Thursday, October 1, 2026
Q: Tell me about yourself.
Frled: I grew up in Woodmere and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1979. I was a soccer and ice hockey player. In my senior year of high school, I was playing soccer as goalie and I came out to make a save and a player clipped me in the knee and I tore my ACL. I pretty much had a miserable end to my high school career of soccer. I always dreamed about playing college soccer and at the time I had a lot of rehab. I was in a cast for six weeks and I had to rehab by running to get back in shape. Fortunately, I did not need surgery.
Q: How did you get into running?
Frled: I got into running in a very unique way it changed my life. I followed the yellow brick road and I’m probably one of the most unique people. One, because of my longevity in the sport as well as how I got into it and what transpired in my life. I realized I was pretty fast. In 1980, when I officially started running I ran a 2:38 marathon in New York City. It’s six-minute miles for 26 miles and I immediately became a celebrity. I was the fourth youngest finisher that year. I got a scholarship to run at Adelphi, I competed four year of college track and cross-country. After running 2:38 in NY, a few months later I ran my first Boston Marathon at 22 years old in 1983. I have since ran 10 Boston Marathons.
Q: How has running change your life?
Frled: I have been in four Maccabiah Games I represented the U.S and I won a Bronze medal at Brazil in 1983, I ran in 1985 in Israel, 2013 in Israel as a Master’s Runner and in 2015 I went to Berlin where the Olympics site is. It was very unusual because I ran in Hitler’s Olympics location. Because of my running career, I became a Podiatrist. I felt this was a great path to go down because I enjoyed the sport. It’s all because of that day in September of 1979, everything changed that day and my life completely changed. Little did I know I followed that one path of running and because of my running career, I ran in college and practiced 30 years of podiatry.
Q: Why did you take a hiatus from running?
Frled: I started running in 1980 and I stopped in 1987 after running my fifth Boston Marathon and never ran for 26 years, I quit. I was burnt out, I had done 10 marathons by 26 and had won 4 Boston’s in that time. I decided to move on with my life and do my career. Later in life, I was playing a pick-up ice hockey game in 2013 and a player crashed into me. I injured my left hand, lost mobility in my index finger and I’m a lefty so I couldn’t practice anymore. I lost my career in Podiatry and I started running again, at 52 years old. In the last 12 years of running, I’ve run 6 Boston Marathon’s, 14 marathons in total and I’m still doing it.
