Name: Marty Harte
Age: 46
Hometown: St. James, NY
Current Town: West Islip
Family: Wife: Karen Harte 4 Children- Cameron(14),Ryan(13), Megan(11),Madison (11) & Maisy (our choc lab)
Greetings everyone and thanks Lou for the invite to be WOTW. Seemed like a great idea when you first asked and now I’m a bit terrified. As a weekend runner, I’m humbled by the many great athletes in this group who accomplish so many great things each week; heck I’m even married to one 😜
As a kid growing up in St. James life seemed pretty normal. I spent all my time outdoors playing with the neighborhood kids and wound up getting into soccer, baseball, wrestling and tennis. My dad was an 8th Grade Math Teacher at Seneca JR High School. He was my chauffeur to all my games and matches. He never seemed to miss one. My mom was an English Teacher and then stayed home once I was born. Looking back my mom was never in the best of health and suffered severely from an illness in the 70’s when I was a young kid. It left her partially paralyzed and years later in a wheel chair. My father was her care-taker his entire life. Neither of them ever complained about their lot in life, stressed academics over sport and yes I was that kid in the front pew for 7:30am mass EVERY SUNDAY. That’s changed a bit 🤔…ok a lot.
I was a public school kid doing well and then my parents came up with the idea to send my sister and me to St. Anthony’s HS. I’m glad I went as I still have many life long friends. Ironically Freshman year I signed up for the XC team as my older sister was a very good Track and a XC runner. I signed up…never went to the meeting. Having participated in the aforementioned sports running to me was something you do to either to warm up or for discipline…not a sport. That changed much later and I so regret that decision way back. College wise I wound up going to Loyola University in Baltimore and upon graduation (’94) after a year or so on Wall St (HATED IT) I wound up moving back to MD and got into a career which I’m still in now. Presently I work for an IT Consulting and Solutions firm in NYC. It pays the bills but the hours are very long and the commute sucks…hence I’m a weekend runner.
I run to burn the crazy. Someone told me that at a race last year and it resonated with me. I started running and going to the gym as an outlet while being in a very bad marriage and ballooned to over 240lbs. It wasn’t the typical “we grew apart.” Without getting too personal (I’m happy to share 1:1) but as I told my friends years later what I had been through they couldn’t believe it. I was embarrassed and didn’t reach out to family or friends for a long time. I decided to push forward and ask for a divorce only to rescind it a few mos later and give marriage therapy a try….call it Catholic guilt but it didn’t work. When I finally told my parents what was going on my mom screamed at me to get out of there. I filed for divorce, and 2 years later with full custody, I found myself with a few suitcases, my precious two kids ages 2 and 4 back home at my parents house in St. James. Unfortunately for the kids my ex hasn’t reached out in years. To a guy who seemingly had everything going for him, I was now just an overwhelmed fulltime single dad with not much hope. Running on a treadmill at the gym became my refuge.
At no point did I ever think that I would live on Long Island again. I loved living in Maryland and never thought I’d leave. Years later work took me to NJ and I still didn’t think I’d come back..but life happens. Little did I know that coming back would change my life so much for the better with my wonderful blended family and beyond super amazing, speedy partner in life Karen Harte. I’m honored to be a part of the Selden Hills Warriors and look forward to meeting more of you. #keepmovingforward is my motto and that’s what the Hills are all about to me. The ups and downs of life, the stress, self doubt and then the pure sense of happiness in accomplishing a goal as you run down that final chute to the pole! Nothing better than that.