Patient Evan Wood, left, at the New York City Marathon with Keith J. Benkov, MD
Evan Wood, a 22-year-old Mount Sinai patient, won the Foot Locker Five-Borough Challenge at the New York City Marathon, representing Manhattan and Team IBDKids, a cause that is deeply meaningful to him. Mr. Wood, a recent graduate of New York University, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when he was 14, struggling with stomach pain and weighing about 80 pounds. With care from doctors at The Mount Sinai Hospital, including Keith J. Benkov, MD, he began to thrive. And inspired by Dr. Benkov, who has finished 29 New York marathons, he took up running. “He’s modest, and he doesn’t like praise,” Mr. Wood says of Dr. Benkov, “but he’s been a miracle for me; he’s been a lifesaver.” Dr. Benkov started and leads Team IBDKids, which supports The Children’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at Mount Sinai. The team has raised more than $200,000 this year, and $3 million since starting in 2006, Dr. Benkov says. At the marathon on Sunday, November 6, Mr. Wood raised $3,163 while winning the Challenge, a “race-within-a-race” against four other runners, each representing a borough and a charity. They started together, but competition began in earnest at the halfway point, just outside of Queens. “It’s a very good-spirited competition,” says Mr. Wood, whose race time was 3:44:57. “And you get citywide bragging rights.”