today was the second annual (inaugural event held 6/27/2004) jimmy lynch, marc antone, rob zand tri-meet. this unannounced 2.5 mile race traverses one loop on the bridal path around the reservoir and the north meadow in central park.

besides being unannounced, there are several other house rules governing the event:

1. the race begins and ends at the tree at the southwest corner of the reservoir, unless your first name is jimmy, in which case you stop at the bridge. we don't understand this rule either. maybe something to do with age.
2. over the first mile of the race, all competitors must talk some serious shit. additionally, the race director, aka he who picked up the pace first, must strongly deny that the pace is any faster than the last lap. everyone else tries to call off the race for the sake of their training.
3. no entry fee. no t-shirts. no awards. but hey, at least you have an excuse for your workouts to suck the remainder of the week

the meet record for the race stood at 14:06 and was held by marc antone, who held off jimmy in last year's event. i was a distant third in 14:23. btw, the course record is 13:quite-low, and does not represent anything near maximum effort, it came during one of marc's tempo runs.

as noted, today's race was started by jimmy, who would want you to know that he "isn't in shape". right. the chatter was quite loud at the first sidewalk (2:12) and on meet record pace at the police pagoda (5:07, 5:12 last year.) i took it upon myself to call out this split, which a) seems to be my role, and b) seems to truly indicate that the race is on.

it was still anyone's race as we began up the east side hill, but somewhere in here the seriousness of the competition set in, as did yesterday's workout, which for the record was done by only one competitor, who, since you asked, is named rob. as the pace picked up further, i conceded, but knowing i was on record pace, continued at the same pace to finish in 14:07, just off the meet record. oh sammy soso (not a typo), i know your pain.

upfront, the race was really on, and by 90th street i was completely out of contention. passersby were looking alarmed as jimmy and marc were trading grunts and elbows and cutting tangents like two geometry teachers gone mad. in a victory for the grey hairs, jimmy outleaned marc to the bridge, the aforementioned finish line for the aged competitors named jimmy, while marc went on to a new meet record in 13:38.