Health: Local men will run in the NYC Marathon as members of Team Fox - a branch of the Michael J. Fox Foundation

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MARY-ELLEN SAUNDERS
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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SAINT JOHN - Chris Grannan will be running in the footsteps of his late father when he tackles the New York City Marathon this fall.

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Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal

Chris Grannan, left, and Mike McPartland are registered to run in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1.

"I started running about eight years ago when my father passed away," Grannan said. "He was a marathoner and he wanted me to join him and I never had an opportunity to, so when he passed away I decided to do it for him and now I am sort of addicted."

Grannan ran the 42-kilometre New York City Marathon that begins in Staten Island and ends in Central Park for the first time in 2003. On Nov. 1 he will do it again.

Grannan said when he watched his father, Paul Grannan, run marathons he felt as if it was an unachievable goal.

"It almost seemed impossible, so it stopped me from jumping on it but once he passed and I started training"¦," Grannan said getting lost in thought.

Grannan and his friend Mike McPartland, of Saint John, will be running with Team Fox - a branch of the Michael J. Fox Foundation that gives leaders and athletes the tools and resources to raise money for Parkinson's research.

The two Saint John runners have both run the New York City Marathon at different times and said they found it inspiring to watch thousands of athletes representing a charity, so they decided to do the same.

McPartland said he was drawn to the Michael J. Fox Foundation because his aunt has Parkinson's disease.

"She was really touched by it," McPartland said of his aunt. "When I saw the charity (on the list) it meant the most to me and once I talked to Chris he was like 'that's a good fit for us'."

Their goal is to raise up to $10,000 and they are half-way there.

Grannan, a restaurateur, said for the month of October, $2 from the sale of every bottle of wine bought at Grannan's Seafood Restaurant and the Church Street Steak House will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation in their bid to find a cure to the disease.

Grannan and McPartland love running marathons for the same reason - it's a seemingly impossible challenge.

"It feels like a big accomplishment. There is a lot of hard work to get there. You can't buy that, you have to put yourself through the hundreds of miles and hours of training," Grannan said. "It's not one (accomplishment) that you get very often."

The pair has trained for almost five months, going for a short run every day and a long run every Sunday.

"I enjoy the training part. It's the schedule of making yourself do that every day and the end result is when you go over the finish line, it's an accomplishment which is hard to get," Grannan said.

When it comes to marathons, they said, there is none better than the one hosted in the Big Apple.

The marathon that began with 127 runners in 1970 has grown to attract so many runners from across the world that a lottery is held to choose the 40,000 people from the approximately 100,000 applicants.

About two million spectators line the race route cheering on the athletes and about 315 million people watch on television.

"I have run other marathons but New York was something else," McPartland said. "The first bridge you cross you have the statue of liberty, the skyline of Manhattan and 40,000 runners crossing the bridge."

Grannan's father's best marathon time was three hours and 48 minutes.

Last year, McPartland finished the New York City Marathon in four hours and one minute.

This year, they both hope to finish in less than four hours.

To donate or inquire for more information phone 648-2323.