Name: Jeremy Lally
Age: 39
Wife: Jennifer
Children: Scott, 7 & Jake 3
Occupation: Train engineer for PATH (port authority trans hudson)
Residence: Hauppauge
First I would like to thank Frank Capone. I don’t know how I can follow up his amazing stories from the previous week.
I never really liked running…yes, I’ll admit to it! My wife got me started about 3 years ago after my 2nd son was born. She was running to drop the baby weight and then I started to join her and now I can’t stop
I was more of a water kid, growing up in Islip and spending my summers on Fire Island – boating, fishing, swimming and more boating. In high school I played Lacrosse but never like the fact that running was a part of it. But I always liked to be active.
In april of 2012 I was in the Sayville Running Company and saw the application for the EJ Autism foundation 4 mile run. I took it home and told my wife i’m going to run and she was excited for me. I was a bit nervous the morning before the run and also very excited. I finished the run in 36:00, not bad for my first run. As i passed the finish line it started to pour so we rushed out of there. The next year I did the same run and finished in 31:10. I was really happy with my improvement and finished 5th in my age group. I don’t consider myself a fast runner but i’m having fun.
In December 2012 I decided to enter the lottery for the 2013 NYC half marathon. When I received the email that I got in, I thought holy cow now I have to run 13.1 miles. Up to this point the longest I had run was a about 7. I trained a lot over the winter. I would join Kevin McGrady for runs along the bethpage trail. It was great to train with Kevin. My training was going real well and I felt great going into the run. That weekend me and my family got a hotel room and stayed near the finish line. we went to the intrepid (one of my favorite places to go to in the city) and I had a nice pasta dinner to help get me ready for the big day. As the race started I felt great. It was so exciting running in the city. As turned the corner on to the west side highway and pass the intrepid my knee started to hurt a lot. I walked for a little bit than started running again but just got worst. so for the last 4 miles i walked/ran and that really sucked!!!! I finally crossed the finish line at 2:06! Still not horrible for my first half marathon but I know I could have done a lot better. My 6th mile was a 8:10 and my 12th mile was a 11:30. I think it was my IT that was giving me the problem. Now whenever I run more than 9 miles I wear the IT strap band and I don’t have pain . 2 months after I ran the long island half with the IT strap band on my left knee, finished at 1:59 and was pain free. I was very happy to be under 2 hours!!
I now coach my son’s soccer team and love being part of showing the kids how physical activity should be part of their ever day lives.
Fun fact about me – I have a license to operate every mode of transportation except an airplane. Maybe after I retire!