BY KAREN BOSSICK
Alan Pesky gets around on legs that will be 84 years old next month. And his wife Wendy’s legs have seen 76 good years.
But that was no obstacle when it came to taking part in this week’s New York City Marathon to raise money for the learning center they’d built in their son’s memory.
“We were told we were the oldest couple among the more than 51,000 runners and walkers,” said Wendy. “And we were the first charity from Idaho to have a team.”
The Peskys took part in the marathon along with Erin Finnegan, a physical therapist at St. Luke’s Wood River and a fitness instructor at Zenergy; Dr. Richard Delgado, who practices internal medicine at St. Luke’s Wood River; Ketchum resident Elizabeth Herrick, who assists with Wow-Students in the Wood River Valley; Boise lawyer Geoff McConnell, Lauren McLean, and Chris Cole a friend of the Pesky’s son Lee, who died at age 30 of a brain tumor.
The Marathon happened to be on the 22nd anniversary of Lee’s passing.
The Peskys, who live in Sun Valley much of the year, have long watched the marathon from their New York apartment, which happens to be at the finish line. Alan ran it when he was 47 and 48, then walked it with his daughter Heidi for his 80th birthday.
Wendy ended up joining him this year when Heidi was forced to bow out.
The two organized the team when they learned that a friend—one of the men who helped start the New York City Marathon--had organized an Onward Shay! Boise Marathon in honor of his wife—Boise native Shay Hirsch—who died a few years ago of cancer.
“We decided if he had come to Boise to do a marathon, we should take a group from Idaho to New York City,” Wendy said.
Each runner was required to raise at least $3,500 in pledges for the Lee Pesky Learning Center. And in September Alan and Wendy began training by hiking Proctor Loop and trails in Adams Gulch. They walked along the Hudson River, in Central Park and in Nantucket when they went back East.
Wearing “Running for Learning” shirts, team members assembled at the startling line, listening to the announcements, which were made in English, Spanish, German, Italian and other languages.
Alan and Wendy chose to walk the route, which put them in the last wave which started at 11 a.m. That was two hours after the elite runners had taken off and just 10 minutes before the first Kenyan would cross the finish line.
“The excitement was unbelievable—we felt like foreigners in our own country,” said Wendy. “And we could feel the vibration of the feet pounding the pavement as the runners took off.”
The temperature was in the low 60s, but rain made it damp and cold as the Peskys walked the first two miles from the start over the Verrazano Bridge.
“It was a thrill for me to start at Staten Island and walk through each of the five New York boroughs of Staten Island, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan,” said Wendy. “Each neighborhood has different characters from young working class Italians to the very religious Hasidic Jews. And people in all of them came out to cheer us on, give us water and bananas, shake our hands and give us high fives. Their enthusiasm revved up our energy, helped to get us through it, even though the weather was miserable.”
The marathon was much changed from 37 years ago when Alan first ran it. Then, there were fewer than 10,000 runners, he said. And there was no security.
This year police and Army guardsmen were visible at every phase along the way. Runners had to pass through checkpoints set up like airport security. They had to carry everything in plastic see-through bags. And no one was permitted in without a runner’s number.
Snipers stood on top of buildings.
The Peskys walked 18 miles, crossing the 59th Street Bridge before they finally decided to cash it in. Wendy was hobbling from horrendous blisters and Alan was suffering from sharp pains in his heel and leg.
They had been out nearly five hours and it was starting to get dark.
“Training at the high altitude of Sun Valley helped in that I never got winded. But walking the soft dirt trails may have contributed to my blisters since I wasn’t used to walking on pavement,” Wendy said.
The team raised $35,000 for Lee Pesky Learning Center, which the Peskys founded in 1997 in honor of their son who had overcome learning difficulties caused by dysgraphia, sometimes called dyslexia.
The center, which is observing its 20th anniversary, has offices in Boise and in Hailey at the Community Campus where clients are given a diagnostic evaluation, counseling and one-on-one instruction to help them overcome learning disabilities.
The center trains teachers to work with those with learning disabilities. And its research scientist Evelyn Johnson is working with the National Institutes of Health on a project to identify dyslexia and other learning problems in preschoolers.
The Peskys don’t regret a moment of the five hours they spent in the marathon.
“We gave it our best effort,” said Wendy. “And we were thrilled with the day. I was born in New York but I’ve never seen Brooklyn on my feet the way I saw it this one day. Not only does the marathon cross through all five boroughs but it brings the city together in an amazing exciting way.”
DID YOU KNOW?
An impressive 98.9 percent of runners and walkers—or 50,766—crossed the finish line in the 2017 New York City Marathon. Counting all the finishers over the race’s 47-year history, there are now 1,176,542 NYC marathon finishers. That’s more than those living in San Jose—America’s 10th largest city.
Only 55 of 127 entrants finished the first New York City Marathon held entirely in Central Park
All 50 states were represented, in addition to runners from Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C. and 139 counties.