ELMWOOD PARK

For final marathon, an ailing runner honors a friend

Deena Yellin
NorthJersey
Barbara Brown, 60, of Elmwood Park, who started running eight years ago, is running her fourth New York City Marathon on Sunday. She is shown here at Saddle River County Park. Sunday will be Brown's fifth and final marathon. She is dedicating her race to her friend, Scott Fleming, who died of ALS in September. Brown will start with an Achilles wave as she has had three spinal cord tumor surgeries, and suffers from degenerative disc disease and scoliosis. The tumors still remain in her body. She will be running with a locket that contains some of Flemings ashes. Thursday, November 2, 2017

Barbara Brown's life has been one long and arduous road.

It's not unlike the 26.2 miles she will traverse in the New York City Marathon on Sunday. 

The 60-year-old retired nurse lives with spinal cord tumors, degenerative disc disease and scoliosis. If her doctors and her MRI are to be believed, it should be physically impossible for her to endure long-distance running. 

Yet Brown is determined to complete her fifth marathon. It will be her last, because of the toll on her body. 

"Nothing will stop me from crossing that finish line," she says firmly.  

Barbara Brown (right), 60, of Elmwood Park, is shown here at Saddle River County Park on her final training run before the race. Brown may be one of the slowest runners at Sunday's New York City Marathon but may also be one of the most determined. Thursday, November 2, 2017

With the pain worsening in her hip and back, she may have to walk part of the route. It could take her nine hours.

"I just have two lines to cross — the starting line and the finish line. Whatever happens in between doesn't matter," Brown says. 

Since she began running eight years ago, she has also completed 27 half-marathons, and countless shorter races. But Sunday's run will be special: As her final marathon, she is dedicating it to her friend Scott Fleming of Florham Park, who died recently of ALS.  

"He was a Marine, an Ironman finisher and an ultra runner,"  she said.

They became friends through a running group over five years ago. "He's just one of those people who you meet that changes you." she said.

She will carry his ashes in a locket she will wear close to her heart throughout the race. 

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During the last 10K run they did together in 2015, he could barely walk because of his illness. But Fleming continued laughing until his last step. He died in September at age 50. 

Brown recalls his positive outlook as she grapples with her own illness. There are days when it's too painful for her to move her limbs, to bend her body, and climb out of bed. She has watched her running time decline from one mile in 10 minutes flat to 16 minutes or more. Now she runs her races as part of Achilles International, which enables disabled runners to participate in events with the help of guides.

 "My doctors said I will get slower and slower until I can't run anymore," she said. 

Barbara Brown, 60, of Elmwood Park, who started running eight years ago, is running her fourth New York City Marathon on Sunday. She is shown here at Saddle River County Park on her final training run before the race. Sunday will be Brown's fifth and final marathon. She is dedicating her race to her friend, Scott Fleming, who died of ALS in September. Brown will start with an Achilles wave as she has had three spinal cord tumor surgeries, and suffers from degenerative disc disease and scoliosis. The tumors still remain in her body. She will be running with a locket that contains some of Flemings ashes. Thursday, November 2, 2017

When that happens, her journey will become more difficult: She loves running in part because of all the amazing people she meets, she said, adding, "There's no other sport like this, where the athletes really care about each other." She once stopped short during a race when she spied a woman using a walker because she was recovering from being hit by a truck. Brown slowed her pace to talk with the inspiring woman, who has since became a close friend.

Sometimes, she has a love-hate relationship with long-distance running, especially when aches and pains plague her battered body. But when she hits the pavement, everything else disappears. "You have no distractions. You get to think. Running makes you feel really good. Those endorphins get you going." 

She runs every other day around her neighborhood in Elmwood Park, on local tracks and, occasionally, in Central Park. She has prepared herself for Sunday by running short distances and eating light, healthy meals (except for a carb-filled dinner Friday night). 

Brown started running in 2009 and hired running coach Joel Pasternack of Woodland Park. She promptly informed him she planned to run a marathon, an ambitious goal for a beginner. 

Pasternack tried to convince her to run 5K and 10K races instead. But she could not be deterred.

"She was very determined. She worked herself up from the bottom, day after day, week after week in all types of weather," he said.

Other runners at the track were awed by her, he said, adding, "She's going to keep doing it until she can't do it anymore." 

On Sunday, he will be following her progress on the computer. He predicts she will make better time than she anticipates. "I think she will surprise herself," he said proudly.  

Brown, meanwhile, will be thinking of other things. "I expect to feel Scott's presence there. He's going to help me get to the finish line."  And if something goes bad, she will recall what he always did. "He'd just pick himself up and keep going." 

"I just have to keep moving forward. I'm afraid that if i stop, I will really stop."