Filmmaker Judd Ehrlich’s documentary recounts the fascinating life and work of Fred Lebow, the eccentric founder of the New York City Marathon, whose love and passion for road running sparked a worldwide phenomenon.
This documentary is a loving tribute to Fred Lebow, and the NYC marathon. Born Fischl Lebowitz, a first generation Jewish immigrant, Fred Lebow was a New York City fixture. He was ahead of his time as an entrepreneurial marketing genius but was not without scandal. Fred Lebow brought a ragtag group called the New York Road Runners club from the Bronx in the 1960s to Central Park for a four lap race that was sparsely attended in 1970. Then Lebow took his passion for running, usually a solitary sport and turned it into a major sport.
In the middle of the 1970s financial crisis, it became the New York City marathon. Going through all five boroughs and becoming the global event and well spring of civic pride that it is today.
Born in Arad, Romania, in 1932, and a Holocaust survivor, he presided over the transformation of the race from one with 55 finishers in 1970 to one of the largest marathons in the world with more than 52,000 finishers in 2018. He was posthumously inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2001.
Fred ran in the inaugural marathon in 1970, finishing 45th out of 55 runners with a time of 4:12:09. He ran his last NYC Marathon on November 1, 1992, in celebration of his 60th birthday, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in early 1990, with his friend, nine-time NYC Marathon women’s winner Grete Waitz of Norway, with a time of 5:32:35. He died on October 9, 1994.
During his career he completed 69 marathons in 30 countries. Along with the NYC Marathon he also organized the Empire State Building Run-Up, the Fifth Avenue Mile, and the CrazyLegs Mini Marathon (a 10K road race), which was the first strictly women-only road race. Lebow was also president of New York Road Runners for twenty years.
Run For Your Life is a 2008 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 36 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 6.9.
