Runner Recalls Career, Advocacy

Long Islander News photo/Janee Law
Nina Kuscsik reminisces of her time as a long-distance runner and advocate for women to compete in marathon races.

By Janee Law

jlaw@longislandergroup.com

Nina Kuscsik was 15 years old when she witnessed Roger Bannister run a mile in under four minutes. She was astounded by the accomplishment, so she decided to make one of her own.

That day, she went up to the track at Brooklyn’s Wingate High School and ran one lap in 85 seconds. But the current Huntington Station resident didn’t stop there.

Less than a decade later, Kuscsik laced up for the Boston Marathon in 1969, when women weren’t officially allowed to run in the race.

“It was frustrating” heading into the race, Kuscsik said. “I had been into other sports, and the women didn’t run as long of a distance as the men.”

She thought to herself, “I’m an adult, I don’t have to take this anymore. I have to get these things changed.”

Kuscsik, now 78, went on to do just that.

Following her historic participation in the Boston Marathon, Kuscsik was instrumental in influencing the U.S. Amateur Athletic Association to increase its maximum distance for sanctioned women’s races in 1971. This led women officially being permitted to compete in marathons, a move that began with the 1972 Boston Marathon.

That year, Kuscsik ran in the race and became its first official female winner with a time of 3:10:26.

Also in 1972, she co-founded the Crazylegs Mini Marathon in Central Park, an all-women road race, that’s now called the New York Mini 10K. She did it with Kathrine Switzer, a longtime friend and the first woman to ever run in the Boston Marathon, and New York City Marathon co-Director Fred Lebow.

Kuscsik said the purpose of the race was to inspire all women, including those who wouldn’t participate in the men’s races, to be active.

“The idea was to encourage women to exercise, and be fit because before that women just got married and had babies,” Kuscsik said.

Kuscsik also ran in the 1972 New York City Marathon, taking first place with a time of 3:08:41. In 1973 she ran again and again finished first with a time of 2:57:07.

Switzer said she’s seemingly always been chasing Kuscsik.

“In her running career, she was always the better runner of the two of us,” Switzer said with a laugh. “When she won Boston I was third. When she won New York I was second. I rarely beat Nina, let’s put it that way.”

Before running competitively, Kuscsik became New York State’s women’s speed skating, roller-skating champion and bicycling champion in 1957.

That was the same year she graduated from Brooklyn College, where she studied nursing. After nursing school, Kuscsik married, had three children and moved out to Huntington Station in 1965. For 37 years, Kuscsik was a patient representative at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital before retiring four years ago.

Kuscsik formerly held the women’s record for the annual New York Road Race 50-mile run, which is also held in Central Park. She finished the race with a time of 6:35:53 in 1977.

She was also the first woman to finish the Empire State Building Run-Up in 1979, 1980 and 1981.

Kuscsik has furthered her advocacy by sitting on the committee that successfully campaigned for the introduction of the women’s marathon category in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Although she was unable to compete in the race that year, Kuscsik remembers the exciting moment when she watched Joan Benoit win the race in Los Angeles.

With all her hard work advocating for a women’s marathon category in the Olympics, Kuscsik said, watching Benoit cross the finish line was a thrill.

In her running career, Kuscsik competed 80 marathons. She was inducted into the New York Road Runners Hall of Fame in 2012.

Due to a knee replacement surgery seven years ago, Kuscsik said, her running days have subsided. She does go on 6-mile walks, only running up hills, which she said lessens the pounding on her knees.

“It just makes sense to move your body,” Kuscsik said. “Even for older people, it’s important to use your body, build up your circulation and get your heartbeat up.”

Although Kuscsik will not participate in the race, she will venture to Boston later this month for this year’s marathon, which is slated for April 17. She plans to have a reunion with runners she used to race alongside, including Switzer.

Switzer, of upstate Hudson, 70, plans to run in the marathon. It’ll be the 70th anniversary of when she first ran.