The First Finishers

The first New York City Marathon took place September 13, 1970, in Central Park, with an entry fee of $1 and a budget of $1,000. Of the 127 registered runners, there were 55 finishers. This year, 12 of them are coming back to Central Park to reunite and celebrate the race's 50th running.

Photo credit (above): DON HOGAN CHARLES/The New York Times/Redux

Gary Muhrcke (1st place)
Huntington, NY

Gary Muhrcke spent the night before the first New York City Marathon battling blazes as a firefighter with the FDNY. He won the race after running the first half with his Millrose AA teammate Pat Bastick, only moving into first place in the final two miles. Gary still runs weekly in Central Park and his wife, Jane Muhrcke, makes the laurel wreaths for the TCS New York City Marathon champions.

Ed Ayres (3rd place)
Los Angeles, CA
Ed Ayres grew up in New Jersey and started running NYRR races in the 1960s. He ran the 1970 New York City Marathon with his brother, Glen Ayres, and both brothers finished in the top 10—Ed was third and Glen, who passed away two years ago, was ninth. Ed later became an accomplished ultrarunner. He was the founder of Running Times magazine, an environmental writer, and the editor of Worldwatch Institute. Now in his 80s, he still runs three to four times a week.

Tom Hollander (7th place)
Ann Arbor, MI
Tom Hollander grew up in Hamden, CT, and ran the New York City Marathon in his late teens. He attended Eastern Michigan University and won multiple track and cross country team championships. In 1972 he won the Cherry Tree Marathon, and he ran the 1977 New York City Marathon through the five boroughs. A longtime resident of Michigan, Tom ran a stationery store with his wife in Ann Arbor for 30 years. He stays active through biking and believes that running made him a better person.

Moses Mayfield (8th place)
Philadelphia, PA
Moses Mayfield is a legend. His 2:24:29 victory at the 1970 Philadelphia Marathon made him the fastest Black American marathoner in history at the time and he repeated as champion in 1971. A member of the Penn Athletic Club, Moses led the 1970 New York City Marathon for 24 miles before being passed by Gary Muhrcke. He’s run approximately 10 lifetime marathons including three New York City Marathons. Now 76 years old, Moses continued running until five years ago. 

Joe Martino (13th place)
Medway, MA
Joe Martino took his first trip to New York City to run the New York City Marathon, boarding a bus in Greenfield, MA, with his friend Rick Sherlund. The two teenagers stayed at the local YMCA, where one slept on a mattress and the other on the box spring—both entered the marathon on race morning. Joe also ran the marathon in 1978 and became friends with two-time winner Tom Fleming. He and Rick Sherlund were each other's best man at their weddings, and they remain best friends to this day.

Vince Chiappetta (17th place)
New York, NY
Vince Chiappetta was the president of NYRR in 1970, and along with Fred Lebow he co-directed the first New York City Marathon. A founding member of NYRR, he has run more than 100 marathons. He has taught at Yeshiva University since 1954 and began his running career at NYU in the mid-1950s.

Steve Grotsky (19th place)
Tempe, AZ
Born in the Bronx, Steve Grotsky started running long distances in high school. He trained with Gary Muhrcke, Norb Sander, Joe Burns, Ted Corbitt, and other legends and formed enduring friendships. Steve ran for Princeton University and later worked at the Supreme Court of the State of New York before moving to Arizona in 1996. He’s run more than 50 marathons, and after fracturing his hip and femur in 2020 doing the steeplechase, he recovered and at age 80 is still running strong.

Jim Isenberg (25th place)
Washington, DC, and Virginia
Jim Isenberg grew up in Boston and ran for Princeton University. He learned about the first New York City Marathon from his friend Larry Trachtenberg, and he remembers the race as very warm, without enough water stations. Still, he cherishes the memories and has kept his bib number, shoes, and program from the race. Jim has run more than 100 marathons, including the New York City Marathon four times. He retired as a professor of physics and mathematics at the University of Oregon.

Larry Trachtenberg (32nd place)
Eugene, OR
Larry Trachtenberg was born and raised in Queens and ran at Long Island City High School. At age 16, he trained for the New York City Marathon, his first, in Van Cortlandt Park. Larry ran at Princeton University where he became friends with Jim Isenberg, who also ran the 1970 New York City Marathon. He now works in special education and will be the sole runner from 1970 to run in 2021. Larry is looking forward to running by his old neighborhood in Queens.

Rick Sherlund (37th place)
Palo Alto, CA and Nantucket, MA
At age 16, Rick Sherlund was one of the youngest runners in the first New York City Marathon. He traveled to NYC with his friend Joe Martino and ran the first 20 miles before stopping for a cream soda, then cramped up and had to walk the last six miles. Rick didn't continue to run marathons, but he credits running with teaching him dedication. A leader in banking and a top-ranked software analyst, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs and currently works for Bank of America. He and Joe Martino remain best friends.

Gerald Miller (40th place)
New York, NY
The oldest living first New York City Marathon finisher at age 92, Gerald Miller is originally from Queens and now lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He heard about the first marathon at his local YMCA. He has run more than 20 New York City Marathons, most recently in the 1980s, and got his whole family into running; both his daughters have run the New York City Marathon too.

Arturo Montero (42nd place)
Stamford, CT
Arturo Montero came to the U.S. from Chile in 1960. The 1970 New York City Marathon was his first marathon, and he's run more than 100 in his lifetime, including 31 in New York (2016 was the last one). Arturo worked for Clairol as a mechanic for 42 years before retiring. At age 85, he still walks daily for exercise.

Ralph Garfield (43rd place)
Englishtown, NJ
Originally from England, Ralph Garfield came to the U.S. in 1961 for a job. In 1970 he was working at a firm on Wall Street and would regularly run in Central Park. His friend Bill Newkirk was planning to run the first marathon and persuaded Ralph to sign up too. He remembers the first marathon as hot and without adequate water. Ralph has run 14 marathons, including eight in New York, and at age 85 he still walks regularly. His daughter, Pamela Garfield Jaeger, will run the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon.

Bill Newkirk (47th place)
New York, NY
Born in the Bronx in 1935, Bill Newkirk moved to Manhattan to work as a CPA. He started running regularly around the Reservoir in Central Park, where he met Fred Lebow, who encouraged him to sign up for the first New York City Marathon. Bill recalls that the race ran out of cups for water during the second loop and that this contributed to many runners dropping out. Bill drank from a water fountain. He's finished more than 20 lifetime marathons including at least 10 in New York, and helped measure NYRR race courses with his friend Ted Corbitt. Bill continues to work five days a week as an accountant.

Nina Kuscsik (did not finish)
New York, NY

Nina Kuscsik transformed the sport of running by breaking down gender barriers and changing the rules to include women. A consistently excellent distance runner through the 1970s, she opened doors for future generations. Nina was the only woman among the 127 entrants in the first marathon; she dropped out around 14 miles due to illness. She went on to place second in 1971 and win in 1972 and 1973. With Fred Lebow and Kathrine Switzer, Nina organized the Crazylegs Mini Marathon (now the Mastercard New York Mini 10K) in 1972, the first all-women’s road race.

At the 1972 New York City Marathon, Nina and five other women sat down at the start to protest the women’s separate start; after the press got their story the women got up and started running.