CLIFTON – Last fall, a local priest momentarily relinquished his clergyman attire, laced up his broken-in jogging shoes and readied himself for the run of his life.

This November, he hopes to do it again.

For Father Pawel Szurek, a Poland native and parochial vicar at Clifton’s St. Philip the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, the journey started two years ago with an untied shoelace and a revelatory gasp for breath.

"I remember I was sitting in the kitchen and my shoes were untied," Szurek said. "I went like this [reaches down for his shoes], and I was already out of breath. You don't realize day-by-day, but every single year I was putting on an additional few pounds. I was 31 and had problems trying to tie my shoes so I said 'what's wrong with this picture' and knew I had to do something about it."

The genesis of Szurek’s marathon aspirations can be traced back to when Pat Dauer, a nurse at the Rev. Brown Memorial School in Sparta, raised concerns over his physical health. Dauer worked in close proximity to Szurek when he was stationed at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta for two years.

"You need to do something about that," she told him.

Seeking an answer, Szurek pondered the easiest and least expensive sport he could enjoy while beating his still youthful body back into shape. It was then that Dauer told him to "buy some sneakers and just run."

He did just that, with the support of Dauer and other Spartan runners.

Though Szurek currently runs four times a week and at least an hour each day, he kidded about his humble beginnings.

"In fall of 2006 when I first started running, I couldn't go two straight minutes without walking," he said, adding, "and it was much worse than when I was tying those shoes [laughs]. I said to myself, I'm going out for one hour every day and I'll do whatever I can. Generally the pattern was two minutes of running and eight minutes walking. I remember I was so happy when I could run 10 minutes straight without break."

Soon 10 straight minutes stretched to 15 and then a half-hour.

Four months after he had scoffed at a friend’s suggestion that he think about entering a marathon, Szurek was able to run 6 or 7 miles without pausing to catch his breath. Not long afterwards, he raised his maximum distance from an hour to two and three hours of unabated running.

Chuckling, Szurek remembered mimicking several elder female parishioners who quipped, "you know you have to train first, right?" after he had announced his entry in the grueling 26.2 mile course.

Thanks to an arduous training regimen that called for running five days out of each week, Szurek was able to push himself to a personal best distance of 18 miles, leaving him confident the dream of completing a marathon had become a real possibility.

In October of 2007, just 10 months after taking his first steps as a runner, Szurek took his first strides in the Marine Corps Marathon held in Washington, D.C.

Three fellow Spartans, including Dauer and mutual friend Joyce Clemens, accompanied Szurek on the special day and, though he did not recall having doubts, the 32 year-old priest remembered how different the first half of the competition felt.

"The first 10 miles of the marathon you don't even notice you are running because people are cheering and other people are running," he said. "It’s as if [the crowd] does the running for you. The first hour or so you don't feel it, but then less people are around you and you start to tire."

His veins may have been pumping battery acid and his breath resembling that of mythical dragons, but the determined vicar said his memories of the marathon were difficult to recall, citing satisfaction as the most palpable emotion.

Szurek completed the marathon in 4:44, good for a ranking of 11,901 of the 12,633 finishers and responsible for bringing about his moniker as the "Marathon Man."

Since he passed the challenge of finishing his first marathon – and simultaneously raising money for the St. Philip’s youth ministry – the Marathon Man is currently preparing for his second such test by entering the Nov. 23 Philadelphia Marathon.

"We are very proud of Father Pawel," Father Paul Manning, pastor of St. Philip said. "We support his endeavor and will pray for him on marathon weekend."

Parishioners and friends interested in sponsoring Szurek’s upcoming 26.2-mile run are able to make a per-mile pledge or flat donation by calling the Molloy Center at 973-779-6200. The 2008 Philadelphia Marathon is comprised of a field of 16,000 runners.

As impressive as the competitive field appears to the casual marathon observer, Szurek offered a reminder to individuals daunted by what seems to be an unattainable goal.

"Anything is possible," he concluded. "I think in some ways I could be this kind of person who says ‘look at me, I was like you but look at me now.’ It doesn’t take a lot, but it takes commitment, some kind of will power and that belief in yourself. We just celebrated All Saint’s Day but I may be a living example that you can be overweight and not even like or know how to run and can still transform your body, mind and spirit. You could say my [journey] took me from two minutes to four hours."

In his second year at St. Philips, Szurek teaches, leads Mass, takes confession, offers "spiritual direction," volunteers at the Family Support Organization of Passaic County (FSO) and is currently working toward his Ph.D. in theology.