120 Mile Run Across Long Island
Montauk Point Lighthouse to North Woodmere Park at Nassau/Queens Border
May 31st – June 1st 2008
The purpose of this run (aside from the selfish long-time goal of mine to run the length of Long Island) was to raise money and awareness for Friends of Karen, Inc., a children’s charity that provides emotional, financial and advocacy support to children with life threatening illnesses and their families. Information about Friends of Karen can be found at their website www.friendsofkaren.org.
I drove out to Montauk with my wife Caren and my father Richard on Friday afternoon. Caren and my dad would be my primary crew, staying with me from minute one until the end. We drove to the hotel, put down our bags and went into town to walk around to keep my legs moving and to find a place to eat dinner. We didn’t see anything along the main strip of town so we drove north to the harbor. There we finally settled on Lenny’s, an island restaurant that is as authentic as they come. We chose a table outside on the dock about 25 feet from a charter boat that had just come in from a day of fishing. We ate our dinner while watching the boat’s crewman clean the five 25 pound striped bass and the few bluefish they had caught. It was very intriguing and didn’t seem to bother our appetites at all, despite the blood, guts and gunk. The dinner was very relaxing. My food was more spicy than I had hoped, but it was good. The big bummer was not being able to order everything my big hungry eyes wanted on the menu. I sipped a Corona and enjoyed the ocean air thinking to myself what a great sleep I would have that night.
We got to our rooms and I began putting everything out for the next day. I left a few things in the car, but I didn’t mind taking a jog to the parking lot. I was experiencing my typical pre-race jitters, but was actually relatively calm. Caren and I got into bed around 9 and watched some TV. Caren insisted on watching a spelling bee competition. The kids were amusing, but it was a bit tense! I was pretty mellow but I just couldn’t fall asleep. I didn’t stress it at first since it was so early, but the hours just kept ticking away. Each hour after midnight I got more and more anxious about not sleeping. Finally, the wake up call came at 5:00 and I don’t think I slept for a straight 30 minutes. Not good.
We left for the lighthouse at around a quarter after 6. We pulled up right in front of the lighthouse 10 minutes later, took a few pictures, I kissed Caren for luck and off I went. I felt great! My adrenaline was pumping and the beauty of my surroundings made it all the better. I had to try really hard to pull back the reins as my pace was way too fast at around 9:00 to 9:30 minutes/mile. I was trying to keep it at 10:00-11:00 minutes/mile with one to two minute walking breaks every 10 to 20 minutes. Strangely, one of the most challenging aspects of this route is that it is so runnable. In most ultras, I use the mountains and extreme hills to dictate when I can walk to conserve energy. On this course, I had to actually pay attention to slowing down.
The first 20 -25 miles were outright beautiful. At one point, with views of the water and the undeveloped marine environment I screamed out at the top of my lungs, “SO BEAUTIFUL”. It was a privilege to be out there and it made me glad to be an Islander. Most importantly, it reminded me that we Islanders have an obligation to maintain and preserve our very special and precious marine environment. I was grateful that the east end is so inaccessible since this seems to be the only reason it hasn’t been overdeveloped, yet.
At about 20 miles Tim, of the Suffolk County Police Department, came out to run with me. Tim had seen the article about me in Newsday and wanted to come out to give the charity and me some support. He and his wife are wonderfully philanthropic and I was very appreciative of his support. Tim had never run more than 15 miles before and by the time he called it quits, he gave me 20 + miles!!
Another great surprise was seeing my father-in-law, Jeff. He came out for a good three hours staying with Caren and my dad. He had the great pleasure of watching me fix my own feet which reminded him of his days as a resident in the E.R.!
As soon as Tim left, the skies opened up. From the weather forecasts, I was expecting to run in the rain literally all day long, so the only surprise was that it took so long for the rain to come. But boy did it come! It immediately started to torrentially rain. After a few minutes I was wondering why my crew wasn’t coming back to bring me my rain jacket! It turned out they weren’t sure what I would have preferred so they waited 2 ½ miles up the road for me!! But I quickly forgave them as this was a learning experience for them (can you say Badwater training?).
While the rain was coming down hard, Nancy, the director of Friends of Karen, and her husband came out to give me encouragement. I pulled up next to them to say hello when a reporter who had interviewed me earlier in the week came out to take some pictures for his piece. It was great seeing Nancy. She is so excited about this run. We have already started talking about planning it for next year!
The rain was fierce but it didn’t last very long. The torrential rain only lasted maybe 15 minutes and for the next hour or two I was in and out of a much lighter rain. Once the rain seemed to finally subside, around 35 miles, I finally sat down to change out of my soaked socks and shoes. I had some mean blisters that I lanced and covered and taped some hot spots. I had some of Mom’s famous chicken soup and kept moving. Soon I met up with our friends Lori and Howard and their kids who came out to root me on. It was so nice to see them and it really lifted my spirits.
By the 50 mile mark I was in a terrible rut. I was feeling nauseas and groggy and my feet were giving me some trouble. This surprised me a bit since I was right on top of my hydration and nutrition. Between gels and other foods I was easily doing 200-300 calories an hour, was drinking okay and was taking an s-cap every hour. Nevertheless, I honestly couldn’t conceive of going another 70 miles and tried to convince myself what I already knew: the good and bad are cyclical and you have to keep pushing forward because the good is right around the corner. I was right. I was quickly revived when my brother Larry and his wife Jodi came out to meet us. Larry and Jodi would end up staying with me, Caren and my dad the whole rest of the way. They have never experienced an ultra event before and I think they really enjoyed themselves out there. I certainly would have had a much harder time had they not been there. Anyone who knows Larry knows that he has one goal in life: to make other people happy. He didn’t disappoint. He was an incredible motivating factor. I always laugh about the first time Larry came to see me run. It was the NYC Marathon a few years ago. At about the 20th mile, when things were starting to slow down for me, Larry was there along the side of the road double fisting margaritas and screaming at the top of his lungs for me to “DIG!!, DIG!!!” as if I were running a 100 yard dash. Too funny!
A few miles up the road, I met up with my good friend Peter who drove all the way from Greenwich, CT to run with me. Peter, a very strong marathoner himself, actually inspired me to train for my first marathon and to this day I owe him a debt of gratitude for this. Peter really got me out of my rut. We had a great time running together for the next 15 miles or so. With Peter, the night came and we put on our night gear, reflectors and headlamps. It reminded me of the days in Westchester when Peter, our friend Tony and I would meet up before dawn to run the Bronx River Trail most mornings. Tony couldn’t make it out for the run because he was in Canada fishing with his family, but he called Caren when he could before he was out of cell service.
Along the way, our good friends Joe and Rachal came out to travel along with the crew and to cheer me on. It was so great of them to give up their Saturday night for me and I am so appreciative of their support. My old friend Randy came out too. He’s always in great spirits and it was a huge boost to see him every time I met up with the crew. One day I will make an ultra runner out of Randy!
At about the 65th mile, Peter took off to get home to his family in Greenwich and my good friend and marathoner Mark came out to run with me. When I spoke with Mark about a month or two ago about running with me his answer was, “you tell me when and where you will need me the most, and I will be there.” Wow. What an amazingly selfless answer. I felt bad, but I had to be honest. I told him that the hardest part for me would be in the middle of the night. I asked if he could come out sometime after midnight and give me a few hours into the early morning. “No problem” was the quick reply. Well, Mark came out much earlier than midnight and he didn’t leave me after a few hours. No, Mark stayed with me for the next 55 miles UNTIL THE END!! There are no words I can write that could possibly do justice to the level of gratitude I have for Mark’s generosity. He got me through several ruts along the way and it would take pages upon pages of words to chronicle our great time together through the night. The most incredible part? Mark had never before run more than 26.2 miles!! I am so proud of Mark, eh hem, ULTRA MARK!!
Mark and I progressed very slowly through the night just trying to push forward. At mile 75 I had to sit down to control my breathing. I was feeling nauseas but what concerned me most was that my heart rate was so high despite our slow pace. I stayed sitting for a good 20 or 25 minutes to bring everything under control. However, I started to shiver and feel hypothermic so my crew covered me in towels. Caren was concerned, but lucky for me, Mark is also a doctor! How lucky was I? He assured her that I was okay, and that made her more comfortable. Finally, I got up, and we just kept our forward momentum. Looking back, it was good that I started to feel hypothermic whenever I stopped because it prevented me from lingering with my crew.
At this point I was still right on top of my nutrition, thanks to my crew. Caren and Dad were practically force feeding me, but they knew what they were doing and thanks to their relentless nagging, they kept me from falling on my face.
The night was interesting as Mark and I would run through the main streets of towns past all of the bars open until 4:00 a.m. We prepared every time we passed them to get heckled in our reflective gear and head lamps. “Hey, where’s the mine at?” Was the not-so-original line of the night. One bar surprised us by not heckling, but cheering for us as we passed. Ahhh, drunkards, what fun their unforeseen behavior may bring.
Sometime around 3:00 a.m. Nancy and her husband surprised me by coming out to say hello again! By that time I was moving so slowly that I told her that I wouldn’t finish until 2 hours after I had originally predicted.
Finally, daylight came. I sat down, brushed my teeth, fixed my feet and got up hoping to make it a good day of running. But the sun came out with a vengeance and tormented me the rest of the day. It is early in the season and I have not had much, if any, heat training. My body is not yet acclimated to the heat and I suffered for it. However, I was intent on moving faster to make up for our slow pace and all the walking we did throughout the night.
Mark and I slowly picked up our pace and started to get into the groove. At around 6:00 my good friend Scott met up with us. Scott figured he’d run a mile or two with me to give me support. Instead, Scott ran and walked at least 10 or 15 miles with me and when he stopped running, he stayed with my crew right until the end! Again, I was blown away by his support and encouragement. Scott also ran longer with me on Sunday than he has ever run before in his life.
Not too long after Scott met up with me, my old friend Brian and his wife Jill met up with us. They both ran a good deal with me. Brian also ran longer with me than he had ever run before, the fourth person to do so during my run. This fact makes me very proud. Jill, who is training for her first marathon, was very cute when she tried to take my mind off of my suffering by telling me various stories. I recall something about Morocco, chandeliers, and Turkey (I think the country). It was nice to have everyone with me when I hit the 100 mile mark sometime around my 25th hour of running. When Brian, Jill and Scott tore off from running, they all continued with the crew until the end to see me finish.
Our friend Matt also came out to meet me to give me encouragement and run a mile or two with us. It was a nice pleasant surprise, and I greatly appreciated that Matt would take time away from his family just to give me a shout of encouragement.
It was also nice to see Mark’s wife Lisa, their two daughters and Lisa’s parents along the way rooting us on. Also out with his entire family was Eric who was wonderfully supportive of my run and its cause. Eric came out with all four of his great kids and his wife Bonnie. Their comic relief was greatly needed and appreciated while I was suffering greatly from the heat.
Somewhere in Rockville Centre, I think, News 12 Long Island met up with me and started to video our running. They pulled Mark and I over and asked me for an interview. I couldn’t believe it! I was at the point where I didn’t want to speak to even Mark and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t put two coherent words together! But, I answered the reporter’s few questions and took off running. Mark insisted I did well, but I knew better. When the piece aired I was somewhat relieved to see that they only used a roughly 4 second sound bite of the entire interview!
At this point I was suffering badly. I was sure I had heat stroke and/or exhaustion. No matter how much ice I put in my hat or cold water I poured on myself, I could not cool down. To make matters worse, there was absolutely no respite from the sun. The entire route was completely exposed. I couldn’t stop where my crew was waiting for me because I would start to feel faint if I stopped and was standing in the sun. So Mark and I kept moving. Mark was amazing, giving me tremendous words of encouragement and keeping me running. Without him I would have either walked or crawled the entire rest of the way in.
Finally, we were nearing the end of Merrick Road where we were to pick up Peninsula Blvd. Not five miles from where I grew up and….I got us lost! I decided that we should take a pedestrian overpass to get to Peninsula instead of risking the very busy Sunrise Highway/Merrick Road mess. Well, we ended up on Ocean Avenue probably a mile or so out of our way. This did not help my already beaten-down spirits. I apologized to Mark, and we made our way to Peninsula Blvd.
We finally got ourselves onto Peninsula Blvd. With around 7 miles remaining we had the worst running yet. Besides the heat and sun which were just beating me up, the shoulder was narrow and the sidewalk was seemingly last paved in 1948. Not to mention that there are more people at this point within a 15 mile radius than probably all of the rest of Long Island put together.
A couple of miles up the road we picked up Evelyn who ran the rest of the way with us. Evelyn’s son Luke is a leukemia survivor and their family was helped by Friends of Karen during their most difficult days. Evelyn works hard now to support Friends of Karen so that they can continue to do for other families what it did for her family. Evelyn helped create the Friends of Karen running team that runs the Long Island Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k races to raise money and awareness for the cause. She is a wonderful person and I was proud to run with her for the last few miles.
With only five or so miles to go, I was just concentrating on turning my legs over. I was annoyed when we would come to a stop light because it hurt more at this point to stop and start. Mark was doing his best to encourage me but at one point I had to ask him to stop because it was hard to hear him say “push, push” when I felt like I could fall down any second. I hope he isn’t upset at how grumpy and unfriendly I came off and I hope he continues to know how grateful I am for all of his unprecedented support and encouragement.
Finally, we made it to Branch Blvd. We turned onto what would be the last mile or so of the run. I picked up the pace when I saw my friend Jeff and his son rooting me on from across the road and taking pictures. With 200 yards to go, Mark and Evelyn told me to take it away and I gave it all that I had left, running full speed towards the waiting crowd. I saw my two daughters, Emily and Abigail, holding up signs they made for me the night before and started to cry. I ran towards them and Abigail jumped into my arms, nearly knocking me over! Emily came towards me and in typical 6 year old fashion shouted, “eww, you’re sweaty!!” and ran instead to Uncle Larry! I got my hugs and kisses later. I looked down at my watch and saw my time, 30 hours and 13 minutes. I went into the run hoping to do it in 30 hours or less so I am very happy with my time.
Shortly after finishing and hugging everyone and taking pictures I needed to get out of there. I was putting on a happy face so as not to be rude to everyone who came out to see me finish but I was not doing well at all. I was still in the sun and needed desperately to get out of the heat. In order to get me home right away, Randy took me in his car. We put down a towel and I told him in advance that I would pay to have his car detailed in the event I puked all over it. I was only half kidding. I immediately started feeling sick and was counting the seconds until we got home. I was prepared several times to tell Randy to pull over for me to puke.
We finally made it home. I opened the garage and told Randy to go home, that I was okay. For some reason, I was embarrassed by how badly I was feeling. Despite my objections, he said he would wait outside until Caren got home with my dad and mom. I walked in the door and was treated to kisses by my dog Nikki. I was in the kitchen when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I started to fade to black and I got on a knee. The next thing I know I was waking up on the ground. I wasn’t out for more than a few seconds but I felt like I was going to puke so I crawled about 20 feet to the downstairs bathroom and dry-heaved at the toilet. I was surprised that I didn’t puke. I lay down on the cold tile and after a minute decided that I needed some help getting into the tub where I wanted to get into ice water to cool my core temperature down (I knew it would be good for my legs, too). I called for Randy as loud as I could. Thankfully, he was right outside. He came in and helped me into the tub and ran the water for me. He stayed and with his eyes popping out of his head and his jaw dropped to his chest watched me twitch in the tub. I tried convincing him that I was fine and under control.
When Caren came home she called her dad who’s a doctor. He came over and checked my blood pressure which had normalized by then. I promised that if I didn’t feel better in an hour or my pee was too dark I would go the hospital for an I.V., but I knew that wasn’t going to be necessary. I stayed in the tub for a good half hour, eventually stripping down and filling the tub with warm water. I ate an apple and drank a whole lot of Gatorade. When I felt okay, I put on a towel, went upstairs, took a shower and got into bed…with a big smile on my face.
This was a great run and a great experience. I hope to do it every year for Friends of Karen and inspire people to come out and run longer with me than they ever have. I couldn’t have done this without my crew, Caren and Dad who stayed with me from the moment we all woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday in Montauk until the very end; and Larry and Jodi who stayed with me from mile 50 to the end. It was great having so many people come out and run with me and root me on. I’m especially thankful to Mark who came out at mile 65 and stayed with me for 55 miles!! I’m very proud to call Mark an ultraman now and am very anxious to get him signed up for a true mountain ultra soon!
I should also mention all of the people who called my crew to see how I was doing after reading about me in the paper. Those who couldn’t make it out to see me were able to track my whereabouts and progress thanks to the generosity of SkyGuard which graciously installed one of their devices in my dad’s car. People were able to logon to SkyGuard’s website at www.skyguard.com and with the login and password we gave them, track our position throughout the run.
I’m also very grateful to my moms for watching our girls while I ran and Caren crewed for me. It was very comforting to know that they were in good hands and having a great time with their grandmothers while we were out on the course.
I owe everything to Caren and my girls, Emily and Abigail. They put up with my training and without their support I would not be able to run these runs and races. The greatest reward is being told by Caren and my girls that they’re proud of me.
