Long Islander runs Boston Marathon for cancer victims

At 6 a.m. on a chilly Tuesday in late March, coach Jose L. Lopez gathered the participants in the weekly workout he leads.

The group of 16 men and women assembled on the track at The Wheatley School in Old Westbury was about to start its sessions of what endurance athletes call "speed work," shorter, faster running intervals designed to build fitness for competitive races. But first, Lopez — a certified triathlon coach and co-founder of the Long Island Tri Coach/Runner's Edge team — wanted to acknowledge a special guest: a lean, gray-haired runner wearing the official training jacket of the Boston Marathon, the 126th running of which is scheduled for April 18.

"We have an old friend here today," Lopez said. "I coached Bob in the early 2000s. He's running Boston this year, and I wanted you to hear what he's doing, because it's pretty impressive."

At age 70, Bob Goldfarb was the oldest and by his own admission, the slowest runner on the track that morning. But the unusual and poignant nature of his upcoming participation in that storied marathon managed to hold even this energized group still and spellbound in the pre-dawn darkness.

Goldfarb is one of 2,586 runners in this year's Boston Marathon (out of about 25,000 participants) who have earned their spot in the race not by running a qualifying time at another marathon — but by raising funds.

Except that … well, he's not raising funds.

"I don't want your money," Goldfarb told the group. "I want names. The names of people in your family or friends who are battling cancer, or who were taken from us too soon by cancer."

Among them is Goldfarb's wife, Linda, who died of cancer in 2015. Her name will be at the top of the list of those that Goldfarb will have on his race shirt as he runs 26.2 miles from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to Copley Square, in Boston.

Emotions in the fore

While charity runners are a fixture at Boston and other marathons, Goldfarb’s approach is different. "What Bob is doing is both interesting and inspiring," said Hannah d’Entremont, a fundraising consultant formerly with the Association of Fundraising Professionals. "While charity is certainly about raising money, it’s also about emotion, and what he is doing will encourage individuals to keep emotion at the forefront of the giving decisions they make."

Indeed, it was the anguish of having lost to cancer not only his wife but his sister-in-law, his own parents and several family members that compelled Goldfarb to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the Boston Marathon's 43 designated charities.

And support it, he has: Through a charitable fund he set up in Linda's name after her death. Adding money from his own savings, he donated what he reckoned would be a very appropriate figure for a marathon runner: $26,200.

"I thought this would be a good way to honor Linda," he said

Then he began training at his winter home in Sarasota, Florida. Although Goldfarb has done five marathons in the past, this will be the first time he's run the famously hilly Boston course. As he plodded through the Florida humidity and heat on his long training runs, he reached inside for inspiration.

"I was thinking about Linda, and Susan [Smalling], my sister-in-law, and also my parents, and it gave me some strength that day. And it suddenly came to me. This is how I'll get through the race — by thinking about them," Goldfarb said.

And maybe, he thought in a flash of inspiration, others. Friends and their families. People he might or might not know.

"I put it out on Facebook," he said. "I said, 'I don't want any money, but if you know someone who left us too soon or is a survivor or in treatment, let me know, and I'll honor that person during the race.' "

Big response

The invitation sparked immediate and intense response. "I got 70 names in two hours," said Goldfarb, his eyebrows raised in surprise as he related the story, after the track workout. "They just kept popping up on Facebook, emails, text." He laughed. "I didn't think I had that many friends. I'm not that popular!"

His friends might disagree.

"He has heart and determination and humor!" said Mindy Davidson, vice president of the Greater Long Island Running Club and Goldfarb’s longtime friend. "He's also extremely philanthropic."

Goldfarb was also extremely un-athletic for most of his life — an unlikely candidate to be running Boston, fundraising or not.

Growing up in Fresh Meadows, Queens, he said, "I was the last one picked for baseball." At Francis Lewis High School, he also managed to get out of running laps, he said, by taking a shortcut. "If they knew," he said, with a chuckle, "I would have failed gym."

He went on to earn a bachelor's at Pace University, and two graduate degrees — an MBA from Hofstra University and a master's in education at Adelphi University. It was there that he met Linda. (They married in 1979.)

After earning his degrees, Bob taught business at Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, but when he was excessed in 1975, he pivoted to a career in accounting, working first for Price Waterhouse in Manhattan, and then, in 1982, starting his own firm. By then he and Linda — who worked as an executive assistant in the corporate world — were living on Long Island, first in East Meadow, then in Massapequa.

Around 2000, Goldfarb heard about Team in Training, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's fundraising program, and was introduced to the world of charity endurance events. The idea was that instead of simply writing a check, an individual raises money for the charity while training — typically for a marathon, triathlon or bike ride — with fellow TNT members and under the tutelage of a coach.

'Incredible' strength

By his own estimate, Goldfarb raised more than $50,000 for TNT over a decade. The same guy who had dreaded running and eschewed sports in high school ended up finishing an Ironman triathlon, albeit on his second attempt. In 2011, he finally completed the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run, in an Ironman race held in Ohio, thanks in large part to his wife. "I was devastated when I couldn't finish the first one," he recalled. "Linda insisted that I do another."

Part of Goldfarb's motivation for his participation in the Leukemia Society program was his own experiences with cancer. "So many people in my family had it, I thought it would probably get me," he said. Instead, in what he called an "incredible irony," it was Linda who was diagnosed with a rare form of uterine cancer shortly after Bob's Ironman.

She fought it valiantly. "Surgery, chemo, treatments," he said. "Her strength was incredible."

Sadly, though, Linda died in June 2015.

Now Goldfarb will commemorate her life and memory — and those of many others. In addition to their names, Goldfarb gathered short anecdotes and biographical information about those in whose memory he will run. He recorded that information on to his phone. "During the marathon, at each mile I'll play back the recording and be able to remember each person," he said.

He is now up to more than 100 names, and counting. He's not yet sure exactly how he'll display the list, but he's thinking of having all the names silk-screened on the front and back of his black Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge shirt.

Meanwhile, the list keeps getting longer: As Goldfarb finished the morning track workout, jogging well behind the leaders, but engaged in animated conversation with others throughout the hourlong session, it was apparent that his unusual "tribute race" had struck a chord.

"What a special thing you're doing," said Sergio Nicolosi of Garden City, a regular participant in the LITC workouts. "I'd like to be a part of it."

As they walked to the parking lot from the track, Nicolosi asked Goldfarb if he'd be willing to include on his tribute shirt the name of his father, Armando Nicolosi, who died of lung cancer in 1993.

"I'd be honored," said Goldfarb. "Just send me his name."