Sunday's Daily News

Daily News - Tribeca Documentaries Deliver a Dose of Drama
Marathon Man

The New York City Marathon has grown from a small event in Central Park involving a few hundred people in 1970 into a citywide extravaganza that attracts top runners from all over the world as well as casual athletes looking to conquer their own personal Everest.

The main reason for that is Fred Lebow, a classic New Yorker whose story is told in the new documentary "Run for Your Life," directed by Judd Ehrlich.

It shows Lebow galvanizing the sport by coming up with crazy promotions like a bagel run, a New Year's Eve Run and a race up the stairs of the Empire State Building, all while helping to give the city a much-needed shot of civic pride.

"The marathon came at a time when the city was in such dire straits," says Ehrlich, who worked on the Ric Burns documentary "New York." "[The marathon] was something that celebrated the city and it not only made New Yorkers feel good about New York, but made the world see it in a different way. It very quickly became a worldwide phenomenon and Fred became an emissary of the sport worldwide."

It was Lebow's genius, says Ehrlich, to build the marathon up into a massive event while keeping the focus on the average competitor.

"He always said, 'I don't want this to become a business,'" says Ehrlich. "He was at every race and the club was always open and people would be changing in the lobby. It was about making the sport bigger and yet there was this balance of not letting money rule the day."

And yes, Ehrlich feels compelled to tackle the marathon himself - and has cajoled much of his film crew to run it with him.

"It's appropriate that I'm new to running because that's what Fred was all about," says Ehrlich. "He ran like a duck, he was in the back of the pack and for him that didn't matter. He was the right guy to take that populist message out there." - Michael Giltz