101 marathons and counting for NHP runner, 69

The Island Now

Early in his running career,  Bob Nordman, a New Hyde Park resident, went “from zero to marathon in one year,” he said.

His first race was the Garden City Turkey Trot in November 1980, and the following October he found himself in his first New York City Marathon, he said.

 “I could hardly walk afterwards,” said Nordman, now 69. “I said, ‘I’m never doing this again.’”

But the 26.2-mile tests of endurance hooked Nordman, he said. 

His 19th New York City Marathon on Nov. 6 will be his 102nd marathon in 35 years. That includes one marathon in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Nordman started running at age 33 on doctor’s orders to get his blood pressure down, he said. 

It was a rough start — he gave up after a few weeks and only started again to avoid having to take medication, he said.

Once he got used to it, Nordman started running races and got motivated by the competition, he said. 

Now his blood pressure and heart rate are down and he’s avoided the knee and hip replacements many of his peers have had to get.

“I feel good,” Nordman said. “There are guys older than me still running.”

Nordman started his quest to run a marathon in every state in 2007 and finished last December in Baton Rouge, La.

He joined a club of runners dedicated to the feat and formed many relationships along the way, he said. His wife traveled with him sometimes, and he did a run each year with his son.

“Most of the time you end up talking to a lot of people, locals or people from other states, creating a lot of friendships,” Nordman said.

Nordman said he once ran three marathons in three days, traveling from Oklahoma to Kansas to Colorado. 

As a country music lover, he said his favorite was the Country Music Marathon in Nashville.

One of his most memorable races was in the mountains of Palo Alto, Calif. 

At the halfway point were warning signs about mountain lions and rattlesnakes. 

A comment by a worker that there were only three mountain lion attacks last year wasn’t encouraging, Nordman said, considering there were only 17 people running.

“I’m running the last six miles looking up because I know they attack from above,” Nordman said.

Nordman once finished a marathon in 3:05 and twice ran the New York City Marathon in 3:08, he said.

A key lesson he’s learned is not to push too hard when training, he said.

“You have to pace yourself, and be flexible,” Nordman said. “Some people have this training program that they follow regardless of how they feel. That’s not good.”

Plenty of runners older than Nordman are still at it, he said. 

He runs with an 82-year-old blind man at his upstate weekend home in Chester, where he is a member of the Orange County Runners Club, and he once saw a 100-year-old man from India run the New York City Marathon, he said.

“I don’t know if I’ll make it that far, but I’ll keep going for a while longer,” Nordman said.

By Noah Manskar

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