Islanders rule their hometown race

Islanders dominated the Shelter Island 5K Run/Walk on Saturday at Crescent Beach, led by teenagers who ruled the running of their hometown race.

Of the top eight finishers, six were under 17 and four were members of the revitalized Shelter Island varsity cross country team.

It wasn’t until the race was over that 16-year-old Jack Kimmelmann discovered he was the first Islander across the line. Placing third overall, he was followed closely by Kal Lewis, (18.44), Chris Doyle (19.03) and Sawyer Clark (19.10).

Jack said he was “happy about my time but I want to do better.” His favorite part was “the finish line.”

Least favorite? “The beginning because it was so crowded.” Summing up his performance, he noted, with a touch of humor, that “one of my main motivations for finishing faster was changing out of those short shorts.”

Island athletic legend Janelle Kraus-Nadeau, a 2001 Wake Forest graduate who is in that college’s athletic Hall of Fame, clocked the fastest time Saturday among Island women at 20.01.

“I haven’t done a race in a long time,” she said. “I enjoyed it and wanted to do it because it’s the weekend of our anniversary.”

She and husband Bill Nadeau ran the 5K on the morning of their wedding in 2009 with the bride sporting her wedding veil.

On Saturday, Mr. Nadeau ran with their daughter, Josephine, in a stroller. “I kept looking back, waiting for him to pull up beside me,” Ms. Kraus-Nadeau said. But he didn’t catch her, finishing less than a minute behind his wife. Josephine missed the excitement, sound asleep as she crossed the finish line.

The hardest part of the race for Ms. Kraus-Nadeau has always been the first mile, since she misjudges the pace. “I run too fast because of the excitement,” she said. “It catches up with me on Nostrand Parkway. I just try to keep going.”

Her favorite stretch has always been the last mile, along the water.

Ms. Kraus-Nadeau beat out Islander Tara Wilson by five seconds. Ms. Wilson was the fastest Island woman in the 2013 5K race and the first Islander in the women’s division across the line in June’s 10K.

An ebullient Annmarie Seddio was the first breast cancer survivor to break the tape Saturday, “I really surprised myself,” Ms. Seddio said of her 25.16 finish.

She had to summon dwindling reserves down the stretch. “I couldn’t full-out sprint like I usually do,” she said. By the time she hit the finish line, “I had nothing left.”

Ms. Seddio was awarded a handmade pin, chosen by the 5K committee, that read, “Courage: a trinity knot symbolizes strength and courage.”

What made it extra special for Ms. Seddio was the date of the race engraved on the pin. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, she was also the fastest survivor in last year’s race.

The fastest power walker and cancer survivor, Louise O’Regan Clark, was “very happy” with her race of 33.56, “only 17 seconds behind last year.” Diagnosed in November 2013, Ms. O’Regan Clark has been the fastest walker in the 5K for eight years. She agreed with Ms. Kraus-Nadeau that the hardest hurdle is the first mile. “I put too much into it,” she said.

Her favorite part of the race? “Just when I came around the bend at Camp Quinipet and saw the water.”
Linda Zavatto did her part to support the race by raising the most money — $4,895. “I pounded the pavement,” she said, adding that the cause is especially important to her because she lost her mother, Virginia, to breast cancer in December 1989, long before any of the breast cancer organizations existed.

Towny Montant and his Team Flamingo raised the second highest amount of $2,695.

The varsity cross-country team raced in their blue and gray uniforms and afterwards donned team sweatshirts that read: “We run this town.” And run they did, stopping only long enough to pose for a group photo at the end and pick raffle tickets for announcer Dr. Frank Adipietro.

Their coaches were proud of their young competitors. Coach Toby Green said the team “did great. They’re really coming into their own.”

Next year’s competitors: You’ve been warned.