Celebrating Vic Navarra
This year’s NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Staten Island and ING New York City Marathon will be particularly poignant for Vic Navarra. The start coordinator for both events—and a leading force in the local running community—Navarra is battling cancer. But in a chat on October 3, 56-year-old Navarra demonstrated that although the disease may have sapped his energy and stolen his sight, his vision for successful road races remains as clear and passionate as ever. Here, Navarra shares his remarkable story—and his hopes for the future. Navarra will be honored before the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Staten Island on Sunday, October 14, with a special unveiling of the Fire Lieutenant Victor J. Navarra FDNY Family of Champions Staten Island Half-Marathon Trophy.
On the first Sunday of November, Fort Wadsworth—the historic military site on Staten Island—transforms from a cluster of granite and concrete buildings to a sparking marathon mecca. As 38,000 jittery runners make their way onto the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for the firing of the start cannon, you may see the man in charge of it all: Vic Navarra. For the past 26 years, Navarra has overseen every aspect of the marathon start and has helped to make the race the massive and world-renowned event that it is today.
In the weeks before the 1981 New York City Marathon, Navarra, a lifelong Staten Island resident and a firefighter with FDNY Ladder 35 and Engine 40, fell from a burning building and suffered cracked ribs and a broken wrist. The accident scuttled his plans to run the marathon with his wife, Joanne, but it sparked his interest in volunteering at Fort Wadsworth instead.
Navarra had experience overseeing a triathlon and a road race, but on that chilly autumn morning he fell in love with the behind-the-scenes work that goes into pulling off the world’s most complex and spectacular marathon. Wanting that kind of energy to last all year long in Staten Island, he took on the role of president of the Staten Island Athletic Club and started hosting races practically every weekend. Encouraged by former marathon directors Fred Lebow and Allan Steinfeld (who “would always come up with these crazy ideas but be able to pull them off,” Navarra recalls), he started thinking about a half-marathon that would bring runners in from other parts of the city to partake of his borough’s unique charm.
“The race had to scream Staten Island,” says Navarra. “Marching bands, cheerleaders, people yelling in your face—I wanted them to experience that spirit.” He recruited friends, family members, and students from local high schools to line the course and cheer on the runners. The runner numbers were modest at first, but when the race was folded into the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix series the field grew exponentially. Last year 3,689 people finished the race—the most ever. Navarra sees those numbers continuing spiral upward.
“I have great hopes that the race will continue to grow. I’d like to see an international field and even more prize money,” he says. He’d also like to donate a portion of the proceeds to local high schools to help them with uniforms and race entry fees. “They’ve helped us by supporting our runners every year, and I just want to share our success with them.”
Navarra’s work on the race and on the marathon start has been so effective that it set a precedent for other road races around the world. Upon his retirement from the FDNY in 1997, he started up his own events management company, which has serviced the starts of the Boston, San Diego, Arizona, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach, and London marathons, among others.
Navarra’s passion and dedication for helping to stage amazing road races has never swayed—not even when he got a call at 3:00 a.m. one marathon morning informing him that the 60 m.p.h. winds were causing the tents at Fort Wadsworth to be “tossed up in the air like toothpicks.” Or even in 2001, when came straight to the start from a 12-hour shift at Ground Zero, having attended a string of funerals for friends lost on 9/11. At the time, Navarra told the Daily News that he never once thought about giving up on the marathon that year. “We forge ahead. We’ll produce this event, and it’ll be great,” he said. And he was right: That year’s New York City Marathon was perhaps the most memorable ever, and anyone involved will tell you that there’s no way things couldn’t have gone off so smoothly without Navarra.
Ever humble, Navarra gives all credit to Joanne and his daughters, Kristie (who has taken over for her father this year as the start coordinator) and April. “They really do it all, and I’m so proud of them. It’s an honor to work beside them,” says Navarra, who couldn’t be happier knowing that he’s leaving his legacy in solid, familiar hands. “No matter what happens, I tell them that as long as they keep their passion and their faith, things will continue to thrive.”
Vic Navarra will be honored at the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Staten Island on Sunday, October 14, with a special tribute before the race.
