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Summer 2006
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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Steve Schapiro, SPA/BA '94, SOC/MA '00, lives the expression "walking the walk." Only he runs it. Literally and figuratively. The Chicago program director for the National AIDS Marathon Training Program has run four marathons, four half-marathons, and hundreds of miles in between while training for those races in the last five years. "I had always wanted to a run a marathon, but running 3 miles and running a marathon are very different, and my high school cross-country coach would never let us run the New York City marathon because of conflicting local and regional meets," says Schapiro, who grew up in Warren Township, N.J. "In high school, I ran 20 miles once by accident," he laughs. "I was running an 8-mile loop for cross country and I ran into my friends doing a 15-mile loop, so I decided to join them," he says. "I thought I was going to die," he remembers. Fast-forward 15 years and Schapiro now recruits and helps train people from all walks of life to complete a marathon - which translates to a distant dream for many. "Anybody can do this if they want to," he insists. "The most important thing is wanting to do it. I've had 17-year-olds complete the program, and I had a 76-year-old who completed the marathon in Dublin last year. We had a woman from California who completed a half marathon, who, when she started the program, weighed about 350 pounds. She lost something like 80 lbs during training. We have a guy who had a triple bypass surgery and came back after that and ran the marathon." On paper, anyhow, the marathon training formula for success is simple. AIDS Marathon Training Program staff ask participants to run 30 to 45 minutes, two days a week and to do one longer run on weekends with a group of similarly paced peers who meet at a training site. Most runners take scheduled walk breaks, too, based on a ratio that varies depending on ability level. If you run at a pace of 11 minutes per mile, you'll likely run for five minutes and walk for one minute; runners in a 14-minute-per-mile pace group might run for only three minutes and walk one minute. Regardless of ability level, Schapiro says time and again he sees everyday folks with big dreams find new levels of dedication, commitment, discipline, and perseverance as they train. "Obviously there are bad days, just like life," says Schapiro. "You're going to have a bad run once or twice during six months of training. But when you cross the finish line there's no other feeling like it. And once you're a marathoner, no one can ever take that away from you." Schapiro ran one year of cross country at AU but gave it up to give more time to his studies. Then one day, he saw a flyer for the AIDS Marathon program while getting breakfast at the Firehook bakery in Cleveland Park, and he decided to attend one of the meetings advertised to learn more about it. Once he heard a program rep talk about her experience, Schapiro decided he could do it. "I was pretty confident about the running but not the fund raising," he says, explaining that each person who signs up to participate in the AIDS Marathon training program is expected to raise a certain amount of money for the local AIDS clinic in return for the six months of coaching and support received. In D.C., the funds raised by runners go to the Whitman Walker Clinic. Runners who choose to train for the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. are required to raise $1,700. If a runner wants to complete a marathon in a different city, the fund-raising total is more, because it includes airfare and hotel. Runners who live in D.C. who want to do the Miami Marathon, would need to raise $2,700, for example, or $3,700 to run the Florence (Italy) Marathon. For Schapiro, the prospect of raising $1,700 seemed tough, but he liked the idea of running his first marathon in another city so much that he chose to accept the greater challenge of raising $3,700, so he could do the Dublin Marathon in Ireland. More than 50 friends and family members made donations to help him in his fund-raising quest, and he finished the Dublin Marathon in 4 hours and 56 minutes in 2001. "The first thing I did after I got back to the hotel was get a Guinness. I hadn't even showered yet." Six months later, when Schapiro heard AIDS Marathon was looking for staff, he jumped at the chance to help others accomplish the goal about which he's so proud. He was hired as a program rep in May 2002. Three years, three more marathons, and hundreds of runners he helped train and support later - including his sister and this writer - Schapiro was promoted to director of the Chicago office. He moved from D.C., where he's lived since attending AU, in January 2006. In the past eight years, AIDS marathoners have raised more than $65 million nationwide, and 98 percent of people who complete the training program complete a marathon, says Schapiro. AIDS Marathon has trained more than 20,000 people, he says. "It's a great job because even if you have a bad day, at the end of the day you're raising money to keep people alive, so how bad a day could it have been? Also, it's just really cool to see people, who have never run a step in their lives, cross the finish line 6 months later." Schapiro is currently training for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., which will be held this October 29. More than 600 other runners from the AIDS Marathon Training Program will join him. For those brave or crazy enough to want more information and join the ranks, check out aidsmarathon.com. Schapiro welcomes inquiries from fellow alumni at 312-765-0210, or sschapiro@aidsmarathon.com. In D.C., call 202-543-2RUN. Training for the Miami and Los Angeles Marathons begins this September - the race is in January. -Melissa Reichley |
Marathoner Makes a Difference - One Step at a Time