THE INSIDE LOOP; JULY 2009 II

THE INSIDE LOOP
JULY 2009 II
Tom Byrnes and Friends

Bobby Fisher will be the first to admit that a Century that starts in the wet isn’t by any means the most inviting way to initiate a 100 mile bike ride but to his credit, Bobby decided to baptize his new Trek on the North Fork Century on June 16 in the rain and drizzle anyway. And besides, he had gotten up in the middle of the nite to subway into Manhattan, load up his bike and board the bus to the start in Greenport on Long Island’s North Fork. before it had started to pour. Bobby seems to have the schedule for these epic bike events down to a science so if you’re game and looking for a long ride, Bobby is the man.

Thanks to Kevin Miller the coordinator of the UFT Team in this year’s Corporate Challenge,June 10-11 in Central Park for passing along the news that PPTC’s Helen Dole was on the UFT’s first place women’s team with her time of 22:59. Kevin knows full well that it’s Prospect Park that puts the juice in Helen’s legs and not the chalk dust underneath her fingernails, way to rock and roll Helen Dole!

Jason Horowitz mentions that a few PPTCers have started going out roughly once a month after the Wednesday evening runs . These are open to anyone from PPTC who wants to join and, in particular, he wanted to make sure that those who are running Summer Speed 5K’s know about this. The venue is Bar Sepia ,Underhill Ave.off Eastern Parkway from 8:15pm until .......A point to note: the barkeep will not pawn your Summer Speed race medal for beers!

With the ‘’old pool"at the 9^th street Y reopened on June 22^nd , time will tell if all those who had migrated to the pool at the Dodge Y in downtown Brooklyn and elsewhere will return to cross train and swim in the 9^th street Y’s waters. Construction on this Y’s ‘’new pool" facility is slated to start this Fall but lets hope for the best. "Old Pool, New Pool," hey, the water’s much warmer indoors in these parts much of the year than it is out in the bays and oceans unless you’re using a wetsuit.

Many thanks to Ron Rice for passing along the front cover and inside page two story of the Brooklyn Spectator’s June 20-26th edition featuring the May 31^st First Annual Keep Bravo Running 5k along the Shore Road promenade which PPTC’s Diana Ortiz and friends chairpersoned. .Nice to see Diana’s smiling face on the front page and James McFarland off to a great start on page two.Over the last 35 years the Bravo volunteer Ambulance Corps has helped thousands of people in need and this was a fine way to give back PPTC has called on Bravo to help at events and they responded graciously. " 35 more!" for Bravo and friends.

On Sunday June 28^th Booby Fisher arose before dawn to catch the ride to start the Long Island Harbor Ride In Brentwood Long Island. Bobby’s 78 mile trek left him less than chipper since Bobby and fellow riders ‘explored’ hills that many bikers did not know existed out east.

Judging from the flow of comments on the pptc-open-forum@googlegroups.com about the Philly Half, seems to me that race could be another ye another PPTC road trip this fall.. With Ted Baumgartner, Mark Crowther, Tyrone Sklaren, Ami Hassler and Mike Ring chiming in with their perspectives on this event, PPTC could be good to go.

Thanks to Doug Olney for passing along some perspectives on June 28th’s PPTC Picnic/Relay.

This was PPTC’s biggest turnout in several years - 11 teams in total and 1 race walking team. As often is the case, we had a warm day, but it wasn't super hot out. The random draw resulted in relatively evenly-matched teams, so there was no clear favorite before we started. We had several good performances, especially from the women. Helen Dole broke Regina Cahill's course record, but then her record was broken by Sarah Scott. Helen ran the first leg, and Sarah was doing the anchor leg for different teams. For Maggie's Deschamps the relay was just a warmup for her next day’s Cosme race. Ted Baumgartner was consulting with anyone interested in his running the Tokyo Marathon. " After you pass the third sushi shop after mile 24, if you have anything left, make your move." Sabrina Ring was our youngest finisher, and Al Goldstein was our oldest. The picnic went fine too. We chowed down through 3 6-foot heroes, and there was plenty of other homemade goodies available. Amy Duquette performed a tap dance, Gil Torres and Zoe Prawda both did juggling acts. Charlene Kohler-Britton brought her guitar and sang an original song about running and the team, and she had a sing-along for kids as well. There was another young girl who I don't know her name performed a violin solo. ( next year, those ‘’hello my name is...." tags ) It was an eclectic selection of entertainment..
As a reminder, the Relay is a qualifying race for the PPTC Run Brooklyn 6-race incentive. Make sure that you enter your time in the Members Race History on the PPTC website.

PPTC has teams entered in the Reach the Beach Relay to be held on Sept. 18-19 in New Hampshire. The course starts at Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains in the northern part of the state and travels 200 miles through N.H. to the finish at Hampton Beach on the coast. The teams are asking the PPTC treasury to support the cost of van rentals (2 per team), that they will be using to travel to and from the race and as they move through the race itself from relay point to relay point. The Reach the Beach website is www.rtbrelay.com
Check it out, inspiring pics!

Thanks to Maggie Deschamps for passing along the Congrats to all PPTCers who raced the Cosme 5k on June 28^th! PPTC had a great turnout with many awards won! We placed 1st overall Women's team composed of Helen Dole( 2nd overall, 1st place age) in 20:31, Maggie Deschamps(6th overall, 2nd place age) in 21:06, and Corre Kombol(7th overall, 2nd place age) in 21:20. In addition we had Rebecca Rosenberg-Beran and Danielle Hansen also placing in their age group. Several other PPTC runners raced well in impressive times within a strongly competitive field.Hey, an out and back on the boardwalk at Coney Island and for a change we had a beautiful warm sunny day!


Let’s congratulate Emily Sanderson for a very showing at the 2009 Fairfield Half. Although the day was hot and humid, and the course was a hilly one, she finished second in her age group! SPF 30 on the Rocks for Emily!

Tyrone Sklaren ran the NYRR Hope and Possibility 5 miler Sunday June 25^th and found himself lingering at the finish line as many of the Achilles runners were finishing. He stayed for about an hour, cheering and encouraging these runners - "...blind runners with guides, singles amputees, double amputees, and one quadruple amputee struggling to push himself to the finish on his wheelchair with what was left of his arms; there were kids- one beautiful little girl-maybe seven years old-finishing by herself on a running prosthetic; there was a little boy who looked about 5 years old also with a prosthetic, running with a very tall older man also with a prosthetic; many people who looked ‘ok’ I later learned had serious illnesses. Quite a few of the amputees were Iraqi war veterans-big strong young guys missing a leg or two-there was one guy on crutches with one single prosthetic for his lower half." And there was Tricia Miley, the "Cental Park jogger", running them in, encouraging them, and joking with them. "I felt there was no place else I'd rather be."

For Rich Weaver this was also a very moving race that brought tears of happiness to his eyes. A very life affirming race if ever there was one. Rich had lost his scoring chip during the race and as he was walking back against the tide of a runners, one of them approached him chip in hand .

With these thoughts in mind, let us remember to count our blessings, all our blessings, today as you read this and every day.