Ultra-Endurance Athlete Eric Gelber Takes on 100 Miles and 10,000 Push-Ups for the MMRF

What began with a marathon in honor of a friend has grown into a community-driven effort to accelerate progress for myeloma patients.

It’s been nearly 20 years since Eric Gelber first fundraised for the MMRF by running the 2007 New York City Marathon in honor of a family friend, Anita, who was being treated for multiple myeloma. But he still thinks about something she said after he’d crossed the finish line having raised $5,000 for the organization.

“She told me that when I ran, she could feel medicine going straight into her veins,” he said. “That always resonated with me—still does.”

Nearly two decades later, this continues to fuel Gelber’s commitment—not just to pushing his own limits but to accelerating research to improve outcomes for myeloma patients by fundraising for the MMRF.

As part of the MMRF’s Outpace Myeloma endurance fundraising initiative this Blood Cancer Awareness Month, Gelber will attempt to row 100 miles and complete 10,000 push-ups in just 36 hours starting on September 26 in Chappaqua, New York, near where he lives.

While his efforts were initially inspired by Anita, who succumbed to myeloma in 2012, along the way Eric has grown close with many other patients and their loved ones—giving him a front-row seat to the progress the MMRF has helped make possible.

“When Anita was diagnosed, the prognosis was maybe three or five years. Now I have friends who have been living with this disease for 10 or 20 years,” Gelber said.

Despite this progress, Gelber said he’s motivated to fundraise for those who have not had the same outcome—like a patient named Jeannie, who traveled from New Hampshire to New York each year to support Eric’s events in person.

“The last time I saw her, she had just gotten a biopsy and was waiting for results. She came down to support me even though she was waiting for that phone call,” he said. “Sadly, she got bad news and passed away within a year of the event. I think about her often and so many other friends.”

Since his first MMRF fundraiser, Eric has pushed himself to take on increasingly grueling ultra-marathons and endurance challenges.

“Running these longer distances changed my life and the way I approached challenges,” he said. “My career started to take off. I became a better father and husband. And then of course the fundraising made me want to keep going.”

In 2012 and 2015, he completed the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, widely considered one of the world’s toughest races for its extreme temperatures and elevation gain. A few years later, he ran 200 miles in New York’s Central Park—a feat that was featured in the 2017 documentary 200 Miles—followed by another 200-mile rowing challenge at the park.

Gelber’s efforts have grown into a true family and community effort. Eric and his wife, Tani, along with their three children, Jared, Kyle, and Isla, have organized other fundraisers for the MMRF over the years, including a music festival on Randall’s Island and tennis and pickleball tournaments. In November, Kyle will run the TCS New York City Marathon with MMRF Team for Cures.

When Gelber looks back at his cumulative fundraising impact for the MMRF, he said he hopes he has encouraged others.

“If I can provide hope to patients and their families or inspire people to get out there and do something, that’s meaningful to me,” he said.

You can help outpace myeloma by supporting Eric’s challenge here. If you’re local to Chappaqua, New York, you can cheer him on in person or join him and row some miles and do some pushups, September 26–27, 2026 at the town’s Metro North station.