Once in a while a coach will tap an athlete on the shoulder, look him in the eye and suggest he could break a record. Usually it’s not a world record.
Hal Lieberman got the tap from Coach Devon in the fall, suggesting he help put together a team to go after the 70+ 4 x 800 indoor world record, 12:09, set by an American team in 2008. Four guys running 3:00 sounded doable to Hal, and Sid Howard quickly joined the team, as did former club president Norm Goluskin.
Finding a fourth was a challenge, and after losing a prospect to a torn meniscus, the team took to the internet. There they found Dominic Rappazzo of Albany, whose recent 68 second 400 stood out. Like Michelangelo’s claim of not being a painter, Dominic’s insistence on being just a sprinter was put to rest at a TNAR when he ran a careful 2:58. The quartet was complete. Dominic is not a CPTC member.
Devon helped with some 800 workouts, including a solid 2 x
(800 400 200) done twice. The first, says Norm, ‘told me that I had a long way to go,” and the second, completed solidly, told him that he was ready to go. A sharpening workout of 2x (4 x 200) with just 30 seconds rest was the final brushstroke on the canvas.
The relay team targeted the re-scheduled TNAR on March 5 as go time, and Devon helped with the required preparations for a record attempt. Institutional memory helped, since Norm and Sid were part of a 2002 team that set and still holds the 60-64 4 x 800 indoor record. Automatic timing must be set up, other teams had to be engaged, and the attempt had to be declared. “The NYRR was very accommodating,” Sid said later.
While everyone was fit and ready, the running gods still demanded a sacrifice, and visited on Norm a foot injury just a few days before the race. But like Michelangelo on Julius II’s scaffolding, it was too late to reconsider.
The goal was to average three minutes per leg. On paper, it wasn’t a stretch considering the athletes, but on race day, with people hurt and running out of their specialty… anything could happen.
Eight hundred meter specialist Hal took it out in a solid 2:49, quickly buying a cushion for the team. Sprinter Dom glided around in 2:57 and handed it to the wounded Norman. The team held its breath, since Norm was even that evening unsure of his solidity. But he got around four times in 3:09 and the team knew at that point, with the great Sid Howard holding the baton, that the record was theirs. “I knew Sid would give it everything he had,” said Hal afterwards. Sid brought it home in 11:47, beating the record by 22 seconds.
The 4 x 8 was the orangest of all events this winter, as the team of Jonevan Hornsby, Andrew Hogue, David Peters, and Neil Fitzgerald also set an indoor world record this year (in the 35-39) with their 8:04.75.
For most of us, the history of the club is a meaningful part of our running. As Hal wrote after the race:
In 10 years or less there will be another attempt at the record by CPTC, and then in 20 years yet another attempt. We want to be an inspiration to all of the up and coming masters and younger runners. In fact, that is a great motivator for us.
(Photo: Sue Pearsall)