By Jason Scheer
"She was running, he was running and I was standing on the sidewalk with the kids and the grandparents," Rosen explained.
As the race completed, Rosen thought to himself, "I want to be out there," running.
The next morning he awoke and ran to the corner of his short block, huffing and puffing the whole way. The next morning he woke up, ran the same distance with the same huff-and-puff results. But on the third morning, Rosen turned two houses past the corner.
"That was progress," he said.
His progression was just beginning.
Rosen, now 65, began exercising regularly, running outside and on the treadmill at the gym. He ate right, did yoga and lifted weights. He dropped from 215 pounds down to 180 pounds.
On November 6, 1994, at the age of 54, the hard work paid off as Rosen crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon.
He felt joy. He felt adulation. He felt exhausted.
"I swore I would never run another one," Rosen said. "I was awfully tired. It was hard work running your first marathon."
But he didn't quit. The next year, he ran the NYC marathon for the second time and later the Long Island Marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon and the Las Vegas Marathon.
"I got addicted, Rosen admits, with a shrug.
Within seven years, Rosen had completed 27 marathons in 20 states.
He applied for membership into the Fifty States Marathon Club and the 50 Plus DC Marathon Group, associations of dedicated runners whose goal is to run a marathon in every state.
Rosen doesn't remember where he heard about the clubs, but he remembers what thoughts ran through his head.
"Jeez, you've got to be nuts to do it," he reasoned. "That works for me."
Rosen ran 6-9 marathons a year, every year, since 1999. He wanted to finish this. He wanted it bad.
"It became the goal," he said. "It became the carrot on the pole out there. Each time I was running a marathon I knew that ultimately it was one closer to 50."
After every race, Rosen would travel back to his Baldwin home and look at the small United States map above his bed. Ceremoniously, he would place a thumbtack through the state where he had just completed his latest marathon and go to bed.
On April 18, Rosen woke up and took aim at his 50th state and the mecca of all marathons - the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts.
Rosen said the Boston marathon was different from other marathons.
"It's the only marathon that you have to qualify for," he said. "...New York City is over-subscribed. About 70,000 people apply for 20,000 spaces, but they don't care what time you run. If you're lucky and you're number gets called, you're in."
Other marathons are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Rosen, on May 2, 2004, finished the Lincoln, Nebraska Marathon at 4 hours, 15 minutes and 13 seconds; 46 seconds under the qualifying time.
And so, with a qualifying time under his belt, or running shorts, Rosen became just the 265 person in the country to complete a marathon in all 50 states.
"It's a great feeling of accomplishment," he said.
Rosen hopes to serve as an inspiration to others.
"I started running at 51 and I ran my first marathon at 54," he said. "You're never too old to start something new. There's a lot more to life than being a couch potato."
Tales from the road
Rosen hopes to bring his message of fitness to others by way of a book.
He explained that, after running several marathons, he began composing written accounts of each marathon.
Stories titled "5,000 Miles to Get Leid," a tale of his trek through Honololou, and "The Marathon to Marathon," which recounts his run to Marathon, Iowa, now fill his desk drawer.
He hopes to get them published in the coming months.
"There's something interesting and different in every marathon," he said, "and I try to bring that out."
