Student-Athlete Driven Race, OMAC May Day 5K, Is This Sunday

Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O’Donnell are both highly regarded student-athletes at East Hampton High School. The pair of sophomores have already accomplished quite a bit as the top runners for the girls varsity cross country and track and field teams, but with that success — while also having to stay on top of their studies — comes an enormous amount of pressure, which has led to both girls dealing with anxiety.

About six months or so ago, both Cashin and O’Donnell approached Jennifer Fowkes of the Old Montauk Athletic Club for her help in putting together a local race that would benefit the Family Service League, a group that helps Long Island residents with over 60 social service programs.

With that, the OMAC May Day 5K was born, and its first-ever race will be this Sunday, May 1, “May Day,” at 9 a.m., coinciding with May being Mental Health Awareness Month, at East Hampton’s Main Beach. The plan, the girls said, is to make it an annual race, adding it to the list of road races on the East End.

“Dylan and I have always been very dedicated to sports and it became a very important part of our lives at a young age,” O’Donnell explained. “We have both been very involved with multiple sports but it wasn’t until high school when we realized that running was meant to be our main focus. Ever since our first middle school cross country race together, we knew that running was going to have a big impact on our lives.

“With this, Dylan and I have also struggled with anxiety and it has had a major effect on us and has caused us to look at many aspects of life through a different perspective,” she continued. “Just like Dylan and I support each other with competition and racing, we also have each other’s backs with any kind of mental struggles that we may go through.

“So, in September of this past year, we decided that we truly wanted to make a difference in the community and let others know that it is okay to seek help with any problems that they may go through.”

Fowkes said that both Cashin and O’Donnell have done 100 percent of the leg work, from securing sponsors and donations, to even creating the race logo and T-shirts, and deserve all of the credit in establishing one of East Hampton’s newest races.

Even more amazing is the fact that well before the start of the race, the girls have raised $15,000 for the Family Service League, through sponsorships, donations and entry fees. As of Monday, 365 people have registered for the race — which means all of the aforementioned T-shirts are spoken for, given that the first 350 who signed up got one — and Fowkes is expecting over 500 runners to be in attendance by the time all is said and done.

“This is already a huge success in many ways,” she said. “Dylan and Ryleigh really went out and shook the trees, emailed everybody they knew, and have been really focused from the start. East Hampton Village has been really supportive, and the East Hampton School Board and athletic director have been really supportive with all of the planning and have helped get the word out.”

The 3.1-mile race will follow the old “Georgica loop” that past races have used, starting at East Hampton’s Main Beach, going out to Georgica Beach and back. A yoga instructor will be on hand for a prerace stretch,

Josh Brussell, East Hampton’s varsity boys volleyball head coach who is also a musician, will MC the event and provide the musical talent for the day, and Susan Seekamp will open the Main Beach pavilion directly following the race for those who seek additional food and refreshments.

It’s set to be a fun day, but Cashin and O’Donnell don’t want their main goal to be lost.

“Our main goal with this race is to let the community and others know that it is okay to seek help for the mental struggles that they may go through as it is hard to go through alone,” O’Donnell said. “We want to stop the stigma on mental health and allow individuals to understand that mental struggles are not something that they should be ashamed of or scared to talk about, rather it should be something to embrace and find ways to work through and to make a difference in their own lives.”