Race to Catskills for friend with Lou Gehrig’s disease

By Malka Eisenberg

“We’re very excited,” said Matt Katz, one of the founders of JRunners, the club running the event, and hoping “that it will be successful.”

The group formed recently, Katz said — Jewish men ages 20 to 50 or so, who would meet to run as a group in Prospect Park on Wednesday nights.

Some had run marathons or participated in other races before. “I always wanted to do a relay race,” said Katz, but they were always on Friday night and Shabbat.

The idea of combining fund raising with a race came during a class on faith dedicated to Menachem Mendel ben Gehla, a friend with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Saul Rosenblum, another founder of JRunners, turned to Katz and pointed to the ailing father of five. “We’re going to do the relay for him and raise money for his family,” Katz recalled Rosenblum saying.

“Seeing him in a wheelchair, unable to move his hands, touched him,” Katz explained.

The race is open to a maximum of 100 runners with no age limits. Currently the youngest registered runner is 12; the oldest is 49. Each team will have 10 runners, handing a wristband instead of a baton from one to the other at designated exchange points. The race will be divided into 30 legs, each runner running three legs totaling 12.5 miles. Participants will have coaching and training prior to the race.

During the relay the runners will have access to recreational vehicles with bathrooms to rest in between slots. On board will be food, energy bars, fruit and sports drinks. There will be food and live music at the five exchange points along the route.

The race begins on July 28th at 10:00 p.m. in Prospect Park and continues on a scenic route and through Jewish communities ending the following evening in Loch Sheldrake, NY. There will be stops for Shacharit and Mincha. The organizers expect thousands of spectators at the finish line where there will be a daylong carnival, a concert, and kosher barbecue.

An awards ceremony for the runners will cap the race after they all come in together on the last leg to the finish line.

The race is for men only since it will be run overnight and runners will share the RVs. Other events, including a women’s-only race, are planned, said Katz.

Rabbi Pesach Sommer, a teacher at Yeshiva of Flatbush High School, plans to run the race. He began running a few years ago for health reasons and joined JRunners because of, “common goals.”

“It seemed a group worth getting involved with,” he said. “I want to promote running and healthy living in the Jewish community.” There is an “epidemic of people out of shape,” Sommer said, a “health risk.” He cited this as tzedaka and chesed and said, “if you have a talent you should use it to help other people.”

One of the runners is making a siyum on Sanhedrin, said Katz. “There’s a tremendous network of people that just want to do chesed,” he said. “The amount of chesed that came out of this is amazing.”

JRunners’ mission statement pairs raising health awareness with a charitable endeavor. For more information, to run, volunteer or sponsor see www.jrunners.org. Katz’s website www.jrunnersrelay.org/my/matt has a funny and inspiring faqs link.