Tufts Runner Wins 'Strides'
By Jack Graves

(Aug. 27, 2009)    Laurie Carson, who four years ago founded the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, was happy to tell the more than 1,000 walkers and runners in Sunday’s three-mile Strides for Life race in Southampton that the event had in its four years raised $1.6 million dollars for the foundation’s work.

    Many of the participants ran in memory of a family member or friend who had died from the disease, including the honorary chairwoman, Christy Turlington, whose father, she said, had died of lung cancer.

    Though she looks like a runner, Turlington, who is married to the film director and actor Edward Burns, said she just jogged. She and a friend, Nicolas Newbold, who’s training for the New York City Marathon, ran the lap around Lake Agawam together and finished, both looking strong, in the top third. Newbold said after he crossed the line that he intended to go out on a 20-mile training run later that morning.

    Carson said that Strides for Life, though it attracts some serious competitors, was “more of a fun run. It’s a family-friendly event meant to bring people together for a cause.”

    Joey Smith, a 26-year-old lung cancer survivor who’d made the trip up from Florida, cut the ribbon and ran the course.

    As of Monday, the event had raised around $330,000, “though we’re still counting,” said Carson.

    Brendan Blaney, 19, a student at Tufts University, where he competes in cross-country and track, was the winner, in 17 minutes and 20 seconds.

    He had run the race twice before, with his father, he said, finishing “in the top 10 or 15.”

    “I’m in much better shape now,” said the New York City resident, who weekends in Southampton.

    Carson’s niece, Kingsley Carson, also of New York City, a former diver at Yale, was the runner-up and the first woman in 17:45.

    She usually finished second, she said, to Tara Farrell, one of the Gubbins Running Ahead store managers, “but she had a baby.”

    Blaney, she said, had outkicked her at the end.

    The event drew 24 teams that solicited pledges for the foundation. Team J.P.S., a group of 12, was declared the team winner after the aggregate times had been tallied. Steve Feldman was the under-18 winner. Other than that, there were no other age categories.

    Sarah Adams of Quogue and Valley Stream, whose late father, Dr. George Sheehan, did much to popularize long-distance running in this country, said she had gone in search of her father’s Manhattan College teammate, Andy Neidnig, in Sag Harbor around the time of his 90th birthday last month, but had missed him at the Blue Sky restaurant and bar to which he is said to repair daily at 4.

    She was glad to hear that, following Ellen’s Run, Neidnig had said his legs seemed to want to run again.

    “There’s a 90-year-old in Valley Stream, Bob Benson, and recently the running club he belongs to held a one-mile race for him. He started two minutes ahead of everyone else, and you weren’t allowed to pass him. We should do something like that for Andy, maybe at the HarborFest 5K” in Sag Harbor on Sept. 13.