Local man runs NYC Marathon for charity, does gender reveal mid-race
During his run in the recent New York Marathon, Wooster's Tom Furman, left, and wife Amanda also revealed the gender of their upcoming child — a girl.
Most people as they make their way around a marathon course will throw down a few gulps of water, usually tossed to them by people lining the course. Tom Furman had a different plan.
A cupcake.
Furman, a resident of Wooster for the past year and a half or so, ran his first New York City Marathon on Nov. 3, part of the hoard of runners in the world’s most famous footrace, which Furman and wife Amanda turned into the world’s biggest gender reveal party.
At the 18th mile of the race, instead of guzzling some water, Furman stopped to have a cupcake with Amanda. They took a couple bites of the sweet treat and got another one — a baby girl who is scheduled to arrive sometime in March, starting the Furman family off on a different kind of race.
“We had big signs there, and my wife and I bit into a cupcake right in the middle of the race, and it was pink inside,” Furman said. “There were 50,000 who ran in the marathon, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that ate a cupcake. We got a lot of congratulations. It’s just complete joy and excitement.”
Leading up to the marathon, Furman put in 450 miles. He ran 5-10 miles every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then longer stretches of between 15 and 20 miles on Saturdays. He ran one half-marathon every month for a year.
None of that, he said, ever got boring.
“I got to run wearing costumes,” he said. “I got to run in Wooster’s inside prison with inmates, on tracks, in the rain and on the trails. You name it.”
What he couldn’t do was get a berth in the pinnacle of distance running. The largest marathon in the world, the NYC race, also is notoriously difficult to get a spot on. Just 4% of those who apply as nonqualifiers are able.
The easiest — and hardest — way to get in is as a qualifier. That means being one of the fastest runners in the world or having run in 15 prior NYC races. Those who don’t make it that way are placed into a lottery, which Furman tried for seven years and was not successful.
Another way is to run with a charity partner. That was more up Furman’s alley. As one who has done many things to raise funds for charities, Furman only needed to find one willing to have him wear one of its bibs.
That, it turned out, has about the same odds as winning a spot in the race through the lottery. He wound up connecting with the Book Fairies, a New York-based nonprofit that collects reading material for people in and around the New York City area.
“I got an opportunity to meet with them a couple of months ago,” Furman said. “They provide millions of books to kids and people who need things to read. I reached out to several different charities. They all had their teams filled already. The Book Fairies had their team filled too. But I would call them every week.”
Furman eventually learned the Book Fairies had an extra bib. He has no idea how they got it. The problem was they also had more than 1,000 people on their waiting list wanting a spot on the team. “And they gave it to me,” Furman said.
With all his efforts, Furman was able to raise $3,125 for the Book Fairies, a number in line with what other members of the Book Fairies team raised individually.
This wasn’t Furman’s first foray into doing a distance event for charity. Among other things, he once rode a motorcycle to the 48 contiguous states in 10 days to raise $7,000 for the Salvation Army.
“It just feels like the right thing to do, for one,” Furman said of his ongoing charity efforts, which he ties to his running feats. “It just compounds the experience. By you doing that, it helps a lot of other people. It definitely does make it all worthwhile, knowing all the effort that goes into it by reaching out and fundraising. It’s a huge motivator.”
He is looking forward to running future races of 50 and 100 kilometers, as well as a 100-miler. Which, of course, begs the question: Why?
“I don’t know, just to do it,” he said, “just to prove to myself my body is mentally and physically capable of doing it. I like being a sort of beacon of what is possible if you set your mind to it.”
Furman, who hailed from Easton, Pennsylvania, across the river from New Jersey, landed in Wooster because Amanda grew up in and still works for the city of Ashland, just down the road. He has his own logistics business with locations in Toledo, Chicago and Atlanta, which he can run from anywhere. Wooster wasn’t a tough sell.
“I love Wooster,” he said. “I think it’s one of the greatest places I’ve ever lived. The people are really kind and friendly. I enjoy the serenity.”
As for the NYC Marathon? The race was won by Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, who crossed in 2:07:39, six seconds ahead of runner-up Evans Chebet of Kenya.
“It was the most epic race I’ve ever been a part of,” Furman said. “The energy was unreal. The entire city was buzzing. It felt like running through a tunnel into the middle of the city. I would definitely do it again.”
Furman finished in 4:56:27. That was good for 39,213th place among 55,524 entrants, 55,523 of whom did not stop in the middle to have a cupcake.