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NYC Marathon Volunteer Walter SteinPublished by
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
NEW YORK - They cut off a slice of Walter Stein's right foot last year - an after-effect of his long, tough, unrelenting battle with diabetes - but that still can't keep him away from the TCS New York City Marathon.
No, the 73-year-old resident of Manalapan, N.J. hasn't rehabbed well enough to join the starting field of at least 50,000 at the Staten Island end of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge early Sunday morning.
But he's still an active participant in the event, as one of its estimated 12,000 volunteers.
Before any of the 50,000-plus can head out to Staten Island, they'll need to make an appearance at the TCS NYC Marathon Health and Fitness Expo, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Eleventh Avenue at 34th-38th Streets.
There they'll pick up their racing numbers - called "bibs" these days, but a term once reserved for the cloths placed under tots' chins to shield clothing from slobberings. That done, they'll gather their official marathon shirts, and get the opportunity to pick up whatever last-minute gear they'll need for their five-borough excursion Sunday.
And, there at "The Jake," many will meet Walter Stein, seated at one of the several trouble-shooting/ problem-solving desks at the Expo's entrance.
Other volunteers will take on all possible assignments on race day - keeping the herd heading in all the right directions, doling out the agua and electrolyte drinks at the aid stations, tending to the blisters and worse difficulties the multitudes will encounter along their 26.2-mile journey, finally sweeping up the debris all those incredible numbers will have generated as the parade rolls on, and on, and on.
Once upon a time - before his diabetes got too bad - Walter Stein was an active marathoner. He truly enjoyed doing all these marathoning things. He racewalked the NYC Marathon four times, and did three New Jersey marathons, as well.
For two separate three-month stretches last year, Walter Stein was confined to
nursing homes as his diabetic foot troubles were tended-to. Included were three months at a facility in East Brunswick, N.J., three more months at another in Freehold, N.J.
"It was hell," he said. "It was driving me up the walls."
No wonder, because he's a most active guy, forever full of deeds to do.
While his foot troubles were being treated, he got on an improved diet, which helped him shed 65 pounds down to his current 200.
Once a varsity fencer at Columbia University, he embarked on a variety of careers, as a teacher, as a municipal and county first aid and health director, as an international health situation observer (spending three and a half years, pre-Ebola, in Africa in this assignment), and more.
As a proud Columbia alumnus, he helped steer highly qualified high school grads to his alma mater, so that they, too, could roar-Lion-roar, as he did in the early 1960s.
Thanks, though, to the miracles of today's electronics, he was able to keep his finger on the pulse of the world - and his many interests in the same - through those rehabbing days.
His many travels helped make him a linguist and he now considers himself fluent in
at least eight languages. High on his list of tongues are English (of course), French and Spanish,
but right behind are Flemish, Swahili, Lingala, Kiluba and Kikongo (the latter three spoken in
divergent vicinities of the Congo.)
With that kind of global background, he's a perfect guy to have sitting out front trouble-shooting and problem-solving at the marathon. Specially so with the 2014 international entry list now including well over 3,300 runners from France, and big groups from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland, etc., etc., etc., etc.
The Expo stays open until late Saturday afternoon, at which time Walter Stein can head back to Manalapan, in New Jersey's Monmouth County, for some brief but well-earned rest.
Then, on Marathon Day, his usual key role has been tending to the baggage and gear of the notables running the race, making sure it gets transported from Fort Wadsworth to Central Park, and arrives with safety and security.
He has been doing all these things as a marathon volunteer since 1994, 28 years now all told, and if they doubled or tripled his stipend, it would still add up to zero.
He does hope his race-day status is a temporary thing, because he really, truly would like - someday, somehow - to rejoin the crowd and delight in the whole experience of the 26.2-mile journey. Bad foot, prosthesis, and all.
First things first, though. There's this little foot problem. There's this diabetes business.
One way or another, Walter Stein would like to stay a member of the marathon team forever.
"You meet some of the greatest people in the world," he tells you, "It's always one thing after another, and another, and another. "I wouldn't trade any of my marathon experiences for the world." And maybe 11,999 other volunteers would say, "Right on, Walter."
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