Jeff Micklas remembers watching the New York City Marathon with his grandfather on the TV set in the family home in Ossining.
Edmund Rowe wasn”™t a runner; he had trouble breathing as cancer crept through his lungs. But he enjoyed watching the grueling race as it wound its way through all five boroughs.
Micklas, who played recreational sports in high school and never ran, remembers telling his grandfather that one day he was going to compete in the big race. Shortly after his grandfather died on June 5, 2002, Micklas bought himself a pair of running shoes and began jogging on trails around Ossining and Briarcliff Manor. He started slow working to build endurance. He found he enjoyed running. He kept at it. In 2004, he signed up for the New York City Marathon. Some 90,000 people apply to run in the classic, but only 40,000 are picked via a lottery. In June 2004, Micklas got THE call; he was chosen to run in that year”™s marathon. He started running more and longer. He checked in with running blogs to see how he could improve his training to last the 26 miles and 385 yards. In October, he was elbow to elbow in the back of the throng on the upper deck of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. A little more than six hours later, Micklas was being cheered on as he headed through Central Park for the finish line. It was an adrenaline rush he will never forget. The run he dedicated to his grandfather was over. His body was sore and would remain so for days afterward. But the medal he received for crossing the finish line made the pain a little more tolerable. He even marked the event by buying a plastic case for his running shoes and writing down the race and his time on them.
Micklas was hooked. Running and the races transcended the obvious man vs. man theme; it was also man vs. self and overcoming psychic obstacles inherent when running long distances. But he didn”™t want to make running all about himself; he wanted to do something more. He did some research and found that he could run and raise money for the American Cancer Society. In 2005, he became what is known as a charity runner. He calls it a win-win situation; he gets to do what he loves and raise money at the same time. That year he raised $1,700 by running in the Chicago and New York City marathons. The timing of the two races was a bit daunting since the Chicago race came just three weeks before the New York marathon. But he survived and challenged himself even more the next year.
Â
Over four months in 2006, Micklas ran five marathons ”“ Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Chicago, Westchester and Philadelphia. The Oklahoma City race has been the most memorable for Micklas. While registering for the marathon, a woman by the name of Doris Jones approached Micklas and struck up a conversation, asking where we was from, what he did for a living and his age. The woman then asked him for a favor; would he run in the memory of her daughter, Carrie Ann Lenz, who was just about Micklas”™s age when she died. Lenz, who was pregnant, was at work at the Drug Enforcement Agency office in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb shredded the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing her and 167 others. He said he will never forget Jones, the memorial and museum of the bombing; and incidentally, it was also his best race at 4 hours and 40 minutes.
This year, Micklas is running on behalf of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. In June, he will be in Minneapolis running an ultramarathon, a 24-hour race with no finish line. His goal is to run between 50 and 75 miles. The race starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 2 and ends at 8 a.m. on Sunday. Four hours later he will be back on a plane returning home to Ossining. He plans to sleep on the flight.
To keep in shape, in addition to running and weight training, he also joined the New York Road Runners Club for the camaraderie and the fact that running alone can get a bit monotonous. He has also joined Fred”™s Team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. The group is named after Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon, and raises money for cancer research.
Fellow workers at Quorum Federal Credit Union in Purchase, where Micklas is a consumer loan underwriter, didn”™t know about his running until recently when inquiries were made as to why he would take off two days at a time. Since most marathons are on weekends, Micklas would take off Thursdays and Fridays to fly in to the different cities.
For an upcoming fundraiser, of which he is the creator, the course starts outside his front door in Ossining. Over two days in mid-July, Micklas will run and walk 100 miles over 33 hours in his hometown. The money raised will benefit Sloan-Kettering.
“I”™m perfectly healthy. I have nothing to complain about. If this is something I can do to help others, then I”™ll do it.”
He says he can survive the aching knees; that pain will go away. The pain of those with cancer does not.
Â
For more information on Fred”™s Team and Micklas”™s efforts, go to
https://fredsteam.mskcc.org/fundraising/Controller?action=userHome&user_id=37119&event_id=53.
Â
Â
Â
Â
