Saturday Spotlight

Saturday Spotlight

Name: Mike Greb

Age: 40

Marital Status: Married to Kim

Kids: None

Pets: My kids, 2 dogs (Gizmo & Penny)

Occupation: Science teacher @Brentwood HS

Hobbies: Fishing, boating, reading, lacrosse, camping, hiking, biking, and of course running.

Hometown: Amity Harbor

Current Town: Bay Shore

College: Sacred Heart University, NYiT & SUNY Stonybrook

Favorite Race: Don’t have one…

I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday. I can’t say that I’m good at sharing like this, but here goes…I’d say that I have always been active and an athlete, but not always a runner. Growing up I played soccer and lacrosse through high school. When I chose to play lacrosse at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, my soccer days were over. Up there I should have known that I had a running future because I would always run the track when I was stressed, but never took it seriously. I was a lacrosse player.

When I graduated in 2002 and moved back home to Amity Harbor, I joined a post collegiate lacrosse league and played year three seasons a year until I became a teacher back in 2007. At that point I was too busy with the new job, getting married and buying a house to play anymore or even do any running. After a few years of teaching I got back into playing lacrosse and used running to get in shape, but still never considered myself a runner.

In 2015, after six years of playing post collegiately and now coaching JV lacrosse, the worst thing I could imagine as an athlete occurred. I tore the ACL & MCL in my knee. It happened on the last day of school, so my summer was shot. I spent an entire summer on the couch recovering from the surgery and drowning my sorrows in ice cream and Reece’s Peanut Butter cups (two things I cannot say no to and my mother-in-law was good at making me feel better through them!). When I was cleared to start real activity again, I had put on forty pounds and wasn’t interested in much of any real activity other than coaching.

I was now 37 and my doctor said my blood pressure and cholesterol were super high and that he wanted to put me on medication to help bring it down. That was my wake up. I asked my doctor to hold off for three months and give me the opportunity to bring my numbers down naturally. I set off to work. I signed up for my first half-marathon and started eating really clean. After three months, I was able to drop some weight, made my doctor happy with my progres. With my continued half-marathon training, I feeling great and was finally beginning to call myself a runner.

I completed the Suffolk Half-marathon and felt great. Upon crossing the finish line I couldn’t believe how far I had come and how much I accomplished. I had lost all the weight and then some. I was hooked and now I considered myself a runner. I haven’t looked back since. I ran anywhere and anytime I could, but never ran “The Hills”. It wasn’t until a friend from a high school, Ken Wiley, introduced me to this great group of people who enjoyed running as much, if not more than I do, that I ran my first classic. Running is now a regular part of my life and I try to make the Sunday group runs as often as I can. I’ve run with other groups, but

Lou LaFleur and the rest of the Hillbilly’s are great. Thanks for letting me be a part of this awesomeness!

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Saturday Spotlight

Name – Erin Hennen

Age – 39

Marital status – Married to Mike

Kids- 3yo Madeline

Pets – Nope

Occupation – Human Resources Implementation Consultant for Paylocity, Inc.

Hobbies – traveling when it’s allowed, reading, baking, hiking, photography, and currently lots of arts & crafts with my daughter.

Hometown – Chicopee, MA

Current Town – Lake Grove

College – Framingham State University, Framingham, MA

Favorite Race – Port Jeff race to the Brewery

Good morning and Happy Saturday!

First, thank you to Lou LaFleur for asking me to do this and for all you do for this community. I am very nervous even though I know it’s silly. I’m usually pretty quiet and run solo most of the time.. so this is a personal challenge for me.

Here we go! I have a long relationship with running.. I have never been the fastest or the most competitive but that’s never stopped me from having fun. I did not grow up running. I was on the HS swim team, lifeguard, and still love to swim for cross training. I was able to swim laps right up til the end of my pregnancy. I cannot imagine living anywhere land locked again as I love the beach and the ocean. The water in some ways feels like home.

My Running really started in college. I ran a little in HS for workouts with the swim team but that’s about it. It never occurred to me to join a team. In college I was running between classes and actually scored a lifeguard job on the weekends. I would run to the gym work and run back to the dorms. A classmate joined me a few times and then asked me to try out for cross country. Well okay, I knew Nothing about it but decided it was worth trying. I never loooked back. I ran DIII for the Rams 2000- 2003. My team also volunteered for the Boston Marathon. The course went right by our school. Those were some of the most amazing experiences. If you ever get the chance to volunteer jump on it!

Cross country really taught me so much! I was and still am a back of the pack runner. I have gotten very lost and run more than the race required more than once! But I always loved breathing the fresh air and various surfaces during the race. I love getting messy!

Most weekends, you will find me in Stonybrook in the Avalon Perserve. I have a hiking backpack that my daughter loves and it’s a fantastic workout. She is good for a few miles and we sing songs and chase the deer and butterflies. It’s our special time together.

My Hills journey started last year with the couch to 10k club.

Lea Giodesen really helped me get back into the swing of things. I am a big fan of the 5k course. Lately I have been going in the am before work.

If you are still reading, Thank you! See you out there!

Saturday Spotlight

Name – Gina Vaccaro

Age – 28

Marital status – Engaged

Kids – Hooper, a beagle puppy with more personality and sass than most people

Pets – See above

Occupation – Principal’s secretary at Idle Hour Elementary in Connetquot School District

Hobbies – Boating, traveling, cooking (love trying new recipes), & reading

Hometown – Oakdale

Current Town – Oakdale (I moved 1.8 miles )

College – St. Joe’s & James Madison University

Favorite Race – New Balance Bronx 10 Mile

Good morning all! I’m going to start off by admitting that I am incredibly nervous to be your Warrior of the Week so thank you in advance for reading. I completely understand if I bore you to tears! I would like to give a huge “thank you” to Lou for not only asking/pestering me to tell my story through WOTW, but for every ounce of effort he puts forth for Selden Hills. This group has made an impact on my life in such a short amount of time and I can’t thank him enough for that. Over the past year and a half, I’ve challenged and pushed myself more than ever, to the point where I’ve surprised even myself! The continual hard work has paid off in so many ways. I’ve accomplished PR’s and surpassed goals that I never thought possible (especially for someone who is fairly new to the running world). While PR’s can become enticing to chase, that’s not the real reason I run. I’ve learned (with the help of Selden Hills of course) that running gives me a sense of stability, worth, relief, and control.

Still with me? Wonderful! Let’s begin. I was four years old when my (failed) athletic career took off. Like most kiddos around that age, I was enrolled in a youth soccer program. Maybe it was to broaden my athletic horizons or maybe it was to burn some energy running around a field, instead of my parents’ house. Either way, my parents thought this was a great idea. Four year old Gina would disagree. Also at that time (and up until college), I was painfully shy. At that age, I was scared of any and all adults and very quiet (I’m sure some people miss those days). The day of my first soccer game, I arrived on the field ready to play. I’m not sure what happened between then and the first whistle blow, but it was not pretty. While on the field, I realized soccer is not for me and did the only rational thing I could do to get out of it: cry. Not only does that work with soccer, but I learned later in life that it gets you out of speeding tickets too! I’ll say the only difference is that a cop won’t give you orange slices and a Capri-Sun to stop the tears.

After the soccer disaster, I joined dance. I think what sold me was the lack of running. I started with one class per week and slowly moved to 2-3 times a week. By the time I was ten I joined a competitive travel team. Dance consumed most aspects of my life and looking back, I don’t always think I had the same school experience as everyone else. Taking the bus home? Can’t! I have to be at the dance studio at 4:00 pm. School ski trip? Can’t! If I am injured there goes my competition season! Friday night party because someone has a fake ID? No can do! I have to be at the studio at 7:00 am Saturday mornings. I had few friends in school because there weren’t many opportunities to see them outside of school with my dance schedule and school work responsibilities. Towards the end of my senior year, I was burnt out, anxious, and feeling depressed. It dawned on me that the severity of my instructors’ expectations was borderline abusive. The yelling, weigh-ins, body measurements, and focus on winning was so common I viewed this as normal. The TV show “Dance Moms” on Lifetime is not far off! I knew I was not going to become a professional dancer and that my senior year would be the end of an era. I made a vow to (try to) put myself and my health first. It is still a work in progress and something that I work on daily!

During college I focused mainly on my school work and my partying. There was no mention of dance, or any other form of fitness for that matter. I was not liking the person who I saw in the mirror, physically and mentally. During my junior year of college, I auditioned for my college’s dance team and was accepted. I carefully reviewed the requirements and what was expected of a team member, careful to not go down the same route as I previously did. That dance team ended up making my last two years of college truly memorable. I was a part of a team that valued each of its members first and put “winning” second.

After college I was a lost puppy dog and didn’t have much direction fitness-wise. My mom is an avid gym goer and convinced me to join her at Lucille Roberts for a Zumba class. I enjoyed how closely it resembled the structure of a dance class and ended up signing up for a two-year membership on the spot (to this day I’m not sure of the sorcery that the Lucille Roberts’ sales rep possessed). I would try different classes and eventually made my way to the fitness equipment where I dabbled in arm/leg machines, free weights, and my unrequited love: the treadmill. In case anyone wants a laugh, I would do 10 minutes of arms, 10 minutes of legs, and a mile on the treadmill at 4.0. I graduated to running outside and once a week would do a “long run” of 4 miles. I still giggle when I think of the beginning of my “fitness journey” but more importantly I am proud of myself for sticking to it and kicking some ass along the way.

2013 was my first race and I participated in the Smiles Turkey Trot 5k at Corey Beach. I’m not sure what possessed me to sign up for it. I’m not sure what possesses me to do a lot of running related things actually. That morning it started snowing/hailing to make a picturesque running course! If only 2020 Gina could tell 2013 Gina that you will never have any luck with race day weather and to learn to deal with it. From there, I went on to run a few local/short distance races. You could not get me to run farther than 4 miles. (HAHAH) I progressed to races of longer distances and ran my first marathon in 2018 (stay tuned- more of that on Monday!) On a (torrential downpouring) Sunday in April, I ran my first classic with the Selden Hills Warriors and it’s been a wonderful running journey ever since.

Have I bored you yet? I sure hope not! This will be the last of today, I promise. As you are all aware, 2020 was and has not been kind to us. This year was going to be “my year.” 2020 took from me my wedding, all events leading up to it, vacations, our honeymoons to Antigua and Oktoberfest in Germany, Berlin Marathon, and the cherry on top my first NYC Marathon. I cried each time I had to cross out an event in my planner. I was at my lowest point since the “lost puppy dog post-college Gina” in paragraph five. I mentally and physically could not handle the unknown aspects and what it could mean with having our wedding. I would sit in front of my tv every day around 11:45 am waiting to hear what dreadful update or new restriction would follow. It became addicting. Chris would call me every day while working at that time just to check on me. As the days went on he started calling me asking for favors around the house such as checking the water heater, the boat, etc. Why wouldn’t he do these things himself?! He later admitted to calling and giving me chores was the only way he could remotely deter me from watching the daily briefings. (He’s really the best) I fell for it and from that point forward gained a new perspective on 2020. So what if my calendar has enough “X’s” through plans to look like a tic-tac-toe board and no scheduled races in sight? We have our health, and our jobs, everything else in the world is secondary. Not to mention the love and support from my family, friends, and most of all the warriors. You each inspire me to be a better person and runner every day.

Enough rambling already, enjoy your Saturday!

Warrior of the week.

Name: Victor Fassano

Age:56

Marital status: single Kids: 1 a son turning 20 in 2 weeks

Pets: A bluenose pitbull named Hercules.

Occupation: retired Sheet Metal Worker 32.5 years was enough!

Hobbies: running, biking , weight training, ice hockey beach volleyball. Binge watching Netflix.. (Ozark right now) oh yeah I’m a big Met fan!!

Hometown: Queens/ Hicksville. Current town: Centereach

I’d like to start by thanking Lou for honoring me with warrior of the week!But here’s the thing. I’m not a real runner!! At least not yet!Up until this year I’ve never run anything longer than a 5K. I would do the family fun runs and the fundraiser 5Ks. Even a couple of sprint triathlons. Still the run part was a 5K. Ice hockey was my sport. I played all through Jr high & high school.

I traveled all over playing hockey. The great thing about ice hockey is that you can glide a lot!So how I got to the hills….I train in Islip at a place called sports and fitness performance. That’s where I met Mary Kroebel. She’s a real runner!One Saturday I walk into a bagel store in Selden and ran into Mary. She’s with this big group of people laughing and chatting. they looked like fun. It’s was SHW. January 26 2020 I ran the classic for the first time. I was hooked!!!I’m hoping to run a half Marathon and then a full some day soon.

Saturday Spotlight:

Name: Stefan Josephs

Age: 34

Marital Status: Married to Laura for 3+ wonderful years

Kids: 1 beautiful son, Holden James, who was born on May 9th, 2020, and my 17-year-old dog Maggie is almost another child

Occupation: Attorney (real estate, estate planning, estate administration, estate litigation and small business administration)

Hobbies: Running, Yoga, Orange Theory, Craft Beer, Pizza, Baseball, Hanging out with my elderly dog

Hometown: Setauket

Current Town: Setauket (Laura and I bought our house 4 years ago, but we previously lived in Port Jeff Station)

College: Graduated from Stony Brook University (first year at Oneonta, more on this later in the week)Law School: Touro in Central Islip

Favorite Race: Port Jeff 15k and the Bench 5k

Frequent Running Spots: Selden Hills, the Hills of Port Jeff Village and the Greenway Trail in Setauket/Port Jefferson

Personal Message:First of all, like so many WOTWs before me, I am surprised and grateful that Lou reached out to me. I am new to the group (December 31, 2019) and not very interesting, but I am honored and look forward to getting to know more of you. In fact, I encourage everyone to send me a friend request, so we can get to know each other even better.

When I am not running, I love to drink and learn about Craft Beer, watch sports (unfortunately, I am a die-hard Mets and Knicks Fan), do Yoga and Orangetheory work outs, and walk Maggie, as her running days are far behind her. I love to play Chess, Backgammon and backyard games like cornhole. I am a new father; my son is only two months old. My wife would say I am obsessed with Pizza, not just eating it but learning about its history and the science behind great pizza. I am a neat freak and get on my friend’s nerves frequently, as I have a terrible habit of throwing out drinks and food before people are finished (it was even the theme to the best man’s speech and made of honor’s speech at my wedding).

I enjoy reading, listening to books on tape and writing, but, as you will all see, I tend to write way too much.I have always enjoyed running. As a kid, I played sports: soccer, basketball and little league; later, roller hockey replaced basketball. I was never good at any of them, but I was relatively fast and had good endurance. As I got older and stopped playing sports, I would run casually for exercise and fun. In my early twenties, my dog and I ran three miles together every morning. No fancy running watch, no formal races, no training, but running was my therapy to ease the anxiety of the coming day. As I got older and the demands of work and law school took over, my running diminished considerably.

Fast forward to a few years after law school, around the fall of 2016, Laura and I were planning our wedding, I was barley exercising and I was suffering from a painful reoccurring skin infection, which required multiple procedures and finally a surgery in NYC to remove a small muscle. The doctor suggested I increase my exercise, and I figured it would help me fit into my wedding Tux, so I started running again. Right away, it felt like I was back to normal. Since the Port Jefferson brewery opened, I have been a mug club member. In the Spring of 2017, two weeks before our wedding, on a whim, I entered my first formal race: the Port Jeff Brewery 15K. I was immediately hooked and have been running races and taking running more seriously ever since.Since taking running seriously,

I have seen the red “Selden Hills Warriors” shirts at every race. One of friends, Charlie, invited me to run the Hills, but I was intimidated and made excuses to avoid it. By the time I decided to get over my fear (and the Hills), Charlie had moved upstate. Another friend, Tom, invited me to run the course, but Tom injured his back and was unable to run. (Hope you’re feeling better, Tom) Finally, I was lucky enough to meet Bauer at my Thursday night running club, Craft Running Club. He encouraged me to run the course with him on New Years Eve of last year (and even took it slow to guide me). Bauer also invited me to join the ever growing Rush Hour Renegades, which made Wednesdays one of my favorite nights! The Hills are now my favorite running courses, I cherish the friendships I’ve developed cresting the hills, and I look forward to forming new bonds. Thank you, Bauer!

I was born and raised in Setauket and attended the Three Village School District. I started college at SUNY Oneonta, but I hated the cold and snow and transferred to Stony Brook University after my first year. I graduated in 2008 with a degree in Economics. After college, I worked for a small bank, where I won multiple awards and became the youngest person to be admitted to the bank’s management training program. After the bank was purchased by a big national bank, I decided to go to Law School. I was lucky enough to receive a full academic scholarship to attend Touro Law School, where I met the love of my life, graduated 4th in my class and had the honor of serving as the managing editor of the Law Review.Now, I live and work in Setauket. I have the privilege of working with my Father and wife. I handle a bulk of the firm’s transactional work and my wife handles much of the firm’s litigation work…needless to say, I do not win very many arguments at home or work.I look forward to getting to know you all better on the hills, at races, and on Facebook.

Saturday Spotlight:Name: Juan Pablo Huertas (aka Juan or JP)

Age: 41

Marital Status: Happily Married

Kids: Isabella whos body is almost 5yo but her mind is at least 20!

Occupation: President-CEO of Macrotech

Hobbies: Spend as much time with family as possible, Cooking, listen to TED Talks and Business/PMA Audio/Video, Train Martial Arts, Running and OCR

Hometown: Buga (small city near Cali in Colombia, not Columbia

Current Town: Wheatley Heights,

NYCollege: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Electronic Engineer)

Favorite Race: Spartan Races, mostly 10 and 25K, 5Ks seem too short for all the prepping

Frequent Running Spots: Streets around town, Cold Spring Harbor, Sunken Meadow, Belmont Park and Selden Hills of Course!!

Personal Message:I’d like to start off by thanking Lou LaFleur for welcoming me to such an amazing group, and for selecting me to be Warrior of the Week. I’ll share some of my personal life and how I came across all of you awesome Hillbillys!

My story starts with my first podium sometime on 1978, I was the first sperm to get to the egg! Born in March 1st of 1979, I came to light my parents darkness as they have lost my brother, who I never met because he passed away at 2yo, a couple years before me in a car accident (around 1977). My sister Ana came to be almost 4 years later and I love her with all my heart, she is a great sibling! Let’s fast forward a few years so this remains a Saturday post, not a boring book!

I met Natalia when I was 23 and she was 19, she is an angel and didn’t take me long to realize it, we have been married for 18 years now!

My daughter Isabella came to be almost 5 years ago, so far the best experience of my life, I mean being a father. We waited a few years to have Isabella because we wanted to build my business first, we thought that a good financial foundation would give us an advantage, waiting has its pros and cons, I have more wisdom to raise her up with but less youth… there’s always a price for everything.

Sometime in summer 2017, I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. Obese at 275lbs and almost 40% body fat, I decided to change my life, it wasn’t an easy decision to make because I’m the type of person who don’t quit so whatever I decide, I make happen so I wasn’t going to set a goal that I wasn’t going to achieve, it took me sometime but I finally did it and started my weight loss journey towards the end of 2017 (sep-oct). I tried to “run” to the gym located at .66 miles from the house I was living at the time in West Babylon and my feet hurt, my knees hurt, my lower back was killing me and my ego was devastated, and yet, it took me about half an hour to cover that distance, a lot of pain, some tears but I got to the gym, did some light upper body exercises and ego didn’t let me call wife to pick me up, i went back home walking.

My daughter was vegetarian since birth, my wife and I were consuming very little meat and we as a family started eating full plant based avoiding animal products completely, this was a major plus in my weight loss journey and improving my health tremendously. A few days into my journey, my business partner made a beautiful mistake to suggest me “Spartan Race” as an event for me to train for and help me get in shape, I saw a promo video on their website and I was sold! I signed up for 3 races without knowing how was I going to finish them, Tuxedo, Palmerton and Killington, all of them trail running with thousands of feet of elevation, at the time I didn’t know what “thousands of feet of elevation” meant and I learned the hard way!

I ended up finishing almost 20 events that year, never ever trained so hard or so serious for a podium and the closest I got to it was being 11th over hundreds of competitors, it felt good but missed being Top 10 for less than a minute!

Sometime in 2018 and early 2019 I broke my shoulder and had it fixed on July 11th of 2019, almost a year ago, rotator cuff repair done.

I got introduce to this group not too long before my surgery by none other than the beautiful Jennifer Rowley Heymach, I love how she promotes this group with such love and passion, she wouldn’t do it so well if she got paid for it, I’m sure you know what I mean, she does it from her heart because she believes in all of you and what this team stands for!

I have run the hills a few times, I have met you and ran a couple races like Rob’s Run and the Port Washington Run (forgot the name). I have met some of you personally and others virtually here on social media, I am thankful for all of you! I’m blessed to learn from you and share my life here for you all to know that anyone can change their life if the desire is bad enough, it takes to make a decision and be consistent with the effort to achieve the goal.To start closing stories down, I lost 100lbs and went down to 18% body fat in early 2019, unfortunately because of my emotional eating, my surgery/recovery and this pandemic, I have gained some weight back and raised the body fat percentage… working now towards going back down to 175-180lbs and this time aiming for 14% body fat. I need to work harder because my goal is an Spartan Ultra Race next year and God willing a Full Ironman finisher experience. I have never ran more than 16miles, let alone the craziness of a triathlon, however, I will do it and all of you will be a big part of it, this idea is bigger than anything I have ever done sports wise so I need the team!

Last but not least, I truly am the friend for you that I would like to have for myself. To enter my heart is easy and so is to exit it, respect, honesty and integrity are not negotiable, I’m willing to laugh as long as we are all laughing together, I don’t care if you are black, white, a color in between, brown, yellow, rainbow or anything, I don’t care about your sexual preference neither your political view or your religion, I can be your friend as long as we respect each other and as long as we agree to disagree, we don’t have to agree on everything to be friends but we both love running and sports so why not enjoy it together and be supporting friends?Sorry for the long post… thanks for getting to this point. See you on the up and downs of life. (Selden)

Saturday Spotlight:Name: Tom M Francisci

Age: 37

Marital Status: Married

Kids: (4) 2 Boys & 2 Girls

Occupation: Operating General Supervisor in the Energy Control Center for Consolidated Edison

Hobbies: Family Fun, Traveling, Running, Hiking, OCR Racing, and Weight Training

Hometown: Maspeth, New York

Current Town: Kings Park, NYCollege: University of Phoenix (Bachelors of Science in Business)

Favorite Race: NYC Half Marathon (This may change after I run the NYC Marathon!!)

Frequent Running Spots: Sunken Meadow, NYC Bridges, West Side Hudson Greenway, and Selden Hills of Course!!

Personal Message:I would like to start off by thanking Lou for welcoming me to such an amazing group, and for selecting me to be Warrior of the Week. I’ll share a bit about my personal life and how I stumbled upon this unforeseen passion for running that I have today..

My wife and I began dating in High School and started our family very young as teen parents. I had to learn fast how to survive and make it on my own, which I still believe till this day was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time. I started at the very bottom in a basement apartment in a rough neighborhood. I was fortunate enough to find an entry level position at Con Edison reading meters and getting chased by dogs. Eventually I learned the electrical trade and became a High Voltage Splicer, which helped me to move my family into a nice 3 Bedroom apartment.

Fast forward to today, and I am now in Management and recently completed my Bachelor’s degree. I moved out to Suffolk County in 2013, and bought a home for my wife and 4 children. I find myself to be very fortunate because I get to spend my life with my best friend and my life lessons have taught me to appreciate everything that I have today!So.. while all of these life events were taking place, one thing that I didn’t realize was that I forgot to take care of my health. In 2015, I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure and I was close to becoming a Diabetic at 230 Lbs. So after being placed on pressure pills, I made the decision to begin changing how I eat and began walking daily.

Then in 2017, I began an interval training program and by the end of that year I ran my first 5K race. Needless to say I was completely hooked into a sport that I could have never imagined myself being able to or even wanting to do!! I began weight training, Obstacle Course Racing, longer distance running, and I even got my children involved… Today I am 165 Lbs. and no longer have High Blood Pressure or Diabetes, and I completed the NYRR 9+1 to run in the 2020 NYC Marathon.

I just want to close this out by saying that I am really glad to be a part of this group. I have only been with the group for a short period of time and I am really impressed with each and every one of you! Whether it’s helping out our first responders, local businesses, or just showing up when someone is reaching out for a running partner.. Selden Hills Warriors always come through!