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East Hartford's David Vogel, 98, Helped Lay Out The Five-ward Course For The New York City Marathon, Which Celebrates Its 50th Running Sunday 

EAST HARTFORD - — The New York City Marathon will praise its 50th running on Sunday. East Hartford's David Vogel, who will watch the race as a visitor of the New York Road Runners Club, was there from the beginning. 안전놀이터

Vogel, at98 years old, is the most seasoned living contract individual from the New York Road Runners, what began the notorious 26.2-mile race in 1970 in Central Park. Whenever the race first went through the city's five wards in 1976, Vogel assisted lay with excursion the course. 

"In New York, we needed to go to New England to run races," Vogel said. "They didn't have New York races until we began the New York Road Runners." 

He was a sprinter for around 60 years, up until a couple of years prior. 

"I've been extremely fortunate due to running," said Vogel, who ran near 100 long distance races before he halted 20 years prior. "If not for running, I'd be no more." 

David Vogel at his home in East Hartford. Vogel, 98, is the most seasoned living New York Road Runner Club part. He assisted lay with trip the initial five-precinct New York City Marathon course in 1976. The race is praising its 50th running this year and Vogel has been welcome to New York as a visitor of the club to watch. (Hartford Courant) 

Vogel experienced childhood in New York City on the Lower East Side with five siblings and sisters. He is the main enduring kin. His dad was a dough puncher, and Vogel seldom saw him since he worked around evening time. His more established sibling, Sammy, who was an Olympic fighter in 1920, was a mentor to Vogel and took him to his first Yankee game in 1936, the principal year Joe DiMaggio played, at age 13. 

Vogel was consistently athletic, however he didn't begin pursuing until he got back from World War II. He was working out when a companion moved toward him and let him know he should attempt the game. He ran the Boston Marathon without precedent for 1956. 

He was one of 47 unique individuals from the Road Runners Club-New York Association, coordinated in 1958 as a part of the Road Runners Club of America. Levy were $3 every year. Ted Corbitt, the main Black American Olympic long distance runner and a ultrarunner, was the prime supporter of the association and its first president. 

The club coordinated seven races its first year, and on Feb. 22, 1959, it put on its first 26.2-miler, the Cherry Tree Marathon, a five-circle course which occurred in the shadow of the old Yankee Stadium and went through the Bronx along the Harlem River. 

"Possibly 50-60 people" ran the primary Cherry Tree, Vogel said. Corbitt won in 2:38:57. 

In 1970, they moved the rush to Central Park, where it turned into the New York City Marathon. By 1975, the field (339 contestants) was developing too large for the recreation center, and the NYRR needed to shake things up on the grounds that it was the bicentennial year. Gary Corbitt, Ted's child, refered to a letter from May 1976 from his dad to individual club part George Spitz in which Ted examines the possibility of the five-precinct race. (Spitz is credited on the NYRR site with thinking of the thought). 

"George needed the city to have a major competition to overemphasize the bicentennial," Gary said. "In discussions with my dad, my dad concocted an exceptional way of having sprinters cover every one of the five wards. 

"[Spitz] took the plan to [Manhattan Borough president] Percy Sutton, he had a relationship with Percy Sutton. That got the race going." 

David Vogel of East Hartford, a long-lasting Yankees fan, was welcome to the New York Yankees Old-Timers' Day in 2015. Vogel, a long distance runner, experienced childhood in New York City and was instrumental in getting sorted out the early New York City Marathons. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant) 

It was the work of Vogel and another club part, Harry Murphy to spread out the course. 

"I helped plan the course of the long distance race in New York," Vogel said. "We utilized two or three vehicles. I was in my vehicle with a portion of the folks, [race chief Fred] Lebow and those folks. We arranged the course. We had various thoughts for various courses. 

"We at long last settled on the five-precinct long distance race beginning in Staten Island, then, at that point, it went into Brooklyn. From the start, they wouldn't give us utilize First Avenue access Manhattan. The police didn't think it was a smart thought. 

"The children in Brooklyn, they were shrewd folks. We put a blue line down. It was my thought. I saw it in the Munich Olympic Marathon, they did that. We had it painted. These children in Brooklyn, they attempted to do their own artistic creation [to redirect the course]." 

There were more than 2,000 participants in the 1976 race. Bill Rodgers won, beating Olympic silver medalist Frank Shorter. Filled by the running blast of the 1970s, the race became one of the world's most famous long distance races. 

"The last time they had the long distance race [in 2019], there were 53,000 that completed," Vogel said. "Would you be able to trust that? I thought whenever we first had the five wards, there was 2,000, and I felt that was absurd." 

The race was not held in 2012 because of Superstorm Sandy, and last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this year will stamp its 50th running. 

Vogel, who possessed a shipping business in New York and was a sales rep, dealt with the race for 10 additional years. He moved to East Hartford after he got hitched to his better half Sylvia in 1986. Sylvia kicked the bucket in 2003.