At 66, I entered the Morristown Firecracker 5K & Fun Run three years ago, hoping I might place in the old-guys division. My four-day-per week training regimen consisted of walking 18 holes while chasing errant golf shots and lumbering up and down the basketball court while the 40-year-olds zipped past.
Surprisingly, I jogged and walked to a third-place finish. Before I could pat myself on the back, I found a list of age-group winners. I came in third because there were only three entries, shuffling home well over 40 minutes. Atop the printout was Dan Dominie at about 21 minutes. Stunning! This guy is in his 60s and he handles these community runs like Usain Bolt at a middle-school track meet.
Dan who? Is this guy bionic, a brother of the Six Million Dollar Man? He trained at altitude in Kenya? A North Country cyborg?
Dominie, 62, will run the 12th Annual Morristown Firecracker 5K & Fun Run on July 3. You can engrave his name on the first-place medal now.
My old friend Dave Shea, Advance-News sports editor, referred to Dominie as “the ageless wonder.’’
“Coming from a legend like himself,’’ Dominie responded with an aw-shucks attitude, “I feel honored. He has been along for my journey since the beginning, some 50 years ago. If anyone made me a ‘wonder,’ it was Dave.’’
Dominie’s running legend is rooted in a work ethic developed on his parents’ dairy farm in Bucks Bridge, a hamlet south of Madrid. Pat and Bernard Dominie instilled diligence and persistence among their children, assigning chores seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“It was my training grounds to discipline, hard work, and a unique exercise/training program that I still use today,’’ Dominie said.
In high school, he made a deal with his closest sibling in age, Mark, 3 years older.
“My next oldest brother and I had a pact in which he’d cover my immediate chores on the farm until I got home to take over,’’ Dominie recalled, “and I’d do the same for him in his spring activities as a very skilled trapper. Instead of running indoor and outdoor track at school, I road raced in local events instead of (when farming allowed). Worked out pretty darn well.’’
Dominie excelled. He graduated with honors in 1982 from Madrid-Waddington Central School. He also built a reputation as an elite runner. In his senior season, he won the Can-Am Cross-County Invitational in Massena and the Malone Cross-County Invitational (both no longer being held).
“Both were huge events with big fields and great competition for their days.’’
He was inducted in the inaugural class of the Madrid-Waddington Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
Dominie didn’t hang up his sneakers after graduation. His running prowess bloomed into an addiction:
- He averages 32 miles per week, sometimes topping out at 70-plus miles;
- In his 20s and 30s, he ran for 3,962 consecutive days (almost 11 years);
- He has had two shorter streaks of 3 and 6 years, and
- He enters between 20 and 30 events a year, emphasizing North Country races over travel events.
“As a race event organizer for around 40 years myself, I fully understand the need folks want for events and the organizers need in support to an event,’’ Dominie said. “Without these events there are no community runs, social contact, and desire to compete. Running and run/walking events offer a huge array of fitness perks to society, which we need these days.’’
He balanced his running passion against his professional life. After the family farm was sold, he became circulation director for the St. Lawrence Plaindealer in Canton, then was hired as a part-time corrections officer withthe St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office in 1990. He retired in 2016 as jail administrator.
Dominie earned state certification as a nurse’s aide and worked 5 years at United Helpers in Canton in resident activities before he retired. He continues to pound the pavement around his home just outside of Canton.
“I train no harder than the next person,’’ Dominie said, “but was given something in extra endurance, speed and imagination … I cannot explain outside of the gifts God and descendants honored me with. I’m humbled and privileged to be honoring them all.’’
He still schedules four full marathons per year; he has completed 82. He has run marathons in under four hours in five different decades, recently finishing the Potsdam marathon in 3 hours, 55 minutes. On his 62nd birthday on May 7, his gift to himself was to run his age in miles in 15 hours, with a few breaks. Not at exactly joining the boys for a few beers.
He acknowledged his training pace has slowed from 7-minute miles to between 8 to 9 minutes per mile.
“Age does that, but I’m OK with it as running and racing have a lot of benefits to me beyond just race times.’’
Morristown Firecracker race organizer Jane Yarwood Kring has a deep appreciation for Dominie.
“Danny Dominie didn’t just show up to my race,’’ she said. “I was connected with him when I wanted to change the course. He met with me in advance and helped me make sure the course was accurate and helped me understand what is important to runners so that I could make an event that runners wanted to participate in.’’
Kring said he regularly pays an extra admission fee so a young runner can attend, and his patriotic garb is unmatched.
“I’m not sure I can capture all the joy and support, pursuit of excellence and patriotic spirit that Danny Dominie has brought to the Firecracker 5K,’’ she said. “It certainly wouldn’t be the same race without him.’’
I’ll incorporate the same strategy as last year so I don’t have to watch Dominie’s star-spangled outfit disappear into the distance. My adult daughter, Katie, needs someone to walk the 3.1 miles with her. I’ve decided to volunteer. Some call it selfless fatherhood; most would label it FES – Fragile Ego Syndrome.
Morristown native Jim Holleran is a retired teacher and sports editor from Rochester. Reach him at jimholleran29@gmail.com or view past columns under “Reflections of River Rat’’ at https://hollerangetsitwrite.com/blog/
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