Viewpoints

The Changing Face of “West Side Runners”

By Daniel Han

Spectrum staff

Faded photos of athletes from years past, wearing red tank tops expressly made for runners, are strewn around a bedroom. In the kitchen, yellowed race bibs bearing the numbers that identified past runners, and ribbons some of those runners won, fill a poster board. A map of Central Park is posted there, too.

A film of dust envelops the table of trophies that is the first thing visitors see when Bill Staab, 79, opens the front door of his two-bedroom Upper West Side home. It doubles as an unofficial headquarters for the West Side Runners.

“These are from the races,” Staab, the club’s president since 1978, said as he pointed to a stack of Tiffany & Co. boxes as tall as his shoulder.

“They all have awards inside them,” he added.

Eventually those awards in the robin egg blue boxes will go to standout runners from the West Side Runners. The club’s members have morphed from, primarily, being white back then to being black and brown immigrants from East Africa and Latin America today. Some are elite runners and Olympians whose only job is running. They are in the United States legally on P1 visas reserved for athletes who may train but not work while they are here.

“The West Side team,” began Tewodros Zewdu “Teddy” Asfaw, a 27-year-old Ethiopian runner. He paused, stuttered a bit, then, started again in his broken English and heavy African accent.

“Good strong guys and also very good team for me and for my friends,” said Asfaw, one in the latest crew of immigrant runners to also be Staab’s roommates.

Staab doesn’t charge them rent, he said. Over the last 40 years, he said, he has spent more than $900,000 of his own money on race entry fees for immigrant runners, flying them to races in other cities, putting them up in hotels and covering other costs. He’s helped arrange for some to get immigrant green cards and visas, he said.

“Bill wrote all letters for immigrants,” said Senbto Geneti Guteta, 25, a runner from Ethiopia who lives with Staab.

Formed in 1975, the West Side Runners is a co-ed club. When this reporter asked Staab about the immigrant women who run, he offered only that the females were less talkative than the men.

During one race in Central Park in July 2018, Staab was walking around with an envelope filled with $100 bills. He passed some of those bills to the runners, including some of the women.

When it comes to money, some immigrant runners do face financial hardship. Runner Guteta said his sole income is what he earns from being among the top-finishers in a race. If he doesn’t finish in the top, he earns nothing.

Four months ago, he injured his Achilles tendon and, though he has kept running, he’s not winning races as often. His savings have dwindled. He has no health insurance. “To go to hospital or drug store, they ask for too much money,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t go after my first treatment.”

Some of the West Side Runners have gone on to compete in the Olympics, Staab said. They include Jordan Chipangama of Zambia, Guor Marial of South Sudan and Girma Tolla of Ethiopia.

Closer to New York, they are winning races. “This guy went to Ethiopia a few weeks ago, but he left this here,” said Staab, lifting a rhinestone-encrusted plate from the table with the Tiffany’s box. The plate read, “Manhattan Marathon: First Place.”

But the runner said they don’t just lace up their running shoes with money and trophies on their mind.

“I run for enjoyment,” Guteta said. “I run for health. And after I run, my body is very relaxed. After my best races, I feel happy.”