subway stops.
Pretty close to Central Park and the East River. One room
is larger than the other, and the new roommate could pay extra
for that room, bringing the rent to about $1000 a month, or
we could switch rooms every six months (as I've done before)
for $930 a month. I'd prefer to have a fairly neat female
roommate, and unfortunately no pets are allowed in my building.
Please email me at lford@randomhouse.com.
-
TRACK AND FIELD [3/19/2003]
Correction: Craig Plummer's field workouts will
be held right after the sprint workouts and before the distance
workouts.
-
DOG RUN [3/19/2003] The
Houston Humane Society has asked us to mention their "K-9
Fun Run." It will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2003
at 8:30 am, in Houston, TX at Sam Houston Park. For more
information, see www.houstonhumane.org.
For those of you who are wondering, yes, K-9 Fun Run means you
run with your dog. We would compete, but our dog is too
lazy.
-
TO
THE FINLAND STATION [3/19/2003] Yes, we are talking
about Edmund Wilson's classical book on the coming of
the Russian Revolution. Yes, it is the novelized history
about Lenin whom Vladimir Nabokov described as
'a pail of milk of human kindness with a dead rat at the bottom'
after reading Wilson's book. The link goes to a review
of the book that was published in The New Yorker, many
years after the original publication of the book. We quote:
When you undertake historical
research, two truths that sounded banal come to seem profound.
The first is that your knowledge of the past-apart from, occasionally,
a limited visual record and the odd unreliable survivor-comes
entirely from written documents. You are almost completely cut
off, by a wall of print, from the life you have set out to represent.
You can't observe historical events; you can't question historical
actors; you can't even know most of what has not been written
about. What has been written about therefore takes on an importance
that may be spurious. A few lines in a memoir, a snatch of recorded
conversation, a letter fortuitously preserved, an event noted
in a diary: all become luminous with significance-even though
they are merely the bits that have floated to the surface. The
historian clings to them, while, somewhere below, the huge submerged
wreck of the past sinks silently out of sight.
The second realization that strikes you is,
in a way, the opposite of the first: the more material you dredge
up, the more elusive the subject becomes. In the case of a historical
figure, there is usually a standard biographical interpretation,
constructed around a small number of details: diary entries,
letters, anecdotes, passages in the published work that everyone
has decided must be autobiographical. Out of these details a
profile is constructed, which, in the circular process that
characterizes most biographical enterprise, is then used to
interpret the details. Yet it is almost always possible to find
details that are inconsistent with the standard interpretation,
or that seem to point to a different interpretation, or that
don't support any coherent interpretation. Usually, there's
a level of detail below that, and on and on. One instinct you
need in doing historical research is knowing when to keep dredging
stuff up; another is knowing when to stop.
You stop when you feel that you've got it. The
test for a successful history is the same as the test for any
successful narrative: integrity in motion. It's not the facts,
snapshots of the past, that make a history; it's the story,
the facts run by the eye at the correct speed. Novelists sometimes
say that they invent a character, put the character into a situation,
and then wait to see what the character will do. The historian's
character has to do what the real person has done, but there
is an uncanny way in which this can seem to happen almost spontaneously.
The "Marx" that the historian has imagined keeps behaving, in
every new set of conditions, like Marx. This gives the description
of the conditions a plausibility as well. The person fits the
time; the world turns beneath the character's marching feet.
The past reveals itself to have a plot.
This may seem a fanciful account of the way
history is written. It is not a fanciful account of the way
history is read, though. Readers expect an illusion of continuity,
and once the illusion locks in, they credit the historian with
having brought the past to life. Nothing else matters as much,
and it is hard to see how the reader could have this experience
if the historian had not had it first. The intuition of the
whole precedes the accumulation of the parts. There is no other
way, really, for the mind to work.
This is why historical research is an empirical
enterprise and history writing an imaginative one. We read histories
for information, but what is it that we want the information
for? The answer is a little paradoxical: we want the information
in order to acquire the ability to understand the information.
At some point, we need the shell of facts to burst, and to feel
that we are inside the moment. "Tell me about yourself," says
a stranger at a party. You can recite your résumé, but what
you really want to express, and what the stranger (assuming
her interest is genuine) really wants to know, is what it is
like to be you. You wish (assuming that your interest is genuine)
that you could just open up your mind and let her look in. Information
alone doesn't do it. A single intuition of what it was like
to be Marx, or Proust, or Gertrude Stein, or the ordinary man
on the late-modern street, how they thought and how the world
looked to them, is worth a thousand facts, for when we are equipped
with the intuition every fact becomes sensible. A residual positivism
makes fact and intuition seem to be antithetical terms: hard
knowledge versus subjective empathy. This has the priorities
backward. Intuitive knowledge-the sense of what life was like
when we were not there to experience it-is precisely the knowledge
we seek. It is the true positive of historical work.
Why are we giving you this long quotation?
Especially given that most of you don't intend to write history.
Well, the longtime fan of this website will undoubtedly have seen
that this quotation is all about the Central Park Track Club.
With this in mind, you can go back and re-read the long quotation,
inserting the new context. So ... "When
you think about the Central Park Track Club, two truths that sounded
banal come to seem profound. The first is that your knowledge
of the past-apart from, occasionally, a limited visual record
and the odd unreliable survivor-comes entirely from written documents
preserved on the website ..." and so on.
A proper, definitive history of the Central Park Track Club has
not yet been written. Perhaps someday it will show up when
Stuart Calderwood's
legendary novel-in-progress is completed. But we prefer
to think that there is no single unique, true or even privileged
history of the club as such. Rather, it will be up to each
of you to contemplate and construct your own version of this history.
And it will be a worthwhile permanent project-in-progress, because
you will have that intuitive insight to appreciate that experience
ever so much more.
-
TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT [3/19/2003]
Countdown to next workout report: 7 days
We debated for a long time as to the content of this report.
You see, in times of war, the press (of which we are certainly
a vital part) bears an awesome burden: while giving at
least a glancing nod to Little Miss Truth, we must, above all,
do nothing to jeopardize the security or morale of our troops,
our nation, and our club. And so, following the lead of
FoxNews and our other media peers, we shall report only on the
positive aspects of the Tuesday Night workout, leaving out anything
that might smack of negativity, criticism, or even analysis,
choosing instead to feature short burbles of warm fuzzy-wuzzy,
mediated every now and then |
