As is the nature of the legal profession, there isn”™t much wear and tear on most lawyers”™ shoes. Sitting behind a desk and doing a little pacing on polished courtroom floors doesn”™t necessitate fresh soles very often.
Michael Stolzar is an exception to the rule. He goes through about three to four pairs of shoes a year.
But he”™s not burning through wingtips, rather his shoes of choice are ASICS Gel-1130s. If the shoe company ever needed a spokesman, Stolzar”™s the man as he extols the virtues and the cushioning technology of his favorite shoe.
Before he makes the short ride from his Rye Brook home to his office in downtown White Plains, Stolzar has already run some nine-plus miles. The length of the run “depends on my mood that morning.” He generally runs about 15 miles on Sunday.
A partner with Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann L.L.P., the lawyer has logged a tremendous number of miles running both in the United States and several island nations.
On Nov. 2, Stolzar will be running in his 33rd full marathon. It will be his 22nd New York City Marathon. He didn”™t have to apply for the race as most runners do, since “when you finish 15, you have guaranteed entry.”
He ran his first New York City Marathon in 1979 with the likes of Bill Rodgers and Grete Waitz. Back then there were just a couple thousand running; today he shares the streets of the boroughs with about 37,000 runners.
Stolzar didn”™t run while growing up in Woodmere, Long Island. It wasn”™t until he was at the University of Rochester and trying to drop from 137 pounds to replace a fellow wrestler who had dislocated his shoulder in the 130-pound class that he started jogging. He didn”™t lose the weight, but he did lose several matches. He did log two wins; both by forfeits.
After his freshman year, he stopped wrestling and jogging was done in spurts; mostly to keep his weight in check. At Columbia Law School, he began jogging again; but after graduation it was work, work, work at several Manhattan law firms. In his off time, he started jogging again and joined the Lexington Democratic Club where he met City Councilman-at-Large Tony Olivieri. A runner, Olivieri suggested to Stolzar that he join the New York Road Runners Club and try a 10-mile race. Stolzar loved it and a year later he was in the marathon. Unfortunately, a year after that, the man who got him into road racing would be dead of a brain tumor.
For Stolzar, he has done well by running and it has done well by him. He ran his best New York City Marathon in 1981 in 3 hours and 8 minutes.
Another positive aspect of his years of running is that he weighs just eight pounds more than when he was on the college wrestling team. And he aims to shave a few more pounds off.
In the 1980s, he got sidelined for a couple of years after pulling a hamstring. He heard a snap in his left leg, but ran through it. Bad mistake. He uses the adjective “gingerly” in describing how he returned to running. But he stuck with it and a year later he was back to road races: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Bermuda, Cayman Islands. This past January, at the Bermuda race, one spectator thought he looked shaky and called an ambulance. He waved it off when it arrived but it led the way to the finish line after he and another runner were misdirected.
The trip to Bermuda was a 60th birthday present from his wife, Karen. Her 50th birthday gift to him was a trip to San Francisco bundled with a road race.
In addition to running, Stolzar has also co-chaired a series of races for 10 years that raised money for the disaster relief fund of the American Red Cross.
Perhaps the real reason that Stolzar runs is that it allows him to eat candy bars. Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 30, Stolzar has had to watch his diet and avoid excess sugars. He does a finger stick every day to monitor his glucose levels. But running marathons and mini-marathons burns up body sugars and lets him indulge in eating some favorites like mini-size Milky Ways and Three Musketeers. During a mini-marathon he can eat four mini-candy bars. He said they”™re a lot tastier than the power gels that they normally hand out at the 18-mile mark of a marathon.
