While David Rothman defended his title in the 23rd annual race conducted by the South Nassau Communities Hospital through the streets of Oceanside, Philip Hamid placed 19th in a time of 22:10.
Hamid, 54, originally from Guyana is now a United States citizen and resides in Richmond Hills, New York.
“Guyana is a very small country and is near the Atlantic Ocean,” said Hamad.
“I used to run when I was in high school in Guyana. That was about 20 years ago. My specialties have been 400, 800, and 1500 meters.
“It was a lot of fun and competitive when I was running in Guyana. We ran on the grass. We didn’t wear a lot of clothing and we didn’t have a coach,” said the Guyanese national.
Hamid is concentrating on running and really wants to do well. His personal best time for a 5K is 22:04 in a race which was part of a series on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn.
“It was on a breezy course overlooking the Verazzano Bridge and you can’t get better than that,” he recalled.
Hamid came to the USA in 1996 when he was 30 years old. He gave up cricket and later joined the Greater Long Island Running Club.
He joined a fitness club in Jamaica, Queens, but it soon got boring. He ran his first 5K in 2012 in Westbury and was timed in 27 minutes. He made his debut in the Oceanside race last week but was not satisfied with his time. The course was nice, scenic and shady. He finished third in his age category.
His next race will be in Inwood, Long Island in about three weeks and then he will run a 10K in December. Next year he will try the half marathon and during the winter he will run in Forest Park.
During the day he is a real estate broker in Richmond Hills and is looking into coaching for the future, possibly starting this occupation in the area.
There were 317 finishers in the annual race.
