Long Island, a land of extreme adventurers

Long Island, with no towering mountains or wild, open spaces, doesn't exactly scream Land of Adventure. But it is the land of adventurers.

Nassau and Suffolk counties are home to a robust community of people willing to go the distance -- running, trekking, biking and swimming. Why is there so much enthusiasm here for pushing personal limits?

"I think people have a certain personality on Long Island, where they're constantly looking for something different . . . a challenge," said Nancy Manfredonia of Central Islip, board member of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference.

"Part of it is that there is more disposable income here," said Mike Polansky, president of the Greater Long Island Running Club. "But we also have a running and multisport and outdoors community here that enjoys testing itself to the limits. And there's a lot of encouragement to do that on Long Island. People who do this kind of stuff get recognition."

Indeed they do: So let's recognize some of the more adventurous who ventured far, and near, in 2010 to see just what they could do.

Pete Breen, 55, Huntington StationThe Adventure: 56-mile run, South Africa

On May 30, Breen completed the Comrades Marathon, a 56-mile race run between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

Motivation: The ultradistance event - one of the world's premier road races - "was always on the top of my Bucket List," said Breen, an environmental consultant and a runner since high school. Still, because of work commitments and injuries, Breen had been away from the sport for eight years when he decided to try Comrades. "I wondered," Breen said, " 'Can I even finish this?' "

The experience: Breen made the journey with two friends from Fort Salonga, Amanda and Colin Goddard, both accomplished ultradistance runners. But when, two days before the race, he took a bus tour of the course, "my jaw dropped," Breen said. "It was even tougher than I thought." The Comrades course is noted for five major hills, plus temperature extremes that range from 32 degrees (at the start) to 80 degrees.

On race day he remained composed. "I called on my experience," said Breen, the veteran of dozens of marathon and ultramarathon races. He paced himself and took ice from the aid stations along the course, which he stashed under his hat to keep cool as the temperatures rose. He also fed off the energy of the crowds: "That exceeded my expectations as well."

Fewer than 200 Americans entered the race. Breen covered the 56-mile course in 11 hours, 26 minutes, 17 seconds. Amanda Goddard, 51, finished in 10 hours, 43 minutes, 24 seconds. As for Colin Goddard: "He was my support team," said Amanda, adding he thought that one member of the family running 56 miles in Africa was enough.

Sid Heller, 51, CommackThe Adventure: Wilderness race, Shawangunk mountains, upstate New York

On Sept. 12, Heller and four other members of the Commack Triathlon Club - Amos BenHorin, Kenny Larsen, Carl Reinesch and Marc Sperber - completed the Survival of the Shawangunks, or SOS - a 50-mile, eight-stage wilderness adventure race in Ulster County that includes one cycling segment, four trail-running segments and three open-water lake swims.

The Motivation:"SOS is like a cult race, not a standard triathlon," said Heller, a sales manager. "I think it attracts a more adventurous type of athlete." That would describe Heller and his friends from the informal 12-year-old group of about 20 who are less interested in fast times than in doing something new and exciting.

"We look for unusual races to do," Heller said. "We also have a bit of a softball team mentality: While we love to compete, we are really more about the after-party."

The Experience: SOS has been called 50 Miles of Scenic Suffering. Heller's description of one segment is daunting: "You bike the first 30 miles, and five miles of it is up this tremendous grade. You come off the bike, then run four miles up a mountain. Then you swim 1.1 miles in the most frigid lake you can imagine!"

If that doesn't sound like fun, Heller insists it was an enjoyable experience. "It's a lot of friendly competition," he said. "There's a lot of smack talking. A lot of it is to see where each other are on the course and who's ahead."

Or who has an embarrassing moment. During a run segment after one of the swim legs, Heller said, one teammate (no name mentioned), disappeared into the woods. "He must have swallowed too much lake water," Heller said.

Kathy Keilitz, 42,

Bay ShoreThe Adventure: The Ironman World Triathlon course, Kona, Hawaii

As part of a trip to Hawaii in October, Keilitz worked as a volunteer at the finish line of the Ironman World Triathlon Championships in Kona. In the days that followed, she ran, swam and biked the course, too - on her own time.

The Motivation: In January she had been laid off from her job as a vice president for CA. As she tried to re-evaluate "where my life was going," she said, she decided to take "the one special kind of trip you're not able to do when you're working 9 to 5."

For Keilitz - who's now studying to be a health and nutrition counselor - that meant Kona, for the Ironman - with its 1.2-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. But participants must qualify and "only the best can do that," said Keilitz, who describes herself as a "front of the back of the pack" competitor.

The Experience: On the day of the race, Oct. 9, she worked as a volunteer, one of about two dozen who draped medals on the 1,771 competitors who crossed the finish line.

"You see people totally exhausted, and you put that finisher's medal on their neck and for that moment they're rejuvenated," said Keilitz. "It was just incredible."

During the next week, she biked, swam and ran the Ironman course - no medal for her - and also managed to engage in other adventures, including a two-mile open-water swim in Kona's Kealakekua Bay.

"For me it was a big deal," she said of the swim to a monument to 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook. "I never swam that far before in open water without a wet suit."

Jules Winkler, 79, Medford

The Adventure: Athens Classic Marathon, Greece

On Oct. 31 Winkler ran the Athens Classic Marathon, which marked the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon.

The Motivation: Winkler had run a marathon on each of the seven continents-including Antarctica in 2001 and Australia, his seventh continent, in 2006 - and was looking for a new 26.2-mile challenge.

He decided he wanted to be part of the Athens event that would be honoring the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), which led to the legend that a Greek messenger named Pheidippides ran from the Plains of Marathon to Athens to deliver word of the Greeks' victory over the invading Persians - and dropped dead of exhaustion. The incident inspired organizers of the modern Olympics to add a long-distance run to the events, which, in turn, led to the 26.2-mile runs we know as marathons.

The Experience: Winkler, a retired diamond setter, was the fourth oldest of 12,500 finishers. He said the course "was tougher than running the Great Wall of China" - something he did in 2002. (Athens was Winkler's first marathon in four years, after his recuperation from surgery for a torn foot muscle.) His finish time was 6 hours, 41 minutes. And while that was almost 41/2 hours slower than the winner's, Winkler got a hero's welcome at Athens' Panathinaikon Stadium, site of the original 1896 Olympics and also where the 2004 Olympic marathon finished.

"There were still thousands of people in the stands," said Winkler, among them his wife, Maureen. "They were roaring and cheering as I finished. I felt like somebody really important."

Shari Zagorski, 44, Oceanside

The Adventure: Long Island Greenbelt Trail - all 32 miles of it

On May 23 Zagorski hiked the entire length of the trail - a trek that took 10 hours.

The Motivation: For the fourth straight year, Zagorski led a group as part of a Hike for Life fundraising effort for the New York Blood Center. "We try to make it a fun adventure," said the single mother of two.

The Greenbelt Trail runs from Heckscher State Park to Sunken Meadow State Park and traverses a patchwork of county and state parks along the way. While the trail is popular with local walkers, very few attempt the entire 32 miles.

The Experience:Starting at about 6:50 a.m., Zagorski - in shorts, hiking boots and a light daypack - led 22 hikers north from Heckscher - a route designed to save the hilly North Shore stretch of the trail until last.

What they encountered is the ecological diversity of Long Island. "You start out on the South Shore, so it's flat for the first 12 miles," said Zagorski, who works part-time as a surgical assistant. "Then all of a sudden it's the moraine, and you're up and down the hills." There's where some hikers fell back - "where we separate the billy goats from the people who are just walking," she said. And then came "my favorite part of the trail for sure, from Nissequogue up. It's just so beautiful."

The hikers reached the bluffs of Sunken Meadow at about 4:50 p.m. - just about 10 hours to the minute after they had started, a pace of about three miles an hour. It was the fastest time in the four years the Hike for Life has been held.

Their reward was a sight they wouldn't soon forget: "You're overlooking the Sound," she said. "It's a beautiful view."

That was followed by a picnic - and the satisfaction of having raised $5,000 for the Blood Center.