More than 43,000 runners from across the globe will hit the streets next weekend for the annual ING New York City Marathon - many with moving stories of perseverance in the face of real adversity.
Evan Diker didn't think twice about giving a kidney after his father was diagnosed with renal failure last November.
"The news was tough, especially during the holidays, but my sister and I both immediately got tested, and I was a match," he says.
Diker underwent five grueling months of tests to prep for the invasive surgery to save his dad"s life. "There was a lot of blood work, a lot of needles," he recalls. "I was definitely scared. But if it wasn"t for my father, I wouldn't be here."
The donation and transplant at Westchester Medical Center in April was a complete success - and his father's new lease on life pushed Diker to sign up for the marathon.
"I signed up with the charity Team for Kids because I figured, now, while I'm healthy, it's the best time to do it," he says.
After his doctors gave him the go-ahead in June, Diker began running with his wife, who's done the marathon four times. "She's my trainer," he laughs. "She knows all the ins and outs. Pacing is very important, and keeping hydrated, and interacting with the crowd when you can. It keeps you going."
Training hasn't been easy. "The hardest part is getting home from work at 6:30 in the evening, and having to go run for seven miles," admits Diker, a Pfizer employee. "But once you're out there, it feels good."
He hopes that running the race post-surgery will inspire his father and other people watching to become healthier or to start running themselves.
He"d also like to be able to keep up with his wife! "Hopefully we"ll get to run a little while together, at least in the beginning," he says. "She's a lot faster than me, so I"m sure she'll take off!"
Joseph Huber, 60, stands behind medals he won for completing 74 marathons at his Pine Brook, N.J. home.
Joseph Huber, 60, from Pine Brook, N.J.
This is Joseph Huber's 75th marathon - and at the ripe young age of 60, he's as raring to go as he was the first time he ran the New York race at 38.
"I did the first run and got stuck on it," says Huber, a fund-raiser for nonprofits who grew up in the Bronx. "I was beat up but I felt so elated. It's addicting."
Huber began running marathons in 1989, when he completed the New York and Boston runs, and has since conquered races in London, Toronto, Disney World and cities across the U.S.
"Nothing compares to New York," he says. "When you come off the 59th Street Bridge, the noise is the loudest and most intense of the whole run, and you feel like a million bucks."
He runs as many as eight marathons some years. "I can do marathons three weeks between each other, and I feel really good," he says.
This will be his sixth New York Marathon. He also ran his first and 50th races here. "Each one is a new adventure," he says. "You think you learn how to run these things? Forget it! Every race, you start out wondering, am I going to be able to finish this one?"
His track record so far is 74 finishes, and he's encased every well-earned medal in Lucite. He also adds every marathon and its year to the back of a T-shirt that he wears on race day. The shirt reads, "You don't stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running."
"I don't want to stop," he says. "I want to keep feeling I can get over the hill, literally and figuratively, in life. I can conquer the 20-mile wall in the race, and I can conquer it in life, too, and I love that feeling!"
Raj Gilda is running to raise funds for nonprofit organization Lend-A-Hand India.
Raj Gilda could run only two miles at a time when he decided that the best way to raise money for his new nonprofit was to run a marathon in 2003.
Gilda and his wife cofounded Lend-A-Hand India that year, and had just $500 to start with.
"I saw one of my friends running the New York City Marathon, and I decided this would be a great opportunity to raise funds for the children in India," he recalls.
He googled "marathon training" and saw that he needed about 19 weeks to get in shape, so he signed up for the Paris Marathon in 2004 that was exactly 19 weeks away.
"I think I was a little crazy," laughs the Citigroup senior vice president. "I guess sometimes, if you don't know what you're getting into, it is more doable!"
After 4½ months of training, Gilda raised $5,000 and finished the Paris run. "Your first marathon is like your first love," he says. "It"s very special the first time. You're very, very anxious, but once you"re standing with thousands of other runners at the starting line, all the fear subsides and you"re just ready to run."
While the first race was rough, "I kept thinking of the kids that we are going to be helping with the money I was raising, and that kept me going," he says.
Gilda has run every year since; next week's New York race is his 10th marathon overall. "The New York Marathon is the best marathon in the world. You're running from Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx, and every borough has a different character. It is absolutely amazing to run the streets of New York City."
Lend-A-Hand India, which started with just $500 and aided 500 students, has grown to a staff of 240 in India covering more than 10,000 students, plus their team here. They're looking to expand locally, as well.
"We have raised more than $250,000 over the years through our races," he says. "My goal is to personally raise $8,000 - you could say $300 per mile."
He keeps his training schedule simple. "I don't use any heart-rate monitors. I don't listen to music. Just good shoes is all you need," he says. "Sometimes, if you keep things uncomplicated in life, it just works out."
Veronica Velasquez, 30, runs adjacent to the East River State Park in Williamsburg.
This reluctant runner became the face of New York's marathon.
Sports fanatic Veronica Velasquez, 30, plays in two soccer leagues, a kickball team and a street hockey club - but those are a cakewalk compared to training for her first marathon.
"I'm in great shape, but this is a completely different kind of endurance," says Velasquez, who moved here from Bogota, Columbia 10 years ago. "Suddenly every single muscle, every ache, even the smallest blister in your foot feels like your skin is getting ripped off."
Velasquez - who does the animation for Madison Square Garden's JumboTrons - was terrified when her name was drawn in the marathon lottery. "I ran two miles, and it felt terrible!" she says. "I thought, how am I going to run 26 miles?"
The Greenpoint resident finds that turning 30 has given her the discipline to take on the daunting challenge. "I want to do something bigger than anything I thought I could do. I'm at an age where I want to step it up," she says.
She joined North Brooklyn Runners and receives regular motivation by phone from her mother in Columbia, who she hasn't seen in two years.
"She gave me this amazing pep talk, like she used to when I was little, and I started crying!" Velasquez remembers. She was able to push on for 15 miles that day, and looks forward to finishing this race for her mom.
She's got another motivator going for her as well, as the New York Road Runners have made her one of the faces of their "I'm in. We're in." promotional campaign on subways and buses.
"I was riding the L train, and I looked up, and suddenly I'm staring at myself on a poster!" she says. "Now I REALLY gotta do this. I was given this amazing chance, and I would hate to disappoint everyone."
Beatrice Huste-Petersen, 46, from East Islip, L.I.
New York moms are known for going above and beyond, but few people could fill Beatrice Huste-Petersen's running shoes.
The busy mother of four, who works nights at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, has two sons diagnosed with autism.
Rather than throw herself a pity party, however, she founded the EJ Autism Foundation, named after her affected sons, Eric and Jack, to raise awareness and support the programs and schools on Long Island working with autism.
"Everything about EJ is coal in my furnace," she says. "It just helps me move forward."
She ran her first New York Marathon to raise autism awareness 19 years ago.
"I knew we had something here, because I raised $11,000," she says proudly.
This year, her team has already pulled $17,000 and is aiming to hit $25,000 in donations before next week"s race.
"We want to donate Wiis and iPads to the schools, which brings out social interaction, sharing and other important skills that these kids struggle with," she says. "The big national organizations are great, but their finger isn"t on the pulse of the local community the way ours is."
She manages to squeeze in running time between shifts, soccer practice and making supper. One a recent particularly manic day, she woke up at 2 p.m. after working the night shift to greet her kids coming home from school, and then shuttled them to soccer, where she ran laps around the field while they practiced. Then she came home and got dinner before going back to work.
"It's a long day," she says. "I get my downtime when driving to and from work, when I"ve got my music blaring."
But there's no question about completing the race. "When I ask you to make a donation to my organization, I'm running as best as I can," she says. "If my running can inspire someone else to do the exactly the same thing, how beautiful would that be?"