Name: Ken Wiley
Aka: “Hey Wiley” “Wiley”
Age: 42 (for one final month)
Current Town: Dix Hills
Martial Status: Single
Occupation: Director of Student Activities Five Towns College
Hobbies/Interests:Being Artsy/creative, Running(🤫), Dr Who, LOVE to cook, travel, Frisbee.
Fun Fact: I have attended many comic cons and yes dressed up in cosplay for them all!
So the mix of emotions I went through when Lou had asked me to be the WOTW went something like this 😃🙂😛😏😐🤢🤮… no pressure just a peek at the man behind the curtain! There’s no place like home and home is where the Hills are!!!
Ok let’s get this “running”—I apologize in advance as I am a sucker for a pun so they puntentially might show up throughout the week. (Note I did not say they would be good ones.)
I was born in College Point and shortly thereafter my family moved to Copiague (actually first house was technically Amity Harbor but it was still Copiague school district). We lived in three different areas of Copiague as I grew up always within walking distance of everything so I would walk to school, walk to the deli, walk to Tobacco Road (the store I bought all my candy!!!). I was scrawny little guy and therefore never got involved in sports throughout school but walked literally everywhere. I did follow my father’s lead and became a volunteer fire fighter. I started as a Jr. firefighter at 16 then moved up to a full fledged volunteer when I was 18. I remained an active volunteer until I decided to go to college at the ripe age of 25! Southampton LIU, Art Education was the plan. During that time I became an RA (resident assistant) which would stem into future aspirations in my grad degree of student affairs admin and my current roll at Five Towns College as Director of Student Activities. The RA role though also unbeknownst to me would eventually be the catalyst to my running aspirations later in life! During my time as an RA, I met a young lady who was one of my residents in the Mattituck Building. (This individual would turn out to be a dear friend for years to come but more on that in a bit.) I ran a few of the fun runs (well really walked) here and there but I was not a runner by any means. My sister and I would actually call people crazy running along the side of the road … and Spoiler Alert we are now both runners. So back to the real start of my running origins….. >>>>fast forward to 2017>>>> that friend/resident of my building back in college I had mentioned earlier I met up with one night when I had hit an all time low point. I was going through a tough break up and struggling with where I was in life in general. This friend believed in me, my abilities, and literally got me running into a better version of me. This friend would be no other than SHW Denise Marie, as you all know her. When we reconnected almost 2 and a half years ago I was 30lbs heavier then I am today and had zero to no motivation to do anything about it. She got me out to Heritage Park in Mt. Sinai. At the time, I was working at Stony Brook University and living in a studio apartment in Wading River at the time. Every single day she had me walking/venting, and then it became walk/vent/running until it was running it off in 3.1 miles then 6.2 miles and then running 5k events with other runners 😮! As I got better she loosened the reins and we would always meet me at the end of our run cheering me to my finish (she is awesome at keeping you motivated as many of you may know!) During what we considered the off season at the time ((winter….no such thing anymore) someone had approached Denise about Selden Hills. She refused to run the hills in the cold so it wasn’t until later in April she joined, and was instantly in recruiting mode with me although due to her injury shortly after and my reluctance, I was not officially a member until that July even though the Hills peaked 😏 my interest I was not going to make that leap without my Bff/running partner! And the rest my friends is a story still being written. If you are still with me then there are a few excerpts to come this week