New Hyde Park runner Joseph Gendy had two goals in Sunday’s New York City Marathon – finishing the race and helping the homeless.
“I finished and that was my first goal,” Gendy said. “And I was remembering what the cause was about.”
In finishing the race, Gendy raised $3,726 to help the homeless through Back on My Feet, a national organization that helps homeless people work toward finding jobs and places to live.
Back on My Feet had provided Gendy with a slot in the New York City Marathon after he ran a half marathon in Baltimore sponsored by the organization. And Gendy did the rest by getting commitments from sponsors to contribute money if he finished the race.
Gendy said he was originally attracted to Back on My Feet by the services it offers.
“Any service I’ve done with my community outside my church has been with orphans or the poor. I just feel I should give back in any way possible and give back to those in need,” Gendy said.
The thrill of running in a marathon made the day that much more appealing.
“I see the marathon as the marquis event of running. I just knew that it was one of those activities that would challenge me in all aspects. It’s the biggest challenge I’ve ever had,” he said.
Gendy said he was also driven to run the marathon by his faith.
“One of my driving forces to run the marathon has been my Christian faith. Running is a lot like life and it’s a journey of ups and downs, overcoming and persevering. So the marathon has many spiritual meanings for me as well,” he said.
Gendy said he first began running when he was in graduate school in the New York Institute of Technology four or five years ago and joined the school’s cross-country team. Gendy, who was studying physical therapy in a doctoral program, primarily ran 8Ks as the only non-Jamaican or Kenyan on the team, he said.
“Those guys are good runners,” Gendy said. “My first race was an 85-degree day. I remember trying to hold on and I just couldn’t.”
Gendy currently works as a physical therapist at Fulton Commons Care Center in East Meadow, treating senior residents of the facility and post-operative patients.
After four months of training for his first marathon, Gendy said, he felt he was physically prepared leading up to last Sunday’s race. But when he took his place on the Verrazano Bridge in 44-degree weather and a stiff facing wind at the race’s outset, it was a set of circumstances he hadn’t experienced.
“It’s amazing how you train for so long and you think your body’s ready. But then something like the weather throws you off,” he said on Monday. “I had not dealt with the wind and the cold that was there yesterday.”
He said he sailed through the first six miles, but suffered a calf cramp in the eighth mile, which reoccurred throughout the race.
“A couple of times I had to stop. My mind would say ‘yes,’ but my body wouldn’t go,” Gendy said. “I just fed off the energy of the crowd.”
He said he also fed off another form of inspiration, having also dedicated his effort to his late grandmother, Reda; his mother, Mervhe and his fiance, Miriam.
He said that when he reached the Queensborough Bridge and faced a cold wind and the race became particularly difficult for him. He slammed his hand against a barrier on the bridge in frustration, he said.
But, he said, he found the strength to persevere.
He said he recalled one of his favorite Biblical verses, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and kept that thought in his mind as he kept his legs moving.
“That’s what kept me going. I had never experienced such pain in a race before. I was praying all the time,” Gendy said.
Still, doubts began to set in around mile 22 when he said his approach became run-cramp, run-cramp. But unlike that first 8K he ran in college, he said, he never really considered stopping.
“It was never an option,” he said.
To the very end, he said, onlookers help provide the encouragement he needed to finish. One man, he said, came out of the crowd near the end when he was cramping, got in his face and simply said, “Keep walking.”
“It was like an internal battle,” Gendy said.
He missed his goal of running a 3:30, finishing in four hours and four minutes. But, Gendy said, he finished the race and raised the money for the homeless.
