Fred Abramowitz's "Crazy Act of Endurance"

Fred Abramowitz started his training for the 1976 New York City Marathon three weeks out from race day. His longest training run was 16 miles. 

Fred was 24 years old and living in Brooklyn. “Back then, running a marathon was considered as extreme as going to the moon, but the idea of doing some crazy act of endurance, like running a marathon, had been with me since my teens,” he said. 

Still, it was pure chance that Fred even heard about the first 5-boro New York City Marathon. “One day I was jogging on a track, when a football coach in the infield told me there was a marathon through the five boroughs in a few weeks,” he said. The coach had an entry blank, which he gave to Fred. “I went home, paid the fee, dropped it in the mail, and thought, ‘Why not?’”   

Fred knew nothing about marathon training. “I thought I would run just a little farther each day,” he said. His final training run—that 16-miler—was three days before the race. He was similarly clueless about gear, logging his miles in everyday sneakers. But he showed up in Staten Island on race morning full of enthusiasm. “I remember runners milling about, gathering round the luminaries Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers.” He recalls Rodgers saying that some runners feared the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge would collapse under the weight of the 2,000 entrants. 

Other memories of race day are sketchy. “The course went up along the FDR Drive, and to get there, I am certain—though [George Hirsch] has told me I’m wrong—that we climbed stairs," he said. "If there was a ramp, maybe I missed it.”  

Fred’s lack of training nearly undid him. “After mile 20, I completely went to pieces," he said. "My legs turned to concrete. I remember a race official saying, ‘Only five miles to go!’ He may as well have said 50.” Fred refused to stop, or even walk, and crossed the finish line in 3:59:46.  

Afterward, Fred threw his shoes in the trash and swore he’d never run again. But the shoes were rescued and Fred started to run regularly. He finished the 1977 New York City Marathon in 3:06:34. He has run a total of 17 New York City Marathons, and he’ll be running again this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first 5-boro event.  

He said that his biggest challenge this year will be “trying not to tear up when they play Frank Sinatra’s 'New York, New York' at the start. I’m a sucker for nostalgia.”  

Fred will run with his wife, Amy, and their 18-year-old son, Mikhail, who will be running his first marathon. “I’ve told him he will be running the greatest marathon on the planet, in the greatest city on the planet,” he said. 

Fred lives in Colorado, where he’s tackled race distances up to 100 miles. “Crazy acts of endurance have always appealed to me,” he said. He’s run close to 100 ultras, including Run Rabbit Run, a 100-miler in Steamboat Springs that he founded, which has donated funds to local charities, mostly those benefiting kids in northern Colorado.  

Fred is part of Team Inspire, a diverse group of marathon athletes with compelling stories. Each story represents one mile of the iconic 26.2-mile course of the TCS New York City Marathon.