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34 Min Released Jun 8, 2016

Episode 5: Unknown Legend

For over 20 years, the so-called World’s Longest Urinal was a New York City Marathon institution. At the height of its glory, it was an astonishing 350-feet long.

The story of this urinal is one of DIY problem solving, triumph, and liquid tragedy. And behind this open air trough: An unknown legend named Vic Navarra. Vic was a fixture at the New York City Marathon for over a quarter of a century. He was a New York City firefighter who conducted the race start from the top of a fire truck's 85-foot ladder. When tens of thousands of runners poured onto multiple levels of the Verrazano bridge at the start of the marathon, Vic was the one conducting them. As the race start coordinator, he was the steward of this storied urinal, too. Together, their history gives us a glimpse into how the New York City Marathon scaled up to be the world class race that it is today.

Episode Credits:

Host: Rachel Swaby
Producers: Rachel Swaby, Mervyn Degaños
Editor: Audrey Quinn
Editing help: Christine Fennessy, Sylvia Ryerson
Fact checking: Jan McLeod
Theme music: Danny Cocke
Human Race editor in chief: David Willey

Human Race

Human Race

Human Race is a podcast from Runner's World. Host…

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