Bethpage native wins Long Island Marathon

Scott Bickard, a Bethpage native, ran the Long Island Marathon in high school just for fun.

Eighteen years later, at age 37, Bickard ran this race again. And this time he came out on top.

Bickard recorded an unofficial time of 2:38:16.98 and was the overall winner on Sunday at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

“When I was younger, this was always the big deal,” he said. “It’s always in the newspaper. The L.I. Marathon is important to me. It’s special since I’m from here, and it feels awesome to be a part of Long Island history.”

During the long wait to return to the Long Island Marathon, this wasn’t his first attempt to get back on this course. The past few years, Bickard looked to participate in the race, but his body didn’t fully cooperate until now.

“When I finally started training for the marathon, I kept on getting hurt right before,” Bickard said. “So this finally worked out health-wise.

“I always liked doing the shorter runs, but I really wanted to move up from the 5Ks and 10Ks.”

Bickard described his approach as “not too crazy” and said he’s been running, but getting into marathon-level shape took him three to four months.

He ran up to 80 miles a week to prepare for the Long Island Marathon. He also did a couple of marathon-style workouts per week leading up to the event.

He ran track at Bethpage High School and continued his athletic career at Hamilton College. As a senior at Hamilton in 2011, Bickard set a school record in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 31:36.70.

He received All-NESCAC honors in his senior year at Hamilton. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in psychology and earned his master’s degree in secondary English at SUNY New Paltz School of Education.

Bickard now lives in Bellerose, Queens, but still is on Long Island often. Since January 2022, he has been the intramural sports and recreation coordinator at SUNY Old Westbury.

Along with his responsibilities as a coordinator, he is the interim head coach of the women’s flag football team — and his players may be in for a surprise.

“I don’t even know if they knew I ran in this marathon,” Bickard said with a laugh. “But I got to tell them. I’ll see them next week. That’ll be good.”

Grace Garvey, 25, of Manhattan finished first on the women’s side of the marathon. She recorded an unofficial time of 3:06:55.08.

The crowd roared as Garvey crossed the finish line.

“I was o be exactly what she needed.

“I actually scheduled a marathon for the weekend of my best friend’s wedding, and I had to defer,” Garvey said.

“So I needed to find a marathon that was really close to me and close to the date I wanted, because I was ready to run. I really wanted to PR [personal record].”

“I searched for like two confused why everyone was cheering for me and yelling at me and why the bikes were leading me,” Garvey said. “I honestly didn’t know I was in first. But to be able to do that, I’m really happy.”

Garvey originally is from Virginia. She ran track at Nelson County High School in Lovingston and later graduated from James Madison University.

Now living in Manhattan, she works in advertising as an account executive. She was not a competitive runner in college, but after she graduated, she started taking it seriously.

This was her fourth marathon, but this one in particular wasn’t always the plan. It turned out thours until I found that this was a really good marathon to run for fast times to PR.”

Garvey crossed the line and headed to the medical tent to cool down, but just minutes later, she was celebrating with her mother, Page, and it was all smiles.

“This is just really cool, and I wasn’t expecting that,” Garvey said. “I’m very thankful and really grateful to be healthy and able to do that.”