Local Man Still Running After All These Years
December 1, 2009 by Greg Lederer
Marathons are a mental and physical test of endurance. There are points when runners hit a wall and question why they keep going toward the finish line. For Cheshire resident Eugene DeFronzo, he wouldn’t participate without the challenge embedded into the activity.
DeFronzo has finished a startling 402 marathons over the last 18 years and he isn’t looking to slow down at age 73. The farthest he has ever run is 100 kilometers.
“It’s not easy. It’s hard to do long distance,” said DeFronzo, who owns a law firm in Waterbury. “When there is something hard to do and no monetary reward, not a lot of people like to do it. It makes your head big.”
This obsession takes him around the globe and back. DeFronzo has run a marathon in each American state six times and is quickly approaching his seventh trek.
“I think running is a passion. If you miss a day, you feel guilty,” added DeFronzo, who tries to run 90 miles a week. “I wasn’t doing anything in the 1970s, so one of my friends suggested that I run at the YMCA in Waterbury. I told him that I ran 24 laps and he said, ‘You just did a mile.’”
DeFronzo didn’t start running competitively until the 1991 New York City Marathon. He returned to the event one year later and chose to try the Boston Marathon in 1993. The races were memorable for how much support runners receive along the way.
“I was really afraid that I wouldn’t make it,” recalled DeFronzo, of his first marathon. “When you are 10 to 12 miles in, you start thinking you are crazy. A marathon is the first 20 miles and the last 20 for me. The last six miles seem like forever. I was very apprehensive (during my first time).”
Seeking something different, he traveled to Canada to run the 1994 Montreal Marathon. He did six marathons that year and increased his total to 15 in 1995, heading to the Northwest for the Snow Goose Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska. DeFronzo feels comfortable leaving his employees in charge while traveling on weekends.
“I have a good staff of three assistants and eight paralegals. I’m the boss, so I can leave early on Thursday and come back on Sunday. I go the day before to give me time to find the place,” explained DeFronzo. “I do sightseeing at all of them. Western states like Colorado, New Mexico, and South Dakota have great scenery. The Big Sur, above Monterey Bay in California, is a beautiful place on the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco and Los Angeles. I’ve done that one seven times.”
He tracks his marathons as a member of the 50 States and D.C. Marathon Group. There are clubs around the world but, to join the one based in the United States, an individual must complete 10 marathons in 10 states. Each runner keeps records to prove their respective marathons. A fellow runner suggested DeFronzo join back in 1996.
“Everyone I’ve met are interesting people. Many of them are competitive,” added DeFronzo.
According to 50 States and D.C., he is the only individual to run all 13 Canadian province races twice.
“To my knowledge, nobody else has ever done it because it is so expensive. You have to complete them in a certain amount of time to get credit for them,” DeFronzo said.
Elements add to the challenge.
DeFronzo won’t forget the Lean Horse Marathon (South Dakota), where the temperature was 100 degrees and altitudes went up to 6,000 feet.
“Pike’s Peak took me over nine hours (in 1999),” added DeFronzo. “By the last 2,000 feet, you can hardly breathe. You can’t do much with the altitude.”
DeFronzo has run alongside 10,000 people, while some marathons have had just 20. The scenery causes him to daydream during races, but he is careful to watch his path. He has gone off course by as much as six miles during some races.
“I have a poor sense of direction. If you get lost, the best way is to go back to where you remember the trail,” said DeFronzo. “I try to stay focused, but some of the trails are not marked well. It took me nine hours to run a race in Indiana.”
Most of his marathons are early in the morning. DeFronzo takes a sleeping pill to calm himself down the night before.
“The JFK Fifty, in Hagerstown, Md., starts on the Appalachian Trail and they give you a flashlight for the start of the race,” DeFronzo explained. “It requires total concentration the whole time.”
Marathons have also taken him overseas. DeFronzo enjoyed the views of Hawaii, along with the history of Berlin, Germany. His 2003 trip to a game park in Kenya, Africa was especially eventful.
“It was right on the equator, so it was very hot. They had an airplane over my head to scare away animals. People saw snakes, and I got kicked by a giraffe at the finish line. One of the kids pulled his tail and he gave me a kick in the back,” remembered DeFronzo, who had an unusual conversation during the race. “A guy came up to me on a bike and said they had been looking for me since I missed the aid station. He told me that I shouldn’t run around the corner because there were lions waiting for me. I would run every morning in the game park, but they would warn me about lions. They left me alone once next to some baboons, which can really hurt you.”
He also visited Antarctica for a 2002 marathon. Participants entered on a cruise and used rubberized machines during a tour.
“We saw penguins and seals, which was a funny experience. There are seals that eat penguins, so they were sitting there and then a seal would push them into the water. All the penguins would jump in afterwards,” stated DeFronzo. “It was hard to run on the ice because it was so crunchy.”
DeFronzo has had his share of injuries along the way. He ran 35 ultra marathons last year, despite being struck by a car in February. A broken leg kept him from running for five weeks.
“I remember running on ice in Huntingdon, Indiana. I flipped over and couldn’t move, but had to crawl out of the woods, so the ambulance could pick me up,” DeFronzo said. “I got out of the hospital and flew back to Connecticut. They ended up doing surgery on my back. In trying to get my speed back too fast, I pulled my hamstring.”
Those obstacles haven’t curtailed his love for running. For those who wonder who could compete in more marathons, DeFronzo knows many people ahead of him.
“It’s an obsession for me,” said DeFronzo.