Member of the Month: Estella Clasen!

If any one member were to be singled out as the most active and influential in Bohemia Track Club’s prosperity over the past several years, that person most certainly would be Estella Clasen. For close to twenty years she has been an integral part of the club, and has dedicated a great amount of her time to its preservation. Her vitality and enthusiasm extend into her many professional and personal pursuits as well. Estella is a leader and example, and has a seemingly superhuman wealth of energy. Where she gets it from is a mystery, at least until one gets to know her better.

Born in Manhattan, Estella and her family moved to Long Island and into a quiet Shirley neighborhood when she was just four years old. Estella’s athletic and running tendencies- which she attributes to her dad- became apparent as she grew. She would regularly beat her brother Ronald at races, and was eventually voted “Most Athletic” at William Floyd High School. Always involved in clubs and sports at school, Estella enjoyed participating in competitive sports such as basketball and field hockey (she later joined the Long Island Field Hockey Association), and signed up for the track team simply because she enjoyed running, not just because the coach was cute. Estella was also involved in the Student Council and the Leader’s Club, and exhibited her life-long leadership abilities in these groups.

After a year-and-a-half at the State University at New Paltz, Estella transferred to the State University at Cortland, drawn specifically by their outstanding Physical Education department. As a matter of fact, two of her greatest high school influences had graduated from the same department and had used their experience to build the women’s athletic program at William Floyd. Although she enjoyed her time at school, Estella still made the five hour trip back to Long Island during vacations in order to work and pay for her education. Upon graduation from the strong Cortland program, she was only six credits short of a pre-Med degree.

Estella went straight from college into her teaching career in the Central Islip School District. Starting at a salary of just $8,000 a year, she began a grueling routine of teaching six Physical Education classes in the morning, three in the afternoon (often at different buildings), and then attending evening classes towards a Masters degree at Adelphi. After obtaining her Masters, gaining some seniority, and settling into one teaching location at a time, Estella’s routine may become easier and resulted in more time for other pursuits.

In her free time Estella was certain to be involved in group activities. As an exercise instructor, she taught for the Islip Schools’ Staff Development Center, helping teachers earn developmental credit. As a personal trainer, she led exercise classes in her basement at home. On a political action committee (a 25 years member!) she helped lobby the state in the interest of better teaching and educational conditions. In school, she heads the safety patrol and has been in charge of the juice machine, collecting money to help pay for PTA productions, t-shirts and school events. For sixteen years she has exercised and done weight-training at a local gym. And recently she added after-school intramurals to her already demanding schedule.

If reading about Estella to this point hasn’t tired you out yet, consider this: she has recently celebrated her twentieth anniversary of road racing. Her passion began in 1979 with a four-mile race in Rocky Point where, in perhaps her worst running experience, she ran through a downpour wearing sweats. Persistent, she ran a five-miler a week or two later, placed in her age group, and the rest became history. The following spring she began placing in nearly every race, and has since gathered hundreds of trophies and plaques. Perhaps her most exciting racing experience came in the 1983 Empire State Games in Syracuse, where she ran a Masters 10K through mid-August heat and battled a single unrelenting competitor the entire distance, winning by inches after a final straightaway sprint.

Often seeing a white-haired gentleman running through the neighborhood, Estella eventually spoke to Bohemia Track Club veteran Dave Penoyar at a race. He invited her to join the club, and Estella soon found that “all BTC people” were (and still are) friendly and supportive. Over the years her involvement and dedication to the BTC has unquestionably made her one of its most important members. She has run the Ocean-to-Sound relay twelve times, most often as team captain. She has routinely put together teams for local series races. She has headed the club’s summer speed workouts. When the club membership waned, she and BTC veteran Alexandra Finger started a Membership committee, and worked extremely hard to bring the club’s membership up from just a handful of die-hards to a healthy size of 150. And for the past two years Estella has taken the reigns and guided the club along through its latest chapter, initiating affiliations with Dowling College and Elite Sports Medicine in support of its races. At the BTC Christmas Party she was justly honored with Hall of Fame status for her ceaseless efforts. And although she recently handed the presidential torch to Joe Cordero, she assured everyone that her commitment to the club would continue.

The first time Estella met her husband Bob- also a BTC Hall of Famer- she found herself giving him racing advice on his new running hobby. Advising him to try a shorter race before the grueling Long Island Half Marathon, the two ran the Dix Hills 10K. Estella passed him halfway through, but Bob still had the dignity to join Estella for breakfast. The first of many racing dates, the two eventually married, and still maintain the habit of racing together.

Amazingly, Estella still finds time for other hobbies. A brown belt in Judo, and once an avid tennis player, Estella now mostly splits her free time between running and dancing pursuits. Estella and Bob starting their dancing passion with group lessons nine years ago, and later stepped up to private lessons. With the help of good instructors the two have become an excellent team, and have performed in several showcases in the metro area, at club parties and meetings, at other dance studios and at dance socials. They have even performed- by invitation- in a recent production of “Do I Hear a Waltz”. Estella appreciates the artistic and expressive side of dance, but also enjoys the social side. The dancing community, she notes, is very similar to the running community in its fun and comraderie.

Estella takes great pleasure in teaching elementary school children, noting they are naturally active and motivated. Often Phys. Ed. is their favorite class, and Estella is their favorite teacher. As a teacher, Estella savors summer vacations and its busy social schedule: Summer Run Series races, BTC speed workouts, dance lessons, and weekend races and dance socials. In the future she plans on keeping involved in the running club and in dance circles, perhaps even teaching dance. She also hopes to travel more, perhaps adding Europe to her and Bob’s winter Caribbean excursions.

An organized, energetic, friendly and focused person, Estella is a leader both by action and example. With seemingly endless energy her involvement has touched many people, and has always helped to improve the world around her. An integral part of the Bohemia Track Club, her efforts have helped make and keep it strong, and as a recent Hall of Fame inductee, her contributions have certainly been recognized. Thanks to people like Estella Clasen, our Member of the Month, the Bohemia Track Club is the club that it is today.