Ex-WW-P South hockey star selected for thrill
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Adam Perry suspected at first that he had received a hoax e-mail.
Instead, a unique invitation turned into one of the most memorable experiences of the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South graduate’s life.
Perry was one of just a handful of entrants in the Nike Human Race 10k to compete in two 10-kilometer road races on two different continents — on the same day.
”I was just going to run in Plainsboro with my iPod and upload my time,” Perry said.
Instead, Perry was chosen at random by Nike after registering for the Human Race, which linked 10ks in 25 international cities on Sunday and thousands more runners virtually using iPod technology as Nike hoped to bring together one million total runners.
Their email told him that he and a guest had been selected for an all-expenses paid trip to Melbourne, Australia, to compete early in the morning in a 10k before being flown to Los Angeles to compete in its 10k in conjunction with the Human Race. Approximately 40 people did both races.
”I emailed them back and said, this is unbelievable. If it’s true, someone call me back,” Perry recalled. “I got the email almost 5 o’clock East Coast time. Saturday afternoon, someone called me back and said it was real.”
Perry was vacationing with girlfriend and fellow South graduate Nicole Gregorio in San Francisco. They had to arrange to get their international papers sent in order to make the flight. Gregorio, a first-grade teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, accompanied him on the trip and also competed in both 10k races, her first ever.
”We found out on a Friday and left on a Wednesday,” Perry said. “It was a crazy week.”
They arrived in Australia and were able to tour Melbourne during the two days leading up to the race. They were on the starting line Sunday for the start of the race at 8:30 a.m., Melbourne time. After finishing in 42 minutes, 30 seconds, Perry and Gregorio enjoyed some post-race festivities before flying back across the international dateline to Los Angeles. There, Perry was just 16 seconds slower in his second 10k that started at 8:30 p.m., Los Angeles time Sunday.
”It is a long day, but based on hours, it was more like two days,” Perry said. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The first race was fine. The second day was tough. We traveled 17 hours and landed four or five hours before the second race. I was just tired. But I thought it was a lot of fun.”
It’s a different kind of fun from what Perry enjoyed competitively at WW-P South. He was a standout hockey player for the Pirates, who went on to play two years of club hockey at Lehigh University. Perry graduated this year from Fordham Law School and will begin work as a tax attorney in October in New York City, which he now makes home.
”I run regularly for fun,” Perry said. “I’m not part of a group of anything. I like to run though.”
Barely a year after taking up running, he already has done three half marathons. A full one could be in his future, but for now, he’s recovering from a marathon of flying that enabled him to run a pair of 10k races in one day. Forever, it will be one of his biggest thrills on the race circuit.
”Just running the second race was really cool,” Perry said. “I was one of very few people to run twice that day. To start in Australia and finish in L.A. was really neat.”

