When Joel Kaufman of Queens walked across the finish line of last year’s TCS New York City Marathon after 8 p.m., after most runners and spectators had long since left Central Park, he earned an unusual honor.
“I got a call the other day from the New York Road Runners,” Kaufman told The Post about the organization that produces the 26.2-mile race. “[They] said, ‘You are the final official conclusion.’ I said, ‘That’s pretty cool. I have a title that no one can take away from me.’ It’s not like being the 57,000th winner.”
Kaufman’s time of 8 hours, 43 minutes and 34 seconds — a 19-minute, 59-second mile pace — was the slowest in the decade he’s been running the NYC Marathon to support people fighting blood cancer with leukemia and lymphoma.
The 66-year-old retired high school math teacher who goes by “Whammy” will be back for Sunday’s marathon — and this time he’ll start two hours earlier as a nod to his inspirational story.
“I’ll start at 9:10, 10 minutes behind the elite runners, with the marathoners three hours behind me,” Kaufman said. “I’ll be all the way on the right side of the road, walking in my cape, and 50,000 people will be running in front of me shouting ‘On your left.’
Kaufman wears a cape featuring leukemia patients and those who have helped him raise over $150,000.
He also has an American flag headband, a Jewish star, a military-style dog tag calling for the return of Israeli hostages, a shirt highlighting the Team in Training fundraising program for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and a colorful foot necklace. celebrates his friend’s recovery from a stem cell transplant.
A longtime hiker, Kaufman was inspired to start walking the NYC Marathon in 2015 by a childhood friend who developed leukemia and has since passed away. He finished the race in 7 hours and 40 minutes.
“Once I got into marathon shape, I couldn’t get back on the couch, and it certainly filled my days and gave me something to do during the day as a retired teacher,” Kaufman said.
The father of four has completed marathons at Disney World and in London and Chicago as well.
Kaufman usually works out by walking 5 miles every other day. He walks instead of running to reduce the chance of injury.
This means he is on course for a very long time. His fastest NYC marathon was 6 hours, 53 minutes, 4 seconds in 2017. His “dream time” is 6 hours, 30 minutes.
Marathoners have until 10pm to complete the five-unit course, regardless of start time.
Kaufman brings music with him, though the battery only lasts five hours. He usually finds someone to talk to to pass the time.
He also carries his own snacks — pretzel chips, protein bars and Fig Newtons — and a bottle of water in case the water stations are running out when he arrives.
Usually by the time he hits First Avenue in the Bronx, at the end of the race, it’s a “zombie walk.”
“It’s dark and most of the people in the bars on First Avenue hardly notice. A couple go, ‘Hey, you’re still running. Keep it up,” Kaufman said. “[Once] someone said to me: ‘You can run.’ And I saw him — this might have been about mile 16 or 17 — and I said, ‘You can shut up.'”
His goal with every marathon is to “finish and live.” Last year, he ranked 51,266 out of 51,348 finishers.
NYRR told The Post that Kaufman was the last person to officially cross the finish line — the winners listed behind him spent longer on the course but started earlier.
This year, NYRR is letting Kaufman start at the bottom of the first wave as part of Team Inspire, a group of 26 marathon runners — one for each mile — with the most compelling stories.
Kaufman plans to continue adding chapters to his story by running more marathons.
“There’s no reason for me to stop,” he said. “I’m just warming up.”
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Image Source : nypost.com