Training Runs in Harriman

Ernest Joseph – July 2004

The relentless pursuit for a marathoner is to improve upon their PR, and even try to qualify for the Boston marathon in the process. And to achieve that, a marathoner usually follows 18-week or 12-week training programs that are out there designed by some prominent physiologists and marathoners of our time. One common aspect of these programs is the requirement of long runs leading up to the marathon. Such a requirement makes marathoners design their runs in preparation for the big day.

In 1983 while training for the Philadelphia marathon, John O’Leary of Beacon- NY, Pat Cusack and Rusty Gillis of Cornwall – NY suggested approx. 18 miles run in the Harriman / Bear Mountain State Parks. John had this idea that to run a really successful marathon you had to control the time and effort on the second half of the race. John was training to qualify for Olympic trials, while my friends Patrick Cusack and Rusty Gillis were training to improve their marathon times under 3 hours. Like every other marathoner, their focus was on the second half of the marathon, where without proper training one can wind up running significantly slower second half, resulting in a disappointing performance.

Keeping this in mind, the following route was designed. The run started at Bear Mountain Bridge on the Westchester side and went up to Lake Tiorati Circle and back, totaling 18 miles. The first 9 miles are all uphill except one steep down hill. But coming back, it’s all-downhill except one steep uphill. This would allow the runners to run the second half faster. To make the runs more challenging and longer than 18 miles, they would change the route once in a while by adding brutal Perkins drive or couple of loops of Hessian Lake in the mix. Obviously, this type of training prepares you both mentally and physically going in to a marathon. I find these runs humbling. Compared to these runs, an urban marathon does seem like a long run on a relatively flat terrain. Needless to say, their efforts were visible in their performances. During that year several people who trained with this group came and went during the 12 weeks of training. But for Pat, John and Rusty who stayed through the entire cycle, it was PR-time in Philly. John ran 2:18 (but later qualified for the trials at Washington Marathon) and Pat and Rusty ran in 2:40’s.

In 1997, with Pat Cusack as a remaining link, Taconic Road Runners Bronek Czech and Ted Pernicano also started joining these runs. I was the Rockland Road Runners link. The common bond between us besides being runners and friends is that we all work at Bayer HealthCare. Together, we continued to run this route until 9/11/01. After that, because of the elevated terror alert, we were not allowed to cross the bridge on foot. At this point, Bronek and I still wanted to keep up these very useful runs year round. So we now started running from the Bear Mountain inn to Lake Tiorati, but go beyond on the Arden Valley Road to make up for the lost distance form the Bridge. We also started calling the original run “Pat Cusack Memorial run” in part to tease Pat.

And yes, we also added a tradition of “new year’s run” which is usually run on last week-end of December and after that everyone goes out for a breakfast in the nearby town of Highland Falls. And our link to the past continues when Pat and Rusty try to make sure to join in this annual run.

Meantime, I also started running weekend runs with Rockland Road Runners in 2002 and in no time we were growing in numbers for these year-round-once-a-month excursions as my buddies from RRR started to join. JC Santa Teresa, Jeff Pfeffer and Steve Joseph even kept up with us during the 2002-2003 winter runs.

On one such run, as 15 or so of us were crossing the traffic circle on Route 6, the State Trooper reminded us that we should not be on the State Highway. In addition, our own trooper and moral majority of the group, Mrs. Debbie Frederick emphasized it again during the run. The message sunk in, and to avoid being finger printed, we decided to develop as challenging a run as this, but within the park roads. Fortunately, to find a challenge in these parks is not an issue. Shawn Fredrick, one of very few men I know who can actually read and follow a map (topographic and all) was quick to respond with Silver mine to Elk Pen route (15.2 miles) which covers “quad tester” Arden Valley Road. Soon, we scouted the area for long challenging runs and now we have at least 3 routes within the Harriman State Park and one in Bear Mountain State Park.

During one run in the Bear Mountain, Laura DiMarino commented that we should really call these runs “Bear the Mountain” Runs for its difficult terrain. Next thing we knew, last week the shirts were printed with the help of Debbie and Marilyn of Orange Road Runners.

As you can see, the legacy of something that was started in 1983 is still going strong. As in the past, we hope that the baton will be passed to the future marathoners and I can assure you that there will always be someone who will realize that how fortunate we are to have such a perfect training grounds in our own backyard and take advantage.

Picture – L to R: Steve Joseph, Jeff Pfeffer, Olga Carriel, Jessica Hanley, Ernest Joseph, Debbie Fredrick, David Read, Herb Conrad and Dave Badolato.