Sixty-one youngsters in second through sixth grade turned out for the first Bonac Bolts youth track club’s practice Sunday afternoon at East Hampton High School. The turnout may have numbered fewer than had showed up for last year’s inaugural session, but they more than made up for it in enthusiasm — the kids couldn’t be kept from running.
But first, Dylan Cashin and Liam Fowkes, the club’s founders, and their assistants, Francesca Frasco of Shelter Island, and Colin Veit of Port Jefferson, had them stretch, do warmup drills, and split themselves up into younger and older groups before running laps around the school’s 400-meter track.
Lauren Ruiz, who was there with her husband, Rafi, and their daughters, Vada, 10, and Zoey, 12, said that she thinks “running builds confidence, especially among girls. . . . It’s a group thing, something you can do together. . . . There’s a sense of community.”
And the Bolts’ goal, which is to have its charges participate in the popular May Day 5K that Cashin and her fellow cross-country and track teammate Ryleigh O’Donnell oversee at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach, “gives these kids something to work toward,” said Ruiz, a long-distance runner herself who ran the New York City Marathon in November and is to run in the United Airlines Half-Marathon in the city on St. Patrick’s Day.
“I love it that they’re enjoying what I enjoy,” she added as Zoey and Vada approached.
“Not too hot, is it?” she called out to Zoey as she passed by. Zoey said it wasn’t, though without a doubt Sunday was warmer than it’s been here in a long while, attracting soccer, football, and lacrosse players to the turf field that lies within the track.
“What is the most important thing we’ve learned?” Fowkes, who’s to attend the University of Wisconsin in the fall, asked his fifth and sixth graders after they’d looped around a few times. Answering his question, he said, “The first thing we’ve learned is that our first lap should not be our fastest lap. We’ve got to learn to pace ourselves, to go out slow and, hopefully, get faster and finish strong. We want to keep on building stamina. Now, let’s stretch some more. . . .”
After that, he sent them out on what was to be a cool-down lap, their seventh of the session. “Slow! Slow!” he called out to the leaders as they began to sprint away.
Word about the Bolts had definitely gotten out, said Fowkes, who added that while last year’s opening day crowd numbered around 75, “they were less motivated,” perhaps owing to the isolating effects attending the Covid pandemic. “Running, you know, is not only good for you physically, but also mentally. I guarantee you they’re going to feel great afterward, and this is only the first week.”
Asked if he were going to be on the school’s spring track team, Fowkes, who has run on East Hampton’s cross-country and track teams in the past, and who just finished a taxing basketball season, said, “No . . . I’m going to enjoy the last part of my senior year . . . and doing this is part of it.”
Jenn Fowkes, Liam’s mother, who was, along with Caroline Cashin and Sharon McCobb, at the sign-up desk adjacent to the track, said the Old Montauk Athletic Club-sponsored endeavor had the full support of Geary Gubbins of the Gubbins Running Ahead stores. “He’s giving us some Bonac Bolt sweatshirts that we can hand out at the [2 p.m. Sunday] practices. . . . Geary’s been super supportive.”
Later, Gubbins, interviewed at the Park Place store in East Hampton, said he was “super proud of Dylan and Liam. I don’t know if they really understand how great it is what they’re doing by getting kids interested in running, which promotes health and wellness, and is good for your brain.”
“Pacing is the first thing the kids need to learn, but there’s a lot more to it than that. There’s a lot that goes into training . . . stretching, how to warm up, how to cool down . . . how to build up stamina . . . and working as a team, especially when you’re handing off the baton in a relay. Running’s not an individual sport, it’s a team sport. Being a local runner, I’m beyond impressed by Dylan and Liam’s maturity and their enthusiasm. I love it that they’re training these kids for a 5K, so they can do it and finish and surprise themselves by how fast they’ve gone. . . . I’m so proud of them.”