The Journal: The Live & Times of the Central Park Track Club

WEEK OF MAY 28-JUNE 3, 2002

  • NORTH COUNTY NEWS 5K:  
    Q (from Martin Lenne): "Does a CPTC member need to run sub-19 minutes to get his/her name listed under the race results?"
    A: "No, time is not the issue.  All that is required is the ability to spell his/her name correctly."
    A (from Martin Levine): "I spelled it correctly..........It's just that the woman at the registration desk couldn't read my shitty handwriting.  That's what happens when you show up a 8:49 for a 9:00 race, because I did a good deed and picked up a teammate and his very cute mystery woman at the Scarborough train station at 8:20.  But the best part is that I didn't even notice the misspelling when I perused the results."
     
    (Name withheld): "Wow, you got those NCN 5K results up before I could even email you and say 'DON'T PRINT MINE' since my PT and a certain French person would be horrified to see that I ran a race when I am supposed to be taking a month-plus off from running."
     
    Steve Paddock: "Another stinker from me, but a 1-1 draw is better than a loss."  
    Comment: If you stay up to watch a 530am soccer game (England vs Sweden), don't expect to run a PR at a 9am race.
    Additional note:  Toby Tanser said that he would show up to watch the second half of this game, but never appeared at Steve's place.  Instead he ran the 9am Race Against Teenage Smoking in Central Park.
     
  • RACE AGAINST TEENAGE SMOKING: There was major confusion about the first results as six of our runners (Graeme Reid, Sean Fitzpatrick, Fred Trilli, Rich Hollander, Michael Rosenthal, Jonathan Zuckerman) were not listed originally.  Okay, you're going to say "Who cares?" about a non-scoring race, but it mattered a lot to Graeme Reid who wrote: "I think it is a conspiracy involving James Siegel --- he is trying to cover up the fact that he got his ass kicked again!"
           
  • RIVERDALE RAMBLE 10K:  This race is famous for a lot of big hills, of which the most famous is Wave Hill (see the photo) when you are looking at eye level at the shoes of the runner right in front of you.  Irene Jackson-Schon wrote: "This was the worst nightmare of a 10K that I have ever run at sea level. Who knew that there were mountains in the Bronx?"  
     
    Our team had a good showing, with these age group winners
    - Ricardo Granados, 1st M40-44 plus 1 pair of Mizuno shoes for first master male
    - Victor Osayi, 2nd M45-49
    - Frank Schneiger, 1st M60-69
    - Maria Chale, 1st F40-44 plus 1 pair of Mizuno shoes for first master female
    - Irene Jackson-Schon, 1st F55-59
    - Carol Tyler, 1st F60-64
    plus winning men's open team (Ricardo, Victor and Blair Boyer would have won the men's masters team but they can receive only one of those trophies)
      

    Victor Osayi
      
  • WORLD CUP STATUS REPORT
    - After the opening game, the fans of Les Bleus are having the blues.  This team looked old and tired, and maybe waiting for Zidane to save them.  
    - Germany, which was picked by no one here, looked strong with a 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia, but this is not a true test.  It looked as if the Saudis were quite unprepared for the physical nature of the German play.  
    - Spain's winning margin (3-1) was wider than the actual situation, since they were awarded a phantom penalty kick just when Slovenia seemed to be coming back
    - Ireland was lucky to escape with a draw because they looked as if they were out of gas late in the game.
    - England vs. Sweden is summarized by Toby Tanser: "God did I suffer watching Eng Vs Sweden - my two citizenships and two pathetic teams!"  Actually not, because the first half had a good English team and a pathetic Swedish team and the second half had a good Swedish team and a pathetic English team (you know, just kicking the ball downfield and hoping for a good bounce).  But we must not forget that Toby's pick is Argentina, which looked good enough.
    - Brazil and Italy both won confidently.  And Brazil is the kind of team that we would stay up until 330am to watch ...
     
    Additional comments: If you watch these games on Univision/Telefutura instead of ABC/ESPN, you won't have to put up with those very annoying English-speaking commentators (where do they find them?).
      
  • WHAT DO TEXANS THINK OF NEW YORKERS:  From University of Texas alumnus Kim Mannen: "In order to live and succeed in New York, you need to be very high-energy, very driven, very passionate, and you must exude, 'I love New York,' because New Yorkers are very snobbish about their home."
     
  • BEGINNING RUNNERS' GROUP WITH TOBY TANSER:  If you know anyone who wants to begin running and is scared to do so, or intimidated to join a club, please note that Toby Tanser will be running a class for beginners (you know, people who say "I'd love to run one day" or "I'm able to run three miles but I want to do more") on every Monday night at 7 PM in Central Park as of mid June. There will be incentives to attend from NIKE!  And it is free to anyone, so email Toby Tanser ( toby@tanser.org ) for details if you or anyone you know would like to attend.
     
    Any prescription for healthy living should involve some element of physical exercise.  Participation in a sport provides a stable exercise environment that also includes aspirations, goals, accomplishments and peer support.  That is why Nike does not consider itself a mere sport equipment manufacturer .  The Nike product line is not shoes or clothing --- it is a lifestyle!  This being the case, the marketing goals would not just be selling a few more shoes, but to get more people involve in various sports, who will end up purchasing sports equipment, be they Nike brands or other ones.  As there is clearly a large untapped market in sedentary individuals, getting them involved in sports is profitable as well as socially beneficial.  For this particular group, Nike will provide refreshments, clothing items and a support truck.
     
    For those who don't know the name Toby Tanser, this man is a running legend in Iceland, Sweden, Kenya, New York City and we don't know where else.   In this city, he is the coach of the Urban Athletics club and The Reservoir Dogs.  He is the author of the book Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way.  He is a member of the Central Park Track Club, and had an astonishing 17 individual road race wins last year.
      
  • WEB ACCESS STATISTICS FOR MAY:  This month saw a slight retreat from April's statistics.  It just goes to show that our content is event-driven.  All we need is more races (and parties).  There is one downward trend since March, namely the fewer time spent per user session having dropped from 8-9 minutes to 6:30 minutes.  This coincides with the appearance of this journal page, whereby it makes sense to check in more frequently here because all the news that is fit to print is here.  Sometimes, there is even news that is unfit to print ...
      
  • THE RAE BAYMILLER LINE:  Our teammate Rae Baymiller is starting a new company with her own line of clothing.
     
    introducing Rae ...  an active sportswear line for today's woman ... one that goes from active sports and exercise to streetwear for work or
    dinners out ... for the contemporary 'on-the-move' lifestyle.

    the first silhouette...the signature short, available June 10 ... two options both at $38. in sizes small (4-6), medium (8-10) and large (12-14)...some
    silhouettes later will include extra (16-18) and grande (20-22)...

    Rae. website ready July...for further information or to place order 10 June or after contact Rae at,  rbaymiller@aol.com or 212.245.8220.
     
  • WORLD CUP OPENING MATCH:  France 0, Senegal 1.  Not as much of a shocker as it seems, as virtually all of the players of Senegal play for French clubs anyway (and most of the French players play outside of France) and the team plays a very European style of football.  What would be the biggest shocker of all time?  How about June 29th, 1950 --- USA 1, England 0?  Frank Handelman wrote: "I was up early to watch the first match, and if Senegal can beat France, USA can beat Portugal."
     
    Steve Paddock on the likelihood of getting a 5K PR this weekend --- "Sports on television is killing me!  I have to stay up till midnight to watch the NBA playoffs and then get up at 230am to watch the World Cup!  And when I come across the French Open tennis, I can't help but watch!"
      
  • WINTER IN THE ABRUZZI:  This is from the final paragraph of Natalia Ginzburg's essay written in 1944:  "I had faith then in a simple, happy future, rich with fulfilled desires, with shared experiences and ventures.  But that was the best time of my life, and only now, now that it's gone forever, do I know it."  So the next time you come to a workout or race, keep those words in mind.
     
  • NON-QUIZ:  We were told --- someone in the Texas barbecue photo album is pregnant.  Guess who?  This is a no-win-and-everything-to-lose game.  Make one wrong guess and we are dead.  Make one right guess and we are dead.  Therefore, we pass ...
     
  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT:  The workout began with a presentation ceremony of a Hawaiian lei from Olivier Baillet to coach Tony Ruiz.  This was in celebration of Olivier's 12th place overall and 1st age group finish at the Keauhou-Kona Half Ironman Triathlon, thereby qualifying him the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon World Championships for the second year in a row.  During the race, he was not sure where his position was and even his half marathon run was slow (1:32:33) compared to his own standard, he was passing people in the end.
     
    Direct observation --- someone wearing a U.F.T. team singlet has a nice suntan.  Cause and effect.  When we grow up, we want to be teachers too and take the whole summer off ...
     
    A roll call after the race would suggest that we will have quite a few people up at the North County News 5K this week.  Why let your training and conditioning go to waste, when there is a flat and fast course to test yourself?  Apart from the people who are chasing their first 15:XX times, Zeb Nelessen should be a lock to break his PR of 18:31 (reminder: Coach's instructions --- Just follow our fast women!).
     
    Seen after the workout: a very pregnant Stacy Creamer who was given 'time off for good behavior' by her doctor to come out to the reservoir.
       
    You will recall that the You Gotta Have Park race was held in appalling weather conditions on May 18th.  That was why we thought that Zeb Nelessen's win that same morning at the Pine Barrens Sprint Triathlon was so remarkable.  Well, now we just found out that Harry Morales ran 6:29:14 at the Long Island Endurance Run 50K on the same day in that weather.  As for his time, you need to consider that he took a wrong turn on the course and ran an extra 3 miles.
     
    The weekend after the Women's Mini Marathon, we will be making a field trip to the Shawangunks for a long run in the sticks.  More details to come.
     
  • WORLD TRAVELER:  Where in the world is Ramon Bermo ... ?  In London?  Or San Diego?
     
     
     
  • SUMMER CAMP:  School's out and it is time for summer camp.  This particular camp is less physical than the usual one, but we note that it is transnational (Canada/USA).  More significantly, one of the camp mentors is Tivon Jacobson (NYU).
     
  • STUDENT PROFILE:  Not to be outdone by his friend, Jonathan Pillow (NYU) gets a student profile.
     
  • WORLD CUP FEVER:  With due respect, notwithstanding the many comments that have been received so far, we do sense an absence of deep passion.  Why was all this outpouring not good enough for us?  As Albert Einstein did not say, "Everything is relative."  Genuine passion can be observed if you go ask Tim Evans, "Tell us about the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit ice hockey series.  And tell us about Paul Henderson's goal ..."
     
  • KEAUHOU-KONA TRIATHLON:  Olivier Baillet's 12th place finish is all the remarkable because in 18th place is eight-time Hawaiian Ironman winner Paula Newby-Fraser.
     
  • TEXAS BARBECUE: This is a photo album and --- have no fear --- definitely not a food review ...
     
  • SQUASH PARTNER WANTED: From Kevan Huston: "As exciting as all this talk about the forthcoming world cup tournament is, might I trouble you to post a solicitation for any squash players among the membership?  It's been some months since I've played -- I'm no Peter Nicol to be sure -- but would like to have a match now and then.  Interested parties can email me at khuston1@earthlink.net ."
     
  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT:  Two weeks ago, we ran this photo with the sub-title Timers In Peril.  Today, peril struck.
     
    Here is some background.  We train on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the East River Park track.  Today, we had sixty-three people running in four groups in the long distance runners, one group of fourteen middle distance runners and one group of nine sprinters.  Members of the New York Harriers, Millrose and Urban Athletics also used the track, as well as other runners in the community.  This park is a public facility, and is used by runners, soccer players, volleyball players, rugby players, children, etc. 
     
    In the infield, which was designed for soccer games, there were two soccer games going on simultaneously.  Each game took up half the field because they were two different teams playing intra-squad games for training.  One team brought their own three-foot tall mini-goals (see that photo) while the other team just placed markers on the ground.  Both teams elected to place their goals on the sidelines in their half of the field, and this has the very unfortunate effect of placing the goals at exactly the spot where the runners start (again, see that photo).  As we noted two weeks ago, the soccer balls were whizzing past by the runners and the timers.  The soccer players were reckless in this regard because this type of set-up was designed for goals to be scored as easy ground-level tap-in's and not as 70 mph Roberto Carlos-style shots intended to fracture goal posts and goalies' jaws; and, of course, they could have placed their goals anywhere other that the spots where the runners congregate.
     
    It was under these circumstances that a soccer ball hit the head of one of our runners tonight as she stood on lane three waiting for her group to start.  To our minds, the soccer player who made the shot was reckless because that was a high-velocity shot into a crowd of people.  What was he thinking?  For a moment, our runner actually passed out.  She is a triathlete used to taking lumps, but there may not be any real training for getting hit in the head.  She was alright afterwards, with the icepack from Frank Handelman coming in quite handy.  We prefer not to publish her name here, but we will say that it was not Shelley Farmer who has already paid her dues in her encounter with the unleashed dog in the park ...
     
    In the aftermath of the incident, there was a heated discussion about the placement of the goals.  In the end, after some words, those goals were re-oriented so that they appear respectively in the full goalmouth and the center circle and nowhere near any runners.  Someone had to say, "I can't wait to read what the workout report had to say about this tonight!"  Well, you will find no stories of hot Latino temper, steroid rage or whatever it is that you think you want to read about.  We will report on the only thing that matters --- Bola Awofeso's bike is safe and sound!
       
    As a warning to all troublemakers, we must say that we are not a group of people to mess around with, not just because we numbered 86 people on our team today, but because we've got the doctors (to look after our people) and the lawyers (to sue the bastards!).  Just kidding ...
     
  • MORE WORLD CUP COMMENTS: 
    Jeff Wilson: "I wish there was some way for me to say that I care, but I don't."  Jeff, do you really think we care either?
    Josh Feldman: "How come nobody has picked Team USA to win?"  Josh, for good reasons.
    Paul Bendich: "My pick to win the World Cup is Italy.  After all, they killed the game with their dull, defensive play."  To quote Ronaldo: 'They still have catenaccio in Italy.  They just don't call it that anymore. Now they say ben messo.'  Read this story about the glory of Italian football.
    Tyronne Culpepper: "How come you didn't mention Bebeto?"  Who?  You mean the guy who played in the J-League?
    Steve Paddock: "I'm going home to sleep right now, to make sure that I have enough to stay up for a whole month."
    Magno Silva, an office clerk in Rio de Janeiro. was quoted in the New York Times today: "We've already won four Cups.  Let the Argentines win one for a change.  They need it more than we do."  To complete the circle, the first World Cup pick way back when was Argentina by Toby Tanser.
     
  • THE GREAT CARROT CAKE ROBBERY:  We reported to you that our middle-distance runners elected to hold their Sunday workout at Van Cortlandt Park in order to have carrot cake (and eat it too) across the street afterwards.  So there they were, they ran their 3x1 mile workout hard on the track, they went for a two-mile warm down in the flats and then they crossed the street to find the carrot cake place ... CLOSED!  Marty Levine rued: "I even skipped breakfast in anticipation of the carrot cake."
     
    Much stranger things have happened up there, as we repeat this story from 1997 Peter McArdle 15K cross country race: "The race began over an hour late, due to one of the funniest incidents I've ever witnessed at a race. The MAC folks were expecting rain, so out of consideration for the runners, they decided to move the registration indoors to the Southend Bar across the street from the park. They put all the registration materials in there early Sunday, and then left to come back at 10 a.m. But so did the owner, who locked the place up and didn't come back! The only person in there at 10am was a drunk who was laid out on the floor. People thought he was dead, because there must have been 25 people banging on the windows and hollering to wake him up so he would open the door, and he wasn't moving. Finally, after a half hour of the kind of noise that would have startled Helen Keller, the guy got up, stared at the window, ignored everyone and lurched into the bathroom where he passed out again on the floor. It took about a dozen phone calls before they were able to find someone who worked in the bar to come down and unlock the door."  This story was told by Jeff Kisseloff, who was a long-time Central Park Track Club member and is presently with the Taconic Road Runners Club now that he is a Sleepy Hollow (Westchester county) resident.  We were glad to read that Jeff ran the Ridgewood 10K yesterday in 43:03, when he had previously thought that his running was over due to a knee problem.
     
  • VAN CORTLANDT TRACK CLUB SUMMER SERIES XC:  As a reminder, the VCTC summer series will begin this week, on Thursdays every two weeks at, 7pm, Van Cortlandt Park, NYC.  (May 30th, June 13th, June 27th, July 11th, July 25th, August 8th.)  This is a small, friendly race that Jonathan Federman, Brian Barry and David Pullman like.  Race entry fee is only $3.
     
  • MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS:  From Roland Soong: "Of the many people in my life that I remembered, the Central Park Track Club personality must be Jack Brennan.  So, as a small token of my appreciation of the 30 years of competition, leadership and humor, I have just sent in my contribution to the Jack Brennan Fund.  This is a community fund in Jack's name to benefit youth sports and community programs in Westchester.  The initial goal is $5000.  I am sure that it would please the Brennan family immensely if this goal was achieved by many contributions (no, size does not matter here) from his friends.  So I urge you too to make a contribution to: The Jack Brennan Fund, c/o the Westchester Community Foundation, 470 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 304, White Plains, New York 10605."

  • EDUCATIONAL PHOTOS:  Last week, we showed a photograph of what not to do --- namely, hog up three lanes during the workout.  This week, we show you a photograph of what to do --- one lane is all it takes for the middle distance group.  It is that easy ...

WEEK OF MAY 21-MAY 27, 2002

  • EVEN MORE WORLD CUP TALK:  From Roland Soong: "Of course, you know that once I start talking, there is no stopping the torrent of words.
     
    First of all, let me state that I am not making any predictions.  That is the domain of God, who is the only Infinitely Wise one.  Instead, I will vote from my heart.  My job is made easier because I consider myself a world citizen (having lived in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Bogota, Lima, San Salvador, Buenos Aires, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Memphis) and I do not feel bound to vote for nationalistic reasons.  I am of Chinese descent, but I have never seen the Chinese national team play, but I understand that their fans are mightily ill-behaved (on each of the previous six times that they failed to qualify, they responded with xenophobic street riots) and their coach is (no surprise at all) former USA national team coach Bora Milutinovic.  As for Team USA ... ehhh ... never mind ... there is a lot of public relations talk but there is no team identity to speak of.
     
    I do have a big problem because there is a deep bleeding hole in my heart.  Alas, the original orange team --- Holland --- will not be at the World Cup finals this year.  So the "Total Football" tradition invoked by names such as Johan Cruyff, Johan Neskeens, Johnny Rep, Rob Resenbrink, Ruud Krol, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Marc Overmars, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids will not be seen this time.  What joy is joy, if soccer be without the orange team?
     
    But from the 32 teams in the final, there is an obvious choice --- Brazil.  While this is the nation which has won the most number of World Cups, they have fallen into hard times lately.  Soccer in Brazil is totally devastated due to financial mismanagement, and clubs raise money by selling their players to Europe.  This is best exemplified by my company's Brazilian partner, who owns the Rio de Janeiro soccer team Botafogo, which had fallen from league champion straight into second division faster than you can say Botafogo.  
     
    The qualifying rounds were difficult for Brazil, who had to beat baseball-playing Venezuela in the last match to clinch their spot.  That is understandable when you consider the core of this team is dispersed all over Europe --- Cafu (AS Roma-Italy), Roque Junior (AC Milan-Italy), Lucio (Bayer Leverkusen-Germany), Edmilson (Olympique Lyon-France), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid-Spain), Emerson (AS Roma-Italy), Rivaldo (Barcelona-Spain), Ronaldo (Inter Milan-Italy), Ronaldinho (Paris St Germain-Paris), Denilson (Real Betis-Spain), and they have no real opportunity to play together until they get together for the World Cup.
     
    My vote from the heart is based less upon Brazil's illustrious history than Brazilian style of soccer with flair.  Samba soccer, it is called and the names are Garrincha, Pele, Jairzinho, Rivelino, Carlos Alberto, Careca, Socrates, Zico, Junior, Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo ...  But the current coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has a reputation of being defensive-minded, and that would have killed all the joy.  A crude description of the team is: "Eight defensive-minded players and three offensive-minded players (namely, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho)."  This is a grossly unjust caricature.  Over the last year, I have been watching AS Roma in the Serie A games and I must say that I have never seen a right back (Cafu) exert such a dominant influence in a game.  In terms of American football, this is like saying that your most potent scoring weapon is your right cornerback!  Mind you, Brazil has the equally potent Roberto Carlos at left back.  It is literally impossible to imagine a dull negative, defensive game from Brazil.  For what it's worth, the coach has dumped 36-year-old prima dona Romario as well as the volatile Edmundo (aka "The Animal").
     
    As for the forwards, this is largely irrelevant at this level of play.  All strikers are star athletes (Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri, Alessandro del Piero, Thierry Henry, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Luis Figo, Gabriel Batistuta, Alen Boksic, Davor Suker, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Luis Hernandez, etc) and opposing teams will assign their best markers to shadow them and hack them down at every opportunity.  The stars that emerge from the World Cup are usually stay-back midfielders such as Hristo Stoitchov, Gheorge Hagi and Zinedine Zidane.
     
    So it is that I hope to see some exciting football over the next few weeks (without losing too much sleep) ...
     
    P.S.  You may think that this whole World Cup business is silliness, but we will tell you that the top investment bank in New York City does not think so (see the scatterplot  of GNP per capita versus FIFA ranking from their 56-page report). 
     

     
    Investment acumen would suggest that these data (especially the FIFA rankings) are suspect ( #13 ranking of the Team USA, right behind England and Germany!?).
     

  • RANDOM POSTCARD FROM IOWA:  A home-made postcard with two "I Love NY" pictures came from Greg Wilcox of Des Moines (IA) to our mailing address (to wit, Craig Chilton): "Random selection #292 from the Internet. Dear New Yorker, All Iowans offer our support to you and NYC.  I developed both ideas for these two photos which were taken in Des Moines.  Again, NYC is in our hearts.  How is NYC doing?"  
     
    How is NYC doing?  We remember reading about the statistic that one-third of New Yorkers suffer from post-traumatic stress, whether they realize it, seek treatment or not.  We quote from W.H. Auden's seemingly prescient poem September 1, 1939:

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

...

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

  • MORE WORLD CUP PREDICTIONS:  From Gordon Holmes: "Sadly missing from the various CPTC World Cup predictions has been the Irish team.  Allow me to reminisce, moist-eyed, upon some famous victories we have recorded over the English team (Euro '88), Italy (World Cup '94) and the Netherlands (Dublin '02), and our quarter-final showing in 1990.  Putting aside the inconvenient fact that our captain (some might uncharitably say, our only quality out-fielder) has been ejected from the team, I will confidently predict that we will be tough to beat and have an excellent chance of making it to the second round, and that our supporters will drink those of any other country under the table.  If we get to play against, England, Sweden, or even les Bleus, I like our chances of producing a dull, defensive-minded draw which will live long in Irish memory.  Ole, ole ole!"
     

  • 2002 NEW YORK CITY MARATHON:  Yes, this race is more than six months away, but the database contains the accepted runners as well as lottery choices.  A cursory glance shows that we'll have a strong women's team --- Alayne Adams, Margaret Angell, Stefani Jackenthal, Kate Crowley, Stephanie Gould, Audrey Kingsley, Shelley Farmer, Etsuko Kizawa, Sarah Gross, Ana Echeverri, Anna Fyodoroa, Andrea Ostrowski, Mary Minieka, Laurie Jones, Yumi Ogita, Kellie Quinones, Sandra Scibelli, Glenis Frank, Julie Buck, Martha Rojas (note: this list is very much incomplete due to the fact that there is no easy way to run a search such as by team code) and ... oh my God! ... Stacy Creamer!  This is a team that is capable of averaging better than 2:55 for the open women scoring team (note: the fastest three have a sub-2:50 average PR).  And, for once, we will even field a strong masters team with a possible sub-3:00 average.  All we can say is, "Stay Healthy and Strong."  If not, Dr. Hamner is always there ...
     
    Just to be fair, we also looked at the men's team --- Toby Tanser, Alan Ruben, Craig Chilton, Richie Borrero, Kevan Huston, Jonathan Pillow, Peter Allen, Hank Berkowitz, Noel Comess, Graeme Reid, Victor Osayi, Patrick Cowden, Bill Komaroff, Rick Shaver, Ricardo Granados, Craig Plummer, Eric Boucher, Charlie Stark, Anthony Munk, Glen Carnes, Olivier Baillet, Ramon Bermo, Michele Tagliati, Marty Levine, Tyronne Culpepper, Adam Newman, Casey Yamazaki, Fred Trilli, Vincent Trinquesse, Jerome O'Shaughnessy, Jeff Wilson, Jesse Lansner, Larry King, Blair Boyer, J.R. Mojica, Jonathan Zuckerman, Robert Haig, Luis Lima, Scott Gac, Erik Schmitz, Jamie Rosen, Michael Rosenthal, Seth Rosenthal, Brad Weiss, Paul Sinclair, Chele Modica, Robert Francis, Mel Washington, Bob Schulz, Dave Howard, James Siegel, Kent Freeman, Guenter Erich, Jay Borok, Jonathan Cane, Peter Homsher, Jose LaSalle, Anthony Mayorkas, Phil Vasquez, Derek O'Connor, Bill Schaaf, Jarl Berntzen, Jeff Aronis, Tom Rodman, Dion Mulvihill, Bola Awofeso, ...  Not all entrants were identified here, and not all those listed will be in the race.  But this is a long list that should put us in the money for 40 runners under 4:00.  And that men's masters team is incredibly deep with at least 10 sub-3-hour runners in there --- if only this competition were scored ten deep!
     
    By the way, we checked (with a lot of trepidation) and did not find our middle-distance stars Erik Goetze, Isaya Okwiya, Lauren Eckhart, Kim Mannen, Steve Paddock, ... phew!
     

  • SUNDAY TRACK WORKOUT:  This Sunday, the middle distance group is holding a track workout.  But where?  It is somewhat boring to hold workouts again down at the East River Park track.  Fortunately, there are plenty of other facilities around --- the trails and roads of Central Park, the Riverside Park track at 145th Street, the Rockefeller estates and the trails and track at Van Cortlandt Park.  When put to a vote, the majority chose Van Cortlandt Park because they want to have carrot cake afterwards (see, for example, Bola Awofeso).
     

  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT:  Temperature --- mid 60's; sky --- clear blue; humidity --- none.  This is as good running weather as it can ever get.  Forty-eight people were present at the workout.  This was a decent turnout if we remember that the Memorial Day weekend has already begun for some people (e.g. our work office will be closed on Friday).  Unfortunately, this workout was the dreaded Harlem Hill workout, which has been rated as follows: "The reason that I subscribe to the Coollist email workout descriptions is that I know I don't have to come if we have the Harlem Hill workout." 
      
    The coach would like to convince you that the upcoming scoring races (the Women's Mini Marathon on June 8th and the Gay Pride 5M on June 29th) are important for us.  Unfortunately, the conversations during the workout seemed mostly about the logistics of staying up very late (or getting up very early) to watch the World Cup games.  The opening game is on May 31st, between France and Senegal.  Paul Bendich says, "I'll be down at the pub at 730am to watch this game.  Since I don't have to teach now that the semester is over, I really don't care what time of day they play."  By the way, we have to warn you that the website maintenance routine is expected to be seriously interrupted because we expect to be watching the French team ... where else? ... in France!  More about that later ... 
      

  • CAREY WALL STREET RAT RACE:  In this race, Toby Tanser won in 13:52 while Audrey Kingsley was third female in 16:56.  While the race distance was advertised as 2.5 miles (or 4.01km), the actual distance was more like 2.7 miles (or 4.3km).  In other words, Toby and Audrey were really not as slow as those times originally implied.  Even so, Toby's 13:52 is slower than his 5K PR time.  Audrey's pace in this race (6:16 min/mile) is still slower than her 5K PR pace, which is a relevant issue now because that was achieved at the very flat and fast North County News 5K.  This year's North County News 5K will be held on June 2nd, and Steve Paddock has a couple more seats in his car.  Please email Steven.Paddock@badenochandclark.com if you are looking for a 5K PR.  But if you cannot make it to that race, there is always the Ridgewood Races on Memorial Day, where we expect to see Sylvie Kimché, Andrea Ostrowski, John Gleason and the French spouse of one of our teammates.   As with this time of year, the weather may be unpredictable.  The first time that Andrea ran that race, it was cold.  The second time, Andrea got her sister to run the first race of her life and it was ninety-nine degrees.  For what it's worth, the long-range weather forecast has Memorial Day as being cloudy and mild (high temperature of 72 degrees).  Bola Awofeso is also thinking of going, not so much to run because his hip is still hurting, but to bring his brother who has come to visit him from Africa and has so far not ventured outside of the apartment much (it's too cold!).  Yes, New Jersey should be quite a culture shock!  Oh, this tip may come to you too late, but if you don't like meandering trains of thought, you should not be on this website ...
     

    Tyronne Culpepper
      

  • ALLEZ LES BLEUS!  From Kevin Arlyck: "Yay! I've been sitting around biting my tongue as all the blowhards out there assault us with their wrong-headed WC prognostications, and the French contingent stands quiet. Imagine, we had to wait for a Brit to bring some sense to bear on this matter!

    I'll admit I don't exactly know what "going for" means.  Is Steve rooting for France (a commendable act), or just picking them to win (an intelligent one)? Seeing as how England will most likely need to beat France to make it to the finals, he's in a bit of a bind.

    I've discovered a painless solution: I am both rooting for France AND picking them to win the whole thing. An easy choice, really, when it concerns the best team on Earth.

    The Swedes are tough, granted, but Toby is certainly picking with his heart, not his head. They'll be a welcome treat for the French in the second round, if they manage to get that far. 

    As for Ramon, I'm glad he enjoyed the Real Madrid victory handed to him by Zidane (note: the captain of France), because, as he well knows, his quadrennial fortnight of embarrassment and heartbreak are just around the corner.

    And why are the Italians so silent? Perhaps recent history has taught them well the folly of getting their hopes up for a major international tournament.

    I'll be prepared to lead a rousing chorus of La Marsaillaise at the July 2nd track workout, if any one cares to join me. Allez Les Bleus!"
     

  • MORE VICTORY COUNTS: According to the prevalent usage, the Kingsley number refers to your total mileage over the last 7 days.  But for this website, we adapt the seven-day rolling total concept to the number of reported races and that Kingsley number today is sixteen (bearing in mind that we don't have and may never have the MAC meet results). 

    - SRP Night Run For The Arts (Phoenix, AZ)
    - Briarcliff Manor Centennial Race (Briarcliff Manor, NY)
    - Carey Wall Street Rat Race (Financial District, NYC)
    - Buckley's To JFK 6 Mile Run (Queens, NYC)
    - Forest Park Classic 5K (Queens, NYC)
    - Bay to Breakers 12K (San Francisco, CA)
    - Middletown 5K (Middletown, PA)
    - Pine Barrens Sprint Distance Triathlon (Shamong, NJ)
    - Columbia Triathlon (Ellicott City, MD)
    - National Veterans Eight-Stage Road Relay Championships (Birmingham, UK)
    - Volvo Midland Run (Far Hills, NJ)
    - 19th Annual Queens Biathlon (Queens, NYC)
    - Home Depot Mid-May Classic (Fairfield, CT)
    - Bonac Shuffle 5K     (Easthampton, Long Island, NY)
    - You Gotta Have Park 5M (Brooklyn, NYC)
    - JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge     (Central Park, NYC)
     
    Comment #1:  This list of races covers all types of categories across the globe.  The person who has the data entry job actually found it exhilirating to see all these events stream in.
    Comment #2:  There were four individual wins: Toby Tanser twice, Zeb Nelessen and Charlotte Cutler, making this one of our best weeks.  We note that Toby beat a legend in the Carey Wall Street Rat Race --- Doug Kurtis, now 50 years old, who has the highest number of sub-2:20 marathons at 76.
    Comment #3:  In the case of The Website vs. The People, the website discovered ten of those races on its own and thus held a 10-5 advantage.  However, we are delighted to report that at least one of our members has discovered a loophole --- the pre-emptive win.  So it was that Matt Newman informed us today that he will be doing Ironman Brasil on Saturday, so the score for next week is 2-1 (note: the website has two wins already because we have read the entrants' lists for the Spring Lake 5 Miler and the Ridgewood Races).  We encourage this method because it certainly makes things easier for us.  But we suspect that there will always be those who prefer to torture us with "I ran a race this weekend and it has not been posted yet!"  Now who would say a mean thing like that?  You know who you are and we know who you are ...
     

  • AN APPEAL FROM STEPHANIE BECKER (note:  Stephanie Becker is the fiancée of Matt Newman and she will be a new member of CPTC)

    Dear Friends,

    I hope all is well with you as we approach this holiday weekend!

    From June 30th to July 6th, I will be participating in the European AIDS Vaccine Ride from Amsterdam to Paris - cycling 500 miles in 6 days. I will be one of the 1,200 idealists riding to raise money for two of the world's leading university research facilities: the UCLA AIDS Institute and the Emory Vaccine Center.

    I have agreed to raise at least $6,000 in donations by June 15th. In need your help. (Plus, I would like to beat my last years' total!) Would you consider making a fully tax-deductible contribution to help me reach this goal?  Please consider only an amount that is right for you.

    You can visit my homepage to make the donation, and get more info. You can pay by credit card  or check on-line, it's really pretty easy.  (But if you could just shoot me an email or a xerox of your check so i can make sure i thank you appropriately!!!)

    Sorry this is so last minute (I admit I did procrastinate a little, I hate bugging people for money) . I would love to chat, or send you a paper copy of a donation form, or answer any questions........

    Thanks in advance for helping me support what I feel is a really worthwhile cause - I would not have registered for this three years in a row if  I didn't think it made a difference!!!!!

    Sincerely,

    Stephanie
     

  • NORTH COUNTY NEWS 5K  This race will take place on June 2nd, Sunday in Yorktown on one of the flattest, fastest course in this area.  Steve Paddock says: "I am definitely going to go to this one.  Can you put something on the web to see if we can get a bunch of people together to share the car?  Email me at Steven.Paddock@badenochandclark.com)."  Yes, Steve, it's 15:XX or broke!
     
    From Marty Levine: "The Kannouch, who is the current world record holder for marathon, will be at this race to run talk and sign autographs (for any running groupies).   The race got a very low turnout last year because of the lousy weather but they had a very nice spread of food afterwards.  The course is definitely flat and fast."
      

  • MORE WORLD CUP  PICKS:  The same Steve Paddock wrote: "You knew that I had to comment on the greatest month of any four years at some point.  I am going for France in the World Cup although it pains me to do so.  But I predict a heart-stopping roller coaster ride for England, hopefully as far as the final. This is the best team we have had in a long time so I am hopeful for a high finish."
       

  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT REPORT:  It is definitely not yet summer, with cold, breezy and sunny weather.  The workout was straightforward --- 4 x 1200m and it was over by 7:45pm.  This is probably the record for the earliest finish, but it was still later than the record for the latest start (7:37pm, according to the official records).  Highlight of the day was Zeb Nelessen's retelling of the Pine Barrens Sprint Triathlon (see item below).  This is hopefully the first of many triathlon triumphs this year, since we all know that the real CPTC is the Central Park Triathlon Club.  But Shelley Farmer warns us, "Ehhhh ... don't count on me winning anything right now.  I'll be lucky if I finish.  I am going to skip the Montauk Triathlon, but I will do the Lake Placid sprint triathon where I expect to die terribly."
     
    Stranger #1 of the day was Brian Marchese: "I've been spending the last few months in Münich, Germany where I did not run and I drank a lot of beer.  I came back today to take an inventory of the pains and aches on this club, and there is a lot of it around here."
     
    Stranger #2 of the day was Tivon Jacobson: "Hi, remember me?  I'm the rock climbing NYU graduate student who is studying hyperbolic laws of conservative systems ..."
     
    Social talk of the day (of the week? of the month? of the year?) was that Kim Mannen is engaged.  This raised a certain amount of speculation since Kim's fiancé is not a member of the team (yet).  So we promised to publish some photos.  Kim does not believe that we have pictures of the couple, so we will produce the first of the series:
     

     
    We offer people fair warning that even with 7,000 photographs published so far on this website, we still have a few hundred more reserved for odd occasions (such as blackmailing).
      

  • PINE BARRENS SPRINT TRIATHLON: Zeb Nelessen's report: "So we got out there on Saturday morning.  The weather was atrocious, but the race organizers knew that it would stop later, and therefore delayed the race start by an hour.  We sat and wait in our car in the parking lot, and the rain was coming down in buckets.  When we got out of the car, we found that an umbrella was useless because the rain was coming in horizontally.  All the while, we could see people giving up and backing out of the parking lot to go home.  Finally, around 945pm, they called for the first wave.
     
    Now this was a strange day because the air temperature was in fact colder than the water, which meant that a fog was rising up.  Swimming in the rain does not really bother anyone because they are going to get wet anyway.  What was ridiculous was when I got out of the water and headed into the bike transition, I had to pick up my helmet and empty the rainwater that had accumulated in it first.  For the first ten miles of the bike ride, there was a cross wind.  Then we turned into the wind, which was strong but not impossible because the road was lined with trees on both side.  But it was really great when we came back with the wind on our backs.  I was flying at 33, 34 miles per hour, and the only annoyance were the puddles in the road.  I actually had the fastest bike leg of the day, except my transitions were horrendous.  
     
    I thought that this race was sufficiently obscure that the website guy will never find it.  But I was wrong ..."

  • PHOTO ANALYSIS:  The above seems to be an idyllic romantic photo with suitably soft edges, featuring from left to right: Andrea Costella, Jerome O'Shaughnessy, Shula Sarner, Frank Morton, Peter Homsher, Sarah Gross in a track workout.  However, this photo is shown here as material for educational purposes --- NEVER TAKE UP THREE LANES WHEN YOU RUN!!!  PLEASE!!!

WEEK OF MAY 14-MAY 20, 2002

  • VICTORY TOTALS:  With three wins this week, our individual total just went up to 9.  At the same time last year, we had 23 wins already (with 13 coming from Toby Tanser!).  But it looks like Toby Tanser might be back on a roll again with his win this weekend.  We were also quite impressed by Zeb Nelessen's win at the Pine Barrens Sprint Distance Triathlon on Saturday in all that cold wind and rain.  He was 20th in the swim and 7th in the run, so his victory was built upon his 2nd place in the bike.  Imagine sloshing through the water in that driving rain!  Yes, we knew it all along --- triathletes are CRAZY!
     
    By the way, our original metaphor for the conditions at You Gotta Have Park was 'This must be what running in Iceland is like.'  Then we thought better because just the sort of thing that someone who has never been to Iceland would say.  After all, nobody got blown away by the wind into the ocean in this race.  Perhaps Toby Tanser will care to tell one or two real Icelandic eddas, in prose or poetry.
      
  • NEWS CYCLE:  Just to re-iterate the rules of the game: you run a race on the weekend, you tell no one and you check the race results posted on the website on Monday.  If it was published already, you lose; if it was not published, you send in an email to claim the win.  This weekend's score was 8-3 in favor of the website.  The winners are those who ran the Forest Hill Classic 5K, the Middletown (PA) 5K and (what do you expect!?) the National Veterans Eight-Stage Road Relay Championships (UK).  The website has maintained a winning percentage for the longest time, but it has seldom achieved shutouts.  So while we know that our heaviest traffic occurs on Mondays because of the weekend race results, we emphasize that you ought to check in on Tuesday as well.  We think that we are a better team for this, for how else could you keep with all your many, many friends' accomplishments without the website (and all the intrigue)?
     
    POSTSCRIPT:  The score moves to 8-4 with the addition of the Buckley-To-JFK race.
     
  • WORLD CUP PICK:  Still no pick by us yet due to the fact that not all the rosters are in.  We must admit to being less than enthusiastic about the whole process, since our sentimental favorite failed to qualify.  (Sniff, sniff, sniff).  Who would you suppose is our sentimental favorite?  Silly, why do you even have to think twice?  It must be the orange team.  TOTAL FOOTBALL, ALL THE WAY!  Now instead we are going to stay up late at night to watch the Italians play the catenaccio for 0-0 draws ... yawn ...  By the way, those are not solely our personal sentiments.  After all, even Sid Howard has been seen wearing that real orange sport suit.
     
  • FUND ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF CLUB FOUNDER JACK BRENNAN

    May 18th would have been Jack's 53rd birthday. His family has established a community fund, to benefit youth sports and community programs in Westchester, and keep Jack's memory alive. Eventually they plan to establish an annual run in his honor (they promise to have a special award for the first CPTC finisher). The initial goal is $5000.00. Jack gave our team 30 years of competition, leadership and humor.  CPTC members can make contributions of any size to: The Jack Brennan Fund, c/o the Westchester Community Foundation, 470 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 304, White Plains, New York 10605.  
     
    Thanks - Marian Brennan and Frank Handelman
     

  • GREAT CPTC T-SHIRT GIVE-AWAY:  The great CPTC T-Shirt giveaway will continue at Tuesday night track workouts while stocks last. These T-shirts are colloquially known as the ' No Smokin' therefore no need to quit' t-shirts and are generously brought to you by David Pullman of The Pullman Group. For those members who cannot pick up their t-shirts on Tuesday evenings, they can be picked up at Alan Ruben's apartment at 801 West End Avenue, Apt 5E (99th Street) ( alan@montran.com ).  Incidentally, Alan brought some of those t-shirts to the You Gotta Have Park race on Saturday, and they were greatly appreciated because everyone wanted as many layers of clothing as possible in that cold.
     

  • ... AND HOW MANY LAWYERS?  Now that we answered the question about the number of doctors, someone else wants to know how many lawyers are on the Central Park Track Club.  After all, the J.D. degree stands for "Juris Doctorate," or "Doctor of Jurisprudence."  That is a tough question, because lawyers do not usually betray their origins whereas doctors reveal their professions by using highly technical terms to describe their injuries.  We know that the following are practicing lawyers: Devon Sargent, Frank Handelman, Mary V. Rosado, Bob Laufer, David Blackstone, Mark Gumbiner and Marissa Tiamfook.  And to that list we can add one guy who has a J.D. but never took the bar exam --- John Prather.  Noah Perlis has a law degree but does not practice law other than dispensing free legal advice.  Nine people out of a hypothetical base of 200 would be just 9 / 200 = 4.5%.
      
    What is the baseline for comparison?  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a total of 890,910 persons 15+ employed in the legal occupation in year 2000.  But that is a larger group because it presumably includes judges, legal scholars, clerks, paralegals and adminstrative staff.  890,910 out of 215 million is less than 0.5%.  Again, it would seem that we are above the national average.
     
    Of course, all these silly little comparisons against national averages are really not relevant.  The Central Park Track Club draws its members mainly from around the Central Park area in New York City (but we also have members outside of New York such as London, Paris, Tokyo, etc).  Necessarily we reflect the composition of our immediate neighborhood.    Furthermore, the base of 200 is so small that it is sensitive to the status of just a few individuals.  For example, we have five Harvard University graduates (Tom Phillips, Margaret Angell, Margaret Schotte, Lee Shearer, Sara Grillo and that is without even counting Devon Sargent (Harvard Law) and John Sargent (Harvard Medical)); this 5/200 = 2.5% incidence is much higher than the national incidence of Harvard University graduates.  At the same time, we have one Grinnell College graduate in Paul Bendich; this 1/200 = 0.5% is also much higher than the national incidence of Grinnell College alumni.  (Frank Morton adds: "Add one more for Grinnell College. I attended Grinnell for 2 years, so although I am not a graduate, I am considered an alumnus (I must be because I keep getting solicited for contributions).")  Another way of looking at this is: as a percentage, each one of us is 0.5% = 1 / 200, and 0.5% out of 210 million adults is over 1 million.  If we all went to 200 different universities (note: not strictly true, since one of us attended seven different universities!), then all those universities are over-represented in our club and all other universities in the country are under-represented.
     
    The point here is that, as with any other similar social organization, we are going to be diverse and eclectic.  From our About The Central Park Track Club page, we had listed these occupations: "Actuary,     ad salesperson, art historian, athletic coach, author, bank teller, beach bum (okay, use the euphemistic 'lifeguard' label, if you insist), actor, advertising strategist, AIDS researcher, architect, attorney, baker, biology researcher, chemist, chiropractor, computer programmer, copier machine maintenance worker, editor, emergency room doctor, fashion designer, fireman, health care consultant, counselor, investment banker, journalist, lawyer, mathematician, midwife, model, molecular biologist, motorman, movie reviewer, nurse, nutritionist, physicist, poet, policewoman, portfolio manager, probation officer, university professor, prosecutor, psychologist, public and social policy analyst, publisher, real estate broker, reporter, running coach, salesperson, sculptor, sociologist, sports doctor, sports writer, statistician, student, surgeon, teacher, trader, trainer, translator, triathlon coach, underwriter, university administrator, university professor, urologist, venture capitalist, webmaster, writer, ..."  Each and every one of us is unique in some fashion.  By chance, we happen to meet each other within this organization.
     
    A more important question might be this: "How many of the members of the Central Park Track Club are narcs (e.g. worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration)?"  We know of three people, but we will not name them because they were all involved in undercover work.  So you are hereby warned to be a bit more discrete in the future about telling your little stories of indiscretion, because one or more of them might be in your audience.  This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.  (Point of clarification: In spite of what you may believe, the above was not created for the purpose of chasing undesirables away from the team).
     

  • PLACE MARKERS:  A query came in about the presence of a link in the results page without actual results being posted (e.g. Columbia Triathlon).  This is a place marker for an event in which we know that we have entrants and the results are not available yet (e.g. the entrants' database showed Nicole Billman, Sylvie Burlot and Erik Schmitz).  Come back later, and those results will be posted as soon as we get them.
       

  • NAME YOUR TEAMMATES:  This week's front cover photo is quite challenging insofar as your ability to name those people who were at the track workout.  There are 10 persons who are clearly identifiable (L-R: 1 female in black, 1 female with orange top/black pants standing in the rear, 1 male in black top/light shorts, 1 female in light grey/white/green in front,  1 female with white top and long blue pants with white stripe, 1 male with green top/blue shorts, 1 female with light blue top/dark shorts/big smile, 1 female in profile with black top, 1 male with grey top and beard, 1 male with orange t-shirt) in this photo.  How many can you name?
     

     
    If you got a lousy score, don't fret too much.  Even your photographer could not name two of them.  To raise your score, just come down to the track and talk to people ... 
     
    Okay, you want some extra points?  Who is that woman in profile on the left right behind the female in black?  This bonus point is an absolute give-away.
     
    Jesse Lansner: "Will you be posting the answer to this at any point?  I'm only sure of 4 of them, plus 2 that I think I got. Pretty sad considering that I was running with this group when the photo was taken (white shirt, blue shorts, and one leg visible in the far left foreground, identifiable mostly by the garish pink thing with the Discovery Channel logo on my sneaker that holds my keys)."
      

  • YOU GOTTA HAVE PARK WRAP-UP: We understand that when the schedule for club scoring races came up for discussion, there was the notion of having no races during the month of May.  However, someone (and it had to be someone representing the Central Park Track Club) put forward the idea that May has the best running weather of the year, and consequently this race was put on the schedule.  What great running weather!  It was cold, windy and wet out there.  The coach's pre-race instructions were simply: "When you see the first puddle, just run right through it instead of skirting around it like everyone else.  You are going to get wet, sooner or later."
     
    Before the race, the question came up as to whether this one might be cancelled.  Why?  Running races are cancelled due to ice/snow because of the possibility of injury due to slipping or extreme heat/humidity.  Rain?  Cold?  What has that got to do with anything?  Meanwhile, we heard that the Peter Schlendorf Duathlon was cancelled due to 'flooding.'  We suppose that while it is possible to cross a river by foot, it is harder on a bicycle.  We remember that Jonathan Cane wrote a few days ago: "I won't be racing, but will be out on my geeky tri-bike for a little while, so I hope to see everyone there."  Did he make it out of that swimming pool with his bike?  Jonathan answers: "No, I did not brave the conditions to come out and train on Saturday. I used my fancy CompuTrainer and 'rode' indoors.  Large puddles, racers in my lane and general lousy conditions made it seem like an easy choice, though somehow I knew my absence would be noted on the web site."
     
    The talk after the race was not about personal records or accomplishments.  Everyone seemed to be glossing nostagiac about that swimming pool-sized puddle that had to be traversed twice.  Stéphane Bois said, "It was guaranteed to wash away all the mud that you got on your body  to that point of the race."  Another topic is the number of times that one's shoelaces became undone and how impossible it was to retie them when your fingers have no feeling.  In that section of the race, Sarah Gross beat Kate Crowley by a score of 4-2.  Steve Paddock had the foresight to demand someone else to double-knot his shoelaces beforehand.  
     
    Scoringwise, the men's open team was in fourth place.  The bad news is that the masters men will not go undefeated this year, although our lead is still considerable (72-55 over JSRC).  The good news is that Jerome O'Shaughnessy, by virtue of this third place today behind Alan Ruben and Victor Osayi, has earned his rightful place on the podium at the awards ceremony.
     
    Of course, the rain stopped around 10:45am right after the race.  Our middle-distance running group had scheduled a workout at the Van Cortlandt Park track
         11:25am Warm up & stretch 
         11:45pm Light Drills & Strides 
         12:00pm Start Intervals 
         3 x 1 mile @ 5k pace, 2:00--2:30 min rest
    The rain would no longer be falling at 12:00pm.  The only problem is that there might still be water barriers around the track.
     

  • CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHAMPION: ... is Real Madrid, beating Bayer Leverkusen with the deciding goal coming from Zinedine Zidane.  Ramon Bermo wrote: "I think it's only fair, that we show all those Brits, Italians and other wannabes just who the best team really is....Real Madrid, already having been named the team of the 20th century and, at this pace, to be named the team of the 21st century ... P.S.  Yours truly was lucky enough to take off from work and watch the game... ole,ole,ole,ole ... Madrid, Madrid..... ..."
     
    So Ramon took a day off.  What did our Arsenal fans do?
    At one extreme, one of our Arsenal fan was at the office and listened to the Manchester United game on webcast.  When Freddie Ljunberg scored at the 70th minute for Arsenal to break the deadlock, she jumped up, pumped her arms and yelled Gooooooooool, much to the consternation of everyone in her workarea!
    At the other extreme, another of our Arsenal fans called in sick for the entire week.  Unfortunately, but very typically so, this very private matter was published on the website for the whole world to read.  So for that entire week, his heart would skip a few beats whenever the phone rang at home because he was so sure that his boss must have just read that news item on this website ...
    Meanwhile, our Tottenham fan keeps his distance from all this (note: after all, he is in Tokyo (Japan)).
      

  • HOW MANY DOCTORS?  Apparently, we opened up a can of worms when we mentioned that we had the reputation of being the team of 'lawyers and doctors.'  We were asked, "How many doctors are there on your team?"  Well, since our policy is "Don't ask, don't tell," we don't know the exact number.  Notwithstanding that artless dodge tactic, we can name those that we know ('by accident', of course) possess doctorates.  We think that we can count them on one hand: Dan Hamner, Randy Ehrlich, Alan Bautista, Dan Sack, Michele Tagliati, ... okay, how about with both hands? ... David d'Adamo, Gordon Streeter, Shula Sarner, Alayne Adams, Tim Evans, ... okay, so maybe this is getting out of hand ... and Joseph Kozusko, Marie Davis, Josh Friedman, Jiyon Lee, Chele Modica, Eric Vanden-Eijnden, John Sargent ... oh, of course, we almost forgot Roland Soong ... did we miss anyone? ... yes, Dr. Isaya Okwiya and Dr. Fritz Mueller.  These are people with doctorates, in medicine as well as chemistry, biomechanics, psychiatry, mathematics and thermonuclear physics.  Assuming that this is all and that our total membership is 200, this is 20/200 = 10%.  
     
    What is the benchmark for comparison?  According to the Current Population Survey from the US Bureau of the Census, there are 2,032,000 persons with doctorates out of the population of 213,773,000 persons 15 years of older, which is less than 1%.  Okay, so maybe we are slightly above average ...
     

  • THURSDAY ROAD WORKOUT REPORT:  The men's scoring race is set for Saturday morning in Prospect Park, so today's workout drew only forty-eight people.  That is surely a good sign, but for the fact that Kevan Huston will not be racing.  All racers were sent out to run easy with Erik Goetze around the reservoir.  For the racers, we'll remind you about two things: (1) If you are taking the Q train to Prospect Park, please be aware that there will be delays due to track work (see the item further down the page for details); (2) please make sure that your club affiliation is listed on your bib when your pick it up --- do not let your talents go to waste! 
     
    THE THINGS THAT WE FIND OUT:  Today is the tenth anniversay of John Gleason with the Central Park Track Club.  We bet that you didn't know that.
     
    NO MORE STALE JOKES: Stop already!  This one has been beaten to death: "How many Ph.D.'s does it take to fill out an NYRR race application form?"
     
    Q&A: "How do you know if Jerome O'Shaughnessy is ready to run?"  "He is ready to run if he is under-dressed, like showing up in shorts and singlet in early January.  He is not running if he shows up in a t-shirt and tights, like today."
     
    HOW TO YOU FIX YOUR BIKE:  Bring your bike to the workout and ask any of our many cycling pros, such as Noel Comess.  You get a full explanation of the speedometer too.
     
    WOMEN'S MINI-MARATHON:  This June 8th race is the premier race for women on the calendar.  Scoring will be five deep instead of the usual three, so we would like to have a large turnout by the women.  Now that the two half marathons are done, we have several shorter races (10K or under) coming up.  Therefore, in addition to our endurance athletes, we should be able to add the likes of Kate Crowley, Nicole Billman, Stefani Jackenthal, ...  We will also see the debuts of our new twenty-something-year-old runners too.  What fun!  Apart from the women, we plan to organize a mass turnout of men at certain locations for cheering sections.  For example, a traditional gathering point has always been the one mile mark across the Museum of Natural History.  Details will be forthcoming.  Clear out your very busy social calendars for this.
         

  • CHASE CORPORATE CHALLENGE SPECTATOR LIST:  Ana Echeverri, Audrey Kingsley, Steve Paddock, Bola Awofeso, Stacy Creamer (violating bed-rest laws), Frank Schneiger, and Peter Gambaccini.  Of the aforementioned, only Bola Awofeso received mention by Toby Tanser: "Bola from CPTC would have won the race but he took a wrong turn, and did an extra lap of the bridle path."  Unsolicited comment: "Are you so desperate as to publish even spectator lists?"
      

  • BOARD OF ED WINS CHASE CORPORATE CHALLENGE: The Board of Education team which includes Kevin Arlyck (5th place overall, 2nd on the team, 19:02) and James Siegel (5th on the team, 19:57) won the men's team competition, thus proving that the hard-working, underpaid teachers are better runners than the best from corporate America.  Joe Tumbarello also ran for the Board of Education.  Hopefully, our teammates' success will go a long way to erasing the unfair reputation that the Central Park Track Club is the team of 'doctors and lawyers.'  We are just as blue-collar working class as the next team ... (at least, we like to think so) ...
     

  • CHARLOTTE CUTLER WINS CHASE CORPORATE CHALLENGE:  From the race website:
      
    "(Deena) Drossin held the finish tape for a pair of outstanding winners on this night. Rolly, one of the top 10 marathoners in his native France and a physical therapist for Columbia Presbyterian, won the men's crown in 17:21, topping Ricardo Bailey of the Board of Education (18:24) by more than a minute. Charlotte Cutler, a British diplomat for the United Nations, defeated teammate Stephanie Hodge 20:45-21:55 for the women's crown.
     
    "Stephanie won this race (New York #1) last year, and I happened to see her at another race a week later," Cutler said. "I didn't realize at the time we both worked for the U.N. She told me about what a terrific event it was, so I had to try it for myself."
     
    Both Cutler and Rolly are first-time Corporate Challenge® winners, and come from different backgrounds. Rolly is a devout marathoner with his sights set on running a 2:15 in the 2002 Chicago Marathon. Cutler is a half-mile specialist, having honed her craft as one of the U.K.'s top collegiate 800 runners at Cambridge University.
     
    "Normally I tend to go out too fast because of my training," said Cutler. "But tonight I went out evenly and had a fun race."
     
    The London native also had a message for the U.K.'s Royal Mail Letters team, the defending champions from the 2001 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship®.
     
    "Last year we finished second to them," said Cutler. "This year, we're going one better." Let the rivalry begin."
      

  • MAC TRACK MEET (ASTORIA PARK, 10am, MAY 19, 2002):  Almost slipping under the radar screen is this MAC track meet.  Event details are published in the linked page.
     

  • MORE WORLD CUP PREDICTIONS:  Three more predictions from Toby Tanser:
    (1) the leading goal scorer will be Gabriel Batistuta (AS Roma)
    (2) Sweden will make at least the semi's, and be the tournament's surprise.  
    (3) England will be the flop (note: a spice of Orange controversy)
     
    Our comments:
    (1) It does not matter how good Gabriel "Batigol" Batistuta is, because every opposing team will send someone like Jens Jeremies (Germany) to hack him all over the field.
    (2) Hmmm ... how is a bunch of people who drive trucks on weekdays and play soccer on weekends going to get into the semi's?  Toby replied: "Samman vag de tog i '94!!  (The same road they took in 1994 when they got into the Semi's only to lose to Brazil on penalties)."
    (3) Ooops ... Toby just lit a match underneath Shula Sarner, Steve Paddock, Charles Allard Jr., etc.  Nothing beats an intra-mural mud-wrestling match for entertainment.
     
    Shula Sarner's comments:
    "Well, I think it's too close to call. The only comment I have at this stage is ... it's not fair. England are in the hardest group, and since Freddie Ljunberg is an Arsenal player, I kind of have a soft spot for Sweden. Hmm. My only other comment is, I'll be surprised if the USA (perennial winners of the 'World' series) will win anything."
       

  • ALBANY SPRING CLASSIC PHOTOS:  The photos from Sue Pearsall are most enjoyable for the pained expressions of Isaya Okwiya running in the gale-force wind.
     

  • YOU GOTTA HAVE PARK:  As you all know, most Manhattanites do not own cars unless your name is Sandra Scibelli.  That means the easiest way to get out there is via the subway (see MTA map).  If you are taking the Q train, please read the following very carefully: "Participants planning to take the Q train to Saturday's race should allow extra time to get to Prospect Park.  Due to track work in Brooklyn, the Q train is terminating at Atlantic Avenue, with shuttle bus service to the Prospect Park stop. Please allow ample time to make it to the 10:00 a.m. start in Prospect Park."  We would like to proclaim the usual "This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website" but truth-in-advertising requires us to disclose that the above paragraph was cut-and-pasted from the NYRR website.  If nothing else, we are scrupulously honest ... if you can believe that, then we have a bridge to sell you.
     
    From Jonathan Cane: "In case anyone wants to avoid the Q train and the shuttle bus to Saturday's race, there is another option. The 1 or 2 to Grand Army Plaza will leave you about 1/4 mile from the entrance to the park and about a mile from the start. Just follow Flatbush Av. through the huge traffic circle and you'll be at the GAP entrance. Turn left along the park drive when you enter the park. I won't be racing, but will be out on my geeky tri-bike for a little while, so I hope to see everyone there."
     

  • TUESDAY TRACK WORKOUT:  Only forty-eight people showed up at the distance runners' workout.  It was cold (low 50's) and windy (20mph gusts), which makes it unpleasant all the way through.  Steve Paddock wondered, "When will it ever be summer?"  Be careful --- you may get what you wish for ...  And if you did not leave soon enough after the workout, you would have been caught in the rain.  But the real danger came not from chill, cold, rain, wind, thunder, lightning, wildin' teenagers, taxis or muggers, but from getting hit by the shots on goal by the soccer players!  Our timers are especially at risk because the finishing point of every set is located right next to the mini-goals, which meant that they stand there reading the splits as soccer balls go whizzing by.  


              Timers in peril: Audrey Kingsley, Stephanie Gould, Lauren Eckhart
 
TIMERS' OPINIONS:  There are two schools of thought.  There are timers who are injured and who therefore preferred to move as little as possible.  For them, the ideal workout is one in which they don't have to move an inch.  Then then are timers who actually enjoyed sprinting across the field to catch the group on those 200m, 600m and 1000m sets.  That is because we have all noticed that we were running as if we had springs on our feet when we run across the artificial grass field!  It felt wonderful! 
   
ART CRITIC: About her photo at the Allure Mother's Day Half Marathon, Shula Sarner said, "That was the worst possible picture that can be taken of me!"  We told her that we were actually contemplating the footnote: "... and this is the sort of photo that her 'awful' boyfriend will e-mailed to her relatives all over the world!"
 
PILLOW TALK:  On last night's update, we wrote an item about Jonathan Pillow, whose name had not been mentioned for many months.  Before we know, the real Jonathan Pillow showed up at today's workout.  Is this sheer coincidence?  If you think so, you deserve to be hit by lightning.  He did read that item because he said he went to check the workout schedule and saw the news headline "Pillow Talk."  In any case, he is back in the running, ready for the summer races and aiming for the New York City Marathon.  Jonathan reminisced about some memories: "I remember that there was a determined effort to get the workout to start on time ..."  That was then, this is now ...

  • ALLERSEELEN:  In the USA, Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May.  This is a national holiday in memory of those who died in the armed forces.  In Europe, All Souls Day (Allerseelen) falls on November 2nd, and is a day for us to once again be close to those whom we loved in the past but who no longer grace us with their physical presence.  In the poem of Hermann von Gilm below (which has to be appreciated in the form of our all-time favorite lieder composed by Richard Strauss), the memories go back to what happened once upon a time in May.  So this May, we ask you to spend a moment to remember all of those who have departed, including Jack Brennan whose birthday is this coming Sunday.

                ALLERSEELEN (Hermann von Gilm)

    Stell auf den Tisch die duftenden Reseden,
    		 Place on the table the fragrant mignonettes,
    Die letzten roten Astern trag herbei,
    		 Bring inside the last red asters,
    Und laß uns wieder von der Liebe reden,
    		 and let us speak again of love,
    Wie einst im Mai.
    		 as once we did in May.


    Gib mir die Hand, daß ich sie heimlich drücke
    		 Give me your hand, so that I can press it secretly;
    Und wenn man's sieht, mir ist es einerlei,
    		 and if someone sees us, it's all the same to me.
    Gib mir nur einen deiner süßen Blicke,
    		 Just give me your sweet gaze,
    Wie einst im Mai.
    		 as once you did in May.


    Es blüht und funkelt heut auf jedem Grabe,
    		 Flowers adorn today each grave, sending off their fragrances;
    Ein Tag im Jahr ist ja den Toten frei,
    		 one day in the year are the dead free.
    Komm an mein Herz, daß ich dich wieder habe,
    		 Come close to my heart, so that I can have you again,
    Wie einst im Mai.
    		 as once I did in May.

WEEK OF MAY 07-MAY 13, 2002

  • ALLURE MOTHER'S DAY HALF MARATHON:  In that race, our first three runners Margaret Angell (1:21:34), Alayne Adams (1:22:23) and Stephanie Gould (1:23:45) delivered one of the best team performances ever.  Unfortunately, Alayne was not scored and we had to cash in our insurance policy in Lauren Eckhart.  As a result, the open women's team placed second in the club scoring instead of first.  
     
    Coach Bob Glover from the Greater New York Running Team wrote: 

You stated: "As far as we can remember (and that would go as far back as 1988), this is the best showing of a Central Park Track Club women's half marathon team."   I remember back to 1975. This was indeed the best performance ever by a CPTC half marathon team. And considering the "traffic" they had to run through and the extra distance they had to run (pushed to the middle lane several times to pass the underachieving masses), their times were amazing. PRs for all I believe?

It appears that technically CPTC was second because one of your heroic runners somehow didn't put down the team name on the app. Our women agree with my decision to collect our first place team medals and turn them over to the team that rightfully won the race. We took it to the Orange in an effort to pull off a major upset. In just our 5th year as a grassroots program, we have yet to win a team point race. It almost worked, but your runners rose to the challenge. We certainly did not lose by going for broke---and the athletes chose individually to take that strategy. What was lost in minutes over the last miles was gained in pride over the next few years.

However, we won't give back the team points (even if we could). That is because the same thing happened to us at the Brooklyn Half. Our top runner somehow forgot to place the team name on the app and was not scored. It cost us two points to CPTC in the standings. So this evens things out.  One could argue that both these runners are team regulars so why shouldn't they count anyway. Unfortunately, not all teams are honest and in past years a lot of manipulation took place (mostly by you know who). Thus, the NYRR is quite firm on their rule. Scares the hell out of me every race.

The important thing is that both teams today are legit, were at full strength for present day fitness, and pushed each other to another level.  For that, we both are winners.

It was only at last Thursday's road workout that we were speaking with Lauren Eckhart, who was penalized four minutes for crossing the yellow line at the Wildflower Triathlon.  When we heard her story, we were able to quote from the top of our head what Sid Howard said in the event that was narrated in Famous Saying #1051, and which we publish again here.

#1051.  WHO:  Sid Howard
SITUATION:  At the 2000 USATF National Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene (Oregon), Sid was disqualified in the M60-64 800m finals for hav