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February 17, 2010
Anything for a T-Shirt; Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace by Ron Rubin
As I am gearing up for the New York City Marathon (T-Minus 263 days), I decided to do some reading to prepare myself for the race and inspire myself to train for it. Ron Rubin's biography of Fred Lebow, Anything for a T-Shirt; Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace is part of that reading.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I am fascinated by Fred Lebow's story - from Holocaust survivor to co-founder of the New York City Marathon to running the Marathon after being stricken with brain cancer (and since I am running the Marathon by raising money for the Tug McGraw Foundation, that becomes even more poignant to me). But as intrigued as I was by Lebow's story, I found myself annoyed with author Rubin's writing. It is apparent from the writing, which tends to be unnecessarily repetitive in places, that Rubin is not a runner and, thus, simply does not understand the meaning of what Lebow did for marathoning. Rubin constantly refers to Lebow's "schtick" and the Marathon as a party; while Lebow did promote the Marathon as a social event and was a genius at attracting sponsors, what's more significant is that Lebow, by providing creative ways to support the non-elite runners who strive to finish the 26.2 mile course. This was not just schtick - this was creativity that ultimately made marathoning attainable to a vast number of people who could never compete with the elite runners.
Even before I decided to run the New York City Marathon, I found this Fred Lebow quote to be especially inspiring -
In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
Fred Lebow's philosophy personally helped me to feel that it's alright to strive to run distance races, even though I was never blessed with speed. This is not schtick; it's understanding and compassion. Rubin's failure to empathize with this key point detracts from this biography of Fred Lebow.
Although the writing of this book is mediocre, the subject matter is ultimately fascinating. So I found that it was worth it to my way through the writing in order to learn more about an inspirational individual.
Posted by In Repair at February 17, 2010 09:15 PM
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