along with well my name is michael oliva and i'm your guest host for today my special guest today is david frazier dave is a ten time new york city marathon finisher and much much more but welcome to the show today day we're also joined by dave's wife of twenty five years norah and dina silber who has been on the dave frasier marathon guide team for the last two years and i met dave in two thousand and seven when dave was training for his first new york city marathon we've done every marathon new york city marathon since together this year will be our eleventh year so dave i just wanted to start out by asking you a little bit about yourself new york ok and they've also got three children ranging from ages seventeen to twenty four i believe someone to bring them up as well so two days a lifelong accountant he's been a accountant with a nonprofit group in manhattan for about twenty five years so you get this work challenge your coworkers say hey dave do you think you could do the new york city marathon and and what do you do you pretty much you know the next weekend or if you're in central park  they've jumped right into it so dave dave goes to central park for your first workout right and it's very morning well let's back up so you know you're thinking of that what you were thinking about going into that first workout in central park what was your mind going through what was your actually when dave and i met the first day dave worked out i came across dave he was in the park he was actually get a drink of gator aid at one of those stands in the park and i you know i could tell dave was a guy that was there working out hard for the day it was mid august is probably ninety degrees it was a brutal day brutal new york summer day so i just introduced myself to dave i'm like you know what are you up to like i'm training for the new york city marathon and i go well well you know how many miles are you doing today because as many as i can so that was dave think in first first day of training was to do as many miles as he could or did a loop in the park together i think you were probably on miles seven or eight already but we did a loop in the park together that day and you know we decided to do the marathon you know i decided to help guide in the marathon a after that and we've been doing it ever since but i want to back up a step or two because you know dave dave's marathon is definitely a challenge dave for anyone that hasn't has seen dave out there working out in central park dave does a marathon backwards in his wheelchair and he uses his feet to propel themselves backwards and doing the marathon takes dave anywhere from probably eight to twelve hours  think that's what we've covered over the years and dave describe to us what it's like to go backwards and the wheelchair and dave for anybody that doesn't know dave has cerebral palsy he was born with it and  affects the portion of your brain that controls motor function and muscle coordination so they've been working with that challenge in life and during the race is forever but you're still able to amazingly complete a marathon every year ten  so far but yet tell us about what it's like going backwards in the wheelchair how you actually push off and use a wheelchair during the race because it's very unique how dave actually creates the propulsion to go backwards maybe you could show the guess kind of just how he's so it's amazing so basically dave is he's pushing his entire body and share with the right foot the entire time reason he goes backwards in the wheelchair is his legs are much stronger than his arm so he actually could create much more traction and go a lot faster using his legs going backwards i think the first new york city marathon i'm sure for everybody is probably the most interesting experience but dave even goes a step beyond that i think so dave's first new york city marathon just getting to the start is a battle right there so killie sets up buses achilles international which is an organization that helps provide guides for all types of people with disabilities they provide buses in midtown to on take everybody to the start buses get there like four thirty am but they've lived out in brooklyn there's not a lot of transportation from brooklyn to new york city you know three yeah especially for somebody who's got a wheelchair  very challenging right so tell us what your plan was and what you did that first night the fourth your first new york city marathon what you end up doing to kind of try to get there early to the bus i think you you went to a movie in midtown right the ok you killed your time in mcdonald's before the law but here's the problem i mean dave says he took a nap in the theater and killed some time mcdonald's but i show up that morning at the achilles busses dave looks exhausted looks like he didn't sleep all night so that he gets to the starting line of his first marathon which is going to be hard enough we don't know what to expect right your first one we've done plenty of long workouts in the park you know six to eight hours but still don't know what to expect things didn't go as planned on the verizon abridge we got off to a bit of a rocky start and the i think you probably remember that right as everyone knows the verizon knows pretty steep bridge you know it takes a long time going  uphill it probably consumes the most time for us during the marathon you know going up hills but going down the other side what dave does is he flips around the wheelchair for any down health and he goes forwards because he can get the momentum from the downhill but the verizon was a little steeper than we were used to right for hills i think in general so what happened on the verizon a we went down right you went down on the verge on a very scary you know just took a tumble on the on that first  but they've got up and seconds i was really impressed if you got up and seconds and you just went at it and i think we really decided to be in the super challenge in a long long day i think you really perform pretty well that first race i mean a member we finished in the the ten after that as well will get a couple of note that dave can turn around the chair and go downhill what frustrates me about the new york city marathon is you know the verizon zero bridge there's nobody on it yet because we start a little early but once those forty fifty thousand people come to the race you know dave turns around the chair and goes downhill but he's on the brake the entire time because we have swarms of people around us so david really doesn't get any of the advantages from any downhill on the new york city marathon because yester break us to watch the other runners not not run them over what's another good marathon story what do you think and how about the second year norah nor has been a huge health and so many ways one way is helping dave with his nutrition and making sure dave knows the best things to eat during the race so the first year dave didn't have a nutrition plan and he just got by i think without really eating a lot of drinking a lot but the for the second year i think nor we made some biscuits we had specific drinks we packed you packed a lot of things and and dave's bag right necker you had some foods you knew you liked at that point right that that would work and settle you know if i so we get you know they've got a backpack i usually stuff in my backpack and carry it the whole way at the starting line so just because it's a long day there's a lot of preparation that goes into it and we have to have night clothing for the cold times and food for the whole way there's there's a lot of things but we get a guide a random guy that volunteered that morning at the start line the second year i forgot his name we haven't seen him since but nice guy but i'm he offers to take dave's backpack you know carry for the race really great i was a great guy he's i'm doing a lot force already so he takes dave's backpack with all his desk gets all  drinks all specific foods he's going to carry it the whole way we get to the top of the verizon don't they goes down the verizon of this year no false fast as can be one of the things on places like the verizon we have to run to keep up with dave and this guy just just wasn't prepared for that type of running on they couldn't keep up on the downhill after the verizon abridge and we basically didn't see the guide or dave's gear and bagley the rest of the way so for the second year dave had to go without you know how to improvise didn't have any or biscuits and your drinks you just had to go with your plan and did all the work but you made it happen anyway yeah interesting the good way to put it they've as if the marathon is not interesting and hard enough as it is it only shows you another wrinkle i think we have to give a shout out to tricia williams to tricia williams couldn't be here today but she's part of the day frasier marathon guide team and she's been doing it every year since two thousand and nine so she'll be on or nine here with us this year so we love you trish and we'll see on sunday trisha also provides a car every year so dave could go directly from brooklyn to the star so no movie theaters no mcdonald's so they queue trisha but so trisha comes into play for this i'm bringing up the hand cycle story so anoth prepared this is only three years ago twenty fifteen everybody in the whole race all fifty thousand people have to walk up a portion of the verizon out to get to the start so we you know dave comes up the verizon oh there's a little help a little uphill little downhill nother little uphill to get you to that final starting line on the bridge and we start with all the push from wheelchairs and all the hand cycles as well but there's a little downhill before you get that final uphill to the star on the bridge and a hand from behind dave trisha was behind dave so the hand cycles went right through trisha into dave's chair and dave came flying out of the chair face forward in right and had a new garmin three ten x he watch which smashed on impact and trisha was she was kind of cut up you know if she's ok but trust is tough just like you are dave and you finish the whole race but what do you think about that as if as if it wasn't hard enough you have to get nailed from behind at the start what do you what do you think the you finished that year you got you got through that mishap at the beginning and where you had another finish but i think you said you're going to do this as long as you can right with no end in sight yet and sunday will be the eleventh and for anyone that wants to come out we're out there in the dark usually about four five pm we're on fifth avenue dave's pushing up that hill on fifth at about one hundred street he day finish around eight o'clock sunday pm usually around that time frame will be crossing the line but i want to give a shout out to peter cha cha new york road runners as well in the last couple years they've been at the finish line there waiting for us and a lot of the other late finishers and i think i want to commend them on that that takes a lot for them to be out there that late after such a long day but yet tire and what happened what did you hear and how did you end up finding us for me as hearing it from someone who had no idea what it was what was transpiring even where you were at them so horrible as this both tires went out in the wheelchair and thinking that you could possibly weren't going to finish the race and just needing help repairing it so it's more just the unknown area where your mind varies and i've never met dave so i even know if you guys were injured or anything that pertains to that and but i remember seeing you guys coming up the because they've got a flat and how long that took to get fixed and it just took a lot longer that year for dave to do the race and to have another guy like yourself join us that that your health dramatically but part of the story that year was that you in brooklyn you know dave had a flat you know and for guys that just happened to be watching the race they they went and ran home got to put it in dave's tire wasn't the right size too but it's enough to get it inflated to where we could go and then we went maybe a mile on that oversized tube which were a little nervous about at a bike shop owner so dave that he just got them right in ahead of everyone else and fixed it and in two minutes and when except any money the great new york moment and i wish i had the name of that brooklyn bike shop but that guy was just absolutely incredible the dean has been with us ever since and i think he did the entire race with us last year in the rain which was another another challenging and long year and i think i should just bring that up to every year there's a challenge but in the rain blessed was really the first year in the last ten that it rained all year and you know dave struggles with traction in the rain it's very hard to push off when you have a six kind of a slicks surface so dave was you know to finish that race last year in those type of conditions was just and to stick it out  something if i were to that this isn't something you do and how the else you all have a hobby of personal training and so much more arduous and physically taxing yet dave has a full life i mean besides being a full time account father of three kids and husband he's also a personal trainer he took on personal training three to four years ago took all the classes and he's a certified personal trainer and he created a business called night warrior fitness and you have a client base and you work all over manhattan right there you go anywhere any member and it's a passion for you enjoy your work with people with weight loss on and muscle strength and all to all types of things and i mean you're really passionate about having people meet their goals and i think your and you're you're a perfect example of someone that's tough and who cares about fitness and is willing to go above and beyond to stay in shape so no i'm sure clients are you know if you give them a little extra motivation as well i look forward to the night warrior fitness continue to grow and many many more marathons yet there i want to give a big thank you to manhattan neighborhood network and well sanchez for hosting us today