NYC Sentinel

By Ruth Schneider
Peter Harangozo jumps rope 300 times, three days a week. He eats healthy — mostly fruits and vegetables. He runs several times a week. And he says he has never been sick a day in his life.

Not bad for a man of 88 who has never been to a gym. (He rejects the notion of exercising in a room filled with recycled air.)

Harangozo is the oldest male participant in today’s New York City Marathon.

The oldest female runner will be Yolande Marois, 84. Between the two of them, they have crossed more than 50 marathon finish lines. And neither runner intends to make this year their last. Still, that doesn’t make them immune to some pre-race jitters.

“I’m scared to death,” Marois said from her home in Quebec earlier this week. “I’m scared because it is a challenge. I’m getting old. It’s not just demanding – it’s long.”

Harangozo was a Hungarian freedom fighter in World War II, and escaped Hungary in 1950. He returns to his home country every summer and usually runs a marathon while he’s there. At his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Harangozo has a stack of medals, certificates and trophies that are proof of his success as a runner.

“Up till age 70, I used to make it under 3:30,” said Harangozo, a wiry man whose running shorts expose sinewy legs. “I used to make first, second or third place up to 60 years of age.”

Last year, he finished the race in slightly more than six hours.
He chuckles. “Now I walk fast. I can walk almost as fast as running because I run slow now.”

For Harangozo and Marois, exercise is simply part of their daily routines.

“I run almost everyday,” said Marois. “If I don’t run, I do the bicycling, which is supposed to be very good for your legs.”

But, she said, “I don’t get rigid about it. I do it when I feel like it.”

She says there is something addictive about running.

“It’s like a drug, I guess,” she said. “You do get high, you know. It’s just that’s what happens when you run. You get in touch with the mental.”

Both are happy to share the secrets to their success in marathon careers that span decades. A healthy diet is critical, Harangozo believes. He is so fanatical about health food, he would make Jack LaLanne proud.

“I eat beans,” Harangozo said. “Lots of beans.”

Harangozo, who ran marathons in the early 1980s with legendary marathoner Alberto Salazar, vividly recalls the sound of Salazar passing him by on the 26.2-mile path.

“He was breathing like a horse.”

That breathing technique, Harangozo explains, allows twice as much oxygen into the system. He calls it the sound of a winner.

Marois focuses on the mental aspect of surviving the marathon.
“You have to brainwash yourself and say ‘I can do it,’” she said. “My point is just to achieve it. It’s good for people who see me. All you need is a good pair of shoes and legs.”