This Hewlett High School alum has a special bond with her coach

The running journey of Hewlett resident Elissa Candiotti and Garrett Chapman came full circle at the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 5.

Candiotti, 27, graduated from Hewlett High School in 2014 after four years on the track team, which was coached by Chapman.

“I had a great time there,” recalled Candiotti, who went on to become a producer at CBS after studying at Syracuse University.

“I wasn’t your number one finisher; I wasn’t your last. I was just a middle-of-the-pack kind of girl. I was very proud of my times. Scholarship-worthy, no, but I loved what I did. I absolutely loved the team and the coaches.”

Chapman was an assistant cross-country and track coach at the high school from 2008 to 2015.

“Elissa was great,” he said. “She was really passionate about the sport — she always had a positive attitude about her. I think her passion for the sport has remained consistent, maybe even grown, too.”

Chapman entered the lottery for the five-borough, 26.2-mile race for 10 straight years, and was selected for the first time this year. It was the fifth New York City Marathon for Candiotti and her older brother, Josh.

The pair first raced together in upstate New York more than five years ago, when she asked him to enter a half marathon, 13.1 miles. Josh, 30, of Lynbrook, hadn’t run much, but started training to compete with his younger sister.

“I kind of caught an interest in that active lifestyle,” he said.

He has since finished a number of races, and paced his sister around the five boroughs this year, helping her reach her goal time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, a personal best. She finished 8,027th out of more than 51,000 runners.

Chapman finished in 3:39.

“The level of discipline you need to be a pacer is kind of unique,” Josh said. “What kind of heart rate you need to keep pace at, the level of self-control that goes into it, to go in and be more calculated.”

The Candiottis first ran the New York marathon in 2019, raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease in honor of their grandmother, who died in 2017. They collected more than $9,000 for the charity through donations from friends and family members and by hosting events, like a fundraiser cycling class.

“That first one was not only special because it’s our first, but it’s special because we were doing it for a really personal cause,” Elissa said. “You felt like you crossed that finish line not just for yourself, but for so many other people.”

They have since gained entry to the marathon through the New York Road Runners 9+1 program, in which runners compete in nine NYRR races and volunteer at one. Elissa said she plans to compete in the race every year, until she can’t anymore.

“It’s a day where the best of New York is on display,” she said. “Everyone is out there to celebrate, to support, to cheer and to work really hard towards a goal that seemed impossible 16 to 20 weeks before that.”

Her training consisted of swimming, biking and running, and she worked out seven days a week. “I think that what keeps me going back to that is knowing, even during the hard work — the really tough workouts, workouts where it’s either really hot or it’s getting late and dark — I just remember that the purpose of race day will just carry you through the hard days of the training process,” Elissa said.

Moving forward, she said, “My primary goal would be to keep getting better, stronger and faster, but my real goal, that actually matters most, is I hope I never lose sight of why I love the sport. No matter what the outcome of the race is, that’s only a few hours of your life, but the hours and hours and months that you pour into it leading up, that’s actually what matters most. My real goal is to never lose sight of why I love it.”