By Brian Zanzonico
The 40-year-old finished the rain-soaked 33rd annual Long Island Marathon in 2 hours, 26 minutes, 13 seconds.
"I used different gloves [for the rain] and this sticky stuff on the wheels so they don't slip," he said. "But on mile 22 the wheels started to slip and I had no more sticky stuff."
But Hawkins persevered, and was the only wheelchair participant to finish the full marathon - and one of only two to complete either the full or half-marathon. Carlos Guzman, 57, of Corona, Queens, finished the half-marathon in 1:13:07.
"The weather definitely kept a lot of people away," Hawkins said. "There were days when I've awoken to rain outside and said forget it. But [last Sunday] I couldn't. It's my thing."
Hawkins was a football and lacrosse star at Valley Stream High School in the early 1980s. On a spring night in his senior year, he got into a car with a driver who had been drinking. They were in an accident in which Hawkins was thrown from the vehicle and paralyzed. He now speaks to teens about the consequences of using alcohol.
Comments about this story? Mal-wheditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 240.
