“Today was light,” Dennis Noskin said softly, almost sheepishly, over the phone on Election Tuesday. He was describing not his workload at his eponymous 10-employee architectural firm in Tarrytown, but his exercise mileage in a pair of running shoes.
“I ran 3½,” he said. This from a 55-year-old architect of commercial building interiors who, on a typical weekend of leisure at home in Greenwich, will run seven miles on Saturday and then “go long” on Sunday and leg it 14 miles. Nothing like running half a marathon”™s distance and then some to clear your mind for the Sunday newspaper.
“I ran from my house to vote and I ran back,” said the dutiful citizen. “I brought my ID with me and that was it. You can make it a way of life.”
Dennis Noskin has made it a sporting way of life that would leave many of us ”“ fit, sure, but let”™s not go to physical and mental extremes ”“ feeling like death in running shorts.
The way took him in late October to Washington, D.C. and across the Potomac to Arlington Cemetery, the starting point for the annual Marine Corps Marathon. It was the first Marine Corps run for the marathoner and trail runner, who has eased off the pedals on his cross-country bicycling ”“ from here to Montreal, Niagara Falls, “Cape Cod the long way” ”“ because “I”™ve really turned into a runner again.”
At Half Hollow Hills High School on Long Island, Noskin ran the mile on the track team and raced cross-country distances that would have taken him only about two-thirds of the way to his polling place on Election Day. “I”™ve realized over time that my sweet spot is the longer distances,” he said.
In the nation”™s capital, “I ran with a high school friend that I hadn”™t run with in 25 years.” They followed a tourist”™s route along The National Mall and past the Capitol and the panoply of national monuments in the company of more than 23,000 other sweaty, winded, mentally focused tourists sharing a 26.2-mile itinerary. The route was lined by 5,000 Marines who handed out oranges and liquid sustenance and encouragement.
“It was sort of a very moving marathon,” said Noskin. The last 100 yards back in Virginia were uphill and ended in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial, a memorable closing image for an exhausted runner. “It”™s one of the cooler marathons I”™ve run.”
About two months ago, the architect accepted a beguiling invitation from a younger friend ”“ the first American finisher in September in the Greek Spartathlon, a 153-mile race from Athens to Sparta ”“ to join him on an offbeat city tour on foot. On a fair summer evening, the duo set out from the World Financial Center on a 31-mile circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan.
They started at the World Financial Center and ran up the Hudson River Greenway to Inwood at Manhattan”™s northern tip, skirting Harlem River Drive and hoofing it through Harlem to the East River and FDR Drive, passing City Hall on their final leg to the South Street Seaport and Battery Park. Like awestruck tourists, they soaked up the sights and sounds of New York along the way.
“The city was just all lit up for us,” said Noskin. It”™s a nice way to see Manhattan, if you have the legs and lungs for it.
Touring time for those 31 miles?
“Six hours and change. It wasn”™t a blazing pace. We stopped at bodegas for Gatorades.”
One week later, the exemplar of middle-aged fitness learned a hard lesson when he attempted another marathon in Pennsylvania”™s Lehigh Valley. His body had not fully bounced back from that whirlwind tour of Manhattan.
“I”™m not 20, I couldn”™t do it,” said the chagrined runner. “It”™s only the second time in my life I DNF”™d” ”“ Did Not Finish, that is. “I did 13½ miles. I could have finished it, but I would have been ripped up.”
Still, Noskin has faced and conquered greater challenges in running shoes.
“I”™ve fallen in love with trail running,” he said. “I”™m really enjoying the trail runs the best. Every step that you make is critical. If you fall on a trail, you do a face plant.”
In late July, he traveled up the Hudson Valley to the northern Catskills for the Escarpment Trail Run, an 18.6-mile run, stumble, climb, slip and slide on a narrow hiking trail with a total of 10,000 feet in elevation changes. Noskin has done it twice.
“It”™s definitely the toughest race I”™ve ever run, tougher than anything.” This year he finished in five hours and 38 minutes.
“The guys in front of me got bit by bees,” he said. “A friend was an hour behind me. I said, what took you so long? He said he met a bear” on the trail.
At the Escarpment run, “There”™s no medals, there”™s no T-shirts, there”™s no nothing,” said Noskin. “Which is great ”“ just keep it that way.”
The recovery from a punishing trail run through the Catskills?
“My friend said it best,” said Noskin, who had several bruising falls and rocky encounters on his Catskill runs. “He said his glutes were not talking to him for three days.”
“I”™m not an elite runner. I just do it. But I enjoy it. It clears your head and I think it helps your concentration.”
“I find that it translates back to work.” In the office after a grueling race, “I can get back in a zone and really focus on something.”
He has run the New York City Marathon, lesser-known marathons in Gettysburg and Cape May, and several other trail races in this area. In 2014, the principal of Dennis Noskin Architects will run his first Boston Marathon, having qualified in a race this year with a time of 3 hours and 31 minutes ”“ nine minutes below the cutoff time for his age group.
“I always have something scheduled on the calendar because it gives me a goal,” he said.
One day after the poignant 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Noskin is scheduled to line up in Maryland for the JFK 50 Mile.
“I did it last year for the first time. I did it in 9:36, which is OK. It got me in before dark.”
It was JFK who half a century ago sought to counter a rise in obesity among out-of-shape Americans with programs sponsored by the President”™s Council on Physical Fitness, Noskin reminded us.
Were Kennedy to witness the corpulent state of his fellow Americans today, “He”™d probably be rolling over in his grave.”
