PPTC Monthly Meeting Recap: May 2020
(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. Usually, the group gathers at Da Nonna Rosa on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn, but like most things right now, this meeting had to go virtual in the spring.
Even though it’s not in the usual place, the meeting still brought a refreshing sense of familiarity: members wearing their PPTC shirts, routine updates, an exciting rundown of coming events and initiatives, engaging guest speakers, and even several people enjoying pizza, many of whom made their own.
April’s meeting was the historic first virtual PPTC membership meeting (sorry: I failed to write a recap for it), and about 100 people attended. May’s meeting didn’t have quite that level of attendance, but at its peak, about 85 people tuned into the conversation, proving that pizza isn’t the only exciting thing at the monthly rendezvous.
As usual, President Tom kicked off the meeting. Colleen kept an eye on things to make sure members’ voices were heard when they had something to say or a question to ask.
Opening Statements
“It’s great to do something that resembles normal,” Tom began. “Just coming together communally to do our monthly meeting, we can come together and do something that’s a monthly ritual that gives us some sense of normalcy, which is just great, just great.”
He then celebrated the group’s commitment to the community, highlighting some of the club’s recent service efforts:
The club donated the La Bagel Delight’s funds supporting the health care workers at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist hospital on 5th Avenue.
The club leaders also voted to donate $1,000 to the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of all of you for continuing to bring all those great ideas,” Tom said.
He wrapped up the beginning part of the meeting, saying he wanted everyone to share strategies they’ve used to deal with with cumulative stress, which he likened to a monkey on his back.
“I try to feed the monkey, but the monkey can never get enough.”
The virtual setting didn’t stop members from taking the opportunity to make some jokes:
“Tom, do you make the monkey wear a mask?”
“The monkey has to stay at a social distance.”
“Can we shock the monkey?”
Playful jokes in the Zoom chat aside, Tom asked everyone to think about coping tactics to share later in the meeting.
New Members
Tom transitioned into the usual next segment: Asking new members to introduce themselves. For the first time he could remember, no one volunteered to say hi.
“No new members! That’s shocking. That’s a first,” he said. “We’ll have to mark this in the history book.” (Consider it done.)
*So, if you’re a new member reading this recap, know that we would love for you to come to the future meetings! The club has excelled at providing engaging activities for everyone during this time of staying physically apart.*
Recent Races
Next up on the typical agenda: recounting recent races.
“There certainly haven’t been too many running or racing events, but there may be some virtual races that some people want to mention,” Tom said.
Lisa talked about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000k, which started May 1 and goes through Aug. 31. “I don’t know who started this whole phenomenon, but it really blossomed,” she said. Several club members are participating, and Adam is doing it as a fundraiser. A lot of people who don’t consider themselves ultra runners are doing it, and if you started at the beginning, it averages out to about 5 miles per day (1,000 kilometers is 621.371 miles). Even if you start around now, it averages to about 6 miles per day. There’s an app that shows where you are in the state of Tennessee, based on your logged mileage. “It’s really exciting,” Lisa said. “I love that a lot of people in this club created this contagious momentum for doing it.”
Larry shared that he and Michael did the Achilles indoor marathon relay in late April. Larry ran on a treadmill, and Michael ran outside.
Oren and Cress did their own marathon in Park Slope and Queens, since the New Jersey Marathon was canceled. He also signed up for the NYRR virtual half marathon. “It’s fun to do these things in the meantime.”
Carmen and Brian did the Yeti Ultra 24 Hour Challenge, which has an interesting format: You can’t do all your miles at once. Rather, you have to run or walk 5 miles every four hours for 24 hours. Carmen and Brian did a little extra to get it to a 50K (“because why not?”). The challenge is still going on, through May 30.
Announcements
On the note of virtual races: PPTC is hosting one! Stephanie introduced everyone to the Running Together Apart 5K. It runs from May 14 through May 20, is for PPTC members only, and doubles as a fundraiser for the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps. You can submit your 5K results (honor system—no GPS required) through the Google form until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, May 20. Don’t forget to sign the waiver, too.
Colleen ran through the results of the recent PPTC election:
President: Tom (returning to his post)
Vice President: Adam
Treasurer: Doug (another returner)
New board members: Oren (3-year term), Stephanie (3-year term), and Linda (2-year term)
Colleen also thanked Michael Ring for his many years of service to the club, most recently as vice president. Colleen and Michael Koplin’s board terms expired, and the group gave a silent round of applause (and clapping emojis) to express gratitude for the retiring members.
Adam announced that the marathon training group will not be happening this year.
“We talked about whether or not it was responsible. At this time, we don’t see it being a particularly feasible thing for us to do,” Adam said. “We can’t in good conscience keep moving down that path. Sorry, y’all. We’ll do what we can next year.”
On the note of races, President Tom mentioned that the race committee continues to meet regularly and evaluate next steps for the club-hosted events. “As soon as there is an opening for one of our races, we will be prepared.”
Crystal gave an update on social committee goings-on:
Virtual yoga occurs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Jana Veliskova hosts a virtual latin dance class on Friday nights
A virtual scavenger hunt happened on the 16th
Book club happened on the 12th
Following Crystal’s rundown of events, Tom commented, “I can’t get over how creative your committee has been in transitioning in person events to virtual events.”
He then invited people to share how they have been de-stressing lately.
Sara has been enjoying snarky coloring pages, as well as exchanging baked goods (while social distancing) with several other club members, including Crystal, PaFoua, and Marek. Stephanie mentioned that she has been writing letters as a way to relax and keep in touch with others.
Guest Speakers
Lillian then introduced the final segment of the meeting: a conversation with Runners of NYC podcast hosts Chris Chavez and Leigh Anne Sharek.
Chris is a New York native, a writer for Sports Illustrated, and a member of Brooklyn Track Club. He started Citius Mag and the podcast of the same name. Leigh Anne is his BKTC teammate, a forensic scientist, and recent competitor at the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. They both shared their backgrounds in running as well as some details about how they put together their podcast.
They’ve kept up the podcast, even though fewer people are listening to podcasts right now. They asked their followers what they wanted to hear from them during this time, and the response was that people wanted to keep hearing the stories of New York runners. “Everyone can be inspirational, and that’s what we want to achieve,” Leigh Anne said.
Text by: Christine DiGangi
Photos by: Larry Sillen
Produced by: Alison Kotch