The Peru Gazette

1st Place in the 2015 and 2016 Queens Marathons

2017 Boston Marathon

By John T. Ryan

Peru – People living in or near the Peru hamlet undoubtedly recall Charles Remillard. He’s the tall, red-headed young man we saw running by our homes as a member of the Peru High School Track Team. Graduating in 2011, Charles went on to star for the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragons. Today, he’s running much longer distances. Last November he finished 33rd overall (2nd in his men’s age group) in the New York City Marathon and last week he was the 78th overall in the famous Boston Marathon. Remillard commented, “The Boston Marathon didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. There’s a downhill stretch at the beginning. I went out too fast. I also didn’t wear socks so I had problems with my shoes.” Nevertheless, his success was no small feat given that 51,394 people crossed the finish line in NYC and over 26,000 in Boston.

At SUNY Oneonta Remillard excelled at the 10,000 meter run winning the SUNYAK Outdoor Championship in 2014-15. A marathon is 42,164 meters/26.2 miles. Remillard said, “I always felt the longer distance was more advantageous for me. Unfortunately, that’s even more time consuming.” He’s out of bed at 4:45 a.m. in order to run 10 miles. At 7:30 a.m. he arrives at Scholars Academy in Queens, NY where he teaches 7th grade science. After school, he runs 5 miles along or on a Rockaway Park beach. Add daily strength training to his 90 to 110 weekly running miles, plus being a teacher, Charles Remillard is a busy young man. Having grown up at Remillard Farms, the son of Tom and Cheryl Remillard, he has the advantage of having always been around hard workers.

Charles is enjoying big city life commenting, “Right now I want to explore different experiences. Working in a community with so much diversity is a very new experience.” Asked if he misses farm life he responded, “I miss the farm a lot. I’ve considered eventually coming back to the farm.” Prior to making any major move he plans to earn a Masters Degree. He said, “I’m looking at Cornell University’s Agricultural Science Masters program.” Charles Remillard appears to have a great background for that challenge having been an All-Academic athlete in college and a teacher at one of New York City’s best academic schools.