CARRIE ANN SALVI PHOTO | Bill McGorry with daughter Regan in the Heights.

From the Shelter Island 10K to the Bermuda 10K, from Turkey Trots to Triathalons, “Running has always been a universal theme in my family,” said Regan Beaton, a 38-year-old lawyer who calls Shelter Island her home four days a week. “Especially out here, it has always been our outlet here,” she said, speaking for the whole McGorry family. Regan, who’s participating in this year’s 10K, will be joined by her sister Sarah, brother Tim, and husband Matt, with her sister Amy and Mother Phyllis running the 5K. Although Regan’s father, Bill McGorry, is registered, he most likely will have to support from the sidelines due to an injury.

Regan has placed in some of the Shelter Island 10K and 5K races, and says she aims to break 47 minutes in the 10k and 22 minutes in the 5K. Spending summers on Shelter Island growing up cultivated her interest in outdoor activities, she said. “My first taste of competition was through swimming in the races held at Crescent Beach with my siblings. I think I was as young as three years old. I loved to compete.” Regan  is also a talented basketball and volleyball player, having played both sports for the University of Scranton, and received numerous awards, including one named after her, the “Regan McGorry Award,” given to a University of Scranton women’s basketball team player each year.

Mr. McGorry, semi-retired after 30 years in the publishing business, is undergoing treatment to regenerate cartilage and avoid surgery on his left knee, having had surgery in 2006 on his right knee. He will turn 70 this year, and jokes that he is saving himself and looking forward to next year’s 10K when “watch out” he will be in a new age bracket. Regan said “whether my dad is running next to me or on the sidelines, each year when I see him, I am reminded of how grateful I am for having him in my life.” “My dad,” she said, “taught us to be driven and that we don’t always have to be the best, but just to do our best, and to trust our instincts, a lot of which we learn through sports and competing.” She added that her father, oldest of eight children, was a phenomenal basketball player in Queens where he was raised. “So much so,” she said, “that he gave up opportunities to play at collegiate levels to help raise his own family, and then ours.”

She described her dad as an exceptional athlete and said basketball was his main sport, but he excelled at track, and as he got older he would continue to play other sports. “He and my mom played tennis quite often during our childhood years in various tournaments at the Douglaston Club in Queens. We loved watching them as kids, there was nothing more inspirational to us as children than watching our own parents be active and successful in their sports and careers.”

Mr. McGorry said that throughout his life, running was a way of always staying in shape physically and mentally, although he joked that, “Nothing compares to winning the foul shooting competition at the dedication of Fiske Field on Shelter Island.”

Regan said, “Overall, my dad has always encouraged us to not be too complacent, aim high, set realistic goals and pace ourselves along the way to achieve those goals — same philosophy in running.”  She added that through running, her family was taught the mentality of sticking together, nobody left behind, not giving up, and perseverance. “We stand behind each other, family first,” she said.

Regan’s mother, Phyllis McGorry, is an avid tennis player in addition to being a runner and has also played volleyball.  Lately she has picked up golfing on the Island and has been teaching Regan at Gardiner’s Bay Country Club. Phyllis has placed in a few races, including being winner of the Shelter Island 5K and the Annapolis Key School 5K Race for her age bracket. According to Regan, Phyllis gave up her career in the fashion business so that her children could focus on sports and their education, and she always found time to run, whether her lunch break while working, or at various times of day while waiting for her children in class or practice.

“My mom always felt it was important to be a part of a team and to be active in competition, encouraging each of us to seek whatever our skills allowed,” explained Regan. “I think this is important, everyone should be offered the opportunity to participate and be accepted for what ‘they bring to the table’, that is what sports and more importantly, what life should be about.” According to Regan, she and her mom now make it a point to jog together each week to Shell Beach in order to spend time together, and catch up with everything going on in their lives.

The McGorry family began their Shelter Island experience in 1969, when they rented at the Westmoreland Farm.  Bill and Phyllis become homeowners in Silver Beach in 1996, and are now joined by their neighbors, Regan and her husband Matt Beady. Daughter Sarah Ahearn owns a house in South Ferry Hills with her husband John and children, Olivia and Maeve.

“I have had so many special times out here,”  Regan said, one of them being her wedding four years ago when her father gave her away at St. Gabriel’s. This year’s 10K race is extra special to Regan, she said, because it’s being run just before Father’s Day, the four year anniversary of her wedding that took place on the Island.

Bill and Phyllis McGorry split their time between Shelter Island and Bayside, Queens and have five daughters and one son.

Amy, 41, a former cheerleader at Stonybrook University, lives in New York City. Sarah, 40, a marathoner and former swimmer at the University of Scranton, lives part-time on Shelter Island. Regan and Matt live on Shelter Island and in New York City. Pam, 44, lives in Annapolis, Maryland and Jen, 43, who played basketball and softball at Manhattanville College, is married to Barry McCormick and lives in Annapolis as well. Tim, 47, is their only son, and he’s also athletic and placed third in New York City high hurdles competition when he was a freshman on the Molloy College track team.

“Running and sports have taught my family how to take each day in stride and pace ourselves, because there will always be hurdles that we will need to overcome,” explained Regan. One such hurdle was a skiing accident in March 2010 that kept Regan’s husband Matt off his feet for a year.  She said that this past year has been emotional for her and her husband with his injury, and that her father played a vital role “in helping my husband overcome the physical and psychological struggles and deal with the setback.” She said “fortunately, it was just that, a setback, and when we cross the finish line on Saturday, it will remind us again about how lucky we are to have him in our lives and to be grateful for all that we have.” Despite the accident, Matt will be running the 10K this year. One of his first concerns after the accident according to Regan was how “this is really going to affect my 10K performance.”

The McGorry family has also suffered through the loss of cousin John McGorry, a top three Long Island Marathon elite runner who made the cover of Runner’s World and won the Masters Division in the Ocean to Sound Race in 1998. Before, and even during his nine-year battle with cancer, John McGorry would run with the Shelter Island 10K with the family. This year, his wife Debra McGorry will run the race on what would have been their 29th wedding anniversary,

Regan tore a ligament while playing basketball in a Manhattan league when she was in law school. “It was at a time when I was trying to get through finals while having surgery and rehabilitating my knee,” she said.

“I was completely overwhelmed, physically and mentally — my dad made me put the books down and start the first day of my rehab with him by jogging very slowly underneath the Throgs Neck Bridge and along the Cross Island Parkway. It took us hours because I had to stop quite often with the pain, but he would just talk to me, keep me going and remind me of how far I had come growing up and the other hurdles in life that I made it over, and that I could get through the challenging time that I was facing; it was just a matter of time and being patient while starting over.”

Regan said she realizes that not too many people have the family dynamic and upbringing that her family has been fortunate to have. She said. “Today’s society is very different from when I grew up on Westmoreland Farm,” she said.

She said that while technology has benefited us in many ways, it has also led to fewer conversations, less freedom due to cell phones, and less privacy in many respects. “I feel as though too many children are living sedentary lifestyles, whether due to television, computers or games,” she said.

She also feels that childhood obesity and the bullying that can take place among adolescents may be because of a lack of activity and exercise. “When I grew up, I always had a large family that spent time together doing even the simplest things. Our summers out here were primarily spent swimming at Crescent Beach, running through the fields on the farm, riding bikes, gymnastics, spending time outdoors,” she said. “I remember my mom leading the trail of bikes down the road passed Governor Carey’s home on the Farm, it was our daily ride and we loved it.” Regan feels that in today’s society, there is a disconnect between parents, kids and siblings, and thinks that running and sports can help remedy that.

She said that she is filled with gratitude for her running experiences, as well as for the Clark and Adipietro families who have contributed a great deal to the sport locally with their involvement in the 10K. “The Shelter Island 10k is so special to me and my family because each year it affords us the ability to come back here and to share in an event together, reminding us of how lucky we are to have been exposed to this wonderful place, and the opportunities we have been given to succeed, both athletically, personally and in our careers,” she said.

When she was growing up, and to this day, Regan said that when she needs to “break away” from the pressures of peers, school and work, running is her outlet. “It kept me strong-minded, independent and helped me cope with problems and find the best way to deal with them. It clears my mind each day.”