Fred Lebow

For the American screenwriter, see Fredric Lebow.

Fred Lebow (June 3, 1932 – October 9, 1994), born Fischel Lebowitz, was a Holocaust survivor, runner, race director, and founder of the New York City Marathon. Born in Arad, Romania, he presided over the transformation of the race from one with 55 finishers in 1970 to one of the largest marathons in the world with more than 52,000 finishers in 2018.[1] He was posthumously inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2001.

Lebow ran in the inaugural marathon in 1970, finishing 45th out of 55 runners with a time of 4:12:09. He ran his last NYC Marathon on November 1, 1992 in celebration of his 60th birthday, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in early 1990, with his friend, nine-time NYC Marathon women's winner Grete Waitz of Norway, with a time of 5:32:35.[2][3][4]

During his career he completed 69 marathons in 30 countries. Along with the NYC Marathon he also organized the Empire State Building Run-Up, the Fifth Avenue Mile, and the CrazyLegs Mini Marathon (a 10K road race), which was the first strictly women-only road race. Lebow was also president of New York Road Runners for twenty years.

  1. ^ "New York Road Runners Official Race Results". results.nyrr.org. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Coffey, Wayne (October 30, 2008). "Grete Waitz reflects on her, & Fred Lebow's, last NYC Marathon". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on June 20, 2017.
  3. ^ "NYC Marathon 1992: Run-26.2Miles at". Athlinks. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  4. ^ Vecsey, George (November 2, 1992). "NEW YORK CITY MARATHON: Sports of The Times; Fred and Grete Win All of New York City". The New York Times.