#000509
The New York Road Runners Club Complete Book of Running & Fitness, Third Edition
Fred Lebow and Gloria Averbuch
A comprehensive running-and-fitness manual carrying the name of the New York Road Runners and its legendary leader Fred Lebow, this third edition gathers training advice, workouts, nutrition, injury guidance and motivation for runners from first-timers to marathoners. Written with Gloria Averbuch and "friends" — a roster of elite runners, coaches and sports-medicine experts drawn from the NYRR orbit — it functions as an all-purpose handbook rather than a single-method program, reflecting the club that helped build the modern running boom around the New York City Marathon. Practical and encouraging in tone, it speaks to anyone taking up running or looking to train more smartly. Note that Lebow died in 1994; the book preserves his name and spirit while being carried forward by his collaborators.
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The authors
Fred Lebow (1932–1994), born Fischel Lebowitz in Arad, Romania, was a Holocaust survivor who co-founded the New York City Marathon in 1970 and, as longtime president of the New York Road Runners and the marathon's race director, oversaw its growth from 55 finishers to one of the largest races on earth — including the pivotal 1976 move to a five-borough course. His co-author Gloria Averbuch is a running writer long associated with the NYRR.
The book
This is the third edition of the New York Road Runners Club's general handbook, pooling the expertise of coaches, elite athletes and sports-medicine specialists into chapters on training, racing, fitness, diet and staying healthy. Its authority comes from the institution behind it as much as any single voice.
How it has aged
The motivational spirit and the fundamentals — building mileage gradually, cross-training, listening to your body — remain sound, but a book from the late 1990s inevitably predates later shifts in thinking on shoes, hydration and fueling. Use it for encouragement and basics, and check current guidance for the specifics.
For more context
Read alongside Lebow's own story; a statue of him stands in Central Park.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Fred Lebow and Gloria Averbuch
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of publication
- New York
- Year
- 1999
- Edition
- Third Edition
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Craft & How-to
- Location
- Colorado