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:
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10 Years of Running

My 10 Favorite: Miles | Medals | Shoes | Bibs

Thursday marks my 10th runnerversary, and thanks to anyone who has been along for the ride. I never imagined I would still be doing this on that Friday of December 1, 2006. That morning, I moved into a new apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City, and it was freshly painted. While waiting for the movers to arrive with my stuff, I walked over to the bodega at 73rd Street & Columbus, to buy a few items. I stepped out, and was standing there at the intersection, with a full box of KOOLS in my hand, ready to light one. I had visited the apartment earlier that week, huffing and puffing up the steps to the third floor, overweight and a smoker for the past six or seven years, to meet the tenants who were moving out. They changed my world, without knowing it, because they told me they belonged to the New York Road Runners club and that they regularly ran and biked Central Park a block away. With that healthy thought in my head, I looked at that full box of KOOLS and I broke it in half, drawing curious looks from women who stood beside me. I went into my new apartment, met the movers, unpacked, and then immediately took the A train down to Times Square and bought a pair of ASICS at a Foot Locker. I went to NYRR.org and paid for a one-year membership. That week I started running hilly Central Park, and on that December 10th I ran my first race, the Joe Kleinerman 10K, finishing with a net time of 1:18:40 (12:41 pace).



I have thought about this moment for a long time, and in counting down the days to this special runnerversary I have been posting several top-10 lists of my favorite things over this past decade of running. Today, I am going to celebrate by running Central Park at 5 a.m., then running around the Washington Monument later in the day, then by popping a bottle of champagne and spraying it all over myself. I am also going to celebrate by posting my final top-10 list, so here it is: 10 unbelievable things that happened after I quit smoking and started running.

10. It taught me to be a finisher in life. Set a goal, work hard, persevere and finish. My first goal was to run the New York City Marathon within my first year as a runner, and I did that in November 2007. In the past month I finished my fourth NYC Marathon, and 17th full or ultra.

9. There are 137 bibs on my bedroom wall. They signify all the races I have registered for and then got up for early starts and put one foot in front of another until I crossed a timing mat. That has equated to thousands and thousands and thousands of miles I have run either in those races or in training. It means my heart has pumped blood in wonderful fashion amid all that activity. I owe a special thanks to the New York Road Runners, for conducting all those races I have run, and to the people who take care of Central Park and keep it so pristine and the best place in the world to run -- my track!