When Anita Sorrel, a close family friend was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer more than 20 years ago, Chappaqua resident Eric Gelber sprang into action. The former two pack a day smoker decided to challenge himself, quit smoking and train for the New York City marathon in 2006 while raising money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) to help fundraise to find a cure for Sorrel’s cancer, which develops in the plasma cells of bone marrow.
Gelber’s family first met Sorrel when he was a teen at a Club Med vacation. “She always stood behind me and encouraged me. I did that first marathon to support her and let her know that I was thinking of her.” Unfortunately, Sorrel passed away from multiple myeloma in 2012. Since then, the MMRF has been instrumental in helping patient survival rates from multiple myeloma increase from 3 years to 10.
He didn’t know it at the time, but that initial NYC marathon would grow into a 20 -year fundraising commitment dubbed “The Journey for a Cure” with unique athletic feats pursued by Gelber. Gelber’s journey started with just $5,000 raised from that first marathon but in subsequent years, his fundraising efforts have totaled more than 2.6 million dollars for the MMRF. Throughout the years, he has participated in many ultra-endurance events such as a 135-mile run called Badwater in Death Valley, California, the Lake Placid Ironman and ran 200 miles in Central Park in a weekend, an effort that was turned into a documentary titled “200 Miles” that was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017.
This fall, the Chappaqua Metro North station will be the latest venue for an endurance event and fundraising effort as Gelber attempts to row 100 miles and do 10,000 pushups in 36 hours on September 26th and 27th. The attempt will kick off on the same day as the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival and Gelber is hoping that the increased visibility of his endeavor will help raise awareness of multiple myeloma and encourage spectators to donate to MMRF. “The Town had a great response when I presented the idea to them and was appreciative of us doing a journey event here,” said Gelber. In addition, to his own stationary Erg rower, there will be two additional ones for the public to ride along with Gelber to show their support.
Gelber, an Executive Vice President at real estate company CBRE along with his wife, Tani have conceptualized new ways to hold fundraising events for MMRF throughout the years. They’ve held 12-hour relays and a music festival with a beer garden at Randall’s Island and even did it remotely during COVID. In recent years, they’ve held tennis and pickleball tournaments at Sea Colony in Bethany Beach, where the family vacations.
PHOTO BY KIMBERLY CORSO
Growing up Gelber played softball and did adventure races but he jokes that he “was not the epitome of health.” As training ramps up for his latest Journey event, Gelber is strategizing the best way to conduct the attempt. In 2021, he rowed 200 miles in Central Park which resulted in “a lot of butt pain”, he recalls with a laugh. Currently to avoid that, he is thinking of rowing a mile and then doing 100 push-ups (breaking it into sets of 20 every minute) and repeating it 100 times but is still tinkering with the best method.
Gelber, who turns 59 this spring , switched from running ultramarathons to rowing in recent years as it is less taxing on the body. Both activities require extreme discipline and endurance. When training ramps up for him this summer, he anticipates getting up at 4 am and then working out for 2-3 hours before work. He’s no stranger though to early mornings as he would sometimes get up at 3 am and then do 6 hour runs on the weekends when he was doing ultramarathons so that he could have breakfast with his three children, Jared, Kyle and Isla.
Just as his Central Park 200-mile event years ago had other supporters running alongside him for segments, he hopes the Chappaqua event inspires people to think outside the box, learn more about MMRF and donate to the cause. Support Chappaqua resident Eric Gelber as he pushes past limits to help the MMRF accelerate a cure. To donate and/or sign up for push-up and rowing slots go to themmrf.org/journey20.
Gelber admits that this event may be the last ultra-endurance one for him. But the cause is still near and dear to his family’s heart as his son Kyle will run the New York City marathon this fall for MMRF.
