By Kim J. Harmon

NEW YORK, NY – The 1999 New York City Marathon will always have a special place in the hearts of Mark and Emily Fries . . . not so much because they finished, or because of the amazing way the denizens of the five boroughs came out their cheer them and 30,000 of their closest friends on, or even because of the emotional inspiration they derived from the event.

The 1999 New York City Marathon will always have a special place in their hearts because they did it together.

“It’s a wonderful thing to run with my dad,” said Emily, 21, a 1996 graduate if Newtown High School and now a senior at Colgate University. “Most people don’t have this opportunity and to be able to share this with my dad, crossing the finish line together, is so special to me.”

For each of them, it was only their second marathon. Mark, now 49, first ran the marathon in 1979 – when Emily was just one.

“The thrill – it takes special meaning when you do it with your child,” said Mark.

The official New York City Marathon web site – www.nycmarathon.msn.com – has Mark crossing the line 20,976th at 4:43.06 and somehow has Emily crossing the line 20,978th in the same time. Cheryl Boschert of Ohio managed to sneak in between the two in, oddly enough, also in 4:43.06. Of male finishers, Mark was 16,460th (2,123rd in his age group) while, of female finishers, Emily was 4,518th (1,395th in her age group).

None of those numbers really mattered all that much – except maybe for the time.

“We did wonderfully,” said Mark, “but Emily was a little upset that the time wasn’t better. With 30,000 people running, though, we did pretty well.”

Seeking A Challenge

It seems as if Emily did pretty well just being able to run the New York Marathon considering that a stress fracture she developed as a sophomore cross country and track athlete at Colgate once again reared its painful head as she began preparing for the 26-mile run.

Emily, who played soccer and softball at Newtown High School, first got into cross country and track at Colgate, As a sophomore in 1997, she developed the stress fracture in her shin that kept her sidelined through the following January. When spring rolled around, she was able to start challenging herself again on the track.

That led her to the Boston Marathon.

“I wanted something where, if I put my mind to it, I could really achieve something. It was a big, personal test for me,” said Emily, who got talked into the Boston Marathon by the sister of one of her friends.

Yet, as she built up her mileage, she couldn’t help but question herself.

“I was thinking, ‘what did I get myself into?’ It’s really just mind over matter,” she said, but since her leg was feeling better there was nothing stopping her from attacking the marathon and the infamous Heartbreak Hill at Mile 18.

Emily spent her junior year abroad, working on her English/Spanish double major, and got the itch to run something big again. She ran lightly over the summer and, once in the fall, started picking up her mileage.

Then, six weeks before the New York City Marathon, she felt the pain in her leg again and was told by her doctors to stop running or risk a full break, but she had still yet to put in the recommended 20-mile training run in preparation for the marathon.

She took two weeks off and in that time she started losing some of her confidence, some of her toughness, and her fitness. Soon, she wasn’t feeling any pain and her chiropractor showed her how to wrap her foot to alleviate the pressures on her shin.

Her father went up to Colgate to do the 20-mile run with Emily there and everything went just swimmingly.

“I felt absolutely phenomenal,” Emily said. “I felt like I ran six miles instead of 20. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

But it wasn’t the end of her trials. Soon after that run, she developed bronchitis and – thanks to the wrap – also developed a knot on her foot.

“My foot was hurting before the race,” she said, “so I was nervous. I began getting shooting pains and I thought, there was no way I could finish. But it’s all mental. I knew I had worked so long for this and wanted it so badly. I knew I would let myself down if I didn’t finish.”

Her father did not cease being amazed, throughout the race, that his daughter continued to run.

“She was really hurting about 12 miles in,” said Mark, who had his problems with sciatica after running the marathon back in 1979, problems tough enough to keep him off the road until only recently, “so we shifted positions in the road. Even though her foot numbed up on her, she was able to grit it out, but I don’t know how she did it.”

But she did – they did – and finishing said more to Emily than anything else could.

“I have confidence in my working abilities and my problem-solving abilities, but this is such a mental thing to commit to,” she said. “It proves to me what I can achieve.”

More Than Just A Race

Maybe it was the Gospel singers in Harlem, or the people handing out orange slices or sugar boosts, or hearing the crowd while going over the Queensborough Bridge, but for Mark and Emily the New York City Marathon was more than just a race.

“Just being part of that whole thing makes you feel special,” said Mark.

It starts, perhaps, with the army of United Parcel Service (UPS) trucks near the starting line ready to grab discarded clothing or personal effects and deliver them to the finish line 26 miles away. Then there are the sights of the Hudson, the sights of lower Manhattan, and running alongside many physically-challenged athletes (there were 114 wheelchair racers who finished the marathon, 91 of them males and the other 23 females) that had the Fries marveling at the spectacle.

“Coming over the Queensborough Bridge,” Mark said, “at mile 13 or 14, we could hear the crowd as we started down. When you come off that bridge, the crowd cheers so loud and makes you feel like you’re the lead runner. It’s probably New York’s finest hour.”

Running through each of the five boroughs also lent itself to certain sights and certain marvels, like the Gospel singers in Harlem.

“Each community gets into the marathon in its own way,” said Mark. “The people in New York get you through it. The firemen, the police – everyone is cheering you on.”

Like the fellow who cheered, “Hey, Colgate! You beat Lehigh!” upon seeing Emily and her friend, Ilene Derby, coming along with their Colgate t-shirts.

“It’s great,” said Emily. “If you need an ego boost, run a marathon with your name on your t-shirt. The amount of people who come out to urge you on is amazing.”

Even though Mark had finished the marathon well under four hours when he first ran it 20 years ago, the 1999 race wasn’t about time and wasn’t even about the accomplishment of finishing – which, he said, wasn’t even an issue to consider.

“This was just for myself and for Emily,” he said. “I never imagined how good it could be.”