The Bagel Bunch Runners are an informal group of runners from Greece. They meet every Saturday morning at 7:00 AM at the Bruegger’s Bagels Bakery in the Wegman’s Plaza, the corner of Latta and Long Pond Roads in Greece. Bob Dyjak is the founding member of the group. He fashioned the Bagel Bunch after a group he was running with on the east side of Rochester. That was almost 25 years ago. He organized the Bagel Bunch in Greece in January of 1996. Bob sent out an email to runners he knew and selected a Saturday in January for their first run. The day he chose ended up being an unseasonable 50 degrees, he had eight to ten people show up to run. The next Saturday the temperature was 10 degrees, more seasonable, and still eight runners came to run.
“Our group has runners on every level. Some are training for marathons, others started as walkers and build on their running level week by week,” Dyjak said. The Bagel Bunch Runners have an active membership of about 60 members, with 20 to 25 showing up to run on any given Saturday morning. The running routes are divided into Short, 5 to 6 miles; Medium, 8 to 10 miles; and Large, 20 miles and over. The beauty of meeting at 7:00AM is that most of the runners are done within 1 to 1 1/2 hours from their start time and they have their entire Saturday ahead of them. The Bagel Bunch also have an active Facebook page with 180 members. Their Facebook page is used to keep runners updated on weekly routes, road trips and news about the group. Many members are marathon runners and participate in marathons throughout the year and throughout the country.
The reason the group has survived for almost 25 years is the fact that there is much more to the group than just running. The friendships that have been formed over the years run deep and keep the runners truly connected. Bagel Bunch member Dan Sillick joined in 2002 as a walker with running added as he went along. Sillick said, “The group is a support group. We motivate each other and give and receive a lot of advice about injuries, recovery and self motivation. It’s not about the shoes and the running clothes, but it is sometimes about the coffee and bagels.” A member of the group from the start, Roger Howe said, “There is a social aspect to running with this group. It’s great to be able to talk with other people about persistence. Working together we help each other to achieve our goals.” Howe has been running since the 1970s and has 22 marathons and 53,000 lifetime running miles on his list of achievements. Dyjak and Howe worked together at Kodak and ran together on their lunch hour for many years. Dyjak has 50,000 running miles to his credit, he has been running since 1986.
The Bagel Bunch participates in various community events throughout the year including highway and park cleanups. They run in the “Christmas Lights Run” an informal run through neighborhoods in Greece that are decorated with Christmas lights. They typically have 25-30 people on the run. They also participate in “Freezeroo” a series of six runs, each eight miles in length, that are scheduled throughout the winter months.
On November 10, 2019, the Bagel Bunch dedicated a memorial bench along the bike path in Basil Marella Park as a tribute to their members who died over the years. The idea for a memorial to honor members that have passed came to Bob Dyjak after he read about similar memorials that running groups honored their members with. The Memorial Bench pays tribute to six members that have passed. The group lost their first member Don Curran in 2004. Greg Christo followed in 2016, Deb Ciulla and Jill Skivington Jackett in 2017 and most recently Anne Procopio and Steve Derks in 2019. Bob Dyjak recalls what one of their members that passed away from breast cancer, Deb Ciulla, said about the group. Dyjak said, “Deb shared that there were two things the group inspired her to do, they got her to go more distance then she thought she could ever go and to train harder. She looked at us as her friends and she was inspired to set goals.”
The Memorial Bench was constructed by Eagle Scout candidate Bobby Flaherty of Greece as his Eagle Scout project. Along with members of Boy Scout Troop #277, his family, several generous donations and the cooperation of the Town of Greece the bench became a reality. At the bench dedication ceremony sixty friends and family gathered to pay tribute to the runners who have passed. All of the runners honored have made an impact on the lives of others on many different levels and several members of the Bagel Bunch took the opportunity to talk about what these members have meant to them personally, and as a group.
New members are always welcome to join the Bagel Bunch runners on any Saturday morning. Dyjak said, “We are a very friendly group. We welcome everyone at any running or walking level to join us. You choose what you want to do and how far you want to run. We are here for support and encouragement. I hear the same thing from new members all the time. They tell me they could kick themselves for not joining sooner.”
For more information check out their Facebook page Bagel Bunch Runners.
