(Apologies in advance for any misspelled/misheard names. We’ll happily correct any errors).

The Prospect Park Track Club has members-only meetings the first Monday of the month at Da Nonna Rosa. It serves as a welcome to new members, a chance to celebrate recent races, an opportunity to share club announcements, and a forum for guest speakers and panels on a variety of running topics.

The ravioli pizza, a fan favorite, constantly needed replenishing.

It also serves as a pizza party.

As usual, the first pies went quickly. The meeting started at 7 p.m. and the second round of pizza came out at around 7:12. If the refills are any indication, the most popular varieties are classic cheese and ravioli—the Da Nonna Rosa staff set out two of each a few minutes before President Tom called the meeting to order.

Opening Statements

At 7:15 p.m., President Tom welcomed everyone, calling attention to the changes to the meeting setup. The room now has one less table and many more chairs, to accommodate more meeting attendees.

He then went over the meeting agenda: introduction of new members (later jokingly referred to as an interrogation), recap of recent races, club announcements, featured guests, and a panel discussion with the Race Committee.

New member Danielle Thomas shares why she joined PPTC.

New Members

Six new members introduced themselves, shared why they joined the club, and mentioned their running goals.

Reasons for joining included:

Have lived around the park for years/have run with PPTC members before and have been meaning to join
“None of my friends like running”
To make friends

(Conclusion: PPTC oozes friendship).

Goals included:

Train for a marathon
Train for an ultramarathon (many cheers)
Make running the New York City Marathon a reality and “not just a dream in my head”

(Note: We don’t all run marathons. Aforementioned friendliness extends to all distances).

Murray recapping the Snowflake 4-mile race.

Recent Races

Linda gave Matthew a shout-out for winning his age group at the Gridiron 4 Miler.

Murray averaged a sub-10-minute-mile pace at the Snowflake 4 Miler, after which the race director commented to him, “Boy that Leiba Rimler is really tearing it up this year!” She is. We also think you did a great job, Murray.

Christine F. recounted her successful birthday party/race/fundraiser and invited people to give her feedback on the format. The format refers to the wave starts, not the post-race party at Farrell’s (though this was a valid assumption on President Tom’s part). In the race, grand masters started first, then masters, then everybody else.

Adam realizes he has to make a slideshow.

Announcements

Lillian talked a bit about Awards Night, which is Feb. 21 at Berg’n. “I really recommend everybody comes, it’s a great party. … It’s a great chance to see what your teammates look outside of running clothes”

Lillian mentioned that people dress up, awards are presented, and there’s usually a slideshow—at which point Adam (after muttering, ‘Oh, shit’) invited people to email him photos for the slideshow.

Jana ran through a list of Social Committee events, including the Love Run on Feb. 15, the Dim Sum Run on Feb. 23, and the monthly pub run, which is usually the last Wednesday of the month (February location TBD).

Linus expanded on the Love Run, which this year involves spelling “Amore” by running the streets of Brooklyn and recording the run with a GPS watch or run-tracking app.

Linda gave more Dim Sum Run details, highlighting the staggered start of the adventure. Slow and steady runners (12+ minute miles) will start at 8:30 a.m., and everyone else will start at 9 a.m. Will is co-leading that run with her.

Stephanie made a last call for Cherry Tree 10-Miler registrations. The race is Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. and has a relay option. This year’s race swag is a reflective beanie to keep you warm and visible during the rest of this winter (which, if you believe Punxsutawney Phil’s revelation, should wind down soon). Stephanie also called for race volunteers.

Eric said to keep an eye out for the sign-up for the Boston Marathon cheer bus. It sold out last year and likely will again. If you want to get up super early and cheer on the Boston runners at the 18-mile/30K-ish mark, act quickly when bus registration opens up.

Doug’s really excited for the club’s new race - the 50-miler!

Continuing on the theme of races, President Tom invited Doug to speak about the club’s 50-miler, which will occur in December and close out the celebration of the club’s 50th anniversary year.

Doug announced that the club has secured a 12-hour permit for the race in the park. It will be 15 full loops of the park. (Cue mixed groans and cheers; cheers mostly from Adam). Those who don’t want to do 50 miles will have a “50K-ish” option. “Ks don’t really work with full loops of the park.”

Other useful info:

The race will be timed.
A relay option was considered but will not be offered due to the complexity of keeping track of people running 3.3-mile loops for 12 hours.
Registration will open in “July?”
Speak to Doug and Adam about your thoughts/interests.
There is a belt buckle in the works.

Rachael invited women of PPTC to stay after the meeting if they’d like to be featured in a blog post highlighting the women of the club. Noah will be taking photos to accompany the written post.

Noah invited members to join the Club Points Races Training Group. The training targets races from the mile to the half marathon, but you don’t have to do a club points race to participate. New attendees are welcome, even if you’ve missed the first few sessions. You can choose between Wednesday mornings and evenings, because not everyone is a morning person. The group meets at the freeze-resistant water fountain on the west end of Well House Drive—aka the bottom of the hill where there’s always horse poop. Email clubpoints@pptc.org to join.

John from IS 223 and his student runners were recipients of the PPTC grant money.

Featured Speakers

Rebekah from the Grants Committee introduced two members and community leaders whose groups have benefited from PPTC grants. PPTC awarded $12,000 in grants last year.

John from IS 223 spoke about the grants the school’s running program received. IS 223 has students from 6th grade through high school, and the program is designed to instill discipline in the students through running. The team received a grant to run the Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series (AGSS), which the runners used as a way to stay fit for a summer camp where they ran 7-10 miles daily. John called out some of the students’ achievements (a few came to the meeting) and thanked the club for the support.

President Tom Meany and Nicoletta from Run4Fun, whose program also benefited from the PPTC grants.

Nicoletta from Run4Fun (also of Turkey Trot/National Anthem fame) gave a history of her group, which helps kids cope with anxiety and depression through running. The organization started with Nicoletta bringing her son and six of his friends to the park for after-school running games, and it turned into a nonprofit in 2014. Their mission is to foster a love for running outside of competitive team sports. Support like the PPTC grants program has allowed Run4Fun to expand, and the organization now serves 2,000 young people in New York, mostly in Brooklyn.

Panel Discussion

Jana moderated a panel discussion with three members of the Race Committee:

Race Committee members (L-R): Doug, Stephanie, and Sara with panel moderator, Jana.

Sara
Time on committee: 2.5-3 years
Role: A self-described “regular committee member”

Stephanie
Time on committee: 10 months
Role: Race director

Doug
Time on committee: No idea. A long time.
Role: He seems to have done it all at some point

Fun facts about the Race Committee:

Meetings occur the second Monday of each month.
Dinner is provided at the meetings.
Races take 3-5 months of advance planning, depending on the size of the race. (AGSS requires less lead time, and the Turkey Trot requires more).
You can become a race director after trying out a variety of roles through the Summer Speed Series.

Panel highlights:

It is fun to be on the Race Committee!
Stephanie: “I like to refer to this series as the ‘Summer Storm Series.’” This past year’s AGSS was stressful because there were constantly bad weather forecasts on race day. The timing of canceling the race (or not) was really tricky, but the upside is this situation resulted in a protocol for dealing with future weather issues.
Did you know the committee used to have to score the races by hand? Doug recalled this being very challenging. The tearaway-bib and manual-recording process has since been replaced by chip timing, which sounds like it was as much an upgrade for runners as it was for race organizers.
You should volunteer to see what it’s all about. It’s fun!
Please listen to volunteers when they ask you to stay on the left side of the course. They just don’t want you to get hit by cyclists or motor vehicles.
Please read race communications. They are informative.
Have we mentioned it’s fun?!

And that’s it for the February membership meeting. Side note: RSVPing yes or no (instead of maybe) to social events helps the Social Committee plan better. Please and thanks!

The next meeting is Monday, March 2.

Text by Christine DiGangi
Edited by Anna Gold and Rachael DePalma
Photos by Larry Sillen
Produced by Alison Kotch

Monthly Meeting Recap: February 2020