PUBLISHED 09/25/2006
The Mentor: Norb Sander
Norb Sander got an early taste of track at age 13, when he ran a 50-yard leg in a relay at the Fort Washington Armory in Upper Manhattan.
 |
| ©Patrik Giardino |
He went on to win the 1974 New York City Marathon and to establish a thriving medical practice. The Armory, meanwhile, became a run-down homeless shelter. In 1990, Sander saw the sorry state of the facility and decided to do something about it. "It just seemed like I had to," says Sander. "I didn't have a choice." Today, after a $17 million renovation, the Armory Track & Field Center is the busiest state-of-the-art indoor track in America, where 125,000 athletes ran, jumped, and threw this year. Back in January, thanks to the efforts of Armory president Sander and Mike Frankfurt, its chairman, a dazzling interactive National Track & Field Hall of Fame opened on site. "We've got to take every opportunity to promote track and fitness to young people," says Sander, who's 64 and still logging 50 miles per week. "Running can have such an effect on the direction life takes." He speaks from experience.
