Pandemic Papers: An interview with Omar Perez (Class of 2016)

This Pandemic Papers interview, with Omar Perez (Class of 2016), may take the unofficial record for lag time between questions emailed (last summer) and responses submitted (last week). That’s OK and that’s understandable. It’s been a busy few months for Omar, especially considering that he moved away from his lifelong home in Poughkeepsie to Norwalk, CT, with his longtime girlfriend Catherine Ferreri. We’ve known Omar since he was a kid. His dad, Epi, is a longtime Marist employee and was talking up Omar as a future member of our team from the time Omar was a basketball-obsessed freshman at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie. Epi was and is a proud father, and he turned out to be 100 percent right about Omar: He was a great and loyal member of our team, and he did some pretty good running while he was here. Fun fact about Epi: Back when I was working at the Poughkeepsie Journal, I was assigned a story on how trout streams were stocked in advance of fishing season. I reached out to our outdoors columnist, Bill Conners, for sources to interview for the story, folks who volunteered their time to dump buckets of hatchery-raised fish into local streams. He gave me Epi’s name and number, we had a great conversation and he was quoted extensively in my story. It wasn’t until a few months later that we made the connection on campus at Marist.

Omar is the son of immigrants and as I said above, he has made his parents proud with his hard work both on and off the track and the grass. He was a strong student at Marist and went on to get a post-graduate degree at Stevens a few years ago. And despite his humility, his post-collegiate running and racing has been solid to strong. Yes, I do send him snarky texts, goading him to train more and not be so enamored with track workouts (that post earlier in the month was pretty much addressed to him!). After a bit of a lull in his training in 2020, he seems eager and invigorated to go after it in 2021 and beyond, and we look forward to what he can accomplish on the roads.

After the initial interview questions were sent out to Omar, I sent him a follow-up email regarding racial injustices, “running while black” and other topics that were so prevalent in the post-George Floyd days last spring and summer. In his recent email reply, he addressed these topics passionately and with great honesty. I am only using a portion of what he wrote. The omitted stuff was deeply personal (to him and to me) and I’m glad he shared it with me, but I didn’t think it was necessary to share it with the broader audience of this blog. Those post-George Floyd emotions were and are real, and we must always consider them and let them guide our thoughts and actions moving forward. We are grateful for Omar’s presence in our program. He is a true Forever Fox and I know he will continue to make us proud well into adulthood.

You pretty much grew up at Marist, with your dad working here your whole life. When did your parents move to the United States and when did Epi start working at Marist? Have you lived in Poughkeepsie your whole life and were you born here?

Both my parents immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, my dad in 1984 and my mom in 1988. They both grew up in small villages in the Estado de Puebla but didn’t meet until they were both in the States. They ended up meeting each other through a mutual friend in Poughkeepsie.

Yeah, I have lived in Poughkeepsie for most of my life but recently (end of August 2020) moved to Norwalk, CT with Catherine. She is a middle school science teacher in Westport, CT and I work as a water/wastewater engineer in Rye Brook, NY, so Norwalk is a shorter commute for both of us. 

When and why did you start running and what got you involved in the sport?

To be honest, I never thought I would end up running. My sister, who is five years older than me, introduced me to the sport while I was in middle school. She convinced my friend and me to sign up for the Brag Rights to Boardman (a local race that used to be hosted by Lourdes) kid's mile and I hated every step of it. I swore that I would never run again.

Going into high school, I ate, breathed and slept basketball. My friends and I were constantly playing in the backyard and in various leagues throughout the area. My mom thought that it would be a great idea for me to run cross country in the fall so that I would be in shape for basketball in the winter and I agreed. During my freshman year, I ended up breaking into the top five and was the second fastest freshman (right behind Charlie Ropes) on the team. I thoroughly enjoyed the team camaraderie and my individual success. I decided to pursue the sport further and run spring track. As I progressed through high school, I realized that I was a mediocre basketball player and a much better runner. So, going into junior year, I decided to run all three seasons and I do not regret it!

Fun Fact: I tried out and made the basketball team my senior year and the coach was shocked when I told him that I only tried out just to see if I could make the team. Either way, I wouldn't have started and probably would have gotten garbage minutes.

What other sports did you play growing up/in high school and when did you decide to focus solely on running?

Since my father worked all the time and my mother didn’t have a means of transportation, I really didn’t play sports when I was younger since I had no way of getting to/from practices and games. But once we moved to where my parents currently reside, I joined the local Little League and CYO league as I was able to carpool with the other neighborhood kids. 

You had a pretty strong running career at OLL. What are some of your best memories and highlights of your time at Lourdes?

I loved my time at OLL as I formed a lot of lifelong friendships and made some lasting memories. Some of the top memories that come to mind are the weekly XC pasta parties and The Running School (a summer XC camp). During my junior and senior year, my teammate and summer training partner would host pasta parties at his house every Friday. They were a lot of fun as it was another opportunity for the team to get together and hangout. We would usually play some sort of outdoor game before we feasted on an absurd amount of pasta! Also, the summer leading into my junior and senior year, a few of us attended The Running School for a week. Just like the name states, it was a camp designed for runners. It provided us an opportunity to train with other high school athletes, learn from experts, and most importantly have fun! It was something that we all looked forward to.

I’ll always remember how my class helped develop the running program at Lourdes. Before we arrived, Lourdes was never competitive and was lucky to have a male runner sub 20 at Bowdoin Park. Charlie, Keaton, Andrew and myself helped bring Lourdes to new heights. At Sectionals my junior year, we placed third right behind powerhouse programs Byram Hills and Pearl River and fifth my senior year (they eliminated Class AA so the competition in Class B was even tougher). Coach Myers said that this is the highest Lourdes had placed at Sectionals at the time. After we graduated, it was awesome to see a new generation of runners come through and compete at a high level. Many of these runners went on to compete for great college programs (Princeton, Fordham, and Manhattan). One of these runners even ended running for Marist (cough, cough, Zack Ropes).

Fun/best fact: I met my girlfriend of nine years during winter track my senior year of high school. Yeah, I would say running has given me more than I have asked for. P.S. Catherine made me include this! (Editor’s note: Come on, man. Catherine should NOT have “made” you include this! You’re a lucky dude and you KNOW it!) 

With your dad working here at Marist, was it a given that you would attend Marist or did you consider other schools? 

To be honest, I probably would have gone to Dutchess Community College if my dad didn't work at Marist. My family and I wouldn't have been able to afford to pay for an education from a four-year institution. So I am thankful and blessed that Marist allows employees’ children to attend for free.  

What was your major at Marist and how has it shaped your career path?

I graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science and obtained my M.Eng in Environmental Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. However, when I first arrived at Marist, I had no idea of what I actually wanted to do career wise. Doctor Gagnon, as I'm sure you remember, tried to convince me to pursue a PhD in Toxicology or Epidemiology. At first, I was all about it. I worked on various research projects with her and Doctor Feldman, attended conferences and spent countless hours in Donnelly. But going into senior year, I realized that I really didn't want to pursue a PhD in either of those fields because I really wasn't interested.  Doctor Feldman told me to look into graduate school for Environmental Engineering since he thought it would be a good fit for me. Next thing I know, I returned for a fifth year to complete the required prerequisites for graduate school.

You had a good, solid running career at Marist. What are your fondest memories and highlights of your career with the Running Red Foxes?

To be honest, I never really thought that I would have achieved as much as I did during my time at Marist. I was an average to above average high school runner that worked really hard so I’m glad that my hard work translated. But man, I have so many memories from college that it’s hard to pick just one.  

--XC my junior year was a lot of fun for various reasons. Butti, Tino, Charlie and I all worked out at 2 p.m. due to our class schedules and it was a lot of fun to train/workout with these guys on a weekly basis. We really pushed each other in workouts and it showed as we all had great success on the grass. That season, Butti and I had a rivalry as we would be neck to neck with each other in a majority of the races. At IC4As, Butti beat me and won our competition (I believe he won 4-3 ?).

--I’ll never forget when we placed 2nd at MAAC’s my senior year. It was a bittersweet moment since the team struggled my sophomore and junior year. I can still remember MAACs my sophomore year (at VCP), when we placed 6th. We were all extremely bummed that we ended our streak of second-place finishes. So it was great to place 2nd my senior year as the team was extremely excited since we didn’t think that we would place that high. I don’t even think you thought that we could have beaten some of those MAAC teams that we did. 

--I can’t forget about my first ever college race, Central Connecticut 2012. This was my first attempt at the 8k distance and I wasn't sure on how to race it since I was used to running 5k's in high school. But I told myself prior to the race, just don't come in last. The gun goes off and I find myself with Charlie, Hughes and Posch for most of the race. To be honest, I was running on pure adrenaline and surprised myself when I PR through 5k. I kept the momentum going and ended up placing fourth on the team (split squad) that day.

Disclaimer - I have always liked XC a lot more than track so that’s why my memories are XC related.

You've done some pretty strong post-collegiate running. Talk about that, your highlights and what are your future goals on the roads (once we can return to racing)?

I wouldn’t consider my post-collegiate running to be anything special as my times are mediocre and could be a lot better if I trained. Until recently, I was a weekend warrior and would try to run fast. It worked for a bit as I was able to run 1:17 for a half marathon (2018 Fall Foliage) and 2:52 for a full marathon (2019 Newport) but as you have stated numerous times to me, I actually need to train if I want to improve on these times. In October 2020, I came across a running coach on Instagram who’s training philosophy appealed to me so I decided to give it a shot. Currently, I am averaging 50-55 mile/week (with two workouts) with the intent of getting up to 70-80 miles/week. For now, I’m looking to step away from the longer distance races and try to nail some fast 5k’s and 10k’s. My long-term goals are to break my college 5k and 10k prs at some point. 

How have you and your family managed the pandemic? How has it changed your work life, running life, personal life? Where do you see this thing going short- and long-term?

In regards to the pandemic, my family and I have been lucky not to have been affected too much by it.  The only real thing that has changed is our work schedules/location. Marist created two work shifts to lessen the amount of people on campus so my father now works the night shift. My sister and I both work from home and for a while were working remotely from my parent’s home. So it was always interesting when we were both on calls. But other than that, not much has changed. 

As I have asked everyone in this series, what message can you relay to our recently graduated seniors who lost so much with the shuttering of on-ground classes and activities at Marist?

I know that you sent me these questions a while ago, but I still feel for the seniors that lost their final outdoor track season and for the current seniors. All I can say is keep your head up and stay positive. I know it sucks but you’ll still have plenty of opportunities to chase fast times as an alumni! 

With all the racial strife and tension, especially last summer, talk about how that has impacted your life, your family’s life and your running.

Moral of the story, I know I’m brown and I know I had a better upbringing than most. But I see the struggle that some of my cousins face each day. They’re overlooked for certain job positions or people assume that they work certain jobs because of their color. My cousins and I have to work much harder than whites to make it in life.

In regards to running, yeah it’s frustrating to look down and see that I’m one of the few people of color on a starting line. Do I think that schools can do a better job of recruiting minorities? Yeah, but I also don’t think minorities have the same opportunities as white people in high school. Many times, minorities have to work an after-school job to help their family pay their bills so they don’t have the opportunity to run XC or track in high school. Also, how many times have you thought about recruiting a person of color? Probably not that much. I’m not picking at you, it’s just a fact.

Final thought, thank you Pete for providing me the chance to compete in college. It will always be something that I will cherish and be thankful for.