Congratulations to the large contingent of athletes from Farmingdale who successfully completed the 27th annual Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt Ho Ho Ho Holiday 5 Kilometer Run through the streets of Bethpage, on Dec. 20.
Leading the way for Farmingdale were Chris Daily and Mike Fernandez. Daily scored in 15th place overall and first in the 55-59 age group with a time of 18 minutes, 41 seconds. Fernandez was right behind Daily in 16th place overall and second in the 45-49 age group with a time of 18 minutes, 46 seconds.
Other Farmingdale runners winning awards in the Ho Ho Ho Run were Jenna Cottone (3rd woman 11-14 age group), Cara Keogh (3rd woman 20-24 age group), Theresa Gannon (3rd woman 25-29 age group) and Geza Feld (1st 80-84 age group).
1,166 athletes overall enjoyed the new fast, flat, one-loop course, which was pretty much unanimously acclaimed as a big improvement over the old two-loop course.
The Run was coordinated by the Greater Long Island Running Club, with Ric DiVeglio serving once again as the director of the event.
As always, the big emphasis of the morning was not on the elite athletes, but on families, with lots of mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter and father-son duos making their way through the new course, and lots of youngsters participating in the free Fun Run, once again coordinated by Amy Goldstein, that preceded the 5K main event. Again as always, costumes were the order of the day, led by the We Are Athletes Team winning the costume contest once again, and lots and lots of Santas, elves, reindeer and other denizens of the holiday season adding to the festivities.
“We very much appreciate the continuing support of Nassau County Legislator Rose Marie Walker,” said race director Ric DiVeglio. “Rose almost never misses one of our events in the
Town of Oyster Bay and she was on hand to send the Fun Run youngsters on their way this year.”
Proceeds of the run will once again be turned over to the Dominican Sisters in support of The Opening Word, an education program that enables poor and uneducated Long island immigrant women the tools they need to become productive members of society. In addition, thanks to the generosity of race participants, more than 1,000 toys were collected for distribution to needy Long Island children by the John Theissen Foundation.
—Submitted by the Greater Long Island Running Club
