He would train in Van Cortlandt Park, one of the reasons, along with the Kingsbridge Armory and Macombs Dam Park, that his son Gary Corbitt said he continued to live in Marble Hill.
“The area was very rich in running history,” Gary Corbitt said.
One year after running his first marathon at age 32, he became a member of the United States Olympic team in Helsinki, Finland. He said he ran 199 races of marathon length or longer during his lifetime.
At times, he held American records for the marathon and the 100-mile-run, as well as other ultra-marathon distances. After his health forced him to retire from competitive running at the age of 55, he still walked ultra-marathons. At age 80, he walked 240 miles in a six-day race and at 81, 303 miles in the same event, according to The New York Times.
He was an early organizer of ultra-marathons and was co-founder and first president of the New York Road Runners Club.
