This just in: CPTC wins five of six age groups – read all about it from your captains:

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+: 

CPTC Mens 60+ 2011 5th Avenue Mile Wrap Up

 What a difference a second makes. Mens 60+ hinged on a second for the first 4 teams in this year’s 5th Avenue Mile. Taconic RR had a total of 1070 seconds, we had 1069! GNY had 1116, Witold’s 1117 while Front Runners 1216 gave them 5th.
I want to send a big Thank You to Bob Haig who ran unbeknownst to me. And to Hal Lieberman for adding to the team effort. Sam Mann had a death in the family and did not run. It’s always nice to have extra gas in the tank.

Chris Neuhoff, you are great. You have been a rock to our team. At 6:08, you were our 3rd scorer.

But I’ve got to metaphorically hoist The Great Sid Howard up on my shoulders. Or should I say, at 72 and a half he carried us on his shoulders, taking our second scoring position mens 60+ in crossing the line in 6 minutes flat. Need I say that at Tony’s Tuesday workouts he has consistently been kicking my sorry a$$. What a great finish Sid! You are The Master. Mariano Rivera is no better a closer than you.

All of this brings us up to the current Men 60+ club standings. Unofficially (as NYRR has not posted their calculations as of this writing):

Taconic is first with 117, 

we are second with 63, 

Witold’s third with 58, 

GNY fouth with 55, 

West Side, who did not have 3 scorers for today’s race, fifth with 55,

Front Runners sixth with 46

Van Cortlandt seventh with 44, also did not have 3 scorers today.
And what does this all boil down to? 

Taconic doesn’t have a worry in the world. 

West Side Runners and us both have used our mulligan. 

The next 2 races have the potential to point out the hole in the bucket of mens 60+ club racing. If we can’t field 3 runners to cross the line at these venues and others can, even if they do it pushing a peanut with their noses, the market is due for a serious correction. Like all races, the podium belongs to the final order at the end of the event. Dan Molloy and Dave Delano have answered the clarion call to run with me for CPTC in Grete’s Half. We have a possibility of 3 starters for the NYC Marathon, a race that is really no country for old men… Should our fortunes change and find ourselves a card short of the podium on Club Night, we have done very well for ourselves. Consider that we didn’t run 2 events and had no expectations. We have donned our singlets and laced our running shoes. Central Park Track Mens 60+ has stirred from the ashes, and risen like a phoenix.  

The final NYRR Club Point Race is Join the Voices 5 miler (1.2 miles shorter than Joe K 10k, which it replaces) in Central Park on December 4th. This is a good time to start training towards making it a race goal. May we have an overwhelming showing of our guys on the starting line! 

See you at our CPTC Benefit in October,

Hank

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From Andrew Moore of the 50+:

 Congrats to the 50+ team for their great showing at the 5th Avenue Mile last Saturday. The team came through on top of the division, led by strong performances by Coach Tony Ruiz (4:54), Peter Allen (5:08) and Alan Ruben (5:13).  Harry Lichtenstein and Collin Mitchell also competed. Tommy Raymond, I saw photos of you running but you aren’t in the NYRR results! 

Next up is Grete’s Half Marathon this Saturday October 1 – see you there!

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From Sylvie Kimche of the 50+ and 60+

 The CPTC runners burned the asphalt of Fifth Avenue yesterday (Saturday 09/24/11) in the 31st edition of the Fifth Avenue Mile: 8 teams with 7 first place teams and one 3rd place! Amazing!!! 

The W60+ team of Deborah Barchat, Marie-Louise Michelsohn & Sylvie Kimche came in 1st place in a total time of 20:08 (2 minutes & 41 seconds ahead of the 2nd team: the Mercury Masters)

The 50+ team also came in 1st place ahead of Athena (by only 11 seconds) with Yumi Ogita who recently turned 50, leading the charge in 5:18. Sylvie & Marie-Louise rounded out the W50+ team. 

Deb, for her first time running down Fifth Avenue finished in 7:13, slightly ahead of Judith Tripp, to take 3rd place for the team. It is to be noted that both Deb and Judith are training for the marathon & currently doing long runs, which are not propitious for running the mile. As George Wiznewski, our coach of old, once told me after the 1989 NYC marathon (my last one!)

 “Sylvie, the mile & the marathon don’t mesh. You have to choose one over the other…..”, so congrats to both Deb & Judith to step up to the line. 

Marie-Louise, only a few days shy of her 70th birthday, was 1st in her age group & 2nd for the team in 6:45 (a 97.5% AG performance), despite not having a good race because of the humidity and troubles breathing. One can only imagine what she would have run in dryer conditions! It is to be noted that Marie-Louise holds the Fifth Avenue Mile record for W60+: 5:51.1 which she ran in 2002. Yesterday’s race was her first run down Fifth Avenue since 2006. 

Sylvie was pushed hard by Corinne Steinbach from Pompei NY and fought hard to keep her steak of 1st place age-group awards. In the process, she ran 6:10, a 3 seconds improvement on her time of 2 years ago, good for a 98.5% AG performance!  (guess coach Wiz was right, the mile is really my best distance!) 

In the W50+ category, Yumi’s time of 5:18 (a 94.11% AG performance) was good for 1st place in her new age group (she would also have scored 1st place in the W40-44 and in the W45-49 age groups. She would also have finished 2nd in the W35-39 age group – or she may have won if she had be pushed by the competition….). 

It is to be noted that Yumi also scored 1st for the CPTC W40+ team.  

So congratulations to all and thanks to all the cheering squads out there. It really helped!

Overall a great day of running! 

GO ORANGE!

 Sylvie

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From Ani Go of the W 40+: 

For our third club points race in a row, the 40+ women’s masters dominated top place!  Burning up 5th ave, Yumi Ogita ran like the wind finishing in 5:18, followed by Jill Vollweiler flashing by in 5:29, and rounding up the top of our scoring crew, the fiery Sue Pearsall in 5:52.  Also representing our strong team was Wanda Wang (5:59) and Andrea Ostrowski (6:41).  Congrats, and fantastic job to all who ran!