FEBRUARY 2010 THE INSIDE LOOP TOM BYRNES and FRIENDS

FEBRUARY 2010

THE INSIDE LOOP

TOM BYRNES and FRIENDS

Don’t look now, it’s Park Slope Armory indoor track time! January 30th was the ribbon cutting ceremony for the ‘open to the public day.’ We’ve waited and waited for this and at long last, the time has come. Tony Watson and Charlene Kohler Britton have been there and can attest to the wonder of the place. One can take a tour and discuss the details of a membership. Just when PPTC will be there for group workouts still remains to be seen. Stay tuned for further details.

CONGRATULATIONS TO SARAH SCOTT, PPTC’S NEW VICE PRESIDENT, AND AMI HASSLER, PPTC‘s newest Board of Director’s member. In a close election in which members could vote on line, by mail, or at January’s monthly meeting, the ballots were counted at the meeting on Monday, January 4th, and results announced immediately after the count. Welcome aboard.

PPTC is putting pptc-open-forum@googlegroups.com to the best of use. Want to see if any of us has a doc to recommend, what’s up with the condition of the inside loop roadway, if the outside perimeter of the park’s sidewalk is icy, who can hook up for a run at such and such a time, doing favors for fellow members and picking up bibs and shirts at NYRRC before one of their events in Central, looking for company and sharing rides to races, forming relay teams…the uses seem to go on and on!

Great to see Maggie Deschamps psyching PPTC’s fast ladies to hook up to run in this year’s Colgate Games at Pratt Institute’s indoor track facility on Saturday, Jan 23rd.

Since the indoor track at Pratt mimics the new indoor track at the Park Slope Armory, this was a great taste for workouts and perhaps even competition at our own neighborhood facility.

Thanks to Mike Ring for pointing out that we made Louise Crawford's Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn’ s “Park Slope 100.”  "PROSPECT PARK TRACK CLUB because of the Turkey Trot, the Cherry Hill (Tree) Run and all the other running events you do in and around Prospect Park." As if we needed to be reminded that PPTC runs Brooklyn. Thanks Louise!

PPTC on the move to the 13.1 and 26.2 races in Arizona over the three day Martin Luther King weekend mid January. Check the PPTC race results to see how Ami, Corre, Sarah, and JP left their footprints in Phoenix!

After the earthquake that devastated Haiti struck, Sandra and Natacha Ferrari were unable to reach their mother who worked in downtown Port Au Prince. There had not been any communication at all and none of their family members in the US or in Canada were able to reach their loved ones in Haiti. Imagine their sadness at seeing the devastation on their island and how frantic they were to get some news about their mother. They did not allow their failed attempts at communication discourage them and held firm to the belief that their mother was OK. Their faith was not in vain. On Thursday January 14th contact was made!

"I am delighted to say that my older sister just spoke with my mom (only for a few minutes). She is alive and doing the best she can to survive. Thanks be to God and thank you for all of your for your concerns and your support.”

Congratulations to PPTC ‘s Arthur Gonzalez who was appointed Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.

PPTC was trackside with the crew from USADA volunteering with drug testing at this year’s Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. Tom Byrnes, Marilyn Bucich, Maria Green, and Patty Perlo along with PPTC friends from the world of indoor track and field. 

Interesting to learn that PPTC’s Coralie Dartigues spent some quality time with Habitat for Humanity’s crew on one of their building projects in Bed Stuy on Hart Street in January. She was so psyched that she’s even got the word out to PPTC to start thinking of a “PPTC build” this coming spring as part of PPTC’s 40th anniversary year. In 2050, on PPTC’s 80th anniversary, a Saturday or Sunday morning group run could past the house that PPTC helped build in 2010. Check out the link for more thoughts on this.  http://www.facebook.com/l/2e99a;www.habitat.org/cd/local/.  Ami Hassler’s down for getting hammer and nail-ee.  Would you be?

Gerry Sun and his wife Grace send greetings and salutations from London, England, heading for Egypt and Jordan. Gerry hopes to be back in the hood in time for the Al Gordon in Prospect Park at the end of February.

The groundhog that lives in a top secret location not too far off the inside loop saw his shadow the morning of February 2nd so don’t unpack your latest spring running wardrobe just yet.

See you on the roads and crosstraining in the pools, and on the bikes, indoors and out !