UFT Runners

We patted eachother on the back, we complained, we celebrated, we bemoaned, we reminisced.   Dom Morea, a member since before time, retired for 17  years but still substituting, regaled us with tales of being a teacher “back in the day” when “back in the day” was truly “back in the day.” At the October 24 meeting we reviewed our 2008 year, our first year running after 2 years being out of commission.  Richie Orazem went from Chair of the team to Past Chair of the team which means he is now 51% responsible.  This year over 50 new teachers ran races with us, including 5 new men who run a 5:25 pace or less for 3.5 miles and 5 women who run a 7:00 pace or less for the 3.5 mile distance.  We did lose two of these elite men by September.  We have confidence, however, that our website and fliers publicity will bring in more by next March’s sign up time for the Corporate Challenge series.  We found that more teachers were dying to run the June Corporate Challenge race than we had slots for (they only gave us 70 slots) and teachers were luke warm for other races.   Few people due to family, afterschool, and/or training responbilities have been able to pitch in to keep the team rolling. 

This year we ran and ate many portions of complimentary corned beef and Guinness at Coogans in March, blew away the field and celebrated well into the night at both the Central Park Chase Corporate Challenge Qualifying race in June and the Jones Beach Workplace Challenge race in July.  And we surprised ourselves and others by placing 3rd for the Women and 6th for the Men in the Chase Corporate Challenge International Finals in October.  Matt Panetta has taken on responsibility for fliers and contacts for other New York Road Runners Club races.  Kevin Miller has been managing the website with great help from Joyce Holohan.  He plans to also coordinate the Chase Corporate Challenge racing series this year, along with possibly the Coogans race.  Josie Piccinic, along with her longtime buddy Ellen Brach took on the Jones Beach Workplace Challenge Friends and Family race in July and plans to do so again next summer.

Our showings at the May Bronx Community College and June Prospect Park Kenny Dolan race was a bit of a bomber, but we did represent as best we could.  There has been interest in running the Milrose Games (which we have done in the past) and possibly the Penn Relays.  Should people be interested, though, we would need others to take on responsibility.   All in all it was a fabulous year, as evidenced by the article front and center on the Chase Corporate Challenge website.  And/but it will basically be a team focused on the Corporate Challenge racing series should others not be able to pitch in.

First, at 4:00 PM,  is a meeting at UFT Headquarters, 50 Broadway.  2nd Floor.  Ask for UFT Runners.  If you can’t attend the meeting meet us afterwards for a celebration of participants in the Chase Corporate Challenge International Finals.  We will be at Ulysses, 58 Stone Street/95 Pearl Street.   http://www.ulyssesbarnyc.com/ from 5:30 onwards.  Sport your UFT Runners tie dye.

go to http://jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=18&page=events093008 for an excellent article about our history–detailing our success in the nearly 30 year old JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge racing series.  Why are we called “Board of Education” for this racing series???  Long, boring story. 

Running against teams from 6 different countries.                                                     Womens Team:  Followed up a 3rd place finish in the NYC qualifying race by coming less than 30 seconds out of 2nd place in the world!!!  Substituting for Josie and Felicia, Helen and Amy had fantastic races.  Zaia Wharton (21:27), Helen Dole (22:06), Casey Depasquale (23:23), and Amy West (23:43) had the best Womens Team time since the advent of the 4 person team.                                                                                                             Mens Team:  With three of our four guys nursing injuries, and having lost Matt Uzenski’s sub 18:30 speed, we still finished in 6th place overall.  Taylor Delhagen (18:10), Jesse Horst (18:39), Ricardo Bailey (18:51), and Brian Horneck (19:04).  Jesse substituted for Matt and improved his time dramatically.  2nd Mens Team:  Nicholas Galasso (19:49), Brian Cloherty (20:01), Richie Orazem (20:14), Joe Tumbarello (20:19).  Coed Team:  Sue Schoen (30:25), Michelle Nero (32:08), Matt Panetta (22:24), and Bob Unger (28:28).     http://jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=18.  Afterwards we had a fun celebratory dinner at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, 60th floor, as the sun set over the Hudson River.

Congratulations to the 20 runners, including friends and family, who ran the road between the inlet and the beach at Jones Beach, Long Island. Many showed up early to walk, swim, sunbathe, play frisbee, and all around have a fun mid-summer day. Afterwards we barbequed and reclined as the sun set over the beach.

Womens Team placed 1st: Josie Piccinic 23:45, Ellen Brach 24:01, Casey Depasquale 24:27.
Mens Team placed 3rd: Richie Orazem 20:15, Mauricio Duarte 20:55, Peter Ventura 21:59.
Coed Team placed 6th: Waturo Shimizu 23:30, Ariel Kohane 24:34, Victoria Belegrinos 27:57, Beth Powmesamy 30:30.

Congratulations to the 64 UFTers who showed up on a rainy, stormy day. Sporting our post-racing tie dyes, the ink leaking out onto us, we celebrated a successful event and the impending end of the schoolyear. Some showed up to walk the 6KM–3.5 mile course. Others jogged. Others ran their brains out. All hung out for atleast a bit of time in the rain to eat, drink, and be merry in the way teachers in June know how to. As per our history, we shut down Central Park.

In the elite racing divisions, we were by far the Top Overall team in a race of over 600 corporations and 15,000 runners over the course of two days.
Mens Team placed 1st:
Taylor Delhagen 17:59, Brian Horneck 18:20, Matt Uzenski 18:34, Joe Tumbarello 18:59
Womens Team placed 3rd:
Zaia Wharton 21:27, Josie Piccinic 23:43, Felicia Wagner 24:02, Casey Depasquale 24:04
Next Mens Team placed 5th:
Ricardo Bailey 19:22, Brian Cloherty 19:50, Nicholas Galasso 19:51, Richie Orazam 20:32
Each of these teams received engraved Tiffany plates.
Coed Team placed 7th:
Richie Brown 19:00, Jesse Horst 19:18, Helen Dole 24:21, and Amy West 25:18
All of these teams qualified to race in the International Finals on October 4th, Park Avenue http://www. morganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=18. They will be competing against qualifying teams from 12 other cities—from London to South Africa to Sydney. As winning team of host city in the International Finals, our 1st Placed Mens Team will be attending an extravagant dinner events on the Friday and Saturday evenings surrounding the 9:00 AM Saturday morning race.

Marcum & Kliegman Workplace Challenge Fact Sheet When: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Where: Jones Beach State Park, Zach’s Bay What: A 3.5 mile run/ walk. Also known as: Long Island’s largest participatory event and greatest “Office Picnic” Who: 7500 participants from over 200 companies including over 50 CEO’s/ most senior staff members. Participating organizations include: businesses, non-profits and governmental agencies, representing almost every industry in Nassau & Suffolk Counties. Why: To build camaraderie among employees while networking, having fun and staying healthy! Friends and family are encouraged to participate as well!Visit the website at:  http://www.mkworkplacechallenge.com

The 19th Annual Kenny Dolan 5k Run takes place on June 1, 2008 at 10am in Prospect Park.  For more information, visit their site:  http://www.dolanrun.com.

Kenny Dolan 5k Run Application

Wednesday June 18.  7:00 PM.  Central Park. http://jpmorganchasecc.com/  The first of two New York city days of qualifying races.  Teams are constituted by 4 people.  Coed teams are 2 men and 2 women.  Results are based on best times over the course of the two days. 

Top 5 teams in each category receive engraved Tiffany plates.  Top team in each category qualify for the International Finals and represents that city.  Top 15% of the host city’s teams (New York) also qualify for the International Finals. http://jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=18

May 5th, Saturday, 10:00 AM: The 29th Annual Bronx Community College Hall of Fame Run, 5K and 10K, Bronx Community College.

http://www.bcc.cuny.edu/10krace/