Featured in Zensah's NYC City Guide - Thanks!

My friends at Zensah just outdid themselves with The Zensah NYC City Guide for runners to celebrate the Nov. 6 TCS New York City Marathon...and I'm thankful to be one of their featured runners! Take a look...

Sponsor A Mile ... And Fight Multiple Myeloma

I'm running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 6 and you can now sponsor ANY of my 26.2 miles. 🙏 Please join me and let’s make it fun for a great cause! Pick one and your donation goes to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. We're at nearly $2700 raised toward the $3000 target! Just donate right here, say what mile in the comments here, and I will add you to my tracker here and run that mile for you. I’m in the run/walk mode with this 19th marathon, so you literally can help push me to run more in that mile. READY...GO!

How it works: your "mile" starts with the previous mile's marker and finishes with the mile number you chose. So if you sponsor Mile 1, obviously that's from the start line to the Mile 1 marker halfway across the...

Staten Island/Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Mile 1:
Mile 2:

Brooklyn

Mile 3: Roger Bickel
Mile 4:
Mile 5:
Mile 6:
Mile 7: Camille Campins-Adams
Mile 8:
Mile 9:
Mile 10: Lisa Orfino-Newman
Mile 11: Penny Orfino
Mile 12: Jeff Plain
Mile 13: Gerri Plain

(That's the Pulaski Bridge by the East River looking at the NYC skyline and we're halfway done!)

Queens

Mile 14: Ashley Stevenson Jenkins
Mile 15:

Manhattan

Mile 16: Mary Van Dusen Mitchell
Mile 17:
Mile 18:
Mile 19: Cindy Lampe

The Bronx

Mile 20:

Manhattan

Mile 21:
Mile 22: The Hymans
Mile 23: Karen Harper
Mile 24: Bruce Harper
Mile 25: Mary & Reece Newman
Mile 26 + .2 (This is extra-special...how badly do you want it?)

Here is the course map so you can see exactly where your mile is happening.

I am running this marathon in honor of my father Kurt Newman and his mother Marguerite Newman, both of whom were taken in their 60s by multiple myeloma. I have tested with The Promise Study of the Dana Farber Institute and so far no precursor conditions of MM, and I will take that early detection test the rest of my life. In the meantime, I’d rather do something to fight this disease and I’d be honored if you would literally join me in this marathon.

Thanks so much to those friends and family who have already donated to my MMRF fundraiser. You’ve pushed us so close to the New York Road Runners' required goal of $3,000 raised! If you’d like to also sponsor a mile, this is separate and more noisy so feel free to jump in!

After it’s all over, I’ll update here on how your mile went! Let’s do big things…

You can also find me at:
Twitter | Instagram

26.2 things to know about the New York City Marathon

The 2022 TCS New York City Marathon will be my fifth, going back to the first one in 2007. For those preparing now to live out the dream journey through the five boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan, here are some things you need to know:

How to write Marathon Runner in Japanese

How do you write "Marathon Runner" in Japanese? She was kind enough to show me at a Japan Day Run in Central Park. Then scroll for finished product. Enjoy!

Please consider helping me raise funds for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation as part of my 2022 TCS New York City Marathon drive, my 19th marathon or ultra. 🙏 I am running for my Dad and my Grandmother, who both passed away in their 60s due to MM. It would mean a lot and you can donate here:
http://give.themmrf.org/marknewman

- Mark
twitter.com/marathoner
instagram.com/marknewmanauthor

A triumph of the will over all limits

"A triumph of the will over all limits." That is what it says on the back of my 2007 New York City Marathon medal, a quote from the great Alberto Salazar.

That was my first marathon, and today I re-examined that medal and looked at it closely. Once proudly displayed, it now hangs and clangs against nearly 100 other medals in a temporary setting on a hook on the bak of an upstairs closet door, away from view.

I will fix that one day soon. It will be back where it belongs. One step at a time. We moved in 2018 from the NYC area down to St. Petersburg, Florida, and running suddenly became an afterthought when I dealt with debilitating lower-body pain and a successful back surgery that first winter here.

After a year of building up strength physically and mentally, I began light running a few months ago. I set out to lose 40 pounds, and as of now I am down from 230 to 215. A new LA Fitness membership was a big deal, and then it was closed just like that. So now I'm with all of you, working out any way that makes sense amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Here's my plan:

- I have been running 5Ks on my own along Tampa Bay, mixing in Cannondale bike laps around the Tampa Bay Rays' parking lot and swimming in our pool.

- I do curb pushups on an island in that MLB parking lot, and at home my weightlifting consists of a PVC pipe that has bookbags filled with water jugs hanging off each end. (Thanks to my friend Ashley, owner of the Pushin' Weight Crossfit studio in Richmond, VA, for the idea.)

- I start each day with a protein powder shake and I eat sardines for lunch. The first interview I ever did as a young Miami Herald reporter in 1982 was with Bill Rodgers, who was visiting our One Herald Plaza office that day while on a tour to promote Norwegian Sardines. He left me a black T-shirt with those two words on it in white, and said they helped him win the Boston and NYC marathons. I never forgot, and to this day I thrive on sardines, ideally from Trader Joe's. For dinner, Rachel is usually cooking something healthy, as she is spending these quarantine months with us down from NYC, where she goes to grad school.

No matter what, I know that running is always there when you need it. It always leads to positive developments in life, even if it hurts along the way. I am reminded of this now that I have restarted this @Marathoner blog. One step at a time. It's like running a marathon.

- I talked to Marathon Maniacs and my membership as Maniac #6697 is extended. So I'm that same guy who was ASICS Ambassador for an LA Marathon finish:

 

- I find that I am fitting in my old running clothes, a nice upshot of losing 40 pounds.

- I am due for a new pair of running shoes. I am rotating a couple of pairs of Brooks Glycerines and Hoka Ones, and the cushioning has been enough for 5K distance. I'll need more for the road ahead.

- It's time for a better way of listening to audio while running. I go through many wired earbuds because sweat means you eventually just hear on one side, and I gave away a wireless set. I don't want Apple pods because I know it will be a waste of money when I soak them. AfterShokz sponsored out last #RunChat on Sunday, and I am really intrigued by their bone conduction technology so that might be a possibility for future runs.

Speaking of sardines, I have no idea how soon people will want to be crammed back into corrals or road races. But I will be there as soon as the light is green. I can't wait to sign up for another race.

Display medals. Lose weight. Run more. Get shoes and an audio solution. Keep my lower back muscles strong. Oh, and find the right literary agent for the 540-page manuscript I finished after a year and a half of writing it here. One step at a time. Let's start with finally updating this blog right here. Thanks for your patience! Please follow me @Marathoner on Twitter, and say hi.

Because I am back to following lots of runners and tweeting about our love of running.

My 10 Favorite Running Medals

All-Star Week 2017: Finishing in Style at Zensah

OK, so Billy the Marlin told me to make sure I post to the running blog after I finished working All-Star Week in South Florida, so here goes.

One of my favorite annual traditions is hanging around the All-Star host city on the Wednesday after each All-Star Game, following a big week of around-the-clock work and thrills for baseball fans. This year's Midsummer Classic was in Miami, so that meant a chance to visit my friends just up the road at Zensah!

Zensah is based in Hallandale Beach, about one Aaron Judge home run away from I-95 on your way up from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. I have been wearing Zensah ever since I became a runner in December 2006. I would always buy their compression calf sleeves at a Super Runners Shop in New York City, because I quickly discovered their many benefits to a distance runner, ranging from preventing cramps and shin splits to the added insulation on cold training runs. I took off the bummy cargo shorts (hey it was a long week), so here proof that I was wearing the Recovery Short, which helps me pour on the miles.

Montreal Marathon and #BrooksEndorsed

This was me in the ultramarathon that qualified me for Marathon Maniacs . . . 

... and those are Brooks Glycerins pounding the pavement for 9 loops around Central Park at that Knickerbocker 60K in NYC. Here are the latest Glycerins I am wearing, 9 years later:



After all the pairs of Glycerins I have worn -- sometime just walking into Super Runners Shop by Centeral Park and telling them I simply need a new color -- it felt really cool to become a #BrooksEndorsed runner! When you open a new box of Glycerins, you literally can't believe how good they feel as your foot glides into them, and 20 runs later I was looking down at these same shoes while lapping Central Park and smiling at how they are still like brand-new. They are super-cushiony, fast, and seemingly weatherproof.

UPDATE: We'll be taking them north to run the Rock n Roll MONTREAL Marathon on Sept. 24! Just registered for 18th marathon or ultra. BACK TO BEASTMODE!

Go try on a pair, and get #BrooksEndorsed yourself! Follow me @Marathoner on Twitter and @Marath0ner on Instagram.