Pony Espresso Express
Dear PE’s ,
In December, 1991, I had the good luck to share a cab from the Honolulu Airport to the Outrigger Reef on the Beach Hotel with one of America’s iconic marathoners. When I saw his name mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article about “mega-marathoners” I felt compelled to get back in touch with Norm. Here’s the story:
In 1982, at the urging of Thaddeus Kostrabala, MD (author of The Joy of Running and my daily training partner), I signed up for and ran my 1st Honolulu Marathon. I have continued to do it every year since (28 in a row come December 13th this year). On my 10th anniversary of the race (December 1991), I arrived at the Honolulu Airport several days early to get acclimated to the weather and time change and was waiting for my bags at the carousel . I noted a tall, wiry guy, wearing an Athens Marathon warmup suit and running shoes. He definitely did not look like most of the others waiting for their bags. He was definitely a runner! I introduced myself and suggested we share a cab to the hotel as it would be much quicker and less expensive as there were several of us going to the same hotel. On the ride to the hotel, he introduced himself and asked if I had run this race before. I indicated that this was my 10th year. I went on to describe the course. Not knowing of his accomplishments, I gave myself a gentle “pat on the back” by casually throwing in that this was my 43rd marathon, and then asked him which other races he had run. He totally floored me when he announced that this was his 443rd marathon! I replied that he must be amongst the leaders. He explained that he was “chasing” Sy Mah’s record of 524. What was the chance of running into one of the few people is the whole world who could make me feel like a total jerk? I was not even within an order of magnitude of the number of marathons he had run. He was very kind and didn’t pursue or stress the point.
Over the years I have kept track of his running and noted the many landmarks, often reported in Runners World magazine. I was saddened to see that he had had a stroke and was no longer running. Today, I had a chance to call and speak with him. He sounds “great”! He is currently getting physical therapy and dealing with some other medical issues, but sill has hopes of getting back on the roads to complete his 1000th marathon! He is currently at 965!
Best of luck to you, Norm. We all respect and love you. You can read about his accomplishments at his web site www.normfrank.com. You can even wish him a speedy recovery via his email (listed on the site)
Happy Trails,
JRB