Barrett Kemp finishes second in Long Island half-marathon

Barrett Kemp wasn’t even sure he’d be able to run Sunday. After passing out recently while on a run, Kemp spent five days last week at Stony Brook University Medical Center where he underwent tests on his heart. He was released on Tuesday, deemed perfectly healthy and cleared to run.

Five days later, Kemp placed second in the Long Island half-marathon in one hour, thirteen minutes, four seconds.

“I’m just happy that the race happened,” said Kemp, 23, a medical student at Stony Brook University who lives in Centereach.

Originally from Shinglehouse, Pennsylvania, Kemp moved to Long Island last year after graduating from the University of Buffalo where he ran track and cross country. The half marathon was his first race since last spring

“It was amazing,” he said. “It was so much fun. I love racing. Although, I wore flats, which are really rough on your calves. My calves locked up so much at the end of the race. But, it was really nice.”

Kemp said he led for the first 12 miles of the 13.1 mile race, but was caught late by winner Galo Vasquez of New Paltz, who finished in 1:12:24.

“He just had a lot of gas in the tank,” Kemp said. “He ran an amazing race.”

Kemp said he loves living on Long Island and was really impressed with the course.

“I thought it was really nice,” he said. “It was really flat, which was great because where I come from is all hills. There was this one stretch that was a straight three miles and I was going crazy because it was kind of boring. But, other than that, I thought they did a great job. The spectators were great. It was fun.”