At its start I intended this blog to comprise twenty posts and this is the 18th. The next one, to be published the week of November 8, will recap the New York City Marathon. My final story documenting this journey will be posted the following week.
This one is about some exceptional individuals and groups involved in the 50th Running of the New York City Marathon.
It’s been a two-year crash course in marathon running for me and with the final 2021 World Marathon Major in New York City next week I am nearing the end of this stage of the adventure.
I spent a lot of time researching best practices and integrating them into my training strategy. Perhaps with some changes I might have performed better but on the whole I’m satisfied with my preparation.
One thing that I was not prepared for was the tacit and unbridled support that runners have for each other.
It’s so unlike other, particularly American, environments where trash talk and intentional divisiveness run amok.
At some intrinsic level, marathon runners acknowledge that theirs is not a zero sum game. One runner’s success in no way diminishes the achievements of others. All efforts are celebrated.
Arguably this may not be the case for the elites where there are only so many podium positions and, for example, a very limited number of Olympic berths to compete for. I couldn’t say for sure having never been in that position. But for the overwhelming majority of us the atmosphere is one of mutual, generous support.
And it’s not just fellow runners who promote this environment. Race directors, municipalities, volunteers, and spectators, to say nothing of friends and family, are all aligned to help bring out the best performances from each athlete.
Think of it as institutionally supported audacity. It is no wonder that under these conditions individuals shrug off obstacles and their own limitations to say, effectively, “I belong here. I can do this.”
The organization that puts on the New York City Marathon, New York Road Runners (NYRR) gets it. Their mission is to help and inspire people through running. To commemorate the 50th edition of their marathon, NYRR announced Team 50, an impressive group of runners taking part in this year’s race.
The NYRR Public Relations team had the daunting task of selecting Team 50 from among the 30,000 entrants. A member of the PR team, Laura Paulus, herself a runner, shared with me the team’s point of view that on marathon day it is about much more than just the running. The composition of Team 50 reflects this.
Here are just a few of Team 50 members who I find to be particularly audacious:
- Last year, Chris Nikic became the first athlete with Down Syndrome to complete an Ironman Triathlon. This year he’s added the Boston Marathon to his accomplishments and, less than three weeks later, will also be running in New York City. He’s using his newly earned notoriety to help dispel the stigma associated with people having physical and intellectual handicaps.
- Aaron Lee Burros was shot five times while saving the lives of three of his co-workers during a workplace shooting. Formerly an ultramarathoner, Aaron now struggles with shorter distances due to the lingering effects of his wounds. Undeterred he is in the process of raising $50,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital while running 50 marathons in 50 states over the course of 50 weeks. With the NYC marathon he’ll be bagging number 30+.
- Zahra escaped Afghanistan five days before it fell to the Taliban. Though she ran three marathons in Afghanistan before the fall, women have since been banned from sports and from educational opportunities. She’ll be running in NYC with the charity Free to Run which enables women and girls to engage in outdoor activity in conflict-affected regions.
- Sara Zutter is a special education teacher and children’s running coach in New York City who encourages her students to exercise to keep their hearts healthy. She speaks from experience having been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and undergoing heart surgery at age 30. The surgery gave her a second chance to realize her goals of completing all six of the Marathon Majors and competing in triathlons. Then in 2019 she was diagnosed with a uterine myoma, polyps, menorrhagia, and anemia. While training for the NYC marathon she had the myoma and polyps removed yet is still on track to run the race next week and expects to raise awareness about heart diseases and reproductive system disorders.
- Micaela (Mica) Naibryf and Amnon Liebowitz will be running the race together to honor the memory of Mica’s brother, Ilan, who died in the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside, Florida. Ilan was in town to attend the funeral of a friend’s father and spent the night in the Towers. Amnon is a structural engineer from Israel brought in to assist with disaster relief and was the one who recovered Ilan’s body.
Shalane Flanagan, the race’s 2017 champion, and I are on the team for running all of the World Marathon Majors this year. Shalane is highlighted for completing each of them in under three hours while I am mentioned for Parkinson’s and for raising money for the Michael J Fox Foundation as a member of Team Fox.
It’s difficult to feel worthy of the juxtaposition but, nevertheless, I am delighted and honored to have my name associated with these heroes.
For more details about Team 50 and the other amazing, inspiring people on the team, check out the following press release:
https://www.nyrr.org/media-center/press-release/20211021_team50
Shalane did her Virtual Tokyo Marathon in Portland, Oregon on Monday October 18, the day after I ran mine in Seattle. Her finish time was 2:35:14 while mine was 4:41:55. So after failing to meet my factor of two objective in Boston I am now back on track with this one.
I am a charity runner in the London, Boston, and New York marathons this year. There’s still time to contribute to my cause (assuming that you have not already done so).
If you share the passion that the Michael J Fox Foundation and I have for finding a Parkinson’s cure please consider contributing to any of the WMM I am running in as a member of Team Fox (links below). All donations are meaningful and greatly appreciated.
fundraise.michaeljfox.org/boston-marathon-2021/joesgottarun
fundraise.michaeljfox.org/londonmarathon2021/joesgottarun
fundraise.michaeljfox.org/tcs-nyc-marathon-2021/joesgottarun
