HILLSDALE, N.J.—Family and friends cheered him on, kept him hydrated, and were at the finish line to help him celebrate.
On Sunday, Oct. 18, resident Ian Sager won—frankly, crushed—what his wife dubbed the COVID-26.2, a marathon for one that wended through 14 towns in the Pascack Valley and Northern Valley: Hillsdale, River Vale, Old Tappan, Norwood, Northvale, Rockleigh, Closter, Demarest, Cresskill, Dumont, Haworth, Harrington Park, Westwood, and Woodcliff Lake.
On the early morning route Sager, 36, passed what he described as luxurious open spaces, including a horse farm, that afforded him the chance to get out of his head, leave the pandemic and his job behind, and get into the zone.
“It was a lot of fun, it was a really good time. I’ve done a few of these [traditional marathons] about one a year, but this one was definitely the most fun,” Sager told Pascack Press on Nov. 4.
The avid runner said his race time of 4 hours 17 minutes edged out his previous personal best, which he set at the 2010 New York City Marathon. He chalked up his approximately 15 minute improvement up to a lack of distraction.
And, undistracted, in the cool of 7 to approximately 11:15 a.m., he enjoyed every moment.
“I actually have found that I prefer a little bit of solitude when I’m running, and I actually sometimes really struggle during a really busy marathon, say in New York or Philadelphia, because there are just so many people—so many runners, so many fans. I really have trouble concentrating,” he said.
Sager, a journalist formerly with NBC News and now working on Covid-19 content for Sharecare, a health and wellness engagement platform based in Atlanta, said this was his ninth marathon in 11 years.
He’s run the New York Marthon twice, the Hamptons marathon, The Atlantic City marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon four times, a number of half-marathons, and now this at-home marathon.
He was to tackle Atlantic City this year but that marathon, like so many other events, was cancelled.
With his wife, Tara, he is raising three boys: Liam 7, Jesse 4, and Oliver, 11 months. Tara is a psychologist who works at Ramapo College and has a private practice.
“She was fantastic in building this course. It mostly kept me off main roads,” Sager said. She also hung inspirational signs along the route the night before, as well as arrows at all the turns to keep him on the right track.
He explained that because he ran early in the day there weren’t many people out. “And most people are good about keeping their distance from a runner; probably I had the fatigued look of someone who they probably shouldn’t just cut off.”
Sager said water he carried along ran out with about a quarter of the 26.2 mile route left to go. Fortunately, Tara had staged family and friends along the route as race workers.
Sager told Pascack Press he began training for the COVID-26.2 in July. “Running has always been an escape for me. Since March I’ve been running more than ever before.”
Asked his impression of the area from the marathoner’s perspective, he said, “There is space to roam, space to run. I never felt too boxed in. I grew up in a part of Long Island where everyone was a little more on top of each other and this still feels very spacious to me.”
The couple, he said, settled here for its schools, its comfortable lifestyle, and its proximity to Manhattan.
He described his wife’s course as “very luxurious and open wide. And I understand why people would want to keep it that way. But it was very easy to maneuver.”
Waiting for him at home on Cottage Place: His family, of course, and many friends and supporters. He crossed the finish line, and there were confetti cannons and a medal.
Here’s hoping we can all get back into the flow of things next year