1 25 66 http://archives.frny.org/files/original/4f20a61e1e9ae76d1b8f297d30f9dec3.pdf ba91c4fed44a510362317dc0cbbadb09 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Anthony Ng You've seen him at all our First Fridays. He seems to always have a cocktail in his hand and a big, wide grin on his face. But Anthony Ng, a stalwart of the FRNY social scene, is about more than just having fun. Born and raised in the very same one bedroom apartment on the edge of Chinatown where he lives today, Anthony is a native New Yorker through and through. The younger of two sons born to garment-factory workers who spoke little to no English, Anthony has gone through life being independent, trying to improve the world around him, and bringing joy to the people in his life. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �life. Facebook He describes his upbringing in New York as "sheltered." "I never had friends over," nor was he allowed to go outside and play, or attend sleepovers. To say Anthony's parents were overprotective of him would be an understatement. And it didn't help that Anthony grew up in his older brother's Twitter Instagram shadow. "He was the athletic one," says Anthony, describing his brother as gifted in both in baseball and basketball. As the overweight kid brother, Anthony had to deal with the constant teasing, enduring names like "fei nu," a Chinese Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT term meaning "fat woman." At the time, Anthony weighed about 200 pounds. 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search High school, however, provided an opportunity for Anthony's individuality to blossom. As a member of the Baruch College Campus High School's very first graduating class, Anthony was one of only 90 students. He found himself very involved in high school, where he started the Multicultural Society at BCCHS. He then found religion and was attending church regularly, and later formed his high school's Christianity Club. By senior year, Anthony started to discover his sexuality, which caused him to struggle with his religion. "I prayed to God to accept me for who I was." He soon discovered the chat rooms of AOL, and was able to reach out to other gay people to help him deal with his sexual orientation. After he started at Hamilton College in upstate New York, despite the gay community on campus, Anthony continued to struggle with his sexuality. It was a long process of coming out, but towards his senior year, Anthony was out and proud. He even became the coordinator of the Hamilton LGBT organization ("I did the same thing that Megan does with FRNY," he jokes). After Hamilton, Anthony decided he wanted to put his talents to use bettering open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �society. So he enrolled in the Peace Corps and was sent to Guyana in South America. "I was a Health Advocate," he says, "assigned to a village to educate the Guyanese to be more health conscious." Part of Anthony's role was to educate villagers about HIV/AIDS prevention. The stint in Guyana turned out to be more difficult than Anthony had imagined. "You have to have a lot of patience, because you're completely immersed in the community." Being away from home, dealing with the constant exposure to illness and poverty, and struggling to embrace his gay identity, in a place where it was unheard of, Anthony decided to end his post after five months. So in 2006, Anthony returned to New York and started back at the job where he worked a few months before he left--as an office administrator in a doctor's office. He continues to work there to this day. Living in New York after college was certainly different from growing up as a child here. One of the first things he did when he came back to the city was to seek out gay organizations. At first he joined the gay volleyball league Gotham, and then one day in 2007, he and a friend came to Front Runners together. But after feeling like he wasn't able to keep up during the fun run, he didn't come back. It was a year later, in April 2008, that Anthony decided to give FRNY another try. This time, he came to a Wednesday night fun run when Koach Kelsey happened to announce an upcoming meeting for the outdoor training season. Not being one to shy away from anything, and with some encouragement from then President Mikey B and former President Michael O, Anthony went to the meeting, and "learned all about VO-2 max and lactic open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �threshold training," and he jumped right into the workouts. Before he knew it, Anthony became a four-day-a-week Front Runner. "I really got into running," Anthony recalls, "no one else ran my pace, but I stuck with it." And stick with it he did! Although he had just started running in 2008, by 2009, Anthony had decided that he was going to run all of the NYRR Club Points Races (except the Marathon, which he didn't get into, but volunteered for instead), and all five half-marathons in the NYRR Grand Prix Series. On top of that, he ran Reach the Beach and the Philadelphia Marathon--all in 2009! But that didn't mean the runs came easy to him. After running his first two half-marathons at an 8:21, and then an 8:16 pace, Anthony decided he was going to break the 8:00 mile barrier. With the help of a support crew that included Koach Kelsey, Cenk, Bernd, Ray-K, and Walter, Anthony set out to hit that goal in the 2009 Bronx Half. Despite the encouragement of his FRNY teammates, the notoriously difficult course took the better of him, and left Anthony with a disappointing 8:37 pace. But Anthony just picked himself up and tried again, and again, and again. An 8:59 in Brooklyn, followed by a 9:00 pace in Queens (one day after Reach the Beach) and a painfully close 8:07 at Grete's. But then it happened, in October 2009. It was the day of the Blue Line Run, but Anthony had other things on his mind: he was determined to meet his goal at the Staten Island Half. And that's when he did it, finishing the race in 1:44:05, a 7:56 pace! That thrill of victory indeed set off a love affair Anthony has had for distance running. After running the Philadelphia Marathon in 2009, Anthony decided to train for an Ultramarathon, and set his sights on the following year's open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Knickerbocker 60K. In the process of training for the 37.2 mile race, Anthony "accidentally" PR'd at the New York City Marathon, shaving a whopping 40 minutes off of his Philly time with an enviable 3:40:26. Two weeks later, he ran Knickerbocker in 6:08:09 (9:53 pace), being one of only 209 runners to tackle the grueling nine-loop course. What's on his racing calendar now? The Victoria (Canada) Marathon on October 9, the New York City Marathon on November 6, and the Knickerbocker on November 19 (he's trying for sub-6 hours this time). But most importantly, he wants to be healthy, says Anthony, "After the Philadelphia Marathon in 2009, I was injured for six months, with a stress fracture in my left tibia." But how did Anthony get into Ultras? He has Front Runners to thank for that: Patrick Guilfoyle piqued his interest, and then Tim Guscott hooked him up with a training plan. In addition, he credits his fantastic finish at Knickerbocker to all of his "stars" aligning that day: the many, many Front Runners who paced him, cheered for him, and encouraged him along those 37.2 miles. "If there is ever a chance that I can repay you in some way," he wants everyone to know, "please do not hesitate to ask." Running, though, isn't all that Anthony does for FRNY. For the past two years, Anthony has been serving on the Board of Directors as Treasurer. "I wanted to give back to the club in a concrete way," he explains as his decision for joining the Board. But when pressed for some juicy details of his board experience, Anthony is uncharacteristically mum. Anything to say about his hotly contested election open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �for Treasurer in 2009? Nope. Thoughts about the leadership styles of the two different FRNY presidents he's worked with? Silence. Controversial Board actions? Nada. One thing he's happy to talk about, though, is his role on the Social Committee. "I love working with Sandi and Timmy." He's also proud of his role in taking the First Fridays to new and exciting venues, including straight bars like Desire in the West Village and the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria. But, alas, all good things must come to an end. "I'm definitely leaving the Board next year," says Anthony, who plans to go back to school to pursue a Masters Degree in Social Work. It is a field that has personal significance to Anthony, who for the past four years has volunteered every month to counsel victims of domestic violence. Although he hasn't applied for schools yet, he is spending the next year to focus on other things in his life. Anthony expects to quit his job at the end of January, after which he will travel, work on his grad school applications, and most importantly--spend time with his family. "My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer last year," explains Anthony. He learned about the diagnosis in the days before leaving for the Gay Games in Cologne. Although it has been a difficult time for him, Anthony says that it was through running and the support of his FRNY friends that he's been able to cope with his mom's illness. "You can just run and forget about the world," he reflects. These days, Anthony's parents are both retired, having moved out of the apartment in Chinatown into a house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; Anthony diligently makes the trek to meet them for open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �dinner every week. It's in his mother's honor, he says, that he has decided to pursue graduate studies. Although he's not sure where he'll end up studying social work, he thinks it's a 50/50 chance that he will leave New York. "If I don't do it now when I'm 28, I won't be able to do it as I get older." Wherever he ends up, we can be sure that Anthony will be working hard to improve the lives of those around him, either through his counseling and education work, or by just sharing a cocktail and a laugh with his friends. By Dave Lin January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_anthony_ng.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/7db58e2bd796f3b00ce1fa8bd25d9337.pdf 505ac676d9bd4fe6d312d8a204a87d8e PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Audra Farrell It's got to be the magic pig tails. How else to explain Front Runner Audra Farrell's explosion of excellent running in recent months, beating one PR after another? Audra has set new personal bests at every distance she has run this year, most recently at the 5-mile Gay Pride Run last weekend, which she ran in 37:16 minutes. She has also PR'ed in a 5k, a 4-miler, a 10k, a 10k, a 10miler, a half marathon, and a full marathon. And we are only halfway through the year. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �As anyone who follows her every move on Facebook knows, Audra credits wearing her hair in pigtails to explain some of those explosive performances. But more probably, her secret sauce is quite simple: "Just running and more of it," Audra said, and watch your times melt away. (It probably doesn't hurt that her girlfriend with whom she shares an apartment and some pets, and Facebook Twitter Instagram sometime coach, Loren, is an accomplished runner herself. See October 2008 profile ) Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Her Gay Pride PR came just over 10 years to the day after her first ever NYRR Sunset: 8:10 pm race, the 1999 Gay Pride run, which she ran 8 minutes slower. That summer, Audra joined the club to have people to run with, and to train for her first POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER marathon. "I hadn't run since high school and had no idea how to get going again," said the South Bend, Indiana native, who spent most of her childhood in Philadelphia's South Jersey suburbs. But because her high school did not have a soccer team and would not allow her to play with on the boys' team --"I search have three brothers, boys have never scared me", she says -- she ran track, but eventually gave that up after tiring of "running in circles." Audra, now a 38 year-old graphic designer, stopped running in her early 20's to move to New York to attend the School of Visual Arts, and be an agent provocateur with ACT UP! and Queer Nation, among other groups. But though she has since mellowed (a little), Audra still has a fire in her belly -she became obsessed in recent years with qualifying for the Boston Marathon (needing a 3:45 time to qualify), reaching her goal this year at the New Jersey marathon -- "Much to the relief of Loren who doesn't think she would have been able to live with me through another miss," she said. In her time with FRNY, Audra has been an active leader. In 2008, she served as women's Vice President and had an active role in helping to design the Pride program and has always been an advocate of the club's training programs. Always a serious athlete, she won two honors at the last awards dinner -- the points award for her age group and the inaugural Sue Foster Distance Runner of the Year. Of course, many in the club know Audra first and foremost as a triathlete; she has helped to promote the visibility of Tritons over the last decade. Many open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �probably did not know that Audra chose to put cycling and swimming aside in the pursuit of that Boston qualifying team. "I realized after a failed attempt in October of 2008 (Steamtown Marathon, in Pennsylvania) that if I was going to do that, I was going to have to run more. Actually, only run," Audra said. In fact she hasn't ridden her road bike or swum since the Keuka Lake triathlon on just over a year ago. "I put triathlons and cycling on hold to just run and just qualify for Boston," she said. Like many of our athletes who have seen tremendous improvements in their performance, Audra credits the club workouts for much of her progress. "Kelsey's outdoor workouts are great. It's a great way to meet and run with other Front Runners who run different paces and allows us all to run together," Audra said. We can look forward to seeing Audra at FRNY into the fall. Her running goal for the next year? "I'd like to go sub 3:40 in NY." No one smart doubts you'll do it, Audra. Written by by Phil Wahba January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_audra_farrell.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/5b39a977b4833afce541720c31adeb71.pdf 4347c9213e3b36a836d3fa8f8ffb3255 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Bernd Erpenbeck Front Runners New York is a lucky bunch. What other club has its own aerial photographer to snap members running their hearts out at races? With his towering frame, our director-at-large Bernd Erpenbeck can't help but take pictures of his fellow Front Runners from above, as he often did regularly last year. Such is his dedication to FRNY that Bernd, a Dortmund, Germany native fast approaching his fifth anniversary as a Front Runner, still showed up at most races last year even though he was sidelined for five open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �months with a stress fracture. He has valiantly represented the club, running in 65 NYRR races in those five years, including his 19:21 climb of a fellow skyscraper, the Empire State Building, in February. Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search Bernd's New York saga goes back about 13 years when he moved here to take an analyst position at a German's bank's office. Though he was already a runner -- his first NYRR race was the Wall Street 5K in 1997-- Bernd was more of a soccer player, becoming an active member of the New York Ramblers, a gay soccer team. It apparently took some Canadians to turn him into a more serious runner. "I got the bug in Toronto," he said of his three-year stint there to open a Canadian office for his bank between 2001 and 2004. "While in Toronto, I did a 10K down Yonge Street and so I started competing regularly." Luckily for FRNY, the tall Teuton returned to New York in 2004 and hit the ground running. "When I got back I said let's try it -- and here I am," he said. Bernd also quickly fell for the charms of our club after taking part in a charity race consisting of two lower loops of Central Park. "The first ones I met (at that race) were Marty McElhiney, and Kelsey (Louie) and then starting going to Saturday and Wednesday runs," he said, showing just how important it is to reach out to prospective members. But FRNY paid him back handsomely. After all, it was at FRNY in 2005 that he met a certain fellow runner who answers to the name "T.J." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �In 2005, shortly after arriving back in the states, Bernd snagged the much coveted permanent resident status. But he soon realized that putting in face time at corporate headquarters was important in climbing the company ladder and returned to Germany from 2006 to 2008. (Bernd did return to run the NYC marathon in 2006 under the FRNY banner.) Bernd agreed to the assignment in Germany on the condition that he be able to permanently return to a more senior position in New York, a city with which he first fell in love in 1992 when he did a 10-week internship at Dresdner Bank in New York. (He had also spent a month in 1994 exploring America by hopping from place to place on a Delta Airlines airpass.) Though he feared his English was not good enough back then, Bernd was drawn to New York in part because, "It was freer and I was late coming out of closet," he said, giving him room to discover what being gay meant. FRNY has also certainly been a boon to his running, he said. A diligent runner and a regular at FRNY's Armory workouts, Bernd sees the club as a way to maintain discipline in his running. "I immediately met the people I liked? I have made great friends," he said. "It helps you have a time and a place to go running -- keeps on you track for training. If you don't go, you hear about it next day- others ask you, "Where were you , slacking off?" Though he is certainly not a slacker, he is mindful about pacing himself and avoiding other injuries like the stress fracture that sidelined him last year. "Over 40, it takes longer to gain back your stamina," he said, displaying a candor rare in gay circles. Another goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and he is hedging his open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �bets. Bernd has signed up for both the Chicago and New York marathons this fall. Besides his NYC marathon, which he ran in 3:43, he has run only one other marathon, in Berlin in 2007. But more immediately, he is still working on his comeback from last year's injury and plans to run 1,200 miles this year. "I want to do Coogan's (5k race in march) at 7-minute per mile pace," Bernd said. Longer term, though, his goal is simpler: "I just want to keep running." Written by Phil Wahba January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_bernd_erpenbeck.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/50bb2816fa57261c8ae0c5523976f9fa.pdf d3738e1af37e3c1932428cca7a454f4c PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Bernie Janelle and Cindy Hearing One of the first things Bernie Janelle and Cindy Hearing tell you when you sit down with them is that they are completely different. Bernie's the extrovert, and Cindy's the reserved one. Bernie loves running, and Cindy says she only runs because she knows it's good for her. And whereas Bernie said there was "no way" she would ever move to New York, Cindy knew that she was destined for the Big Apple. But somehow, after 17 years of being together, the two of them have made open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �their differences work, becoming an inspiration to those around them, not only in their commitment to each other, but in their drive to excel at their sport and overcome the challenges life throws at them. Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Bernie, the youngest of 10 children, was the popular and super-involved one in growing up. Attending an all-girls Catholic high school, she was senior Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi class president, president of the student council, captain of the basketball team, and active on the track, tennis and softball teams. Interestingly, Bernie Dewpoint: 69 °F also had a crush on her gym teacher. Although Bernie's first relationship was Wind: 7 mph with a girl when she was 13, after high school, she went back into the closet due to family pressure to live a traditional, straight life. "After 8 years, even my open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Sunrise: 5:50 am pdfcrowd.com �family wanted me to divorce the man I married," recalls Bernie. In the early 1990's, both Bernie and Cindy found themselves in New Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER Hampshire. Cindy had finished college in Pennsylvania and was obtaining her law degree and Masters in Intellectual Property in NH. Bernie had gone to undergrad at UNH and Springfield College. She then received her Masters in Education Administration and Supervision at Antioch University, the New search England Graduate campus. Bernie had also returned to New Hampshire to run her own education consulting business. The two met in a women's social group meeting at someone's home. After that initial meeting, it was pure happiness forevermore. Well, not exactly. "On or first date, we had our first fight," recalls Cindy. "We just butted heads the whole time." "I didn't think we'd see each other after that," says Bernie. "It's just a miracle we survived," agrees Cindy (seemingly one of the few thing the two agreed on). The second date apparently went a little better. Bernie called Cindy, said she just happened to be in the neighborhood, and brought over a cherry pie and a squeaky toy for Cindy's dog. But despite the baked goods and doggy toys, the beginning of Bernie and Cindy's relationship had a rocky start. Although they count their relationship as 17-years long, the first five years were pretty difficult, something Cindy attributes to the fact that she was hard to get to know and that she was constantly studying because of her joint degree program. "We definitely did not have Lesbian U-Haul Syndrome," open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �explains Cindy. Bernie, though, had the patience to work things out, and thought that the "on again, off again" nature of their relationship actually helped to slow it down and allow the two to move at the right pace for them. After Cindy finished her studies, the two decided to move to Boston--Cindy first, followed shortly by Bernie. "By that time," recounts Bernie, "we knew we were going to make it work." And after six years in Boston, that's when the two decided to move to New York. At first, Bernie was against the idea, wanting to go to San Francisco instead. But through several visits to the city to see Cindy's sister in Washington Heights, she eventually fell in love with the neighborhood. And amazingly, while still a Boston resident, she joined New York Road Runners and decided she would one day run the New York City Marathon. Today, Bernie balances her training with a career dedicated to students as a special education teacher, coordinator and college advisor at Millennium High School in Manhattan. Cindy works as an estate and business-planning lawyer for closely-held business owners. And the two live in Washington Heights with their adopted 14 year-old terrier chihuahua, Cosmo. As for their running, this is another area where Bernie and Cindy differ. Bernie was the first to take up marathoning, running the Jamaica Marathon in 2001. Cindy at that time had no interest in the sport, and showed up to Jamaica, "in my cute bikini" just to cheer on Bernie. But, says Cindy, when Bernie crossed the finish line, "she looked so happy, so I wanted to do one too." So just a few months later, Cindy did her first marathon in Paris ("I wanted to go to Paris to shop!" she now recounts). open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Bernie was the one who found Front Runners. She used to see FRNY at the races, with the women gathered around baggage area no. 5. She remembers at the time "checking out" the FRNY ladies, and maybe being "checked out" by them. (Cindy says she doesn't remember any of these details.) But it took the two several years to finally take the plunge and join Front Runners. At the time, both were deeply involved in Women About, a New York lesbian social and recreational organization where they both served as board members. They were so active that they couldn't find the time to join another gay organization. But eventually, wanting a community that helped them develop their interest in running, they decided to sign up with FRNY in 2007. The first year or so found the couple easing their way slowly into the group. As the two started to become more serious about their running goals, they wanted to participate in more FRNY activities. What changed it all for Bernie were the Armory Indoor Track Workouts. Not only did the workouts help her to focus and increase her training efforts, but they allowed her get to know many of the other runners, especially the men. At the time, men far outnumbered the women at the Armory, and Bernie notes in particular that the FRNY men were eager to welcome her and run with her during the workouts. According to Cindy, the fact that the two of them joined FRNY as a couple made things difficult, since she felt that she and Bernie weren't always recognized for their individual characteristics. And asked if the two were competitive with each other, Cindy says that "for a while, it caused a lot of stress within the relationship because I would try to keep up." But that all open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �changed when Cindy started getting involved in the club's Multisport program. With the discovery of triathlons, she was able to spend more time on the bike, a sport that Cindy was truly passionate about. And while swimming didn't start off easy for Cindy, fellow multisporter Alison McKenna notes: "Cindy has made an absolutely huge transformation in terms of her swimming from last summer until now (and will only continue to improve!)." Perhaps more significant, Cindy's involvement in Multisport allowed her and Bernie to each have their own separate identities in the club. And what amazing identities they've had so far! This past November, Bernie ran the Philadelphia Marathon in an inspiring 4:00:39, qualifying for Boston. She's training now to race the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon in 3:58 on October 9th and will run this one in honor of her dad (her 8th marathon after 5 NYCs, Philly and Jamaica). She also has thoughts of tackling an Ultra-distance race, maybe the Knickerbocker 60k. Cindy recently completed her first onemile ocean swim in Bradley Beach, NJ, and then she did her second one a week later! She's also planning to run the NYC Marathon again (her 7th after Paris and 5 NYCs). And she's signed up for the 2012 Ironman U.S. Championships in New York next August. This will be a busy year of training for Bernie and Cindy, but if anyone can step up to the plate, they can. Speak to anyone in the club who knows them well, and you'll hear two recurring refrains: that they both are great at having a goal and going for it, and that their long-lasting relationship and generosity of spirit and good will is an inspiration for others. Fellow Washington Heights resident Linda Paparella echoes that sentiment, as she has experienced first-hand the couple's selfless nature: "They are incredibly funny but also open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �incredibly generous with time, deeds and caring. Bernie and Cindy were kind enough to call me when I was hospitalized in Thailand and the call really lifted my spirits. When I came back, Bernie naturally ran with me when I was cleared for running and was encouraging and supportive, making sure I wasn't pushing it too much but also complimenting me on all my efforts." It's obvious that the two of them have found a home at Front Runners New York. "FRNY has given us renewed appreciation and respect for other athletes," say Cindy and Bernie. "There's always an opportunity to both give support to and get encouragement from others within the club." And the competition between the two that used to cause friction in the relationship has given way to the support and inspiration that the two provide for each other. "I'm always so happy for Cindy and so proud of her," says Bernie. "We're both very supportive of each other's goals and aspirations," agrees Cindy. "We always have fun, laugh a lot and celebrate every event in life." And if anyone didn't know how much FRNY is a part of their lives and how much Bernie and Cindy both mean to FRNY, you just had to see them during Pride Weekend. Two days after the New York state legislature passed the law allowing same-sex marriage, in front of over a hundred Front Runners marching in the Pride Parade with seemingly the whole world watching, Bernie proposed marriage to Cindy in what was quite possibly the most beautiful showing of love many of us have ever seen. And Cindy, of course, said YES! They both agree that, "Our relationship has a strong history built on trust, respect and unconditional love." The public proposal was a magical moment, and those of us who witnessed open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �it feel so fortunate to have been a part of it, just as the club is so fortunate to have Cindy and Bernie as members. Written Dave Lin January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_bernie_janelle_and_cindy_hearing.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/afc6ea463a636a1ad91c1eadd67db768.pdf d6dc019a4cb945b4fa100a0a346e98e8 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Brendan Moroney by Robert Lennon Prospect Park can be a cold and lonesome place on a Tuesday night in mid-February. But harsh conditions and lack of company can do little to dampen Brendan Moroney's spirits. "If it's 10 degrees with a wind-chill of 10," says Mike Grzelecki, Moroney's good friend and fellow organizer of the Brooklyn fun run, "he just laughs it off and picks up the pace. When I would be in a funk and we'd be sharing war stories on a run, he would always put a positive twist on it." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm Moroney may not be a well-known entity to those in that other borough who only hit Prospect Park once a year for the Cherry Tree Relay (that POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER is, if they hit it at all). But even if you ran alongside him on a Saturday morning fun run in Central Park -- an event Moroney had attended frequently before a calf injury sidelined him for a bit this past fall -- it is unlikely that he chewed your ear off. A self-proclaimed introvert and search relatively new member of the tribe, Moroney blends Irish stoicism and a certain loner mystique in a way that may make him appear aloof or impenetrable. Even Jeff Werner, a denizen of Brooklyn who's rarely at a loss for words, struggles to describe his Reach the Beach teammate. "He's so quiet, it's hard to get to know him," says Werner. "But the first thing that comes to mind is that he wears shirts that are way too tight for him -- though he does have the body for it." Moroney might redden over that characterization (we'll find out when this hits the cyber-stands), but he marches to the beat of his own drum. He does not have a Facebook account, has never gone to a Broadway musical and counts boxing among his favorite sporting activities. (Simmer down now, boys, he is also in a long-term relationship and impervious to persuasion.) Luckily, as with many of our less garrulous brethren, such as Patrick Guilfoyle or Rick Buckheit, Moroney can open up quite a bit once properly plied. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Growing up in an upper-middle class Irish-Catholic family in Bronxville, New York, Moroney had to grapple from an early age with the fact that open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �his DNA may not have been perfectly aligned to the life he was born into. From age five, Moroney was forced into suburban little league sports such as soccer, basketball and baseball. None of them took. "A particularly low moment in soccer was when I accidentally scored a goal for the other team," recalls Moroney. "It was not good." Moroney also had to clear certain familial hurdles to connect with his true identity. "An Irish-Catholic upbringing has less to do with religion...it is more of a cultural thing," Moroney offers astutely. Though his family did not attend Church regularly aside from high holy holidays, he did find himself working his way through parochial school right up through college (Moroney attended Holy Cross), so religion always lurked close by in the background. But Moroney managed to spread his wings by taking advantage of the prime real estate chosen by his parents. From the age of about 13, he would hop the 28-minute train into Grand Central with friends on weekends to see the wider world. Another cherished resource for a gay boy in an affluent suburb was the local college. "My parents' house is literally 400 meters from the Sarah Lawrence College campus," he says. "I spent a good bit of time at the college library [and] Sarah Lawrence also has a large LGBT population." Moroney soon discovered running as a healthy outlet and release. "I was drawn to the sport because it required less social interaction than other sports," says Moroney. "You just ran your time and that was that. There was no sitting the bench and much less politics/favoritism." (Note: he is clearly talking about the physical act of running and not the machinations of being part of a vibrant gay running team.) Running also offered the ancillary benefit of boosting Moroney's confidence. As a freshman in high school, he blazed through the mile in under fiveopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �As a freshman in high school, he blazed through the mile in under fiveminutes, and by senior year he had been anointed co-captain of the school's cross country team. Even with these lofty credentials, Moroney had initially felt significant trepidation about fitting in with the FRNY community. His initial cozy runs with six or seven Brooklynites in Prospect Park had offered some ease and comfort, but the size and scope of the Saturday runs in Central Park shocked Moroney. "My first Saturday Fun Run was very intimidating," he says. "It took me several visits to the Saturday Run to feel confident enough to go to the brunch at Rutger's Church after." As with anything, some encouragement from fellow runners led to much assimilation and success. And now Moroney has participated in two overnight relays -- the Cape Relay in May 2011 and New Hampshire's Reach the Beach the following September. Despite minor tumbles in both events ("The first was an ankle sprain. The second, I tore my calf muscle to shreds I'm a spaz..."), Moroney finished both events with a positive feeling and will be toeing the line this May as part of Rachel Cutler's mixed ultra in the spring iteration of Reach the Beach. Moroney grew close to the reigning Front Runner of the Year in his role helping to augment Brooklyn gay running life. He has helped better organize the Brooklyn crew by creating an email distribution for the runners, by bringing people together for dinner after scheduled runs and by organizing socials. The recent FRNY First Friday outing at "Floyd" in Brooklyn Heights was his brainchild. "Brendan has really stepped up as the figure head for Brooklyn running," says Cutler. "Communication among the Brooklyn leaders is improving, as is the programming and communication to the membership open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �and FRNY board." The next step will be a series of specially-designed Prospect Park hill workout in preparation for the Brooklyn Half. Stay tuned. And what about Moroney's own running? After making a splash last February in the Al Gordon Four-miler as the first Front Runner to finish the Prospect Park race, Moroney has raced in four additional NYRR events for the club, breaking 6-minute per mile pace in all but one of those events (the exception being the Brooklyn Half, where he clocked a 1:26:06 in his debut at that distance). Being somewhat injury prone, Moroney cautiously eyes the horizon. "Maybe I'll try to bring my time down for some of the distances I have raced in (the 4- and 5-mile run)," he says. "But at the moment, I'm just focused on getting my calf muscle back to feeling 100%." He has grander designs for the Brooklyn crew. In addition to the localized hill training, Moroney envisions more borough-centered long open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �runs, attracting more women to the Brooklyn fun runs and tailoring some BK socials toward women - a working event title is "T-HER-sday for the Ladies." Through the concerted efforts of Moroney and other BK Front Runners like him, Prospect Park -- and the rest of a borough historically underrepresented in FRNY -- has definitely heated up over the past year. Come check out the scene at the weekly Tuesday Brooklyn fun run this spring: meeting spot is 3rd Street and Prospect Park West entrance to Prospect Park at 7 PM. Random Splits Highlights of Gay Life at Holy Cross: "I tried dating one guy in my class, but after 3 weeks, he ran screaming back into the closet and that was that. So I mostly dated off-campus. The gay men in Worcester, Mass. were messy (I dated more than one drug addict), but I found a slightly better pool to choose from in Boston and Providence." If you were to move anywhere... "Barcelona seems like a fantastic place to live (beautiful people, spectacular architecture, great food, fun nightlife, situated on the water), but I don't speak Spanish...If we're speaking more practically, within the US, I'd probably go with Seattle...it's a liberal city located near the mountains and the ocean." Make-A-Wish Celebrity: "If you mean bed, I have a long list of underwear model-turned-actors starting with Channing Tatum and Mechad Brooks. If you mean date, as in spend time with/have a conversation with etc...I'd go with Michael Pitt (he's sexy and mysterious and he's a talented actor)." Master of Neologisms: Branding himself a "les-bro" due to his affinity for open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �bonding with the Sapphic sisterhood, Moroney, once and always an English major, has a vast facility with coining phrases - "totes"! March 24, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_brendan_moroney.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/6019618ee1e21aa5efc13432524ef14d.pdf 537ff4f66da6714b52cda4f78025afcc PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Brent Peterson He wasn't exactly born in the wagon of a traveling show. He's not exactly a Cher fan. But Brent Peterson was born exactly when Cher's "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves" was ascendant, so let's go with that, inexactly. Haven't seen him for a while, uh-huh. Peterson has been a bit of a phantom lately, on both the racing and FRNY scenes (more on that in a minute). Chances are, though, if you did see him before this current break, it was at a race, lining up at the front of the pack, and then not again until the race results were posted, when he would usually be near the top. Since joining Front Runners in 2006, Peterson, 38, has typically finished in the top 10 on open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �the team, with age-graded numbers in the 70s or above. Then after scalpeling through the competition, he would sprint to his co-op just off the park, back to his partner of almost 11 years, Jeremy Heilman, and their dog, Ginger, until it was time to race again. His stellar results did garner him Facebook Twitter Instagram enough notice to be named Front Runner Middle Distance Runner of the Year for 2009. The award, he said, "came as a complete surprise. I've always been good at many different things, but I'm never the best (or worst) at anything, either. Falling in the middle certainly has its advantages when you're trying to fit in, to keep a low profile." Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm The unassuming Peterson does seem more comfortable blending into the POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER crowd, or even a plate-glass window at Starbucks, his dark buzz cut tilted down into his New Yorker and unsweetened iced coffee, his size-small Thomas G. Labrecque T-shirt hanging off him, than he does on a podium. But you can't achieve what Peterson has, both on and off the running path search (he's currently pursuing his third Master's degree), without a little pride, even if it's couched in modesty. He'll admit that with his reduced mileage (down, he figures, to 2,000 miles a year from 2,500, still running six days a week), he could still probably run a 1:27 half-marathon, that "1:27" uttered with an undisguised "so what?" in his voice. This questionable humility apparently has followed him from his high-school days in Alaska, when he said he could run 17-minute 5Ks, "good, not great." (Peterson also tried football in high school for a year but "hated it." He wandered over to cross-country "because the guys were cuter.") So with a peak running age, an injury-free body and his FRNY award still shining on his mantel, why would he choose now to scale back the miles? For one, he doesn't like to run in the heat (that Alaska thing), and this summer of all our discontents was actually good timing. His last race was the Scotland 10K in April, and he won't race again until the Reach the Beach relay in September. But more important is his pursuit of that third Master's, which leads us to: Sell a couple b ottles of Dr. Good. Peterson for many years was comfortably ensconced in his job as a physician's assistant. And while it was a steady job, he realized that if he stayed in it, he would be doing the same thing every open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �day "five years down the road." So in 2006, he took a job at a pharmaceuticals company, which led him to eventually pursue an M.B.A. at N.Y.U. "A colleague said that I had 'gone over to the dark side,' " he says. "I prefer to think of it as bringing light to the dark side." Peterson now travels from Philadelphia to Maine in different capacities as a big pharma rep, with an emphasis on Hepatitis B drugs/treatment. "There's something different every day," he says. And he often has to speak in front of large groups, which helps him tackle his shyness. Joining Front Runners also got him over both running and social hurdles. He and Heilman were living in Brooklyn and Peterson was running with Brooklyn Road Runners, a club he enjoyed but found limiting from a competitive point of view. One person would typically show up for a speed workout. "The thing about Brooklyn is that about once a year they get a really fast runner, and then that runner leaves for a faster team." He and Heilman were looking to move anyway - "we were priced out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan" - and he looked up Front Runners. He liked the idea of organized speed workouts and was impressed with the club's philanthropic efforts. "Oh, yeah, and I guess also because I was gay. Here I could wear the jersey comfortably, but not when I lived in Connecticut." (Peterson got his second Master's, in a physician'sassistant program, at Yale. His first was in fisheries.) Peterson's reluctance to wear his gayness on his back is a partly a product of his upbringing in a military family. He told his parents over the phone that he was gay when he was 23, and while his mother was "very concerned," his Air Force father was silent on the subject, and they have never discussed it since. Over the years, though, he says, his family has embraced Heilman, open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �his partner. And he says that living in Alaska when he was starting to acknowledge his gayness had certain advantages: there was a bar in Fairbanks that was gay one night a week, a kind of one-queer-size-fits-all, out of necessity. "There were college kids, bears, drag queens, lesbians all there. It was very open and accepting." Fairbanks also provided the scene for Peterson's favorite marathon, the Equinox, in September 1996. The course ran up and down a mountain, and the weather veered from rain to sleet to snow and then back to rain on the way down. Peterson had a support team there with several changes of clothes, and while it was not his fastest marathon, it was his most rewarding because of the constant shifting and recalibrating the course required, appealing to the vagabond Air Force brat in him. Peterson's other favorite marathon was New York in 2006 (a big year for Peterson, as it turned out), when he ran 2:57. But it wasn't all about time. He ran the same day that one of his sports heroes, Lance Armstrong, did (and beat him), and also ran side by side with one of his running mentors, John Shostrom, a Brooklyn runner whom Peterson met online in the late '90s and who was instrumental in persuading Peterson to move to New York. He plans to run his next marathon in 2011, to coincide with his 40th birthday, but admits that the distance isn't his favorite. "I'm not built for a marathon," he says. "After I run one, I can't walk. I'm not like these guys who can go out and run one the next week." I was 16, he was 21. Actually it was Peterson who was 26 and Heilman who was 19 when they met online. Two years later, in 1999, they started living open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �together. Heilman himself is in grad school now, studying film at Columbia, with a plan to teach. "He's a brilliant critic," Peterson says. They've been known to see 200-300 films a year, though these days are down to just 2-3 a week. Their favorites include "Chinatown," "Manhattan," "Vertigo" and "The Thin Red Line." Together they saw "Magnolia" four times ("or so") in the theater, and "Moulin Rouge" still stands out for them ("great energy, and one of the few recent musicals that I love"). Spending time with Heilman is another reason Peterson is taking a bit of a break from running; they'll embark on a Minnesota vacation this summer - by car, because Peterson would not allow Ginger to travel in a plane's baggage section - before they both return to school in the fall. But just because Peterson has given other areas of his life greater priority lately, it doesn't mean that his competitive fires have dimmed. He'll run that grueling RTB relay in the fall, with an ultra team. And there's the marathon in 2011, and an added reason to look forward to turning 40: "I'll be out of Rich [Velazquez] and Kelsey's age group." Coda: Every [Saturday] night, all the men would come around. "Back when the Roxy was still open for business, I went with some friends and couldn't understand why there was such a massive crowd packed onto the dance floor. . . . My questions were answered when Cher came out onstage and sang a song unknown to me at the time, "Believe," along with a couple other songs from her new (at the time) album. Kind of a random New York experience, but seeing as I lived in Connecticut then, it left an impression on me. . . . It's not often you just 'run into' a Cher performance. I think that's the type of thing you have to plan for, at least in any city other than New York!" open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Exactly. January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_brent_peterson.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/0afcc145f2c9c1cca6e7a572c80cf9e3.pdf 5632dd5057cc8c6e22610da69d08a51c PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Cenk Bulbul Gays can’t come out in Turkey. The language lacks the words, the culture lacks the concept.Only after moving from Turkey to Pittsburgh did Cenk Bülbül see himself as gay, and he came all the way out only after sinking roots in New York. Cenk (pronounced Jenk) felt a leaning for guys since his youth, but he told himself everyone fancies both women and men. "It's a spectrum," he thought, "and I'm attracted to women too." But he wasn't. After earning a degree in industrial engineering at Turkey's top school, he headed to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon because a mentor advised him to go after an MBA at a open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �technical school. Facebook There he saw men getting close, men holding hands. Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 9:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Partly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 49% "They were kissing, man to man, and I thought, 'That's me!'" But he didn't abandon himself forthwith to same-sex frolics. Once while running laps on the school track, he noted another man staring with more than athletic interest. Intrigued, abashed, Cenk fumbled for a response, but "the only response I could give was to run back home immediately." MBA in hand, Cenk searched for a US job, but he found none and headed open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 6 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm pdfcrowd.com �back to Turkey -- and back into bisexual musings. Rationalizing that he liked kids and could probably spawn one or two, he started seeking women, but Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER only certain women. "They were all flat-chested, very manly, strong women," Cenk recalls. He tried dating women throughout his 20s, but with slim success. Meanwhile, he was making big money working long hours, adding adipocytes to his waist, and holing up every night in a large, smartly search furnished, lonely apartment. "I said, fuck it. I dumped everything, sold as much as I could, quit my job." Inspired by Asli, a close friend (and decidedly unmanly woman), Cenk set his sights on a marketing PhD from NYU and made NYC his new home 2002. "It was a second start for me," he notes. And this time he didn't run away from cruisers. "Within 3 months I was totally out," he recalls. "And the fourth month after I moved to New York, I lost my virginity. I was 30. I had never even kissed a man before." His family's reaction to the news proved varied, partly because Turkish media at the time portrayed gay men in only three ways: as prostitutes, drag queens, or effusively effeminate men-and Cenk clearly didn't answer to any of those descriptions. Cenk's dismayed father, an army general, told him Turkish has only a word for gay, "bottom," and somehow he didn't see his son as a sexually passive swish. "No, that's only in Turkey," Cenk explained, "not in real life." His mother "rejected the concept viscerally--she cried every time she saw me." Cenk's sister, a professor of medicine and OB/GYN researcher, helped calm parental qualms by spelling out the clinical ABCs of homosexuality and open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �assuring them no blame could be assigned any party for a blameless verity. Cenk's mother "doesn't cry anymore, but she doesn't want to hear about it." His father, in contrast, became closer with Cenk and now even offers a firm shoulder "whenever I have a heartbreak." With an MBA, a PhD, and years of on-the-job savvy, Cenk nailed down a post at Ogilvy & Mather, the storied ad giant, where he now heads of team of six that molds the marketing aura of megabuck multinationals like American Express, Cisco, and Siemens. His doctoral work delved the fertile depths of how emotions influence consumer decisions, and he continues to publish research on that topic in peer-reviewed journals. His latest study, coauthored with a Wharton School colleague, posits two types of emotional appeal in ads, abstract affect and concrete affect. Two surveys yielded evidence that abstract affect (which is warm, fuzzy, and nonspecific) drives long-term buying behavior, while concrete affect (which is hot, vivid, and visceral) holds more sway over short-term behavior. Cenk construes his decision to settle in New York for PhD work as an example of abstract affect, with its Apollonian focus on long-range life planning. But if you ask Cenk's friends for a quick-stroke portrait, they sketch a Dionysian concrete-affect guy. "The best way to describe Cenk in one word is 'intense,' offers Alex Kristofcak. "Whether it's in love, friendship, or running, Cenk doesn't do 'casual.' Tim Guscott concurs: "One of Cenk's most endearing qualities is his 110% commitment to anything in which he is involved, whether it is an athletic goal that he has set for himself, the defense of a friend perceived as open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �having been wronged, or an idea in which he believes deeply." These days Cenk focuses that welder's-torch intensity on half-marathons and marathons, with 26.2s in Madrid, San Francisco, and New York City on the docket for 2011. But his racing life didn't start that way. Unlike many Front Running men who've divulged their life stories in these pages, Cenk was a crackerjack athlete in his youth, boasting two skills that set him apart from confreres: He could jump higher than anyone else, and he could jump sideways farther than anyone else. Those talents made him a tip-top basketball rebounder, not to mention the preferred point man on fast breaks. Sprawling leaps across two dimensions also positioned him as the perfect soccer goalie. But when he went to college, Cenk decided to try distance running. Sizing up Cenk's oaken thighs and I-beam shoulders, the coach had another idea: "When I look at you, I see a sprinter, nothing else." Applying his mettle to 100 meters, Cenk whittled his time to 11.2. During his workaholic 20s, Cenk had no time for running, but in New York he found his way back into training and eventually into a local road race, the precipitous Coogan's 5K. He ran that race with a Front Runner boyfriend, but when they broke up shortly afterwards, Cenk felt reluctant to join FRNY runs or workouts because the ex might be there. When he told this story to Kerstin Marx, a fellow NYU scholar and FRNY stalwart, she urged him to join a Saturday fun run and come to breakfast. If the ex-boyfriend showed up, Kerstin promised, she would hold Cenk's hand. The ex showed up! Kerstin held Cenk's hand! And all went well when the former flame welcomed Cenk warmly to the club. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Soon Cenk met Alex Kristofcak, they became fast friends, and fast racers too. A year after his Coogan's debut, Cenk once again found himself scooting up and down Fort Washington Ave, and carving more than a minute off his inaugural time. Cenk and Alex trained for the 2006 NYC marathon, but injury forced Cenk to withdraw. Since then, Cenk has run five marathons, setting his PR last year in New York with a 3:25. A few months before that, running the Mohawk-Hudson half-marathon as a warm-up, he found himself tagging along with lead-pack women and decided to hang on as long as he could. He hung on well enough to set a PR there, too, crossing the line in a sub-7minute pace at 1:31:14. And he set both records as a smoker. Cenk's nicotine habit started when he was a kid, getting perfect-10 grades in all his classes and earning the censure of his peers. To shed his egghead image and join the crowd, they told him, he must drink and smoke, so he did. Never loving his addiction, Cenk became a perennial quitter called "My-Last-Smoke Cenk" by his pals. He got serious about stopping when an acupuncturist treating him for track injuries tried to ablate his tobacco dependence by swiveling needles into his ears. When Cenk complained it wasn't working, the needle ninja, who apparently minored in mental health, blamed the failure on his "deep psychological problems." Bleeding concrete affect, Cenk set out to disprove that diagnosis and went cold turkey. At his next acupuncture session, he declared himself a nonsmoker and psychologically sound. But he relapsed a few years later when enduring three tibial stress fractures and a boyfriend bust-up. In 2011, he made quitting his New Year's resolution, announced his resolve on facebook, and stopped. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �"I made a switch in my mind," he explains. "I categorized myself as a nonsmoker. Every time I wanted a cigarette, I remembered that I don't smoke anymore." And his running endurance improved dramatically. Training with a heart rate monitor as part of an aerobic base-building plan, Cenk found that within a few days of quitting he could go 20% faster at the same heart rate. "It's just crazy," he exclaims. "Three days!" Shortly thereafter, the nicotine stains on his fingers vanished. Now his goal is to set another marathon PR, and once again in New York, justly reputed as a non-PR course. Soon after becoming a racing regular, Cenk threw himself into FRNY functions with gusto, serving as club secretary in 2007, organizing the FRNY cross-country meet as a fund raiser for the Bronx Community Center, and writing "Bibs & Chips" for the newsletter. It's no secret that Cenk served a stormy tenure on the FRNY board. Believing Front Runners could tap his rich marketing know-how to launch new membership and club-communication plans, he felt frustrated when his proposals met resistance. The club later did enact one of his initiatives, transferring the Front Runner Gram to a professional e-mail program. Yet, ironically, Cenk unsubscribed from this weekly update, feeling it has grown prolix. Friends see this heart-on-sleeve single-mindedness as a two-sided plus. "Cenk is one of the most open people I've ever met," Tim Guscott observes. "I never have to wonder what he might be thinking, and I can't think of anyone who so easily bursts into tears of joy!" And Cenk remains deeply committed to training and racing as a Front Runner. "I love Chris [Stoia] and Kelsey," Cenk says. "I love the track, the hill open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �workouts -- and the long runs are very motivating. I see extreme value in the coached workouts." He reckons that more than two thirds of his friends are Front Runners and that he spends three quarters of his free time with them. And Chris loves having training maniacs like Cenk under his tutelage. Like almost all goal-setting runners, Chris says, Cenk spends more than a little time doubting his potential-doubting not only whether he can notch a new PR, but even whether he can complete a workout. Chris remembers one night when Cenk nearly quit before finishing the assigned track repeats. Chris suggested Cenk focus on running the straightaways faster, not by lunging into longer strides, but by "taking fast little steps, pushing off quickly -- bip, bip, bip!" It worked. Cenk finished his repeats, and finished fast with an ear-to-ear grin. When the workout's over, "he's always a sweaty mess," Chris allows, "but one sweaty mess I am ALWAYS happy to see at the track." Running is hardly Cenk's only exudative passion. He derives "immense pleasure" simply from discovering things: "news, songs, a little shop." He loves writing, traveling, spoiling his miniature schnauzer Hiro, and "to this day I'm researching human behavior." Why did his PhD work analyze how emotions affect choice?"Because I'm very interested in how people make these stupid decisions. And in the process I learned so much about myself." by Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 open in browser PRO version profile Perm alink Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �© Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_cenk_bulbul.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/4daa5634586b1a3c03bf7e5f987d8909.pdf 55a8df8f64ca95b5984c91070530cdcc PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Charlie Herschel Charlie Herschel refuses to dish about what may or may not have happened with Marcus Lehman after the sun went down on Gabon. It's really quite infuriating. But the large liquidated damages clause on the confidentiality agreement he signed with CBS has effectively put the kibosh on any potential kiss-and-tell gab sessions. Those watching the 17th season of Survivor , which is set in Gabon on the west coast of Africa, have witnessed the chemistry, and bloggers worldwide have heralded their relationship the "bromance" of the century. Marcus aside, the experience of being on Survivor was nothing short of a open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �dream come true for Herschel. "I created a Survivor shrine in college and pasted cut-out pictures from magazines of the Survivor contestants on my wall," he admits, proudly. "It's the ultimate physical, social and mental challenge." The complete obliteration of standard social hierarchy and Facebook Twitter Instagram pecking order drew Herschel to the show. After all, at tribal council no one cares if you practice law at a prestigious firm (like Herschel) or are working at Domino's to pay off a mountain of credit card debt. "All that matters," observes Herschel, "is what is your core." Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT It's no real wonder then that Herschel has performed beautifully on the show thus far. Raised by two "down to earth" math teachers and growing up the 81° middle of three sons, he had a balanced upbringing that was an enviable mix of city stimulation and country simplicity. The Herschels lived on the Upper High: 87° Low: 69° West Side but weekended about two hours outside of Manhattan in Warren, Connecticut. "I grew up seeing Broadway shows on Tuesday nights and seeing trannies on the way to pre-school, but I also spent my weekends catching frogs in our pond and mowing our grass," he explains. "I am very fortunate." Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search While Herschel has also fared well during the show's physical challenges, peak fitness has not always been a given for him. He describes himself as a natural athlete in youth who tired of hockey at an early age and packed on the pounds during a sedentary phase in adolescence. A low point came when he lied during a physical fitness test and told his gym teacher that he had completed the mile, which was nine rotations of the high school roof, after doing only three laps. By 17, Herschel was fed up (pun intended) with himself and decided to make a lifestyle change. "I just felt gross and sad for myself all the time," he says, "and something went off in my mind that just made me very stubborn about losing the weight." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Tenacity, discipline and a healthy dose of moderation helped Herschel shed 60 pounds his junior year of high school. He started running to burn calories but built up slowly, feeling a huge sense of achievement the first time he could complete a lap of the Central Park reservoir (about 1.6 miles). By running three times a week and monitoring his diet, Herschel managed his weight effectively through college. With his current more rigorous running schedule, he worries less about calories than he once did but still eats low fat foods like yogurt and fruit when alone, allowing himself to "pig out" in the company of friends. As with so many who try it, Herschel got hooked on running and finished his first marathon in Philadelphia, where he received his undergraduate degree from University of Pennsylvania in 2000 at the age of 21. "I was sobbing the entire last three miles," he admits. "Four years before that, I couldn't even complete one mile!" For the record, he smashed his goal of four hours that day, crossing the finish line in 3:44. That marathon whetted Herschel's appetite for competition. As a law student at Fordham in 2004-2005, he began to race quite frequently, often at an admirable 6:20-6:30 pace. In 2006, he started donning a Front Runner New York singlet. Herschel gave the club a chance despite being decidedly underwhelmed by his visit to Boston FRs while working there as a consultant after college. Unlike in Boston where only three people showed for the run he attended, Herschel discovered hundreds of kindred spirits at FRNY. "I find it fascinating when people become obsessed with any one thing," he says, "and there are definitely a lot of people in the group who are obsessed with running." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Herschel can count himself among them. Racing in a whopping 20 NYRR events in 2007, and performing quite well along the way, he garnered the club's points award for the 20-29 age division at last year's awards ceremony. Topping off that heady accomplishment, Herschel placed sixth out of 73 Front Runners at the 2007 NYC marathon in a personal best of 3:12 (32 minutes faster than his Philadelphia debut). Herschel's competitive fire may have also sparked his decision to finally try out for Survivor. Initially, the hugely unfavorable odds of being chosen had deterred him. "I am a realist and I never thought I had an honest shot at getting cast," he says. But something made him send a tape in this past year. Describing the casting process as a "rollercoaster," Herschel says that at first he felt like a shoe-in but then failed to make the final cut, only to be asked back to audition in a second round of finals. "I felt so silly putting my life on hold and flying to LA for a week for a shot in the dark," he says. Amazingly, seven of the 10 people chosen to meet studio executives and series creator Mark Burnett on that trip were cast on the show. And Herschel's dream had been realized only now he had to flee the country for seven weeks without saying a word to a soul. (He did tell his parents, who then also had to sign a confidentiality agreement.) His employers at Weil, Gotshal amiably allowed him to "follow a dream" without any details, and Herschel figured everyone else would assume he was buried under an avalanche of legal documents. Herschel has looked like a natural on the show, but he insists that it has not been a cakewalk. "Being the gay on reality TV shows is like being Sarah open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Palin at a Planned Parenthood convention," he jokes. "It is very isolating and lonely, and I think the producers like that tension." Perhaps, but the frisson with Marcus clearly has the Chelsea set glued to the TV screen. In fact, the show has been so engrossing that it can be difficult to believe Herschel is actually back from Gabon. It seems like he's living a double-life, foraging for food in "Earth's Last Eden" during the week and training for the marathon in Central Park on weekends. That's right, Herschel will be in exotic Staten Island come November 2nd. "This year will be the hardest marathon for me," he says. "Survivor completely weakened me we ate 200 calories a day." Smart money says that competitive instinct and experience will pull him through the tough patches. And let's not forget the crowd support. Surely, many fans will go wild when All-American Charlie boy passes. Who knows, maybe a certain 28-year-old physician from Jacksonville will even be looking to cheer him on? We'll just have to tune in to see. Written by Robert Lennon Random Data Coming Out Quote: "Coming out [at age 19] was a huge deal " I was very lucky though my parents have a lot of gay friends and I grew up in New York City!" Survivor the First Season: "I remember cheering for the 'good' people like Colleen and Gretchen it was shocking to see evil people last longer than the good." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Last Meal Before Gab on: Brunch of Eggs Benedict with Lox at Extra Virgin Is Survivor Reality?: "The show is completely real-you don't eat, you barely sleep, you are cold and uncomfortable." That Kiss-and-Tell Gab Session?: "Jeff Probst is a hell of a kisser." [Anyone else thinking that might be code?] January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_charlie_herschel.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/5dea981490161e7788d1749119ab3f5a.pdf 42dbdccfc2918e8bc6ff7898f032b68f PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Chris Stoia Chris Stoia wasn't looking for Front Runners, but Front Runners found him. While calling it divine intervention or the auspices of serendipity may be a tad overblown, the circumstances do qualify, at the very least, as uncanny. After a more than 15-year hiatus from racing, Stoia decided to give the NYC marathon another go in 2006, and the call of 800-meter repeats brought him to the Riverbank Track on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (Those involved with speed training may see where this is headed.) During his initial courtship with the club, Stoia would linger on the bleachers after his workout to size up and time the clearly gay runners, while Front Runners would collectively open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �puzzle: "Who is that gay guy watching us? Should we ask if he wants to join our workouts?" Given how integrated Stoia - a 2007 nominee for FR of the Year, recent race captain addition and near weekly provider of fresh baked goods on Saturday Facebook Twitter Instagram mornings - has become into the fiber of the club, it is difficult to imagine that a mere 18 months ago he could not muster the nerve to approach FRNY. But as Front Runners through the decades have learned, once you're home, it doesn't really matter how you got there. This club allows you to check your past at the door to Rutgers. No questions asked. For Stoia, the past involved Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT a wonderful family, an active social life and great running glories, but, as is often the case for gay runners, many elements of his self worth and inner 81° peace were inextricably knotted together with athletic performance and acceptance of his sexuality. During his 15-year break from competition, Stoia still relied on running as a "leveler," but in many ways he kept the sport at a High: 87° Low: 69° safe distance. Over the last year and a half, he has reawakened his inner Mostly Cloudy athlete and found a way back home. Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search A scrappy Long Island teenager with quick feet but no hope of ever bending it like Beckham, Stoia was gently nudged from the high school soccer team to the track team. Impossibly determined, Stoia self-trained the entire summer after his debut spring track season. His father, who worked for an electronics company, built a large digital clock to time his son's nightly laps around the open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �block. "I did get better, faster and stronger," says Stoia, "just like the 6 Million Dollar Man." The training worked so well, in fact, that junior year he earned the name "blood and guts Stoia," and in his senior year, he was crowned MVP for cross country and both indoor and outdoor track. "It had only happened once before (that an athlete won for all three seasons)," says Stoia, "and when I got those awards and my parents were there and the crowd cheered, I could have died and gone to heaven." With trademark gumption, Stoia went on to run all three seasons at Cornell University his freshman year. But he soon discovered that he wasn't in Deer Park, LI anymore. "I loved it but was way out of my league and totally overtraining," he admits. "Guys were doing 100-plus mile weeks all the time and I couldn't get over 85." Although he blistered through the 1500 (just shy of a mile) in an astonishing 4:10 and sped through the 800 in 2:03, he wasn't cutting it on the team and decided to pursue other pastimes. Through a hometown friend, Stoia had explored African dance soon after starting at Cornell and used the extra time he had after quitting the team to delve further into various dance programs. "I wasn't very good at first," he says, "but like everything else I did, I threw everything into it." Participation in the student dance group yielded more than a tight butt and late night fodder. To fulfill a volunteer requirement of the club, Stoia lent a hand with costume design and production. But first he had to learn to sew. His home ecology professor was so impressed with his workmanship that she suggested he switch his major from botany to design. "The light bulb went off," says Stoia, "so what if I had no design or art background at all. Landscaping and plants are all just shape and color!" (The choice stuck; Stoia now runs production open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �design for bohemian fashion phenom Nanette Lepore.) After college, Stoia borough surfed for a while, riding the waves between Queens, Washington Heights and the South Bronx. It was the late 80s and Stoia was a little bit John Travolta and a little bit Richard Simmons. A typical weekend? "Go to a bar on Friday night and dance there, drag myself home to go to aerobics Saturday morning for 2-3 hours and then the club that night until sun up," he explains. "And then Sunday was the day - 3 to 4 hours of aerobics and feed my face and go home and collapse." Despite apparent sleep deprivation and a lifestyle not conducive to top performance, Stoia still completed the 1988 NYC marathon in an impressive 3:06. Nearing the 3hour mark inspired Stoia to "train like an animal" to break that milestone the next year. He crossed the line angry and vexed, with a time of 3:04. "All that training for what! Two f*#!ing minutes, no way! I swore I would never, ever, EVER run the marathon again." Chasing goals can be tricky business, and it doesn't take a psychotherapist to know that the numbers on the clock can represent something more than minutes and seconds. "I was having a mental/emotional meltdown," admits Stoia. "I was doing too many things to get approval from people." To truly settle the troubled tides within, Stoia needed his parents to at least be able to speak openly about his being gay. While they loved him unconditionally and knew the truth about his sexuality (did you read the part above about his penchant for design and jazzercise?), his family had never even said the word "gay" before. Over time and with work, his familial relationships only grew stronger, but he still refrained from racing because he couldn't decide if he was doing it for approval or for himself. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �By 2006, Stoia had decided to tackle the marathon again - this time, on his own terms. Through the dumb luck of coincidence, he ended up doing his speed training in the same place and at almost the same time as Front Runners, and he needed only the teensiest bit of cajoling to join the team. "If the club hadn't invited me," he says, "I doubt I would have joined or even tested the waters - it's not my way." The last 18 months have shown that once in the mix, Stoia is the consummate team player and performer. Since joining FRNY, he has chipped away at his marathon time, hitting 3:03 in 2006 and 3:00 flat (just 28 seconds shy of his goal) in 2007 and is clearly on his way to greater and better performances. His consistent support of FRNY, through stellar racing, relay participation and generous volunteerism led to his nomination for the club's most prestigious honor at this February's Awards Night. Reflecting on that night, Stoia has coquettishly said how good it is to "finally feel part of something." Welcome home, Chris. Written by Robert Lennon Random Data 2008 Racing Goals? - 2:57 NYC Marathon and breaking 6-minute pace for 3-, 4- and 5-milers Hollywood Hottie? - "This one's easy-Benjamin Bratt.There's always Dave Navarro if Ben is busy." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Proudest Running Moment? - "4:10 in the 1500 because I don't hear many fellow runners saying they've done it, and I like to think I'm special." Favorite designer? - Balenciaga and Scaasi Dream Job? - Landscape architect - high-end plants January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_chris_stoia.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/c3e4ac8f6beb3505597d3b26651bc727.pdf b94a4d44daff5c4957134ca82145411d PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Claudia Cummings It didn't take long for Claudia Cummings to slide down the slippery slope of Front Runner volunteerism. In 1997, just one year after she had joined the club, the then-coach of FRNY Jeff Singleton gently cajoled Cummings into filling the post of race captain. It was in that same year, fresh from her 1996 marathon debut and her inaugural triathlon, Cummings wrote Bob Nelson to ask who was organizing the triathletes for the 1998 Amsterdam Gay Games. "You are honey!" he wrote back. "My first thought was 'WHAT??!'" says Cummings "and my second was 'Well, why not?'" Little did Cummings know that that fateful e-mail would be seminal to the open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �founding of Tritons, the multi-sport arm of Front Runners that celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. As is still the favored protocol, Cummings chose the Saturday fun run as the forum to first gauge membership interest. "About a dozen people showed up, which seemed pretty respectable to me," says Facebook Twitter Instagram Cummings. "By the spring we had almost three dozen people ... 25 of us raced in Amsterdam." Though the initial purpose of the group had ended with the closing ceremonies in Amsterdam, the triathletes decided to forge ahead, having established a sense of solidarity and camaraderie important in a sport that was then still very straight, very male and very homogenous. Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT The team, which officially became a part of FRNY as "Team New York Triathlon" in 1998 and adopted the name Tritons in 2002, currently boasts 81° membership of more than 100 multi-sport athletes. High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER An amazing success in and of itself, the Tritons represent just one jewel in search Cummings's Front Runner crown. She is also a former Cross-Country Athlete of the Year, Front Runner of the Year and a perennial leader of both the women's team and the triathlete contingent of the club. "She and I were co-race captains together and were in the minority of women for a long, long time," says Audra Farrell, current women's vice-president and longtime friend of Cummings. "She is very encouraging to people who are just getting into triathlons." Given her long and evolving history as an athlete, Cummings brings an appreciation for the hard work and dedication required to dig deep and realize one's goals and aspirations. In fact, Cummings herself did not seem slated for the world of Olympic distance triathlons, Half Ironmen or even plain old vanilla marathons as a little girl growing up in Euclid, Ohio. A self-proclaimed "tomboy weirdo" who loved playing athletics with her younger brother, Cummings had the natural chops for only one of the three triathlon sports. "I learned to swim when I was three because my mom literally couldn't keep me out of the water," she says. "If there was a lake, pond, river, pool or creek, I wanted to be in it." Cycling offers an interesting counterpoint. Her father did not take the training wheels off her bike until excessive taunting mandated their removal when Cummings hit age seven. Always coming in last in elementary school open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �sprinting drills, Cummings had completely forsaken runnerly ambitions until placing second in a school "Olympics" challenge showed her that she might have some distance potential. Though Cummings did not pursue organized track or cross-country in high school or college, she did use running as an athletic outlet and stress reducer when she moved to New York City to study film at NYU in 1987. "I would run laps of the park at ten o'clock at night," remembers Cummings, "... fending off drug dealers who apparently thought I was out there to buy pot." As Cummings struggled to come to terms with her sexuality during her fiveyear marriage to a man she'd met in film school, she sought the therapeutic solace of running more and more frequently. "Long runs gave me a chance to get out and think," she explains, "and racing gave me a feeling of accomplishment and confidence that I really needed to move forward and take control of my life - which I finally did at 27." Cummings's growth as a runner continued to parallel her coming out journey. She first poked her head out of the closet door by racing with a friend "to show support" during the 1995 Pride Run. Then, two days after she split up with her husband in March of 1996, Cummings ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon, a debut for her at this distance. "I saw some women in Front Runner uniforms on the boardwalk at Coney Island," she says, "but I was too intimidated to go up and talk to them." It was not until a few weeks after the 1996 Pride Run that Cummings mustered enough moxie to attend a Saturday fun run. "I walked into Rutgers and looked down into the gym-and there were NO women there," she remembers. "I panicked and turned around to walk out." Cummings credits then-president Jim Gibb for open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �convincing her to stay for the run. ( Note to women: It's important to represent! ) On subsequent occasions, she discovered that there were in fact active women in the club; Cummings still has the snippet of rainbow ribbon that she received as a newcomer that day. Cummings has paid back any debts owed to those women who so willingly welcomed her in the early days - Sue Foster, Sue Lund, Donna Checkan, Paulette Meggoe, Maryann Piamonte, Dororthy Fuscaldo and, of course, Lenore Beaky. After the high times of the mid-90s, participation by women waned, but Cummings stuck it out even as the FRNY gender divide grew into a gaping maw. "It seemed like for a few years it was just me and her," notes Farrell, "which led to people not being able to tell us apart." ( Note to readers: That's about as obtuse as mistaking Mollie Ringwald for Ally Sheedy. ) The ceaselessly egalitarian outreach embraced by Cummings, which has included both triathlon and cross-country clinics, women-focused speed workouts on Wednesday nights and five years of race captaining, engendered the tremendous and continuing growth and involvement of both FRNY women and multi-sport athletes in the club over the last five years. Constantly eschewing the spotlight, Cummings laughs off the idea that she's a superstar or Front Runner celeb. When recalling her proudest moments, she turns to the women's team's tenth place NYRR finish in 2005. "Those points were scored by women of every age and ability level," Cummings says. "Everyone was part of that success." Random Data open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Dream Race? - "Some day I'd like to have the nerve to try to race the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii, but that's one race venue that still scares the pant off me!" FRNY Suggestion Box? - "I'd like to see a suggestion box that every member could feel comfortable using" (Um, did you just steal my thunder?) Favorite Post-Workout Food? - Chocolate soy milk, apples, salt bagels, Red Bull (not all at the same time) Tri-athlete or Runner? "I've worked hard over the years to become a triathlete rather than a runner who is also swimming and biking." Items to Save when Apartment in Flames - "I would rescue as many of my six bicycles as possible, starting with my tri bike." Admired Athletes - Paula Newby-Fraser, Karen Smyers and Chris McCormick (all professional triathletes) January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_claudia_cummings.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/46b3ab5d2b9eeeb009eaabd42bfee5c1.pdf 1b920c3e88558cccac030aa12bf40e5d PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Dane Grams Dane Grams thought he'd never get to New York City. And the road from Absegami High in Galloway, New Jersey, to West 57th Street did not run true. On the way, he had addresses in Washington, DC, Spokane, Washington, and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. "I always wanted to live in New York City," Dane confides. "It was always a dream of mine, and I thought it was always going to be unattainable. I don't know why, but it intimidated me." Now that he calls Manhattan home, without a hint of diffidence, you can open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �usually find him leaving (he loves traveling), all ears-and eyes-in a Broadway theater, bar hopping with friends, hanging out with his dog Jersey, raising money for GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), or helping run Front Runners. Or running. Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Athletic archives at Old Absegami don't list Dane as a track standout or a cross-country mud scudder. In fact he never ran-except to catch the bus-until open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Sunrise: 5:50 am pdfcrowd.com �he joined a running club, Front Runners New York. Why would someone who Sunset: 8:10 pm never jogged across the park join a running club? POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER New to New York City, and newly without his boyfriend of 4 years, Dane was looking for a good way "to meet people and do something meaningful." Heeding the counsel of Dave Lin, whom he met in DC in late 2002 when both thought a 7-minute-mile was something a cab did on Constitution Ave in search rush hour, Dane enlisted with Front Runners. "Joining the club was not only a new social experience, it was a new athletic experience as well," he reflects. "So I was sort of a newbie all the way around." Not for long. A club member for only a few months, Dane signed up for his first race, the 4-mile Run for the Park on April 22, 2007, at the age of 34. "He was so excited about both the race and his new Front Runner friends," Dave Lin says, "that we threw a big carbo-loading pasta dinner with about a dozen of us, all having a good time." The dinner was such a hit that Grams and Lin made it a tradition-"usually with a freely flowing box of Franzia wine," an oenophilic Lin divulges. Only 2 and a half years later, Dane has piled up an impressive racing record, including four marathons, sub-7-per-mile paces across an array of middledistance races, and a splendent 3:23 in his first New York City Marathon in 2009. ("I felt like a rock star!") Always the team player, Dane has competed in a few triathlon relays and a couple of all-running relays, including more than one relay win. "As a runner, Dane has improved immensely since starting Front Runners," his buddy Ryan Singer reckons, predicting further gains soon: "I expect that open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �we could see him contributing to the points standing and qualifying for Boston in the coming years." The New York Marathon time was only 8 minutes above Dane's current Boston-qualifying threshold. Next up on the marathon circuit: Phoenix in January and Cologne Gay Games in August. "It's pretty amazing to start something and be so passionate about so far into your life," Dane observes. But he's a two-footer in most of life's pursuits, jumping in with both of them whenever he finds something worth vaulting about. Bungee jumping off the frothy lip of Victoria Falls (360 feet top to bottom) is only the most dramatic example. Once he found Front Runners, Dane quickly decided he could do more than show up at races wearing the team singlet or bending his elbow and others' ears on the social carousel. A year after joining FRNY, Dane ran for the board and got elected secretary. In 2009 he made the move to men's vice-president, and he's running unopposed for that post in 2010. He co-managed the team's mile-24 NYC Marathon spot for 2 years, cochaired the club's Development Committee, headed up the Pride Run fundraiser twice, and played Pearl Mesta as FRNY social calendar planner for the last 2 years. "I learned quickly that if you want to know what's going on in the club socially, just talk to Dane," Seth Richardson advises. "He's the closest thing FRNY has to Cruise Director Julie McCoy. Dane will make sure you make it to the next First Friday Social and is great about introducing you to new people." Dane claims his overdrive commitment to the club is easy to understand. Joining FRNY helped him meet "all these great people of all different shapes and sizes, of all different running capacities, of all different ages, who had open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �come together for running but found much more than that in the club. I found it so rewarding for me personally that I wanted to volunteer my time and energy to make the club the same positive experience for other people." FRNY president Rob Lennon stresses that Dane's contributions to the club extend beyond choosing "a zany slate of bars" for First Fridays. Dane "has also introduced interesting charitable fundraisers like the Sea Tea and Hoedown into the mix." Lennon thinks Dane's success in this effort derives both from his acute sense of "what makes the club fun for people" and his professionally honed skills in fundraising. Kindling the giving spirit has been Dane's professional aim since he took his first job at Greenpeace in late 1993, where he worked for David Lemos, former chief of the Names Project Foundation, which fashioned the AIDS Quilt. From there Dane moved to Human Rights Campaign, where he scared up donations from late 1997 through early 2009 to promote equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans. In March 2009, Dane moved to GLSEN (pronounced "glisten"), the largest national organization working to end anti-LGBT bullying and harassment of students in grades K through 12. With less than a year under his belt at GLSEN, Dane has already run two major events that both exceeded goals, one in record-breaking fashion. This career path leads Ryan Singer to dub Dane "a professional gay." Though he rates the 2009 job switch--and consequently heavy work load and increased responsibility--"certainly daunting," Dane felt the time was right for a change. "I don't think I was pushing myself enough" at Human Rights open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Campaign, Dane says. "I was also afraid if I didn't try something new soon, I would never try anything new." His immediate up-to-the-eyeballs immersion at GLSEN made it harder to find time for running, and Dane's race results plateaued. But he kept pace with club chores, and FRNY remains in tip-top financial shape. One of the challenges for the club now, Dane thinks, is "finding a balance between making sure we have enough money put away for a rainy day, but also doing things with that money, giving back to the club in some way, and being good servants to the community as well." FRNY continues its strong support of local charitable groups, with a stated mission of helping people with HIV infection and other illnesses. When not running, running teas and hoedowns for FRNY, or running after money for GLSEN, Dane is usually flying around the world satisfying his wanderlust or warming a seat in a Broadway theater. High points in his travel log include a gay cruise on the Mediterranean with Dave Lin, and trips to China, Israel, Portugal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia, where he took the bungee plunge down Victoria Falls. "They almost had to push me off," Dane confesses, "but I think that counts." Next up-Germany, maybe South America, another African adventure, and lots more giorni in Italia. Back in New York, Dane haunts theaters on and off the Great White Way. "I like everything," he says. "But probably my favorites are musicals." He figures he's seen "hundreds and hundreds" of shows since embracing his limelit addiction, revisiting some blockbuster musicals as many as a dozen times each. He goes with family, with friends, or by himself, sometimes snaring a open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �free ticket or two from his vast network of movers and shakers. And in his spare time, Dane marries people. While living in St. Thomas he got ordained as a minister thanks to an online church "because I thought it might be fun to be able to marry people, and lo and behold two friends of mine in the Virgin Islands were going to get married and the judge who was going to marry them was unable to do it." So Dane stepped in to pace his pals through their vows. Since then, he's also sealed the bond between his oldest childhood friend and her man. Be careful! If Dane doesn't show up at your wedding in ministerial drag, he'll find another way to sweep you into his high-spin vortex. Just ask Dane's Mom. Although it took her a little while to embrace her son's gay lifestyle, she now finds herself flipping flapjacks at the premarathon pancake breakfast and judging acts suave and whacky at the FRNY Variety Show. "She just happened to be in New York" on the Variety Show weekend, Dane explains, "so I asked her and she said, 'sure, that sounds like fun.'" Gregor Mendel would not be surprised. Written by Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 open in browser PRO version profile Perm alink Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �© Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_dane_grams.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/b9c29b99dd4c96ee2d48de44e9ee7cc6.pdf eefaae425047b79e5518c752cbf0934b PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › David Caraway This has been a year of milestones for veteran Front Runner David Caraway. Not only is Dave celebrating his 15th anniversary as a member, he turned 40 this year, and recently launched a new law firm. But most importantly, he is having the busiest year in his racing career since making a difficult comeback from knee surgery, competing in 16 road races so far in 2009- bringing his total past 100 races - and once again scoring points for Front Runners. Our favorite francophile lawyer was born in Iowa, where he got his degree open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �from the University of Iowa's College of Law in 1994, but not before setting out to see the world a bit, gathering that certain on ne sait quoi that we love about him-- Dave spent a year in Paris at the Sorbonne and later spent a summer in Arcachon, France studying international law. He even once had a job as head chef of a French language camp during the summers of his Facebook Twitter Instagram college years. Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F He has battled with synovitis in his right knee off and on for about 13 years having first gone under the knife in 1997. Dave, always a fierce speed demon, was sidelined again by a surgery in early 2005 a few months after open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am pdfcrowd.com �clocking in his best race ever in terms of age graded percentage (a 4:59 in Sunset: 8:10 pm the Fifth Avenue mile, earning him 76.3 percent). But ever the trooper, he still walked three races in 2005."It was very difficult to lose my running and to not POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER be around so many of the guys I had bonded with on our trail blazing 2003 team. So under strict doctor's orders not to run - I set out walking the races," he said.Since then he's been on the comeback trail, scoring points for the club, most recently in the Father's Day 10k, coming in second for the team in search the masters' category. Dave's adventure with FRNY dates back to 1995, a year after he moved to New York and finished law school. FRNY gave him the camaraderie, and competition to keep him motivated as a runner. His involvement with the club has included a stint as a board member in 2002-2003 and being one of two people relaunching the club's web site and the online calendar which is used to this day. "When it comes to exercise, I am an inherently lazy person, but I'm also social, so I just look forward to seeing everyone and the workout happens by default." Dave said. "The miles go by soooo much faster when there are others to talk to and train with." Because of his injury, Dave has taken a long term view of his running goals, accepting that some things must be sacrificed, including resisting the temptation to run the New York City marathon this year. (He ran the 2003 race in 2:59). "My main goal now is to be able to enjoy running as much as I can and do as much as I can now but still be able to run when I'm 70 which means I really open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �have to listen to my body. Right now my knee is good but not great, so for now I've sworn off anything over 10k's and long term racing goals which could cause me to do more than I should. Letting my automatic marathon entry lapse earlier this year was a difficult decision, but it was the right one," he said. Though he is very much now a big city lawyer, Dave has impeccable heartland credentials. He was raised on a hog farm (pop. 1,500 hogs) near Maquoketa, Iowa (pop. 6,000 people). After a youth spent battling asthma he joined the cross country team in his sophomore year of high school to prove to himself he could do it and not be last, such was his insecurity. In addition to running, Dave has a passion for politics. He got the political bug being a page in Iowa's House of Representatives in 1987, his senior year of high school, when he personally met most of the Presidential hopefuls for the 1988 Iowa caucuses. He started coming out when he was in law school and took part in the AIDS clinic providing estate planning and filing Social Security appeals for AIDS victims, support for whom was quite lacking in the state. To this day, writing wills and estate planning for the LGBT community is much of what he does day in his practice. Dave is currently Vice President of the Chelsea Reform Democrats and is in the race for judicial delegate on the September 15th primary ballot. If he wins, Dave will be one of about 100 delegates in Manhattan able to select New York State's next Supreme Court candidates. SOME RANDOM FACTS: Dave got a shotgun for his 10th birthday. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Dave got a shotgun for his 10th birthday. His first job off the farm was leading greyhounds out to the races. He once accidentally stepped on a dog's foot and caused it to lose the race. Dave used to play the banjo. OTHER RUNNING ACCOMPLISHMENTS Won of the Mark Nagen Award for Outstanding Front Runner at the International Front Runner Games in Seattle in 2004. Scored for the open team in 10 of 11 points races in the 2003 season when our team won the B division for the very first time and moved into the "A" Division of Road Runners. Was a double bronze medalist in the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney in the 800 meters and 10k. DAVE TAKES ON OLD LADY IN 2005 RACE, in his own words: Written by Phil Wahba January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_david_caraway.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/f50f8f5780996927c5a29cb4414b936d.pdf 5746fad642229c822cfe22914ec7b6ef PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › David Lin Before he discovered running, David Lin had in no way tapped into his inner athlete. For most of his life, he dwelled in the considerable shadow of jockdom cast by an older brother who was on the high school football, lacrosse and wrestling teams and who later played rugby at Dartmouth. By contrast, eight years of tennis camp had scarcely enabled Lin to hit the ball, so he opted for choir and orchestra as his chosen extracurricular activities. Big brother even beat him to the marathon punch. "When I started running in 2006, I wore his hand-me-downs," explains Lin. "Now my PR is faster than his." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �In fairness, Lin's PR bests that of many an accomplished runner. His 3:22:01 in the New York City marathon this November secured him a place in the top 10 percent of the field and the 15 th spot among the 66 Front Runner finishers (a much more competitive subset, to be sure). Not bad for a guy Facebook Twitter Instagram who clocked a 10:04 mile in gym class his junior year of high school. "If you had known me even a few years ago," he admits, "you never would have guessed that I'd become a runner someday, let alone a marathon runner." Since joining Front Runners in January 2006, Lin has stealthily emerged from behind the scenes, chipping away at his races times and taking on the Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT look, focus and attitude of a serious athlete. 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search For a good part of Lin's history, other life pursuits took the front seat to exercise. "In high school, I gave up athletics completely and was a big drama queen," he says. (His theatrical debut as the captain in Anything Goes may have only involved three lines of dialogue but Lin relished all the tap dancing.) While at Oberlin College, Lin played the role of the typical liberal arts student. Some nights he would cook for the vegetarian hippies, and on others he ended up drunk at the local K-Mart. After college Lin took a very intense job as a paralegal at Cravath, a whiteshoe law firm in midtown that required crazy hours but allowed him to soak up the city's energy. "I was living in the middle of Chelsea in an apartment right above the Barracuda bar," he says. "The drag shows every night would open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �shake my room." Fearing he would never be able to study with all the distractions in New York City, Lin headed south to George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C., for his JD. The peace and quiet worked out well for Lin. His stellar academic efforts landed him an appellate clerkship in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a prestigious post that he couldn't turn down even though it meant delaying his longawaited return to Manhattan by one year. "I totally lucked out," he says of taking the job, "my judge was super cool - Santa Fe was awesome." The experience introduced Lin to some aerobic activity for the first time in a long while, as the beauty of the physical surroundings lured him to hike, ski and golf regularly. The love affair with the great outdoors proved all too brief when an accident while skiing Wolf Creek put Lin out of commission with a broken leg. The four months of channel surfing and chicken enchiladas that ensued had wreaked havoc on Lin's waistline-until one day he decided he had to take action. "When I came back to New York (to start working as a litigator at Paul, Weiss), I was huge," says Lin. He joined New York Sports Club and became an avid fan of the gym's step classes-aided no doubt by the "cute, fun, gay" teacher whose blog Lin was addicted to. It was at this point that the running bug first bit him. A woman in class had run the 2005 New York City marathon, inspiring Lin to make the only New Year's Resolution that he has ever kept-to become a runner. So great was his resolve that he toed the line of his first NYRR race exactly one week later, finishing the 2006 Fred Lebow 5-miler in a time of 44:24 open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �(8:52 pace). Joining Front Runners, an organization he stumbled across while trolling the Internet for gay sports clubs one slow work day, soon helped Lin complete his first full 6-mile loop of the park at a challenging clip. "It was the longest-and definitely the most intense-run of my life," he says. "But after that first run, I knew I could do it, and became determined to do it better and faster." After running steadily at 7:30-8:30 pace throughout 2006 and the early part of 2007, Lin had his first breakthrough race in April 2007 at the Scotland 10K, where he ran 44:26 (7:10 pace to break 60% on the age-graded scale for the first time). "Then I did something drastic," says Lin. "I quit smoking." He had considered himself a "closeted smoking Front Runner" for his first year-anda-half with the club. Lin also began to use his runs with the club to test his physical stamina and psychological mettle, choosing to pace off slightly faster runners who pushed him beyond his comfort zone. The results flew in fast and furious. At the Run as One TGL Classic 4-miler just four weeks after the Scotland 10K, Lin reached another milestonebreaking 7-minute pace for the first time (lopping almost a minute off his previous PR to finish in 27:40, 6:55 pace). A five-mile PR followed in short order with Lin breaking 7-minute pace again at the Pride Run this June, crossing the line in 34:32 (6:54 pace). By the time marathon training approached in mid-summer, Lin was at the front of the pack for training runs and had every reason to adjust his expectations for November 4th. With a PR of 3:55 from Paris in April 2007, Lin had set an initial goal of 3:45, but he had transformed himself into a open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �completely different runner in the few months after that race. Fellow Front Runners then encouraged Lin that he could secure a substantial PR. "At one of the long runs, Peter McGrane told me he thought I could get a PR by 20-30 minutes," says Lin. "That really inspired me to break 3:30." Team coach Kelsey Louie advised Lin to pick three goal times - one he would be happy with, one that would make him happier but that would not disappoint him if he didn't make and a "dream" goal. Lin wore a 3:25 bracelet the day of the marathon with the thought that he would be okay with a 3:30 and ecstatic with a 3:22:30. Well, we know how that all turned out. But Lin has not stopped at ecstasy. Just two weeks after the marathon, he knocked more than two minutes off his 4-mile PR with a 25:31 (6:22 pace) at the Race to Deliver. Oh, and he happened to have raced the Front Runners Cross-Country Meet the day before. This winter Lin will look to shave even more time off his PRs with a little help from track workouts with the team at The Armory. It may seem as though Lin has become addicted to running, but he isn't concerned about overdosing. "This is the one habit," he says, "that has made me stronger, healthier, happier and prouder. I've seen so many aspects of my life improve since I started running." Now that sounds even better than a PR. Random Data Provenance - Nashua, New Hampshire (grew up in Lexington, Mass.) Best Part-Time Job - Tour Guide in Historic Lexington (Think Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and tricorn hats) open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Paul Revere and tricorn hats) Club Endorsement - "I've found that there's just something about the type of people who join FRNY; it's not like people you meet at bars. It's like a family. People look out after you." Reality TV Show Turn - "Iron Chef. Definitely. And I'd like to go against Chen Kenichi, the king of Sichuan cuisine." Desert Island Soundtrack - Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds, some Madonna and an Anderson Cooper podcast. FRNY Suggestion Box - How about a Wednesday dinner somewhere other than Café Viand? January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_david_lin.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/59ee3080493b4248c59dd285d82966c7.pdf d9474b337bfa3f60b941762c06bc2801 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › David Pitches David Pitches likes to fly under the radar, a tendency he chalks up to the stoicism and gravitas of a Scottish heritage. His 5'4 ½" 132-pound frame definitely enables him to dart past racers unrecognized-as he is all too apt to do-but his athletic prowess and interminable running feats keep him in the constant burn of that damn FRNY spotlight. Apologies in advance, Mr. Pitches , if this profile further irradiates you. When Pitches joined Front Runners (was it 1986 or '87 ... who can remember, really?), he rode the social coattails of his life partner Dan Elliott, who was strictly A-list with the club connections and role in the famous open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �Runnettes drag revue to prove it. "Dan was the well known member," says Pitches . "I was pretty much just his partner tagging along - Mr. Diffident Reticence." While he may have started both his running career and his FRNY journey from behind the scenes, Pitches would eventually light up the sky like Facebook Twitter Instagram a comet hurtling through the atmosphere at jaw-dropping speed. Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search Throughout his young adulthood in Yonkers, New York, Pitches did not partake in organized athletic endeavors. But in the idyll of late 50s Westchester County, he maintained a respectable level of fitness and conditioning by avidly bike riding, tree climbing and woods roaming. The 60s then ushered in some attractive alternatives to aerobic exercise, with Pitches surfing the wave of the decade's excesses with psychedelic aplomb. "There was lots to do and smoke and drink," he says, "peace marches, demonstrations, Vietnam, the draft, they asked - I told, college buildings to occupy, music to zonk out on-Cool, can you dig it?" Um, sure. After the hurly-burly of the 60s, Pitches moved to New York City and adopted the life of a hard-working young architect in the gritty enclave of the East Village. The cadence of his existence volleyed between long nights chainsmoking at the drafting table and wanton exploration of the iniquities of the other Village. "The bars on Christopher Street were where the action was," he says, "Gay hippies! Cool guys, hot guys with long hair and bell bottoms, dancing up a sweat - far out, far fuckin' out!" The hard living did exact a toll. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �One day Pitches discovered his boyish vim had withered when a dash across Second Avenue to beat oncoming traffic nearly reduced him to roadkill. He decided it was time for a change and joined the West Side Y. At that time, the exercise regimen at the Y was a tame variation of calisthenics with an emphasis on knee bends. But then Bob Glover came from upstate to shake things up. "Bob was and still is a man with a mission," says Pitches . "Bob was a marathon runner and thought we should all be marathon runners and badgered and cajoled and tricked a bunch of us into doing various NYRRC races." Though Pitches managed to quit smoking and clock a very respectable 3:17:47 in the first five-borough NYC marathon in 1976, he crashed mentally after the ordeal was over and retreated to his former life of hard work and hard living. He did, however, continue to cycle on his own for physical activity. A few events in the early to mid-80s conspired to nudge Pitches back onto the competitive racing scene. In 1982, he met Dan Elliott at Oil Can Harry's on Ventura Boulevard and formed a lasting romantic partnership. Despite Elliott's active involvement in FRNY, Pitches would shy away from the club and competitive running for many more years. In 1987, he quit smoking for good and also discovered triathlons as a beautiful way to keep active and fit while seeing the country on weekends. With an eye toward staying in shape in the off season, Pitches participated in a few winter races during these years. He always signed up under the FRNY name but was far from devout in his affiliation, still preferring to play the tag-along spouse to Elliott's lead role. That being said, and despite his primary focus remaining on triathlons, Pitches had found his way back to the racing circuit by the late 80s. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Throughout the nineties, Pitches kept to an annual diet of six to eight triathlons with a sprinkling of three or four winter races. A quick survey of the whopping 140 NYRR races that Pitches has run (and remember the database excludes the marathon and only archives times from 1987 on) shows an interesting spike about eight years ago. After racing just three times per year as a 51-, 52- and 53-year-old and only once at 54, Pitches went on to race 85 NYRR races over the next eight years-an average of almost 11 per year. Why the change of heart? In his mid-50s, Pitches realized that he was becoming quite competitive in his age group and developed a trophy-lust that simply had to be sated. As part of his augmented training program, Pitches became more of a Front Runner fixture than in years past. Smart and dutiful adherence to the club's workout regimen has yielded Pitches a curio cabinet worth of hardware. In 2007 alone, Pitches has placed in the top five of his age group in a gaspinducing 21 of 24 NYRR races. After spending much of his early 50s at about the 70th percentile mark for age-graded performance, Pitches ratcheted up into the mid- and then high-70s. This April 1st he smashed into the firmament of "national elite" status by running a 41:45 at the Scotland 10K Run and besting the 80th percentile. ( Pitches has run this race in a kilt in years past, but hopefully donned racing duds for this fine performance.) He followed that up with four more national-elite level finish times before the end of the year. So more than thirty years after his first marathon, Pitches brings more enthusiasm and determination than ever to each run. He admits that he has open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �in no way done it alone. He credits the more competitive and professional approach to training brought in under the Michael Orzechowski administration and exemplified by runners such as Kelsey Louie for much of his own increased dedication to the sport. "There were real athletes who had been trained by real coaches and did real events," says Pitches . "That's something I never had or did in my misspent youth." Of course, Pitches has been paying the club back in spades, leading the FRNY SuperVet contingent to its fourth place finish this year, the best of any club division. And though Pitches holds his status as a gay man "at the top of the list, for all the world to see what we can do" as his proudest accomplishment, he gets much more than a powerful sense of purpose and well-deserved encomia from this sport. "Running has sort of been the one constant in my life," he says, "a refuge, a place to go, sort of like Alice going through the looking glass, to another world." In the end, running is just that, an individual journey that can lead you anywhere if you're willing to open yourself up to the possibility. Far more intriguing than Alice's dalliances with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the other side of the mirror has offered Pitches a world replete with PRs, sleek young runners angling toward the finish line and a Front Runner family to share it all with. Random Data Dream Job? - A 26-year-old dancer with the Paul Taylor Company Favorite NYC architectural space? - Grand Central Terminal: "a wonder of organized multi-functional inter-modal urban infrastructure with the most open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �organized multi-functional inter-modal urban infrastructure with the most gracious and light-filled main hall." Best Movie of 2007? - No Country for Old Men Vacation Itinerary? - Spain and Portugal ... "Portugal is still poor enough to be wonderfully seedy." On the arc of his generation and his running career - "I began running in the early 70s ... Looking back on it, running was a place to find refuge and rest and rejuvenation from the world. The times were culturally and socially such a massive explosion of the tightly restrained world of the 50s that I grew up in. It was both wonderful and exciting and exhilarating and exhausting. In the end the lives we are able to live as openly gay men and women now, unimaginable to my generation, could not have come about without all of this. So running became my sea anchor in the storm." January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_david_pitches.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/53fbf126a7d837daf3f4b97b9c81c215.pdf e3a53aacc4e98481b73bcf38f15a5bac PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › David Swinarski If you joined Front Runners any time within the last two and a half years, there's a fair chance that David Swinarski approached you with his trademark mix of good manners and Midwestern hospitality - " Hi, my name is Dave. Have you b een coming to Front Runners for a while? " No, it isn't a come-on (at least not necessarily). Swinarski simply values the healthy social and athletic outlet Front Runners has offered him and wants to make certain that others feel the same love. "It takes a few seconds and costs nothing to introduce ourselves to new people," he says, "and (it) makes them feel like a million bucks just for showing up." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �Since joining FRNY in the winter of 2006, Swinarski has supported the club's training programs both through his own involvement as well as through the active recruitment and encouragement of new members. The verdant quads of Columbia's campus, where Swinarski received his Ph.D in mathematics Facebook Twitter Instagram this spring, proved fertile ground for these efforts. His persuasive talents lured not only gay runners but also scores of straight students to the club's speed workouts the past two years. At 28, Swinarski forms a bit of a bridge between the crop of new twenty-somethings (the club now has members who were born well after "Thriller" made history and Kevin Bacon brought Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT dancing back to a joyless Midwestern town in "Footloose") and the old guard of Front Runners who are mostly in their mid-30s to mid-50s. Sadly, 81° someone new will have to ford that chasm now. As of August 1 st , Swinarski will be doing three years of post-doctorate work at University of Georgia in Athens. High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search The warm and familial aspects of Front Runners held immediate appeal for Swinarski, whose idyllic upbringing recalls a Mark Twain novel or Norman Rockwell painting. Growing up on the Minnesota shores of the Mississippi, Swinarski was the middle child of three and the first son of Dave, a pharmacist at the local hospital, and his wife Dee, a physical therapist in the county school district. "It's a beautiful, historic river town," he says of Red Wing, where he was raised and his parents still live. "It was a great place to grow up in the 80s; we had great schools and lots of opportunities-sports, open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �music, outdoors-for kids." Math, science and music played an integral role in Swinarski's formative years. In junior high, he helped his school reach the national Science Olympiad, where his team won a gold medal for building a musical instrument and then explaining the physics of how it produced sound. (Perhaps these early accomplishments foreshadowed a doctoral thesis in algebraic geometry?) "But I wasn't purely a science nerd," he insists. "I took piano lessons for 14 years, played cello in orchestra, sang in choir and performed in my high school's musicals." Swinarski ran cross-country in high school as well, and while his talents were estimable, his spirits ran high. "My 5K PR from high school is barely under 20 minutes," he says, "but I loved being on a sports team." Running only one season a year and increasing his weekly mileage from zero to 40 overnight taxed his body to the point of shin splints. This vicious cycle of injuries convinced Swinarski that his body was not built for running, and he fled from the sport for many years-not running again until post-graduate studies brought him to Oxford. The beautiful English countryside and a desire to "feel the wind in (his) hair" tempted Swinarski back out onto the trails. "Once I got up to 4-5 miles 3-4 times a week, the curse was lifted," he says. "I finally believed that I could run without hurting myself." Swinarski kept up the momentum after moving to New York City in August 2003 for graduate school. Within two years in Manhattan, he had run his first half marathon and joined both New York Road Runners and Columbia Road open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Runners. While accumulating his nine qualifying races for the 2006 NYC marathon, Swinarski began to notice blue and orange singlets throughout the park. "They looked like they were having fun," he recalls. "Then, I noticed Kelsey cheering and coaching - and thought, I want him coaching me !" When his Columbia membership expired, Swinarski joined Front Runners. Swinarski's debut season with Front Runners in winter-spring 2006 proved to be a high point in his running career. "That spring I worked my way up to 45 miles a week, was lifting regularly, and doing regular speed workouts and long runs," he recalls. "I felt great, loved the way I looked and was PRing at every distance." In Queens that April Swinarski raced his half marathon PR of 1:27:37-the running accomplishment of which he remains most proud. As happens all too frequently, the newfound love of racing and the yearning for continued improvement led to overtraining and injury. "I took a good thing too far," he admits, "and got a stress fracture in my heel." Attempts to first run through the pain, and then to curtail his hiatus from training, turned the injury into a six-month saga that sidelined Swinarski for the latter half of 2006, forcing him to defer his marathon entry to 2007. Testament to Swinarski's commitment to the team and support of fellow runners, he remained active in the Front Runner scene throughout this painful time. (Any runner who has suffered an injury knows how difficult it is to be around healthy friends imbibing in their love of running.) To stay connected, Swinarski invited teammates to dinner after a summer track workout, drove a van for the Reach the Beach relay and made the rounds at Front Runner First Friday socials. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Back in action and healthy for the past year and a half, Swinarski has discovered that physical injury is not the only obstacle to peak performance. Daily life can thwart the best of intentions. "I didn't get to train the way I wanted to for NY (marathon) last year and my time showed it," he says. "School got in the way this spring, and now I'm out of shape again." Though he may have been disappointed, Swinarski did earn both a 3:19:22 marathon debut and a doctorate in mathematics within the last year. And despite being overworked in his school life, he has maintained his role as one of the premier ambassadors of the club. Front Runners has had 115 new members in 2008 alone, and that success is due in part to the outreach and efforts of Swinarski and others like him. The rest of the club will have to practice its best greetings to fill the void, but we know there's nothing like the real thing. We'll miss you, Dave. Random Data Friendly Advice? - "I have a very important formula for everyone: Body Glide + Dri-fit clothing (including underwear) = no chafing." Best Movie of Last Year? - "Hairspray: Sometimes when I'm by myself on long runs, I sing through You Can't Stop the Beat in my head to pump myself up." Celeb rity Crush? - "Wil Wheaton from Star Trek" Non-Running Pastime? - "Does goofing off on the Internet qualify as a pastime?" Lifetime Running Goals? - "1:23 in a half marathon, 3 hours for a full open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �marathon, a 5K under 18 minutes and a 10-mile in under an hour." Written by Robert Lennon January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_david_swinarski.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/fd8d5ea683801b4e55c09847809c6a7e.pdf 53dd840c79d685ef19288eaa46253c3d PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Dennis Giza Dennis Giza does not do anything halfway.When he decided to join Front Runners New York three years ago, he mailed in his dues before even arriving at Rutgers for his Saturday fun run debut.After nervously participating in his first-ever NYRR race in November 2003, he went on to race 29 times in 2004 (more than any other Front Runner that year), everything from the 2.5mile Downtown Dash to the NYC marathon, suffering the tundra-like temps at the Frostbite 10-miler and the soupy heat of the Bronx Half.You name it; he was there.Giza operates full throttle in world of vices as well. When he used to hit the bars regularly, Giza could be found closing up the East Village open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �several nights a week.And back in the day when he smoked, the first cigarette of his two-pack day graced his lips before his feet touched the floor Facebook in the morning. Twitter It's of little surprise, then, that after Giza successfully tackled his 2004 Instagram inaugural NYC marathon in a time of 4:28:13, he set off in dogged pursuit of breaking the four-hour barrier.Running a tad shy of his goal under the wilting heat and humidity of the 2005 NYC marathon, Giza re-strategized, running slightly fewer races, mixing up his workouts by adding in some speed training and picking a flatter and faster course. The formula proved a Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT smashing success for Giza who ran a 3:55:44 in Chicago this October for an astounding 17-minute PR.Interestingly, the 8:59 pace he sustained over the 81° 26.2 miles matches exactly the pace of his debut NYRR race back in 2003 but that was a mere 5K.(In other words, You've come a long way, b ab y! ) High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search People discover running at different times in their lives and for very different reasons.The director of an after-school special might tie Giza's kicking his 25-year smoking habit in the butt with his inspirational emergence as marathon man.But Giza, who really only began donning his New Balance 991s in his mid-forties, does not take himself that seriously. I continue running, he says, because I am now afraid to stop.I now depend on running to keep my life the way I want it. And Giza is not referring to VO2 max and increased lactic acid threshold."If I begin cheating on smoking," he notes, "I start feeling pudgy okay, okay, pudgier. I depend on running to bring my life into balance." And much to Giza's inebriation-loving surprise, running has proven a great antidote for his hangovers.Put that tidbit in your Lifetime movie of the week. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �As a veteran of other gay organizations, including a stint in ACT UP during its early 90's heyday, Giza anticipated that joining a club like Front Runners wouldn't be all shits and giggles.For Giza, some insecurities were immediately unearthed."It's a long-running organization with established cliques and groupings," he explains."And that can be off-putting to a first timer and it was to me." And so Giza played the part of the mysteriously laconic new guy for a while before fully drinking in the Front Runner Kool Aid.Perhaps it was being part of the prize-winning masters team at the 2005 "Easy Does It" 10K relay that helped warm his heart to the club.In addition to that relay, Giza also raced two terrain-twisting legs of the inaugural 60-mile "Need for Speed" relay from Bear Mountain through Westchester County this past June. Still, for Giza running is a solitary pursuit."When running -- even in a race wearing one of my four Front Runner shirts -- it sort of is just me out there trying to beat me and my previous times."With that end in mind, Giza has signed up to train indoors at the armory this winter along with a couple dozen of his teammates.Having met his marathon goal, Giza now looks to test his fast-twitch fibers on the 200-meter banked track and discover what he's capable of at shorter distances. He's playing it coy about concrete racing goals, but if history is any guide, Giza will be a speed freak in no time at all.Smart money says to look for him at the Front Runner track meet (Friday night, March 2nd -- it's never too early to mark your calendars), four-milers and 5Ks this winter.Of course, he can also be found, Bud Light draft in hand, at club First Friday happy hours.Now open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �that's team spirit. Random Data: Fondest FRNY Memory: "The ride back from the Need for Speed relay as several in our van, myself included, violated the law against driving with open alcoholic beverages." Favorite Race Shirt: The Labrecque Classic (loves the faux wick) Favorite Spectator Cheer: "A woman near Marcus Garvey Park, at mile 22 of the NYC marathon, stepped right in front of me and, seeing the name in marker on my shirt, screamed I love you Dennis! at the top of her lungs." Best Cultural Event of 2006: Kiki & Herb on Broadway Pageantry Lore: Won Honorable Mention Blue Ribbon in upstate NY children's beauty contest Surprising Fact : Carried a lady bug bauble in his pocket as a good luck charm during Chicago Marathon. January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_dennis_giza.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/f649e86d29c46bfb854ab5ce5d631dc0.pdf 68241ad83285deb5ab24e160f2e3fc20 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Derek Petti "Fast Twitch" "The man is built for speed. He's a Porsche. Or maybe a Maserati is more fitting." That's Marty McElhiney, dean of FRNY track demons, talking about his next-generation doppelganger, Derek Petti. "Derek is a coach's dream--he's not afraid to push it in a workout, or in a race." That's what Koach Kelsey Louie has to say. Derek Petti on the track open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �Another assessment, from ultraquick Josh Korth: "All of Derek's speed comes from that cute butt of his." OK, there's always one wiseguy. "But really," Josh continues, "Derek is one of the hardest workers I know." Because Derek limits his racing exploits mainly to the oval, Front Runners Facebook Twitter Instagram who eschew track workouts and races may not know what a ferocious (yet silky smooth) racer he is. Derek certainly ranks among the fastest FRNY ever at the 200. Or the 400. Or the 800. Has anyone in the club tossed off a 1:55 at 800 meters recently? At Lockport High in Niagara County, New York, he also tested his mettle at the long jump and 400 hurdles, mastering both. Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am But speed is only one factor in the Petti equation. There's also the brain open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �But speed is only one factor in the Petti equation. There's also the brain Sunset: 8:10 pm (class valedictorian at Long Island University with a near-perfect grade-point average), the breath control (standout saxophone player in high school and POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER college), and the bravado (two-time FRNY Variety Show winner for his part in a minimally clad quartet of boy singer/dancers). Nice voice, too. Still, Derek insists his lifestyle is anything but labyrinthine: "I run, I sleep, I search school," his Facebook bio avers. "It's a simple life really." Derek's academic focus at LIU and now at the CUNY Graduate Center-audiology--derives partly from his own partial hearing loss in one ear, a result of malpractice when he was a child. His interest in hearing "made sense," he says. "I was always surrounded by audiologists and speech pathologists." He picked LIU because it combined his chosen course of study with a track team and a wind ensemble that Derek joined as one of only two non-music majors. He also held a track scholarship and helped lead LIU to conference championships every year he was there. When Derek learned just before graduating that the school planned to scuttle the track program the following year, he revised his valedictory address to challenge alumni about supporting an athletic department set to ax a track team that cost exactly as much as the fodder dished out to football players in pre-season camp. "I almost got the plug pulled on me," he recalls, "but I kept it short and sweet." Now Derek's working toward a PhD and a clinical Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree at CUNY, while doing cochlear implant research at New York's Eye and Ear Infirmary and teaching speech and audiology at Lehman College in open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �the Bronx. He loves the research, but he seems to love teaching more. Part of that fulfillment comes from his success in convincing kids aiming for a degree in speech pathology that audiology is a lot more than a requirement to slog through on their way to graduation. And part of it Derek attributes to "selfish reasons" he admits "it's nice being that person in the front of the class who knows what's going on." You might think someone who relishes a know-it-all teacher role, who vamps through louche Variety Show acts, and who (with John MacConnell) ably represented FRNY in a skimpy underpants pageant, could call himself a card-carrying extrovert. But Derek demurs. "It's funny--I wouldn't say that I am, unless I'm in an environment that I'm extremely comfortable with. I've never been to a gay bar by myself; I just can't do it. I get so intimidated by it and freaked out. If I'm in a room full of people, I'm the most uncomfortable person. But if I'm with friends, I don't mind being the center of attention." And Derek can readily grab a group's attention with his arch sense of humor-mirrored in permanently arched eyebrows.It's among the prime traits friends cite when construing his charm. "You can count on him to say the funniest thing of the entire night," Kelsey Louie attests. "He can always make me laugh, even when I'm in a bad mood," says Josh Korth. "Derek's an extremely loyal and hilarious person." The aversion to gay bars--harder to explain--has nothing to do with a traumatic coming-out saga. Growing up as a gay boy in Niagara county "wasn't so bad," Derek recalls. "I never felt that I liked girls. I think I remember open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �liking guys from when I was 7 or 8." When the Pettis plugged in their first family computer, Derek learned to find, rename, and bookmark certain websites featuring "things that interested me." When his father surprised him in the bathroom by asking whether he was looking at gay porn online, "I almost spit my toothbrush out," Derek remembers. "Of course not!" he claimed. Heart racing, thinking fast, he suggested that his father had stumbled upon pop-up windows that emerged innocuously and sullied the computer's memory--and his father bought it. When Derek decided to give his family the news, he found the task not so arduous.His older brother, also gay, had already come out. And his mother's family was "riddled with gays," including two twin gay uncles "and lesbians all over the place." So when Derek gathered his family and announced his news, the only immediate reaction came from his father, who raised upturned palms in the international "so?" gesture. "That's a little anticlimactic," Derek remembers thinking. "You mean that's it? Does anyone have any questions?" Although he took no pains to hide his sexual identity in high school or college, Derek didn't proclaim his preference because of his prominence on the track teams. Encouraged by his mother and others, he started racing as an eighth-grader, running the 100-meter dash and sometimes the 200 outdoors. "When you're in eighth grade, everything else seems way too long," he explains. "And I wasn't that good. I ran 14- or 13-second hundreds, but I didn't know I wasn't good." When he started running indoor track in the ninth grade, Derek moved up to open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �the 300, 400, and 600. Then he added the long jump "just to avoid having to run every day of the week," and he leapt his way to long-jump stardom, becoming one of the best jumpers in his conference section by his senior year. As a sophomore, Derek qualified for the 300 at the state meet. That "made me so cocky," he concedes. "It was so bad for my ego. But it's a self-fulfilling prophesy: If you believe you're that fast, you get fast. In my junior year I got really good," qualifying for states in the 600 again and slicing 4 seconds off his time. Because he couldn't match a schoolmate in the 400, he switched to the 400 hurdles to increase the team's depth. "I was fast and I could just bullshit the hurdles," Derek explains. But he honed his technique, got comfortable clearing hurdles, and ended up breaking the school record, one of the oldest. "I was always good at picking up things that had technique to them," he allows. In college, Derek specialized in the 800 and had perhaps his most memorable race in a 4 x 800 relay. The LIU team set out to finish under 7:50, which meant an average 1:57.5 per racer. When his first-leg teammate managed only a 2:00-flat, prospects looked grim. "OK, there goes that," Derek recalls concluding. But the second-leg man turned in a 1:57, so when Derek grabbed the baton, "I decided to go for it." His coach advocated topdown 800s, meaning go out as fast as you can and try to hold on. And that's what Derek did. Never having run under 2:00 in an 800, he found himself at 1:26 after 600 meters, his 600 state-qualifying time in high school. Derek clocked the last lap in 0:29, finishing at 1:55 and shearing more than 5 seconds off his 800 PR. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �But the joy began to bleed out of racing during college, mainly because Derek's coach started using the scholarship as a bludgeon to keep him racing flat-out all season long, through the indoor and outdoor seasons and through cross-country. "I got to the point where I was always injured and never felt at my best. I also felt like there was somebody right behind me waiting to take my scholarship, and I was depending on that money, so it became a job." But when he graduated and moved to New York City (well, Ozone Park), Derek resolved to keep running. And because he knew he needed running pals to keep going, he looked online for a team. He found Front Runners. For a whole year after joining he didn't race and "trained" only by helping pace the fast pack on Wednesday fun runs (AKA Wednesday Night at the Races). A year after joining the club, Derek ran his first race, the 2008 Pride 5-miler, turning in a 30:26. Since then he's run only three more NYRR road races, including a 29:03 in the 2010 Pride race. Aside from the Reach-the-Beach relay, all of Derek's other racing has been on the indoor track. And this year he organized the Front Runner track meet with Kelsey Louie. But Derek is taking care not to let competition become a chore again, and in that endeavor "Kelsey's workouts are perfect for me because they're not as intensive as it was when I was running in college. I prefer having more say in how I'm racing, and Kelsey allows you to do that, and he sets you up to run that way. I ran the easiest 1:59 in an 800 that I've ever run in my life indoors this year and I'm training significantly less than I did in college. So I consider that actually better than I was doing in college." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �...that moment when you're running as fast as you possibly can and the dreamlike feeling of almost flying... Getting back to the question of what makes Derek so fast on the track, even the casual observer can divine one answer: form. Watch him do 200 or 400meter repeats and you'll notice two things: First, he finishes in front of everyone. Second, he seems to do so with perfect ease. The form is fluid, economical, dispassionate. The good news for all track tyros is that this mellifluous carriage can be learned. Probably must be learned. Derek says it hardly came naturally to him. He worked on every piece--steadfastly, discretely--until he folded each bit into his running repertoire. Arm swing, foot strike, back kick (see photo!). Did you know your face should be so relaxed that your jaw bounces? "It's impossible to concentrate on all that at once," Derek explains, "especially when you're tired. It just comes with time: concentrating on one thing at a time. When that thing gets better, when that becomes habitual, you can move on to something else that needs work. So after 20 years of running, you're at a point where you're comfortable with it." (Twenty years? Better start today.) "His races are so exciting to watch because he's a smart runner,"Kelsey suggests. "On the track, he'll let guys take it out too fast. Confidently, Derek runs at his own pace, and runs strong the entire race, while others slowly fade. I'm so glad he's on our team. He's the type of runner you don't want to race." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Someone who has honed his track style for 20 years (and maybe even a few weeks more), Marty McElhiney, thinks Derek "has the perfect trifecta required of a speedster (and that us trackees yearn for): an uncommon capacity to develop fast-twitch muscle fibers; a fast-twitch brain (he loves the feeling of speed); and a competitive nature, which motivates him to train hard." Marty recalls a chat with Derek "about that moment when you're running as fast as you possibly can and the dreamlike feeling of almost flying." - by Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_derek_petti.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/5fcd7b2e43708a4b7352c39c53d19239.pdf 6fe7c88d795dcc9670dbd5a27ede091f PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › FRNY After interviewing more than 30 people in connection with this column over the last two and a half years (and proudly never employing the first person), I am using the space of my last profile to write about the club itself. It's the one character that has inhabited each and every profile, and it now deserves center stage. Front Runners ignites passion in its members. Some people find refuge in the club and mold it into the family they never had, while others meet heartache or disappointment and walk away in disgust. There are members who have met friends, roommates, lovers, spouses, lawyers, accountants, open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �masseuses, interior designers, one night stands, soul mates, tennis partners, cycling companions, life coaches, travel buddies, drinking buddies, rhymes-with-duck buddies, running mates and movie dates. Front Runners have discovered the bottomless generosity of their fellow man and woman Facebook Twitter Instagram and have also learned the hidden depths of their potential as they have reached new goals and, in some cases, completely reinvented themselves. Some come churchlike every Saturday, and others disappear for long spells but are instantly brought back into the fold. Some mill about on the periphery of the meeting circle on Saturdays, and others stay within arm's reach of the Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT cream cheese station. There are moments of unexpected grace, and there are times when minor drama erupts like lava onto the gymnasium floor at 81° Rutgers. That's right. We've got it all. Like the famous gay novel that gave us our name, Front Runners New York is-first and foremost-a love story. High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �When Lenore Beaky accepted FRNY's first-ever AREA award for sustained commitment to the club, she remarked on how every year at Awards Night Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER some runner stepped onto stage and said: "Front Runners New York has changed my life." The men and women I have interviewed for these profiles have echoed the same sentiment-but everyone finds something a little different in their FRNY journey. search Finding life: In reflecting on his times with Front Runners in the mid-1980s, former club president Marty King credited his still being alive to FRNY. He told me that looking back he realized that the runner's regimen of early morning training and marathon preparation with the club helped keep him from the bar scene during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The bulk of today's members will (quite luckily) not have such a literal connection to "finding life" in Front Runners. But most dedicated Front Runners have experienced this phenomenon-the first time that you complete the 6-mile loop without wanting to keel over and die, when you suddenly feel a burst of energy in the middle of the afternoon and find yourself counting down the minutes to the Wednesday night fun run, or maybe it's the moment you are finally confident enough to run shirtless or in a tank top during the summer. Finding a posse: We'll always have Viand. One of the special things about Front Runners is that a newcomer can visit the club once or twice and feel instantly at home and wonder how life without FRNY was ever possible. Today, the groups of new friends may meet for Wednesday night drinks at Therapy or on Roosevelt Island for the lesbian homecoming event of the season, with their pictures popping up on desktops across Manhattan as people get their daily facebook fix. But looking through faded photos of open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �friends huddled in Central Park after the early Pride Runs, one can see this trend existed since the club's inception. Lee Abbey spoke to me fondly of his memories of The Runettes and the Shangri-lezzies, the club's gay and lesbian drag groups of yore. I know from personal experience that as you're first finding your groove in the club, nothing can go wrong. The impromptu invitations flow like Franzia in a trailer park, the weekend runs feed your soul in a social smorgasbord, and that bitter cocktail that is New York City sweetens up just for you. Then you know you've found your posse. Finding a thrill: Being a Front Runner is an exhilarating ride. The frisson can take on multiple forms, but for many lesbians and gay men the main thrill is competition. Many Front Runners have told me that they never felt accepted or validated as an athlete before joining the club. The committed and talented runners over the years - Sue Foster and Patrick Barker and Gary Apruzzese up through Loren Mooney and Kelsey Louie and Rich Velazquez and John MacConnell (with age-defying runners such as Julie Delaurier, Rick Buckheit and Patrick Guilfoyle bridging the gaps) - have inspired those of us not preternaturally gifted to dig deep and reach our personal best. In his History Channel column, Steve Gerben described a group of hearty Front Runners in the mid-80s who competed in a 24-hour relay in Staten Island on invitation from the local powerhouse team at that time. Two decades later that same competitive desire spirited our 2005 men's Reach the Beach ultra team to battle to a first-place finish and led FRNY to win the inaugural Need for Speed Relay in 2006. But more important than these wins have been the countless men and women who have tasted the thrill of personal triumph. Stephanie Tuerk qualifying for Boston at her first-ever marathon in New York open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �in 2005. Lucia Muntean breaking 25 minutes in a 4-miler this year. Kelsey Louie achieving a lifelong quest of breaking 2 minutes in the 800 meters at the 2004 FRNY track meet. Paul Racine snatching a Boston qualifier by more than 17 minutes this year at age 61. Rich Velazquez capturing the club NYC marathon record by breaking 2:40 in November 2006. And the list could go on for days. Front Runners New York knows how to keep the thrill alive. We just do. Finding love: It's bound to happen when you put a group of in-shape men and women together week after week, fun run after fun run, race after race. Somewhere along the trails polite chitchat slips into innuendo or a faster runner slows down for the object of her affection, and the seeds of love are sown. Just this past Saturday, I was talking with Lenore and Ruth, two women who met on a special fun run from Washington Heights to the Village in 1991. When Lenore suggested a post-run trip to Fairway, Ruth jumped on the opportunity. (And no, she was not in need of discount produce.) Over 17 years later, they are still together and live in Rhode Island with their sevenyear-old daughter Leah. "We like to drop by when we're in town," they said, "just to know this place is still here." Bill McGlinn took a shine to a trimwaisted runner in cadet blue shorts on a George Washington Bridge long run well over 20 years ago. To this day he calls Mark Mascolini his lover, the preferred term of their generation. The buds of romance bloom all about the Front Runner garden. Dave Pitches and Dan Elliot. Audra Farrell and Loren Mooney. Patrick Guilfoyle and Johnny Fraser. TJ Jones and Bernd Erpenbeck. Yes, the list could go on for days. Finding purpose: Every time I am tempted to say that Front Runners New open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �York is just a running club, I am reminded of the profound sense of purpose behind so many things that our members do. We really do love and take care of one another. By 1992, the club had already seen too many of its members succumb to AIDS, and the battle of Guy Zelenak, a particularly beloved member, with the disease sparked the team into action. Former presidents Greg Valerie and Gary Apruzzese helped mobilize club resources to form the Charitable Foundation, which is active to this day, to aid those in the lesbian and gay community battling severe and debilitating illnesses. But each member finds purpose, and a way to give back, in his or her own way. Joe Criscione offers up his Park Slope apartment as a rendezvous point for our annual Blue Line Run. Members like Rob Lyons and Jay Smith help make our Saturday morning breakfasts more cost efficient by going on periodic bulk shopping runs. Joe Lim brought our website into the 21st century, and Alex Kristofcak made the club's newsletter relevant again. And that truly is only a teensy dose of what Front Runners do. Finding yourself : It's easy to feel lost in New York City. And-even at the bitter end of 2008-it's still all too easy to feel lost as a gay man or woman. For those Front Runners whom I know best, and who stick with FRNY most vehemently, what the club has done is help them find-or remember-who they are. Sarah Whitcomb told me that the club allowed her to develop her identity as a lesbian runner after a difficult break-up. "For me it is incredible, nourishing, relaxing, empowering, to (now) have a place where I feel like in some fundamental way I am just like everyone," she had told me when I profiled her this past April. The club allowed Michael Orzechowski to start over. Within months of joining the club, he had sloughed off the chains of a open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �dysfunctional and corrosive relationship and was rediscovering his worth. Within a few years, Michael would become one of the club's most successful presidents. When I first worked with Mikey Benjamin on the board of Front Runners, he often struggled with asserting himself and sometimes blushed when speaking publicly. Of course, Mikey now has a natural and assured presence on Saturday mornings. Leading the club has allowed him to grow as a person, to tap into his confidence and to find his voice. When it comes down to it, we will always be a group of men and women who run together. The notion sounds simple enough, but every avid runner knows the elation and the agony, the triumph and the disappointment, the blue skies and the windy downpours that come with the sport. And Front Runners lives and dies on those same dualities. Some days you're a washed up hasbeen and other days you're swimming in a fountain of youth. It's joyous, fulfilling and life-affirming, and it's torturous, sad and soul-crushing. As I said, it's a love story. Xoxoxo , Rob ert Lennon January 2, 2012 open in browser PRO version profile Perm alink Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �© Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_frny.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/e196e6cd1dbc997c3e882e9b6a6d48cc.pdf 8df81fc2f4466c9328eb02e6dc2913b8 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Gabriel Celis Running, Running Away, and Running Toward You can call him Gabby (as most Front Runners do), or Gabi (if you're French), or G (if you work with him at Media6degrees), or Gabe (as a few clients do), or Gabriel (his full name), or maybe even Carlos. But if Gabby Celis hears you calling him Carlos(his real first name), he'll figure you're a telemarketer who bought his name, because no one else in the world calls him Carlos. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �And these days no one calls him GAY-briel, the taunt of gradeschool mates who probably had no notion of his sexual yearnings. But even at that early age, Gabriel knew he "liked boys in a different way." Only when he reached high school did he begin to realize what liking boys in this particular way Facebook Twitter Instagram meant. But he didn't know anyone he could talk to about it, "so I started going online." It worked. He met two guys who've been close friends ever since, including David Moran #151 the culprit who christened him Gabby, eased his Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT transition to New York City, brought him to his first Front Runner fun run, and inspired him to get serious about running. 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph "NEVER in a million years would I have imagined seeing Gabby transition Sunrise: 5:50 am from couch potato to a burly sub-6 mile on the track," Moran confides. But open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �he's not surprised because "Gabby is a very passionate person and throws himself into anything he loves." Heading for his third consecutive Reach-the- Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER Beach relay this year with a recent 4-mile PR under his belt, Gabby keeps adding to his racing renown. But his own running has recently finished second to the endeavor most Front Runner know Gabby for&#151organizing the annual Pride Race. search The club turned to Gabby and David Moran in 2008, as four-time Pride director Michael Orzechowski looked to hand the reins to the next generation of Front Runners, encouraging them to bring fresh ideas to race planning and to get their contemporaries excited about this trademark footrace. Gabby's now in his third year as Pride director or codirector, and by all accounts doing a bang-up job. Michael O confirms that Gabby brought "lots of energy, tech savvy, and a younger sensibility" to race planning. And anyone even remotely familiar with concocting a 3800-person party, complete with pompoms, popsicles, and paramedics, knows it's not easy. Gabby takes most of 1 microsecond to pinpoint the biggest challenge in organizing the race: sponsorship. Last year the Pride Race cost $80,000, and this year the budget's even higher. Why does it cost so much? It's not cheap to mount an ad campaign, pay the New York Road Runners' licensing fee, rent sound equipment, hire entertainers, and shut down Central Park. Cups cost $2000. With codirector Seth Richardson, Gabby started planning this year's June race last November, and much of his time so far has gone toward attracting new sponsors and getting former sponsors itching to give all over again. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Under Michael O's tutelage, and now on his own, Gabby has helped transform the Pride Race from a break-even proposition to a money-maker. The surplus lets FRNY expand its community involvement by supporting a sound cause. In 2009 the FRNY Charitable Foundation redirected thousands from the Pride Race profit to New York's AIDS Service Center, which will name its new wellness center after the club. This year the FRNY board agreed to make the primary beneficiary SAGE (Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders), which advocates for LGBT rights and offers a host of services to older New Yorkers. Although race-day responsibilities mean Gabby can't run Pride this year, the excitement of standing at the start line and watching 3800 people dash past more than makes up for the missed chance to sharpen his racing skills. And his two running and racing goals for 2010&#151have fun and get faster&#151are not likely to suffer. Planning the 2009 race proved particularly challenging, not only because it was the first year Michael O officially stepped away from the event, but also because the most intense planning period coincided with a spell of unemployment. Gabby came to New York in July 2007 to help open an office for his employer, eSearch Vision, a pay-per-click (PPC) Internet advertising company. But they closed the New York office and told Gabby good-bye just as race planning ramped up. Paradoxically, the timing proved fortuitous, as Gabby made Pride work his full-time job. "It gave me a reason to want to get out there and do things, and it filled my time," he recalls. Gabby started interviewing for a spot with open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Media6degrees just before the race, and on the Monday after Pride weekend the job offer came through. His business-honed Internet expertise, knack for client coddling, and numbers know-how (he lists Excel as one of his best friends) all contribute to his race-arranging excellence. And they haven't hurt his work life either. "Gabby's as smart as a whip," says FRNY pal Anthony Cocciolo. "He lives and breathes Internet marketing and advertising, and I'm certain one day he will be a major force in this area." Gabby and Anthony trace their roots to the Inland Empire (or the IE), the gritty, off-the-coast stretch of southern California embracing Riverside and San Bernardino counties. After meeting online, Gabby and David Moran met in person when David ran a half-marathon in Gabby's hometown, Fontana&#151California's Ku Klux Klan base. What was it like growing up in Fontana? "It's not pretty; it's not nice; the schools aren't safe," Gabby explains. He fled just after high school, partly because he saw no future in the IE, and partly because his parents kicked him out of the house when he told them he was gay. Always a self-motivated student, never grounded for wild behavior, Gabby suddenly rebelled at age 17, for reasons he's still at pains to explain. When Gabby missed a midnight curfew, his parents called his friend's house, where Gabby told them he'd gone for a party. He reassured them he'd simply lost track of time and was on his way, but he stayed put. When he finally did get home, with no sound excuse for his absence, his father asked if he was gay and assured him that answering yes would not change his love for him. Gabby said no, but a month later he told the truth&#151only to endure an onslaught of church counseling and threats of exile to an "ex-gay camp." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �When Gabby declined this version of paternal love, he found himself on the street. His brother took him in, and Gabby tried once to return home, but the rift remained too deep. Gabby dropped out of college, moved in with a friend who had a drug problem, saw that wouldn't work, and got accepted at California State University in Monterey. The move north marked the first total break from his family. Gabby had "a huge growth period," came all the way out (complete with rainbow necklace), and "started to realize that there could be more to my life." But he didn't talk to his father for a long time, and "the relationship with my Mom was really strained for a few years." The road between Monterey and New York ran mainly through San Francisco, where Gabby worked all day in the offices of The Sharper Image and went to school at night at San Francisco State. But he hated his boss and he hated his boss's boss, so at age 21 he marched into the executive VP's office and recommended that he take over the whole department himself. "I was a cocky little boy," Gabby concedes. But instead of laughing him off or showing him the door, the VP took Gabby under his wing and groomed him for higher positions. "He really looked after me," Gabby recalls of the man he came to call Mother. "He made sure things in my personal life were going well, but he also taught me how to be professional." The eventual move to New York was another first for Gabby. He figures it took him 4 years to find his footing in San Francisco, "but once I did I felt that life could never be better." To continue growing, though, "I needed to try something bigger&#151and New York open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �seemed bigger and better. And it seemed right for me, rather than to be running away from something, to be moving toward something, to see something as an opportunity and to try leaving a place when I was extremely happy." As good as San Francisco was, for Gabby it lacked one thing New York provided: Front Runners. "It was an immediate group of friends, and it made my life here amazing." With a challenging job, a challenging race to run, olds friends and new, "I can't imagine being any happier in my life," Gabby says now. "The only way to make my life better would be if my family could somehow be closer to me." Written by FRNY member Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_gabriel_celis.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/ec0b4e698a7953893ec2c94e06f270e2.pdf 8e157cbb198dad497885efccc9583c4b PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Hilary Lorenz In a recent exhibition of artists' work in a Brooklyn event space, Hilary Lorenz showed a drawing entitled, "Laughing Caterpillar." In the drawing, a tubular mass of teeny red and black circles suggesting the cellular forms of reproduction fans out in Peacock sprays of interlocking and concentric semicircles of bright green, yellow, purple, orange and red-an image recalling the Partridge Family. The work displays Lorenz's endless fascination withorganic shapes and the clean, simple topographical beauty of nature. And though she doesn't force many connections between her art and her open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Facebook pdfcrowd.com �other life passions or her personal history, Lorenz is a bit of a laughing caterpillar herself-perhaps a little shy and tentative but ready to transform at any moment into a burst of color. By never following the obvious course, Lorenz has measured success on her own terms and according to her own Facebook Twitter Instagram timeline in both her art and her running. With new art shows and fellowships as well as her very first ever marathon on the horizon after a near 20-year hiatus from running, Lorenz is now witnessing (at least to this themeseeking outsider) the many complex strains of her past coming together. Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am Sunset: 8:10 pm open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search Growing up in the small factory-scarred town of Montague on the shores of Lake Michigan, Lorenz did not entertain escapist dreams of becoming an artist. She had never even heard of the profession. "We did not have art, music, or theater," she says. "I had never even been to an art museum." But Lorenz didn't need finger paints and an easel to develop the soul of an artist. She sensitively observed her often dreary surroundings, in which big chemical companies polluted the air and waters while everyone silently accepted their powerlessness against the biggest employers in town. Four of Lorenz's friends died of leukemia while she was in high school. "I thought it was normal for people to have cancer," she says. Though she knew by age 10 (after seeing the movie "Rear Window" made her desire an apartment that looked onto a brick wall) that she would eventually move to New York City, Lorenz made the most of small town open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Michigan life, finding her inner mirth in running fast. "It was amazing," she says, "I am a fast kid and, yes, I do get obsessive about my activities." Lorenz describes a routine that consisted of running before school, at track practice and then again after dinner. She was running 5:50 miles at the time, but injuries and illnesses sidelined her for much of the rest of her high school running career. Once she arrived at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Lorenz began embarking on other adventures. "My second semester at college, I took a design class and I knew-this is what I want to study," she says. She lucked into a job as a research assistant in an immunology lab where she studied and photographed cellular structures. Though seemingly miles apart from her chosen course of study, the examination and sequencing of DNA greatly informed her future artwork. She created installations from lab items and developed a fascination with genetically engineered animals. "I have a lot of really creepy mice photos," she admits. After receiving her BS in Fine Arts and pursuing graduate work in printmaking, Lorenz made her way to New York in 1993, taking up residence in the epicenter of the art world-the Lower East Side's Suffolk Street. "I worked like mad in the studio and at a community printmaking workshop," she says of how she managed to make it in a city with more than 300,000 artists and only 500 galleries, "I made a lot of connections." Check out Lorenz's CV online (her website is, aptly, www.hilarylorenz.com) and you'll see just how many. She has shown in an astonishing number of group and solo exhibitions. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �In 2005, Lorenz's passion for art and her love of physical activity, which had lain somewhat dormant for almost two decades, collided. Lured by a Sierra Club ad she saw during an artist-in-residence stint in Santa Fe, Lorenz decided to take up hiking and had a revelation. "We did a 17-mile hike that began with 90-degree heat and ended on a snow-topped mountain," she says. "I never felt so high." This feeling of elation turned into a muse, and Lorenz has since been drawing and printing works that lovingly record her movement through nature. In the summer of 2006, a hiking friend suggested that Lorenz participate in the Nike NYC half marathon, which runs through Central Park into Times Square and ends in downtown Manhattan. The whole experience unlocked Lorenz's long forgotten love of running. "I got rather weepy before the start and at the finish," she says. "In some ways I felt like that kid again running but this time doing it on my own terms and for me, not to prove anything to anyone else." Lorenz took about six months off after the 2006 Nike Half and then decided to commit herself fully to running and became a regular at Front Runner training events. (She had first seen the club "looking so cute in their singlets" at the Pride March in 2006 and came twice that summer but trailed off after the Nike Half.) Delving into hill and speedwork made Lorenz feel strong and curious of what her body would be capable of with her mind dedicated to fitness. "I want to be as fast as I possibly can," she says. Now there's a worthy long term goal. She's only at the beginning of the quest and has already lopped 17 minutes off her 2006 half marathon time by open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �running a 1:50:44 at Grete's Great Gallop this October. Looking focused and hungry, she has been a dutiful speed warrior at the track at Riverbank stadium all fall and hopes to break 3:50 at this year's NYC marathon. But no matter how much time transpires between the Verrazano-Narrows and Tavern on the Green, Lorenz knows it will be an emotional journey. "I think I will cry when I complete the NYC marathon," she says. "I always dreamed of running it when I was a kid, but for whatever reason some things get sidelined." Maybe there were stops and starts along the way, but now Lorenz is moving ahead full throttle. She will become a race captain for Front Runners at the beginning of 2008 and is gearing up for a 6-week winter art project where she will live electricity and water free in a shack in Provincetown, Massachusetts. "I will make drawings that are essentially visual maps of my daily life," she explains. The world may finally get to see the imprint of a dune-filled morning jog on a beautiful open canvas. Random Data Lower East Side Soundbite - "I don't like all the party kids. I would take the heroin addicts any day-at least they were quiet." Mental Health Day? - Backpacking the Adirondacks Best Book of 2007? - The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston Artistic Holy Grail? - "There is no one Holy Grail, but being in the Whitney open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Biennial would be nice." FRNY Suggestion Box? - "I wish I could offer a solution, but to rally all 400 members (almost 500, really) to participate." January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_hilary_lorenz.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/232118c2ca0fe8a7518ba20f5bb5c7a7.pdf 8b66f2ec913bd0c1cca578534036a2a0 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › “I Thought People Who Ran Marathons Were Insane” Kerri Fox — a Brown University International Relations/Russian Studies major and long-distance cyclist — never thought of herself as a runner until late 2013. She has asthma and didn’t think she could do it, and even once she was doing it she found it hard to actually call herself a runner. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 9:49 AM EDT 81° As recently as a year and a half ago, Fox thought that marathon runners were crazy. “I thought people who ran marathons were insane,” Fox told me over the phone on a recent workday, taking a break from her job in project finance. High: 87° Low: 69° Partly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F These days Fox is not only an active member of Front Runners New York, but she has also run four marathons. When New York’s 2012 marathon got canceled after Hurricane Sandy, she went up to Central Park intending to do Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 49% a 13-14 mile training run, but was swept away by the crowds of DIY marathoners and unofficial support, and ended up running the full 26.2 Visibility: 10 mi miles. She had only gone into the park with one Gu, but ended up getting a Dewpoint: 69 °F banana, bagel and Gatorade from total strangers. A few weeks later, Fox ran the Seattle Marathon — her first official marathon but not her last. Wind: 6 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search In June 2013 she ran the San Francisco Marathon, and finally, in November 2013, Fox got to race through all five boroughs during the New York City Marathon. She wore a Front Runners singlet with her name in big letters and made a photo taken by fellow Front Runner Da Ping Luo her main Facebook profile picture. It was only after that race, that she finally started calling herself a runner. She also realized she had found an incredible community. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �So, how did Fox become one of those crazy marathon runners and a happy one at that? Fox decided to start running when she was visiting the Bay Area in February 2012 and realized she had never run San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers Race. The 12-kilometer race bills itself as the oldest consecutively run annual footrace in the world, dating back to 1912. It starts near the San Francisco Bay and ends at the Great Highway where waves crash into the beach.< open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Fox is from the Bay Area, and she realized it was a crime that she’d never done the iconic race. She took a beginners running class at Jack Rabbit, joined FRNY and made preparing for the May race her big project. That’s when Fox realized running was fun – she remembers spectators holding signs advising runners to run, “because dieting is not an option,” and other runners running the course backwards dressed as salmon. “To my surprise, I was able to run every inch. I was expecting to have to walk,” she told me. “I woke up the next day, and I was like, ‘Now what?’” Fox came back and decided to start training for her first half marathon - the SF “First Half” in July. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on foot was magnificent, but the distance was really hard for Fox and she remembers watching other runners continuing past her in Golden Gate Park for the full marathon – and thinking “who would be crazy enough to do that to themselves?” open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Upon returning to New York at the end of July, a cycling buddy asked when she planned to ramp up to run a full marathon. Her response: “never.” Less than a week later, however, long-time FRNY member Rachel Cutler urged her to take that next step and train for the 2012 New York City marathon as part of an AIDS/HIV fundraiser for Harlem United. While that marathon was canceled, over the course of 2013 Fox became increasingly active in Front Runners. She had already lived in New York for nearly 19 years when she joined the team, but FRNY opened her up to an entirely new circle of friends. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Recently, Fox, who does not consider herself one of the more gifted runners in the group, went to an indoor track relay. She was moved by the encouraging attitude of virtually every FRNY member who was there. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �“It was just so much fun,” she told me. “My relay team was the last team to finish, and everybody stuck around and still cheered to the end. I love the fact that our club has really amazing elite runners and also has people like me who do whatever they can. It is the people that make it great.” Long time FRNY member Michelle Mazzara and Coach Mike are now engaged helping Fox stretch for her next goal (which, to her, still seems extremely distant) – a BQ time. Meanwhile, her 8 pound papillon, Napoleon, has made two recent appearances at FRNY Long Runs and intends to learn how to run in a straight line in 2014. He is also hoping for his own singlet. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �March 10, 2014 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_i_thought_people_who_ran_marathons_were_insane.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/02cda3cad0375d7fbaa017c99329c888.pdf e60a6630b233884be363d6d87f041428 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › IJ Frame "I want to run forever." If you want some background music while reading this profile of IJ Frame, search your iPod for Radiohead tracks. Or maybe try Ravel's "Tzigane." If you need to consult a Frame photo during this profile perusal, there's the now nearly iconic shot of Frame-flinty determination etched on his facesteaming through the 2007 Colon Cancer 15K. (The New York Road Runners [NYRR] site has used it at least three times.) Or you might pick one of 26 facebook shots showing Frame mugging impishly at each mile marker open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �of a Steamboat Springs Marathon in Colorado. Facebook If you want to summon a single object that best says IJ Frame, you can try a Twitter Mizuno Wave Inspire, a Petri dish, or a Stradivarius. Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER And if you're starting to get the sense that IJ Frame is a man of search contradictions, stop right there and make the operative word 'multiplicity.' Or breadth, or scope, or sweep. Writers usually tack words like those on people who've hit their stride in life. But Frame is a 26-year-old who?s still accelerating. With a degree in music, a degree in nutrition, and a research post at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he's now eyeing medical school (and taking the MCAT this month, just before running the Boston Marathon). If Frame could devote half of his life to running and half to something else, he says the something else would not be some empyrean fantasy, but a job that means a lot. "I want to have a fulfilling life," he explains, "and I think part of that is having an interesting career." Meanwhile, Frame suggests running already does occupy half his life. He also insists he's not a 'competitive' runner, putting in all those wintery preBoston long runs and gut-wracking track sessions just for fun. You decide. Here's some evidence. 1. When asked to name some FRNY role models, the first name off his lips is Patrick Guilfoyle (who won last year's club 40-to-49 age-group award with a walloping 497 points, finished in the top 30 in his age group at last year?s New York City Marathon with a 2:52:08, and just loped through a 50-mile trail open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �race in Mississippi). "He's a real runner's runner," Frame affirms. 2. Frame logged the second-highest overall place finish in a NYRR race last year, sixth in a rain-swept 2008 Knickerbocker 60K-two weeks after posting a Boston-qualifying 3:05:07 at the NYC Marathon. (He lagged only speed merchant Ryan Quinn in the 2008 overall place competition; Quinn finished fifth overall in the NYRR 50th Anniversary 5-Miler.) 3. He doesn't do bad in out-of-town races either. In 2007 he snagged fourth place overall in the Pocatello (Idaho) Marathon, though he rated his 3:12 finish a disappointment at the time because it fell 2 minutes long of his Boston-qualifying time. "I got off course," he explains. "It was a small marathon and it wasn't very well marked. Had I not got off course, maybe I would've made the qualifying time. I was really irritated." 4. Frame's dream race is the Badwater Ultramarathon, which traverses 135 miles on the way from Death Valley to Mount Whitney. (But he is mulling the Badwater for the sheer enjoyment of climbing 8642 feet in a single race that starts in 100-plus temperatures: "It seems like a crazy thing to do, and that sounds like a lot of fun.") At this point it would not be inaccurate to call IJ Frame a club fixture. So it's surprising to recall that he joined Front Runners only 2 years ago, running his first race in FRNY colors at the February 11, 2007 Bronx Half-Marathon with a 1:31:39. Since then he's run 27 NYRR races for Front Runners, a third of them half-marathons. With Mike Terry, Frame has organized the club's spring long training runs for 2 years. He served as race cocaptain in 2008, finished first in the co-ed division with Annette Pufall at the 2008 FRNY cross- open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �country meet and the 2008 Van Cortlandt Track Club cross-country relay, snared a nomination for 2008 Front Runner of the Year, and won the 2008 Sue Foster Male Long-Distance Runner of the Year Award. Frame found out about Front Runners on the NYRR Web site and credits Dave Lin and Dave Swinarski for sealing his commitment to the club. He showed up expecting a gaggle of 30 or 40 gays and lesbians, not more than 200 people committed to running-and socializing-together. Besides Guilfoyle, he looks up to distance doyens Zander Ross and Richard Ervais, to members who've devoted time and effort to the club, like Mikey Benjamin and Rob Lennon, and to club coach Kelsey Louie, "who helped me through many races," including a PR 5:17 at an Armory 1600 last winter. But Frame doesn't list that fleet foray over the Armory boards as his most memorable race. Or his Pocatello fourth, his 60K sixth, his handful of Bostonqualifying marathons, or his first Boston in 2008. Rather, he picks last year's Reach-the-Beach relay, in which he teamed with Mike Benjamin, Gerritt Jackson, Marty McElhiney, Peter McGrane, and Mike Totaro to form an 'ultra' team that attacked the 200-mile course with each racer contributing six legs. The sextet finished second in their ultra division, and they're teaming up for another try in 2009. "I just loved the team aspect of it," Frame recalls. "When you're on leg 5 you think, 'I can't do this anymore,' but the team support pulls you through." What he doesn't mention is that, after running approximately 35 miles for the past 24 hours, he drove his team's van from Hampton Beach, New Hampshire back to New York City. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �"IJ is generally chipper without the capriciousness that sometimes comes with being chipper," one of his RTB teammates suggests. "He's very dependable and always has his shit together." With so many long-distance credentials on his racing resume, no one will be surprised to learn that Frame's first race was a half-marathon. Majoring in music at the University of Colorado at Boulder, he found himself sitting in an orchestra pit next to a distance runner who persuaded him to sign up for a local half-marathon. Chubby as an adolescent-and hating it-he decided to start running and training for his health. He also figured (correctly) that running would force him to stop smoking. So at the age of 21, he showed up for a high-altitude half-marathon. "It destroyed my body," Frame says. "I couldn't run for 2 months." But when he could, he started again and kept his focus on distance. Maybe not coincidentally, Frame emerged from the closet at the same time. "Throughout my adolescence I always knew I was gay, and because of my religious background I tried very hard to ignore it," he explains. "I tried to do everything I could to make it go away. And that's a very bad way to live. I had a really, really hard time in college dealing with this issue." Frame grew up in a traditional Mormon family that gave him a Biblical name. IJ stands for Ithiel (pronounced with a long I) James, but he's been called IJ ever since he can remember. Every generation of the Frame family has an Ithiel with a J-name as the second part of his first name. But being a gay man means not being a Mormon ("I've done some things that are certainly excommunicatable"), and Frame told most of his family members he's gay open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �last year. (Frame's middle name is Llego, the maiden name of his Filipina mother.) Although Frame majored in music in college, studied composition, and nurtures a fondness for the fiddle, the urge to make a career in music never matured. "It turned out that music was very agonizing for me," he says. "When you depend on something for your livelihood, it can start to interfere with your enjoyment of it." But Frame still plays the violin, sitting in with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn and coaxing friends to read through chamber pieces with him. When he stayed at Megan Jenkins' apartment the night before the 2009 Cherry Tree Relay, he brought along the score for a set of Bartok violin duets and the versatile FRNY VP played one of the violin parts on her flute. "I do strive to be an amateur who enjoys it," Frame maintains. "But sometimes it's really hard to enjoy it, just because I had so many negative thoughts about it.? Frame left Grand Junction, Colorado for New York "sort of on a whim," he allows. Visiting a friend then attending NYU, he fell in love with the city and "made the declaration that I'm going to move here." After finding a Columbia graduate program in nutrition that met his liking, and getting accepted, he did. And he brought his running shoes with him. In July 2006, Frame completed his first NYRR race, the inaugural New York City Half-Marathon, which he ran with a decided handicap. Still unfamiliar with the vicissitudes of the New York open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �subway, he reached the starting line 15 minutes late. Baggage was closed. Instead of turning around and going home, he dashed down 7th Avenue and through Times Square carrying his street clothes in a plastic bag. Photographic evidence can be found in one of Frame's facebook albums. Now that Frame has 12 NYRR half-marathons, one Boston marathon, and the Sue Foster Male Long Distance Runner of the Year award under his belt, what are his running goals? "I want to win the Sue Foster Long Distance Runner of the Year award again," he jokes. (Or is he?) "Long term," he adds, "I want to run forever." Random Data Favorite pop musicians: Radiohead. They produce the best music. They?re solid musicians. I saw them live and their live concert was as amazing as any of their recordings. Favorite classical musician: Anne-Sophie Mutter, the violinist. She can produce so many different timbres on the instrument. I think she has such tasteful vibrato. And I like the repertoire she plays. She's one of the most exciting violinists. She's also one of the highest paid. She's awesome. Program for (fantasy) violin debut at Carnegie Hall: Ravel's "Tzigane." I love it so much, I wrote a paper on it in college. Then some Bartok duos. A string quartet?maybe a Bartok quartet! And maybe something I wrote. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Written by Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_ij_frame.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/48f182cf94a1ebf3801a7cb690075bcd.pdf cc8e6ba2a87290c170b2732358d65012 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Jeff Werner "You shouldn't talk about a race longer than it took you to run it." That sardonic yet level-headed insight by Jeff Werner says much about his approach to running, and maybe as much about his approach to life. The Front Runner board member and perennial Reach-the-Beach trooper goes beyond the standard don't-sweat-the-small-stuff counsel of pop psychology. His attitudes on running and working and living in New York suggest a broader perspective, something like "don't let the big stuff overwhelm you, either." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Werner suspects, for example, that he may be the only Ivy League law school graduate who never bothered to check his grades after the first year, when he needed to demonstrate his academic acumen to prospective summer employers. After that, he figured knowing his grades wasn't going to change how hard he worked. Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy "I told myself it didn't matter," Werner explains. "I know I'm working as hard as I feel comfortable working. Could I work harder? Yes, but I don't really feel like Feels like: 81 °F it. If I'm not doing well, it'll get me upset. And if I'm doing well, that's good." Barometer: 29.83 in and steady A few weeks before graduation day, though, he admits to a spasm of Humidity: 52% "hyperpracticality" when he asked a dean to check his grades, just to make sure he passed everything and could pick up his diploma, "and I was Visibility: 10 mi perfectly fine." Dewpoint: 69 °F This insouciant attitude to results that many of us obsess-or at least worry- Wind: 7 mph about carries over into Werner's work life and into his running. He loves his job as an attorney for the Office of Management and Budget of the City of New open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Sunrise: 5:50 am pdfcrowd.com �York, reviewing projects across the five boroughs and helping the city issue Sunset: 8:10 pm bonds to pay for them. "But I'm not one of those people who goes around telling people what I do all the time and why I think it's important. There are a POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER lot of people who do that, especially in New York City. They get on my nerves." And Werner may be the only committed FRNY racer who doesn't know, or care about, most of his PRs. After this June's Pride Race, he didn't bother search checking finish times until teammates asked him a day later whether he made it onto "the first page" of the New York Road Runner Club online results. He checked, and he hadn't, but he didn't fret. "I want to do my best in every race, but I could not tell you the fastest time I've done for almost any race," Werner says. "If I cared about my times as much as most people cared, I think it would stress me out and I don't think I could run." Although he has run a 5-mile race in 32:43 and a half-marathon in 1:29:56, Werner's marathon PR is 3:26:55. If you put the 5-mile time into an online race-pace calculator, it predicts a 3:12 marathon. The half-marathon PR predicts under a 3:10 marathon finish. Why the discrepancy? In his first marathon, for which he trained hard, Werner committed the hallowed strategic error of starting too fast: 6:15 miles in Brooklyn turned into 11s in Manhattan. And he ran later marathons with too little training. "Every year around July I say I'm going to train for the marathon and I don't," Werner admits. "This year because of running slowly in the Pride run, I want to get better. I say I really am going to try this year. But it's possible that I won't." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �And marathon results that might drive equally fast runners nuts haven't dimmed Werner's enthusiasm for the 26-mile tour of Gotham. "I get emotional every time I do the New York Marathon because you run through different neighborhoods and you see the city and there are so many people cheering," he says. "I think around mile 8 last year I was almost tearing up." Front Runner Dennis Giza remembers watching the New York Marathon from mile 17 two years ago-another race for which Werner had trained little. "Scores of Front Runners passed before him and few looked particularly happy," Giza remembers. "No one on the course did. But then came Jeff. He CLEARLY was enjoying the race. I saw in his beaming smile, his jaunty step, his ease in pushing forward an indescribable love of running, of the marathon, and of New York." Werner's love affair with New York City-all of it-might seem natural for someone born and raised here. But today he describes an insular existence as a child, adolescent, and even a Columbia Law student whose life revolved around the Upper East Side where he lived, the Upper West Side where he went to school, the downtown grid where his parents worked, and his grandmother's Gramercy Park enclave. "I had never even heard of Park Slope until I graduated from college," Werner confesses. And when he finished law school he rented an apartment in the same East Side building where his parents lived. But soon the multifarious lure of a multiethnic metropolis began to exert its lure as he sampled neighborhood after neighborhood on walking tours. When his friends started settling in Brooklyn, he considered buying an apartment there-but farther open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �afield than the gentrified reaches of Cobble Hill and Park Slope. While on a walking tour of Bedford Stuyvesant with fellow FRNY Mike Arden, Werner decided to sink his roots there-in a neighborhood remembered by many New Yorkers only for the 1960s riots. Before long, Werner started supplementing his walking-tour research and on-the-job explorations with bike rides through Brooklyn and Queens. After this year's Pride Race, he brunched with FRNY chums, then met a friend and pedaled to Jacob Riis Park for a dip in the Atlantic. "That morning I was in Central Park running the Pride Race," he recalls, "and that afternoon I was sitting on the beach in Queens and looking at the sunset. It's just amazing." Another recent outing took Werner to Brooklyn's Mill Basin, where he sought out a locally esteemed diner, noshed on stuffed cabbage, read the newspaper, "and soaked up the ambience. It didn't feel anything like the New York City most people know, but it is New York City, and it was really cool." Contrary to what many nonnative gay and lesbian New Yorkers may suspect, Werner doesn't believe growing up in the city puts you on a faster track to coming out. Although his extended family had gay and lesbian friends, he kept his sexual leanings under wraps throughout high school and his college years at Bowdoin in Maine. Only when his best high school friend came out to him right before his junior year in college did Werner decide it was time to start leading a frankly gay life. "I didn't date women or anything; I wasn't intending to be straight; but I wasn't open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �gay either," he says now. If his high school pal hadn't declared his preference, Werner wonders "how much longer I would've waited-he sort of forced the issue." Feeling his way into his new lifestyle, Werner perused the Lesbian and Gay Community Center's Website "to look for an activity I'd like that would allow me to expand my horizons" in the gay community. Since he'd run crosscountry in high school, he focused on Front Runners, a club he'd never heard of before. Like many first-timers, he put off his initial FRNY foray-partly because he considered 10 AM on Saturday mornings outrageously early, and partly because of "being a little intimidated." He finally settled on a debut at the Wednesday evening fun run, where he remembers meeting Dan Armstrong. The next Saturday he recalls Michael Orzechowski being particularly welcoming, "and the rest is history." Werner added his speed to the first Front Runner team to compete in the day-long Reach-the-Beach relay, sharing a van with teammates Peter McGrane, Ryan Singer, Kelsey Louie, Patrick Thomas, and Peter Boyden. Werner has run all eight RTBs with the club since then and helps organize FRNY teams every year. He believes anyone who can run a half-marathon can run Reach-the-Beach, and he assures would-be baton passers that they're going to love it. But "honestly," he allows "you don't really like it until it's over." Today Werner is a club regular, inserting himself in pre- and postrun banter with an arch "Hey, what are you talking about?" His pal Dennis Giza says "those who have been fortunate enough to get to know him better are open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �rewarded with a singular individual who is warm, adventurous, thoughtful, caring, generous-and really smart." Last year Werner deepened his commitment to the club by winning the treasurer's position on the FRNY board, and this year he holds the post of secretary. The proximate reason for his joining the board was simple: thenpresident Mike Benjamin asked if he'd be interested. When Werner thought about it, he figured "being someone who worries about details" would make him a good addition to the FRNY leadership, and he thinks that talent has paid off in clarifying that all club donations, including membership dues, are tax deductible and organizing an online registration process that helped boost club membership close to 600. "Being on the board is hard work, and I don't think people realize that this thing just doesn't happen," Werner says. Before joining the board, "even I thought, you show up on a Wednesday, you show up on a Saturday, and you run. What do you guys actually need to do? But there are some real decisions that need to be made. And being president, I can't imagine, it's a second job." But when asked to explain what he loves best about FRNY, it's not his contributions as a board member, his perfect Reach-the-Beach record, or his romping New York City Marathons. "Front Runners has become a family in some sense," Werner believes. "You take the good and the bad. There are people who get on your nerves, but it comes with the territory. Even the people you love, you get into fights with them. I think what makes FRNY special is the people, not the races and not the running." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Quick Q&A What's your favorite book about New York City? Why are you a member of the Monica Seles fan club? Monica [a tennis great of the early 90s] had real grit and determination and I respect that. She won nine grand slams over a very short time. Then she got stabbed on the court by a fan of her rival. It really was one of the great tragedies of sports history. I know it sounds not that important in the scheme of life, but it really is tragic. If you could date any man in the United States, whom would you date? Anderson Cooper's really cute, but I don't think I could date someone who worked his hours. How many pairs of running shoes do you own? I'm really bad. I tend not to throw out my running shoes, so I have a bunch. But I have only one pair I run in, usually for too long. It's part of my not taking running seriously enough. It's very intimidating to buy new shoes. If you could excel in any pursuit in which you don't currently excel, what would it be? I'm pretty happy the way I am. My life isn't perfect, but I am what I am and I'm striving to be a better person every day and I'm satisfied with that. I'm not disappointed with myself and the things I'm not good at. I could be a faster runner, or maybe I can't be a faster runner, but so what? open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Written by Mark Mascolini January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_jeff_werner.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/ddb8862494b17715d7e409523335a9b1.pdf 46b2388607f2dfaab5dcf01cdf83be71 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › John MacConnell John MacConnell is in denial about his Front Runner celebrity status. "It's really embarrassing for people to know I'm fast," he says. "I'm just here to have fun." MacConnell certainly shirks the spotlight in favor of cool selfeffacement, describing himself pithily as "a dork that likes to run and draw" on his onlinefacebook profile. But don't be fooled by the blasé candor. MacConnell is a far cry from some casual jogger or paint-by-number dilettante. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Facebook When it comes to both running and art, MacConnell illustrates the best of what can happen when deep natural talent is cultivated not through toil and discipline but through the joyful pursuit of what one loves. Since joining FRNY Twitter Instagram in early fall 2007, MacConnell has run with the club because he enjoys the company - not because he's training to quicken his race times. "If I wanted to run by myself and really fast every run," he says. "I'd stay home and run." That collegial philosophy has helped establish MacConnell as not only the fastest member on the team today but also one of the fastest men to Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 10:49 AM EDT ever run for FRNY. Similarly, he describes himself as a kid who had always kept sketchbooks without ever really thinking of himself as an artist. At the 81° tender age of 23, MacConnell has already graduated from one of the country's most prestigious art schools, is pursuing a graduate degree in illustration and has a sleek website showcasing his art. His successes lend credence to the bumper-sticker wisdom: "Follow Your Bliss." High: 87° Low: 69° Mostly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady Humidity: 52% Visibility: 10 mi Dewpoint: 69 °F Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search As a young boy growing up in Richmond, Virginia and then in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, MacConnell played soccer every fall and swam every summer. It wasn't until a soccer coach told him that he would play significantly better if he were just a little faster that MacConnell turned to running. "I decided to run with the cross country team to prepare for the soccer season," he says. "My brother (MacConnell is the youngest of three boys) did cross country so the coach made me feel right at home "I never went back to soccer." MacConnell adapted to running so well that, with the exception of freshman year when he wrestled in winter, he ran all three seasons for his entire high open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �school career. "The team became my best friends," asserts MacConnell. "We trained seven days a week, sometimes twice a day, year round - wind, rain, snow, sleet or shine." Looking back MacConnell agrees the intensity was "a little crazy," but the results sure paid off for the team, which won the State Championship his junior year. With a running resume artisanal crafted for ascendance into Division 1 sports and complemented by a knockout academic record that included salutatorian-ship, MacConnell could have had Stanford or the Ivy League wooing at his trellis. Despite his love of racing and his graduating high school one of the fastest runners in the state of Pennsylvania, MacConnell chose a college that had no sports programs whatsoever. Pursuing his lifelong passion to draw, MacConnell instead matriculated into the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he would receive his BFA in Illustration with a minor in Art History. Not that he forsook running all together in college. MacConnell helped keep alive an intramural running group that never had more than a dozen members and was not competitive. "[At] an art school, there's no way one can do their school work and be on a competitive team," he says. The four-year hiatus from racing did not hamper MacConnell's instincts or his abilities. By mostly training alone and casually running with the Baltimore Front Runners ("It was slower and shorter than I usually run," he says of the experience, "but it was better than running by myself all the time"), MacConnell clocked a marathon debut of 2:40 in October 2006. An MFA program in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts then brought him to New York last August where fame and adulation awaited him among FRNY's open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �racing divas. (Now, now John, these profiles are supposed to make you blush.) The truth is that MacConnell managed to run under the radar for several weeks after joining the club. It wasn't until Steve Vizena cajoled him into racing the Joe Kleinerman 10K - the ultimate club points race of 2007 - in December that MacConnell's speed was revealed to the club. In that race, he placed 37 th overall, running 5:34 pace and finishing almost three minutes ahead of the next Front Runner. Clearly, a star was born. He next helped teammates Kelsey Louie and Rob Lennon win the Cherry Tree 10-mile relay in Prospect Park in February of this year. Since then, MacConnell has competed in five NYRR races for the team, varying from 4 miles to the halfmarathon-all distances he had never raced before joining Front Runners. "I really don't have a lot of experience running anything but the 800 meters, the mile and the 5K," says MacConnell. Well, he's a quick study. MacConnell came in first for the team in all but one of the races he competed in, and he won the 5K at the International Front Runner Games in May and the Steve Gerben award at the Pride Run in June. MacConnell's fastest pace (so far) has been 5:14 at the Run for the Parks 4-miler in July. "Racing regularly has been fun," he says. "It's great to have such an enthusiastic group." Despite his ever-quickening times, MacConnell stays true to his mantra that the fun runs are about running with others and not whizzing by teammates to showcase his immense natural talent. But the genius part is how readily this easy-going affability swaps out for cold bloodthirst come race day. "I'm a fierce competitor once I step to the line," he admits. "If it's a race, I'm going for the win." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �That same energy fuels his career in art. MacConnell has done a wide range of successful commercial work and also has a portfolio full of more imaginative and graphic drawings that often draw on comics as a source of inspiration. "I think a lot of things draw gays to superheroes," MacConnell says of his own fascination. "A lot of us grew up (and maybe still are) living double lives. Scared to come out, we find ourselves hiding under a "secret identity" feeling like we can only be ourselves with a special group of people." Well John, we hope you've found that group in FRNY. Now, it's time to come out and embrace your stardom. Random Data Favorite Superhero - "Spiderman - he's cute, funny, smart and athletic what's not to love." Coveted Superpower - "Telekinesis - the ability to lift and move objects with the mind. Think Jean Grey/Phoenix from the X-men movies (I think my inner nerd is showing)" Celebrity Crush - Jake Gyllenhaal Running Accomplishment of which you are most proud? - "First marathon, 2:40, being my own coach while trying to graduate college with honors." Running Goal - Running 2:30ish in NYC this year. "2:40 is what I ran in my first marathon. It'd be nice to beat it. I'm not putting in the miles to achieve this, but a boy can dream." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Running Advice - "Two things and they don't need to be contradictory: (1) Running is an equal equation. What you put in = What you get out; (2) Remember to have fun. If you're not enjoying yourself, your times WILL suffer." Written by Robert Lennon January 2, 2012 profile Perm alink © Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_john_macconnell.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY http://archives.frny.org/files/original/1780f92674542030e8694b139a336ed4.pdf 0b45a2a3a16031b8e596a481bfacf9d2 PDF Text Text Contact Us Member Resources › Membership Signup Member Login Running Out Front Since 1979 Home Calendar Multisport Social Fun Runs › About › Training › Racing › Pride Run › Jonathan Warner "I was born in the Middle of Nowhere, Southwest Virginia," says Jonathan Warner, the youngest of three kids and an "unexpected surprise" for his parents. His mother didn't exactly have the smoothest pregnancy with him. Several months pregnant, Sharon Warner was involved in a car accident, with the car door ending up wrapped around her belly. She also took a fall on the ice, and very nearly gave birth to Jonathan in an airport. Although his parents had originally planned to name him Douglas, when he arrived into the world, they decided the more fitting name would be Jonathan-the Biblical figure whose name means "a gift from God." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Facebook Twitter Instagram Current Weather CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR NEW Y ORK AS OF SAT, 01 AUG 2015 9:49 AM EDT 81° High: 87° Low: 69° Growing up, Jonathan and his family moved around constantly. By the time he was eighteen, he had lived in nearly a dozen different houses. As a result, making and keeping friends proved to be a struggle. It didn't help matters that he was shy and had thick glasses and a super high voice. "I was a big nerd Partly Cloudy Feels like: 81 °F Barometer: 29.83 in and steady and a bit of a loner as a kid," Jonathan explains. And even before he knew what it meant to be gay, he was teased as the gay kid at each new school. The friends he did have were very close, and, funnily enough, his very best Humidity: 49% Visibility: 10 mi friend from his elementary years is now his roommate in the city. Dewpoint: 69 °F The family situation at home wasn't much better. A four year age difference and contrasting interests and personalities, with a dose of sibling rivalry, made for an interesting relationship with his brother, Clay. Although he was open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Wind: 6 mph Sunrise: 5:50 am pdfcrowd.com �very close with his sister Kara, she was six years older. His mom was a constant source of strength and comfort, although Jonathan says of his dad, Bill, "I didn't really know him." Sunset: 8:10 pm POWERED BY Y AHOO! WEATHER search Jonathan's dad, Bill Warner leading the pack A series of unexpected events landed him at the University of Georgia in the fall of 2005 without a major, class schedule, or even a student ID as classes began. He immediately struggled to find a fit. The fit, or rather the friend, he open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �found surprised him: he met his first love, Wes, at the mailroom of his freshman dorm. But then lost almost all of his friends when he subsequently came out to them. And he had little interest in the campus LGBT groups, either. "They were very out and proud, but I was focused on me, and school, and running. They all strove to be a very specific type that just wasn't me... and I liked having facial hair." The ensuing years each got better as Jonathan found lifelong friends in his major and his work at a local café and restaurant. Though he was out at school, Jonathan held off coming out to his parents. Right before leaving for college, Jonathan and his dad had begun to grow together and started to develop a good relationship. "I was finally able to give him a real hug, and was terrified of losing that." By his senior year of college, Jonathan did tell his sister, his mom and his brother, who were all supportive. But he had yet to tell Bill. Then, in 2010, after Jonathan had moved to New York, he got a phone call from his mom. A pastor friend of the family had supposed Jonathan was gay, and called his mom urging her to pray for Jonathan's homosexuality. Sharon relayed the phone call to Jonathan and told him to talk to his dad. And when he did, his dad said: "Well, yeah. Don't think I didn't know. But you're my son and I love you. So I hope that a--hole calls me too so I can rip him a new one." Less than three years after coming out to him, Jonathan now has a wonderful relationship with his father. Bill Warner has recently re-discovered his passion for running, and he and Jonathan enjoy going to races together, open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �often with the whole family. They even have somewhat of a rivalry going on: until recently, Bill, a sub-3 hour marathoner, boasted of having the Warner family marathon record, though Jonathan claimed it in Chicago -- 'for now', as Bill likes to remind him. Jonathan recognizes that he's been "really lucky with my family and friends." Now, every time they do a race together, his dad asks him which Front Runners will be there. That's understandable. In a very short time, Jonathan went from an FRNY newcomer to one of the club's most involved members. In July 2010, Jonathan moved to New York to pursue graduate studies in Urban Planning at Pratt (he recently graduated with a degree in Urban Environmental open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Systems Management). Less than 24 hours after his Friday afternoon arrival in the city, he was already at his first Saturday morning fun run, keeping up his end of a promise to his friend Gina, a former Front Runner. And about three weeks later, he had agreed to run the second longest leg on an Ultra Reach-the-Beach Team. "Front Runners were my first friends here, and for a while almost my only friends, and it's been a home for me ever since." Running is in Jonathan's genes. When Jonathan's father Bill was younger, he was actually a bit of a local running legend, and Jonathan's brother and sister both ran competitively. So naturally Jonathan joined the school team in the 4th grade. Through the moves to new towns and new schools, through the life struggles, the one constant in Jonathan's life was running. And he stuck with it throughout high school. open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �But along with the running came injury. Jonathan spent time on crutches three of the four years of high school. He also seems to have a knack for getting himself into some pretty unfortunate situations. Junior year of high school, Jonathan broke his jaw while playing soccer and ended up going to the prom with his jaw wired shut. For a while, he was confined to a wheelchair as his body recovered from 16 stress fractures, and he broke his toe days after leaving the chair. He broke his forehead, dislocated his shoulder twice, and shortly after moving to New York, slipped while running and got a severe concussion in the streets of Brooklyn. He's also been diagnosed with spina bifada (a problem with his spinal cord), lactic acidosis, and compartment syndrome (which limit the intensity of his exercise). Despite this string of misfortunes, Jonathan sees himself as lucky. "With all the things I've done to myself, I could really easily be not walking, but my body repairs itself very easily." Jonathan says he tends to live his life very cautiously; however, when it comes to sports, "I don't see things as dangerous so much as a challenge." For Jonathan, "it's exciting to overcome the challenges." This mentality shows in his running. At first, Jonathan says, Front Runners gave him a chance to meet other gay guys who were also into running and didn't think he was a freak. But then he realized that there were others in the club who ran more than he did and he got inspired. "Once I branched out to new distances and races, I had a group of people there to support me." Six months after joining the club, with the encouragement of from a teammate, Jonathan decided to run the Knickerbocker 60K the morning of the race, and finished first in his age group! He credits his brother Clay as being an open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �inspiration, encouragement, and great competitor in his growing ultra marathon adventures. The long hours and miles they have spent on the trails together have been "invaluable." It's this passion for long distance running that drove Jonathan to become the official FRNY Long Distance Assistant Coach this year. In planning out all the weekly long runs, culminating with the Blue Line Run, Jonathan brought literally hundreds of his fellow runners through the streets of New York to help them train for their fall marathons. At first he was a little apprehensive about having so much responsibility, being one of the youngest members of the club (he's only 25!). But he had nothing to worry about, and the rewards, he says, have been immense. His favorite part of the job is "getting to see people grow every single week as runners." open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �Jonathan says he's excited to bring more Ultra running to FRNY. He explains that "the races are tough, and you hit rock bottom, but then the high is so euphoric." "That's one thing I want to share with the club, to help people discover that potential within them." He's particularly excited about the Lookout Mountain 50-Miler coming up in December. About ten Front Runners are signed up to go, a fact that amazes him: "So many NYC gays are going to Chattanooga to run through the woods. Who would have thought?" open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com �When asked about his own running goals, Jonathan has a long list. In April, he plans to run the Umstead 100, his first 100-miler, and hopes to place in the top 10. In the next two years he wants to do the Western States 100, the Lake Placid 100, and the Great Canadian Death Race. "I want to see the world by running it." Finally, and perhaps most importantly, "I want to do all of the Marathon Majors with my dad. I can't imagine any greater way to do them or any greater person to do them with." In the end, he says, "I'll just keep doing what makes me happy and try to make other people happy too." That's the true Front Runner spirit. Novem ber 5, 2012 open in browser PRO version new s letter, profile Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API Perm alink pdfcrowd.com �© Copy right 2014 PO Box 230087, Ansonia Station, NY . NY 10023 Front Runners New Y ork open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Website Members Profiles, 2012-2014 Description An account of the resource Members profiles were created on the FRNY website from January 2012 until March 2014. This collection includes PDF copies of the member profiles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://frny.org/category/profile/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource frny_org_jonathan_warner.pdf Description An account of the resource Member profile from FRNY website Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-2014 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright FRNY