Bethpage man plans to run from New Paltz to Citi Field to benefit Parkinson's disease research
Wai Law, left,and Dennis Almodovar at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 2018, when the two competed in the Great New York Running Exposition. Credit: Stony Brook Medicine
Early Saturday morning, Wai Law will hop into a car with good friend and fellow ultra-runner Dennis Almodovar and drive to upstate New Paltz.
About an hour after their planned arrival, Law, 53, of Bethpage, will launch a run back to the metro area. He hopes to finish Sunday at Citi Field in Flushing — a 103-mile route aimed at raising funds for The Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson's Research at the Department of Neurobiology & Behavior at Stony Brook University.
The charity has special significance for Law and Almodovar, whose father Ruben died three years ago of Parkinson's disease.
The original plan, Law said, was to run from Niagara Falls to Long Beach.
"That was my bucket list item," the Hong Kong native said, adding much of the route would have taken him along the notable Empire State Trails. "But," he said, "I couldn't get permission from my wife [Amy]. Basically, with the pandemic, she didn't feel comfortable having me out there for the whole week."
He added, "Ultra-running is a very selfish thing to do, so I try to work around family schedules. . . . I figured let me at least run a portion of [the Empire State Trails]."
The alternate route proved a natural fit. Not only will it take Law along a portion of those Empire State Trails with a plan to emerge in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, it also will take him to Citi Field — a tribute to Dennis Almodovar's father, who was a lifelong Mets fan.
Dennis Almodovar, 52, of Massapequa, who met Law years ago during a charity run to raise donations for leukemia and lymphoma research, plans to run the final metro-area leg of this weekend's run alongside Law. Almodovar would have run a longer portion with his friend, but is recovering from a turned ankle and torn ligaments suffered while running last year through Massapequa Preserve.
Beginning in New Paltz, the route will take Law across the Hudson River and onto a section of the Empire State Trail just outside of Poughkeepsie and down through Hopewell Junction. There he'll move briefly — for about a 20-mile stretch, he said — out onto public roads before rejoining the trail system down to Van Cortlandt Park.
Once in the Bronx, Law and Almodovar will emerge from Van Cortlandt Park and traverse the so-called Joker Stairs, the long alleyway staircase connecting Shakespeare and Anderson avenues in the Highbridge section made famous by Joaquin Phoenix's mad dance in "Joker."
Then they'll run past Yankee Stadium — "Being a Mets' fan I'll give a thumbs-down as we go by," Almodovar said — and cross into Manhattan, where they'll cross Central Park and head down the Hudson River Greenway before crossing Manhattan east to the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge en route to Citi Field.
Much of the upstate park trails will be traversed by Law overnight, in the dark, and he said he would run by the light of a headlamp and flashlight.
"I just hope I don't get lost," he said. "I've had my fair share of getting lost."
Law, who like Dennis Almodovar works as an accountant, has two grown children and has run all sorts of ultra-long distance runs.
He has completed six-day ultra-marathons, 100-mile runs and even a 48-hour charity run — all of that one done on a treadmill.
He says he runs "only" about 35 to 40 miles a week on average following a series of injuries and stressed, "I always like to emphasize charity work every year. It's not about me. It's the charity I'm trying to help. That's what it's all about."
The Rev. Msgr. Thomas Hartman, known as Father Tom, was part of the so-called God Squad featured for many years in the On Faith section of Newsday before losing a long battle with Parkinson's disease in 2016. Donations can be made in memory of Ruben Almodovar at https://renaissance.stonybrookmedicine.edu/neurobiology/hartman-center.
Law said he hoped to begin the 103-mile run about 9 a.m. Saturday in New Paltz and finish at Citi Field around 9 a.m. Sunday.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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