by Linda Delmonico Prussen

Merrick resident Chris Mammone, 26, has his sights set on the 2012 Olympic Trials and prominent Long Island running authorities say he’s on the right track to get there.

Mike Polansky, president of the Greater Long Island Running Club, said, “Chris is one of the fastest runners currently training on Long Island. Whatever races he’s in, he wins.”

Alex Cuozzo, who coaches Mr. Mammone as a member of the elite racing team The Bellmore Striders, agreed. [For information on the Striders’ July 6 run in Bellmore see page 4.] He cited both Mr. Mammone’s tenacity as well as his game-day performances as valuable intangibles that can’t be coached. Mr. Cuozzo said race preparations for distance runners like Mr. Mammone start four to five months before an event.

Chris Mammone

Mr. Cuozzo explained, “Each workout is a link in the chain.” It’s a chain that Mr. Mammone respects. Mr. Cuozzo said, “Chris comes to every practice prepared to do whatever is needed to win. He’s got a lot of tenacity. It’s something I haven’t seen in many years.”

Ironically, as hard as Mr. Mammone works in practice, his game-day performances outshine even his best workouts. Mr. Cuozzo said, “He’s definitely a game-day guy. He’ll perform at or above his level at competitions.”

Mr. Mammone said he thrives on the excitement he feels during a race. “I run workouts that are OK, decent, but on race day I’m a completely different person,” he said.

He recognizes the nerves he feels before the gun goes off, but knows he can make the tension-inducing serge of adrenaline work to his advantage. “There are times that I warm up and I feel absolutely horrible, but I know it’ll be a great race.”

The winding road to racing
While long and lean, Mr. Mammone is also muscular and doesn’t possess the super-thin physique common with many long-distance runners. He said others have commented that he isn’t built like a traditional distance runner, and he attributes some of it to having played a variety of sports for many years before starting to run.

Mr. Mammone played football ­– which he loved – in seventh, eighth and ninth grades. He played soccer from the age of four until seventh grade, and he spent a couple of years playing roller hockey, basketball and lacrosse.

He attributes the start of his running career to his older brother Mike. In the spring of Mr. Mammone’s freshman year, Mike, two years his senior, told him to give spring track a try. It turned out that Mr. Mammone was a natural runner and, while it quickly became his favorite sport, he wasn’t quite ready to give up football.

When the fall season of his sophomore year came Mr. Mammone tried to run cross-country track and play on his Valley Stream High School football team. It didn’t last long, as conflicts quickly arose.

He soon found out that all the football games were on Saturday and so were the big cross-country events. Though he had been undecided on which fall sport he’d pursue for most of the summer, he told his football coach, “I won’t miss a race for a football game.”

After speaking with his coach Mr. Mammone realized, much to his football coach’s dismay, he had made his decision. Running won. And Mr. Mammone continued to win, too.

A team player in an individual sport
Bellmore Striders teammate Noni Accetturi said of Mr. Mammone, “He’s a fierce competitor and he’s a real team player.”

She should know.

Mr. Mammone anchored her mixed relay team in the Bethpage three-by-two miles relay. The most impressive part? He anchored her team after running as starter for the men’s team in the very same race!

The race consists of three two-mile legs. Mr. Mammone started with the baton on his men’s team. He handed off the baton, tore off his first race number to reveal a second race number beneath.

Then, with a 12-minute break while the second leg of the race took place, he got in position to receive the baton for the third and last leg of Ms. Accetturi’s mixed male/female relay team.

The men’s team Mr. Mammone started on finished first. The mixed team Mr. Mammone anchored came in second. And, while Mr. Mammone couldn’t quite catch up to the team he ran as starter for, he said, “I ran faster in my second leg than I did in the first one!”

Getting more done—with less time Mr. Mammone enthusiastically subscribes to the proverb, “You want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” He fills his day with training, working two jobs and, in September, he plans to return to Long Island University, C.W. Post campus, to pursue his graduate degree in education.

Mr. Mammone is head track coach for the girls track program at Kennedy High School, where he coaches fall cross-country, winter and spring track. He also works with special-needs students through BOCES in Wantagh.

He works out three times a week for two and a half hours a night with his team, The Bellmore Striders, and runs on his own between 75-80 miles a week.

With so much going on in his life one wonders what goes through his mind during long training runs. “Sometimes I’m clear-minded,” he offered. “Other times I’m thinking of 100 different things. It’s a way to gather my thoughts and clear my mind. It’s like therapy.”

It seems to be an effective therapy, as Mr. Mammone said he strives on keeping active and finds his commitment to running is stronger when he knows he only has a certain amount of time to train. The busier he is, he said, the more he gets done: “If you have all the time in the world, it’ll never get done.”

Impressive stats and future goals
Mr. Mammone’s past accomplishments are listed prominently on the home page for the Bellmore Striders. He set a new Long Island Track and Field (LITF) record at the 2009 Penn Relays Olympic Developmental 5,000m. 

He won the 2009 LITF 15K Championship at Kings Park and set a course record. He won Rob’s Run in Syosset last November, a 5K. He won the 2008 Mineola Mustang 5K, setting an LITF and course record. He won the 2008 VA Hospital 4K cross-country race, and he won the 2008 LITF 8K, cross-country race. He also recently won the New Hyde Park 8K on Sunday, June 7.

Other distinguished accolades include being selected as the 2007 and 2008 LITF Open Long Distance Runner Athlete of the Year.

Mr. Mammone’s priorities are clear, as is his passion for the sport. Racing comes first. While he is pacing himself for 2012, the only subject he wavers on is his distance. He feels good at 5,000 meters, approximately 3.1 miles, but doesn’t rule out 10,000 meters as being his distance or even a marathon, having won the Long Island Half-Marathon in 2006.

His dedication to his sport is unwavering, and he finds inspiration from a number of sources including his coach.

“Alex is a big motivator for me,” he said. He also finds inspiration from the young athletes he coaches as he strives to set a good example.

A true distance runner, he’s committed to the long haul and always wants to improve. “I’m still getting faster than I ever raced before, so why should I want to stop?”

[The annual Bellmore Striders Indpendence Day run will take place in Bellmore, beginning at 9 a.m., with the starting line at Centre Avenue and Pettit Avenue, and the finish line at Smith Street, west of Bedford Avenue.]