A Member Who Helps NYC Run Will Run in Sunday’s New York City Marathon

OCTOBER 30, 2026—Telephone Maintainer Chris Marana was an award-winning runner back in I.S. 30, but that was over 20 years ago.

He’ll be competing in this Sunday’s New York City Marathon, however, because of a promise he made to someone very important to him: his mother Claudia Gonzalez, who he lost in March 2025.

“I’m doing it for her. I know she would want me to do it,” said Marana, 39, who has been on the job for five years.

In 2024 Marana signed up for New York Road Runners’ 9+1 Program, which requires participants to compete in nine qualifying races and volunteer at one race to be guaranteed a spot in the following year’s marathon. But with his mother’s passing still so recent, he decided to postpone entry into the marathon until this year.

Marana has been training on his own, running a portion of the 26.2 marathon route as part of his preparation, but it’s his commute to work in midtown’s Power Control Center that shows the strength of his commitment to this goal—Marana runs to work on West 53rd St. from his home in Bay Ridge.

First, he heads into Queens, then over the Queensboro Bridge to 1st Ave. and 59th St. in Manhattan. From there, Marana runs up to the Bronx, takes the Madison Ave. Bridge into Harlem and heads back downtown over to the west side to report for his shift. He says the route takes him two hours.

Marana will be wearing number 2946, and his progress can be tracked in the New York Runners App. (BIB-12946)

In preparation for the race, Marana’s wife made special shirts for herself and their two children to wear on marathon day to cheer him on, and Marana will be running in a shirt with a photo of his mom, an image of a red heart near her picture. “It’s going to be special,” he said.