PJ Diskin knew 25 years ago that he had to quit smoking. But a bigger revelation for the Mineola resident came when he wanted to get in shape. He struggled to run around the block after decades of tar in his lungs. But now, he’s prepping for his 14th Long Island Marathon on May 3.
“It took me a long time to build up strength,” he said. “
Diskin, 59, has trekked through 12 half-LI marathons in his running career while completing the full marathon once. He’s attacking a half-marathon in 2015.
Diskin, a real estate agent for Family Tree Realty, runs an average of 150 miles per month. But for a big race like the LI marathon, he does training runs in mornings and on weekends at SUNY Old Westbury and Alley Pond Park in Queens. The two hilly, rigorous runs prep runners for the lengthy 10 and 5K runs.
“We do a lot of hill work to build up stamina,” Diskin said. “We have a group that runs in Roslyn Hills. You have to increase your mileage and stamina by doing hill repeats.”
His weekly routine consists of five or eight-mile runs every other day, except on Saturday and Sunday, where he runs with friends in Bethpage State Park, as well as other local parks. Diskin prefers outdoor running rather than the hamster-wheel mentality of a treadmill.
“I can’t do more than three miles on a treadmill because I feel constricted,” Diskin said. “Being outside in the fresh air with the different pavements and sites is much better.”
Diskin has garnered many accolades over his running years, taking first place in the Seaford Hot Chocolate 5K run in his age group in December 2014 as well as second place in the Kings Park 15K in March 2015. He also nabbed second place in his age group for the Dunne & Covello Sands Point Sprint 5 Kilometer Run in August 2014 and even took his talents overseas to the BMW Berlin Marathon in Germany, where he posted a 3:33:37 time.
His most humbling run, Diskin says, was the sprint through the 2014 Boston Marathon one year after Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev plotted a deadly attack near the marathon’s finish line, placing two pressure cooker bombs that killed 3 people and injuring an estimated another 264.
“It was very emotional,” Diskin. “It’s why we went up there to do it. We had friends that went up there [in 2013].”
Diskin’s advice to novice runners? Just do it.
“Start running/walking,” Diskin said. “Run till your tired and then just walk. You build up gradually. If it takes you 20 minutes to do a mile, you’re still doing a mile. Then build off of that.”
