This year’s TCS New York City Marathon is deeply personal for Joe Macklin, who will compete after losing an astonishing 190 pounds.
The 25-year-old Staten Island resident weighed 432 pounds when the death of an acquaintance prompted him to take a hard look at his own health.
“In September of 2024, a friend of a friend who was very heavy ended up passing away,” Macklin, now 240 pounds, told The Post Friday from the pickleball courts at St. Christopher’s in Dongan Hills.
That loss convinced him to pursue gastric bypass surgery.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m healthy enough. Let’s see what the doctor says and whether I’m able to get the surgery,’” Macklin said. “We had always talked about it.”
His weight-loss journey had already begun before the operation.
To qualify for the five-hour procedure, Macklin had to follow a liquid diet, undergo an endoscopy, meet with a cardiologist and complete a psychological evaluation.
After the successful surgery at Staten Island University Hospital in December 2024, he weighed 388 pounds.
Within another week, he had lost 20 more pounds—and his transformation accelerated from there.
“Once I started exercising, I was losing 10 to 12 pounds a week,” he said.
Three months after surgery, Macklin began wondering whether he could run the TCS New York City Marathon.
“I always kept saying, ‘I want to run the marathon,’ but I thought, ‘At that weight, I’ll never run it,’” said Macklin, who grew up in Emerson Hill and continues to live there.
He started with walks alongside his mother, Renee.
“I would walk for 45 minutes by myself, and then I’d bring her for 25 minutes. Eventually, those walks turned into running,” he said.
Then an unexpected opportunity arrived. Macklin’s father, John, is director of operations at Brean Capital and is the boss of a nephew of former Bengals and Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason. In July, he received word that the Boomer Esiason Foundation needed another runner for the Nov. 1 marathon.
“He said, ‘I have a spot open. We’re desperately looking for somebody. Would Joe be interested? You have two minutes to answer,’” Macklin recalled.
He had a week to officially confirm his participation, so he underwent a medical checkup—especially important after suffering an ulcer the previous November.
“I had until 4 p.m. that day to declare, and it was my girlfriend’s best friend’s wedding. I had an endoscopy, and I told the doctor, ‘Doc, I have to be out of here in a half hour. My girlfriend’s going to kill me,’” he said.
“I changed clothes in the endoscopy room just to make it there.”
The Boomer Esiason Foundation provided a 16-week training plan for the 26.2-mile race through New York’s five boroughs. Macklin adjusted the program to suit his own routine.
“I followed my gut and stuck with what had been working for me. Then I built up my endurance from seven miles to 10 miles,” he said. “Where I live is all uphill and downhill, so three miles was really like four.”
Macklin, a Manhattan HVAC mechanic, runs every day after work from 5 to 6 p.m. He follows that with pickleball from 7 to 9 p.m.
In September, he completed the Staten Island Half Marathon in two hours and 26 minutes—four minutes faster than his goal.
“That’s what really gave me confidence for the marathon,” he said.
The avid runner, who continues to follow a post-surgery diet centered on “a lot of protein and some carbs,” including steak, grilled chicken and rice, hopes to finish the marathon in five hours.
His parents, aunts, uncles and cousins will be along the course to cheer him on, as will his girlfriend, Gwyn, whom he met while they were students at St. John’s University.
The marathon also falls on his father’s birthday. After the race, Macklin—an Edmonton Oilers fan—plans to join his family and Gwyn at The Kettle Black, a Staten Island sports bar, to watch the Oilers face the Rangers.
Macklin is running with the Boomer Esiason Foundation to support cystic fibrosis research and services. So far, he has raised more than $6,300, with his pickleball teammates making a major contribution.
“There are a lot of older women I play with, and I just tap the ball because I don’t want to hurt anyone. Those are the people who donated,” he said.
“So my generosity paid off.”
