Dave Obelkevich’s first experience with the New York City Marathon was in 1973, when it had fewer than 400 entrants and took place entirely in Central Park. He was on the west side of Manhattan near 100th Street when a pack of runners in bibs flew by. He asked a few onlookers what was going on.
A recreational runner himself, he was both impressed and intimidated by the lead runners’ speed. He knew he couldn’t keep up with them for 26.2 miles, but he figured he could probably finish one of the four loops of the park at a respectable pace. So, on their final lap, he jumped in and finished in 43 minutes.
After that, he immediately signed up for the following year. Obelkevich admits that it took a couple of years for his training to gel. In the months leading up to the 1974 race, he did just one six-mile training run a week.
He still managed to finish in 4:20:27, but the experience itself was “tough,” he says. The now 83-year-old registered again in 1975, but didn’t finish the race. He’d started strong but suffered a series of dizzy spells.
With five miles to go, he’d stopped to take a break when the late Fred Lebow, race director and cofounder of the New York City Marathon, drove by. Discouraged by the time he’d lost, Obelkevich asked Lebow for a ride to the finish line. In 1976, the marathon course changed to include all five boroughs of New York City.
He grew up in a suburb of Binghamton, New York, and moved to Manhattan in 1961 to attend Columbia University, but he’d always lived on the Upper West Side. It was an eye-opener,” he says. By the time he reached the start line of that first five-borough marathon, Obelkevich was, thankfully, running more than six miles a week.
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