When the glaciers stopped advancing about 18,000 years ago, they halted smack in the middle of Long Island. The result is that the southern half of Long Island is relatively flat, but things get increasingly hillier the further north of Jericho Turnpike you travel.
This Long Island geological fact has important implications for the participants in the annual Long Island Greenbelt Trail 50 Kilometer and 25 Kilometer Runs, hosted once again on May 10 by the Greater Long Island Running Club. The course starts at the GLIRC Clubhouse on Dupont Street in Plainview, enters the Greenbelt Trail at the Sunnyside Boulevard trailhead and proceeds due north up the trail to its Cold Spring Harbor terminus by Long Island Sound. The runners then turn around, head south on the Trail back to Sunnyside Boulevard, at which point the 25 Kilometer runners head back to the finish line at the GLIRC Clubhouse. The 50 Kilometer runners turn back onto the trail and do the whole thing again before returning to the finish.
The course starts out deceptively easy in Plainview, with the first few miles being relatively flat. After that things gradually get much hillier and much tougher to navigate, and the final stretch up to Cold Spring Harbor is as tough as anything on an East Coast trail.
Lots of local runners boasted the physical and mental toughness to finish the race. In the 50 Kilometer Run, Lorie Sheinwald of Old Bethpage was the fourth female finisher overall, scoring in six hours, 17 minutes and 37 seconds. In the 25 Kilometer Run, finishers included Michael Kazin of Plainview, whose finishing time was three hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds and Helene Michael of Plainview, whose finsihing time was four hours, nine minutes and 29 seconds.
The event was made possible by a cadre of senior staff, led by race director Nick Palazzo, coordinator of volunteers Lou LaFleur, Bob Sherman, Fred von der Heydt, Linda Ottaviano, Rich Innamorato and Curt and Irene Robinson.
