These Front-Row Seats Come With a Lot of Sweat
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/sports/sportsspecial/06bikers.html?ref...
Congratulations on a job well done and for a great article about your efforts!
Its a wonderful plug for the Club and cycling in general!
I agree...plus, totally biased since he's my brother, great job Ashmore and Dershowitz (and all of the riders of course)!
Not such a great job by Dershowitz. He got dropped by the winning push rim cyclist. Thanks to Basil who took my place and Jeff Terosky (our new president)who should have been in the article. Jeff had a pace of 17.8 average for the winner.
Jeff Wilson ran an incredible marathon (look at the numbers, he finished strong), about five minutes faster than last year!
Bravo! Chapeau bas Jeff!
Jeff Wilson 49M CPTC NY USA 2:49:58
5K 0:19:17
10K 0:38:41
15K 0:58:30
20K 1:18:32
1/2 Mar. 1:22:50
25K 1:38:51
30K 1:58:57
35K 2:19:48
40K 2:40:50
Pace/Mile 6:29
"Fred Lebow was a particularly vociferous supporter of the 15 mph speed limit in Central Park.
His reponse to the announcement of such restriction (as reported in the NY Times): ""Finally! It's about time!"""
"Precisely one of the reasons I do what I seemingly do for the NYRR in the marathon is to achieve some standing with them that would permit me to speak to them about their general failure to control runners who run in the bike lane or in the main roadway when bikes are not permited in the ""bike lane"" but, instead, are required to be in the main roadway.
Secondly, although the domination of the recreational use of the park road by the NYRR makes me dyspeptic, I concede it; nevertheless, I ask them to go to the not terribly difficult trouble of informing cycling clubs through messages on the cyclists' message boards, telling them (us) when the park road is closed for use by NYRR event.
After all, if we got 177th Street repaved and a curb cut made onto the GWB, how tough can this be? Answer: Uh, so far...very.
The NYRR's previous president was accessible but feckless. The current one is so far inaccessible to me. It goes without saying I am persisting.
(And, yes, I make an at least near equal effort to keep the runners' lane(s) clear of cyclists if only to further cyclists' standing with the runners.)
"
No Richard, you made the NY Times in large print for good reason. You legitimize cycling in the eyes of the public. You do more for cycling beyond any amount we could pay a consultant to do.
The rest of us entrants could have gotten in the Times in small print if we dallied the 26 miles in a cow suit as long as we crossed the finish line.
Removed for republishing rights
"Busses or other vehicles are particularly dangerous, a pedestrian crossing the road on marathon Sunday before the main body of the race comes by should look more carefully than they do, but that I understand. That is a danger we are well equipped for with our whistles and in my case a fairly big mouth. A school bus driver has no business on the road at all. The streets are closed. So the noise level in a bus shouldn't matter.
Our handicapped racers are VERY fast, but there are other handicapped doing the marathon that started at 8AM and they are all over the course before the main packs come through... is it OK for the driver to run them over too because he can't hear them?? They close the roads early for a reason.
It is notable that in a certain section of Brooklyn the residents seem less concerned about marathon participants than the city in general. We always view those few miles as the most dangerous part of the course. Fortuantely my father taught me a few choice sentences in the ""native tongue"" which helped clear the roads and got some very surprised looks as well"
"I haven't learned how to create a link to this board. I sent Mr. Murray a diagram. The bus was backing out of a driveway at right angle to the disabled marathoner and me. I was probably fifteen feet from the driver. I wrote on the diagram, ""There was eye contact between driver and cyclist; no matter, the driver kept coming.""
""If you don't think drivers of all sorts show contempt for the rights of cyclists on the road and continually intmidate and bullly them and disregard the law pertaining to rights of way, then you simply don't ride a bicycle here.""
Mr. Murray and I moved on to an enjoyable exchange about different matters.
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This incident happened in an area of the city in which, year after year including this year, the people of the neighborhood disregard the wheelchair marathoners."
I've written elsewhere here part of the impetus to do what I do is to have standing to rage, ahem, urge modification of injurious habits, of runners and drivers who screw with cyclists. Sadly, here is pecisely such a story that befell one of the volunteers who was to accompany a wheelchair marathoner. Here is Kris Lau writing about his experience in riding to the bus that took us to our start of the marathon. He is not a NYCC member but if you want to write him, do so at [email protected]
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I was riding down 2nd Ave on the right side of the road. I had my front and rear lights on my bike, Cateye light on front, blinky red multi-LED thingy in the back. I was wearing a bright yellow jacket with reflective stripes, and reflective piping on my shoes and tights zippers. This was about 5:45 in the morning, shortly after making my way across the QBB. I noticed very few cars on the road. Apparently between 53rd and 54th, I was hit directly from behind. I have no idea what kind of vehicle it was, but they were definitely going fast. I remember being on the ground holding myself up, looking back at oncoming traffic and trying to crawl between some parked cars to avoid being hit while I was down. I distinctly remember trying to move my right arm but it not responding. I had to pick it up with my left hand and crawl to the side. The next thing I remember are two or three bystanders crossing the road towards me. I heard one of them call for an ambulance. I also seem to remember another flagging down a police car. I must have blacked out after that because I don't remember being put in the ambulance. The next things I remember were looking up at the roof of the ambulance and the ceiling of the hospital. The police report said there were no witnesses and the person that called 911 for me left the scene.
So I spent Sunday in the ER at Bellevue, with a prognosis of broken humurous [sic]and scapula. I was sent home, slept through the night and woke with sharp back pain and my arm needing to be reset. Another ambulance ride and I was back to the hospital for Day 2 at the ER. This time the CT scan revealed fractured vertabrae.
...
For all the bad people in this world, I'm glad there are still very many good, and the riders have been a great example of that.
I really hope karma catches up with this cager in a particularly gruesome way.
Does anyone know if 2nd Ave has cameras at the intersections the way Queens Blvd does? If so, maybe the NYPD can track this a$$hole down. I sent Kris an email - maybe we can post a flyer at the intersection asking for any witnesses to step forward.
