The Last Across the Finish Line: Dr. Tony Kovatch on Legacy, Healing & What Really Matters

Dr. Tony Kovatch, known as "Slow Tony" after being the last to cross the finish line at the 2025 Pittsburgh Marathon, shares insights from his 40+ years as a pediatrician and his philosophy on living a meaningful life shaped by personal struggles and professional triumphs.

• Early exposure to his mother's battle with Huntington's disease influenced his decision to become a doctor
• Viktor Frankl's logotherapy provided a framework for finding meaning in suffering throughout his life 
• The importance of treating doctors as humans, not expecting superhuman perfection
• How obsessive-compulsive personality traits can be channeled positively 
• Pediatricians need to focus on the "little things" that patients remember—returning calls, showing kindness
• Parenting advice: use positive reinforcement abundantly and recognize your words become children's inner voices
• Running as both physical discipline and spiritual practice, even when finishing last
• The metaphor of marathon running: "Your times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged"
• Finding meaning in retirement 

Never stop doing good for goodness' sake alone, without expecting any return on your investment of kindness.

Dr. Kovatch writes on Medium-

https://medium.com/@kovatcha42/stopping-the-hemorrhage-a-warm-well-lighted-place-b8e8ce27cbd4

"Out of the Old Black Bag" by Dr. Anthony Kovatch

https://issuu.com/ssmsdept/docs/bulletin_22.sept_final/s/16962787

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/tony.kovatch.12

WPXI News Article Pittsburgh Marathon

https://www.facebook.com/wpxi/posts/anthony-kovatch-73-a-retired-pediatrician-from-the-north-hills-proudly-finished-/1083758973788232/

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl https://amzn.to/4lIiYbK (paid link)

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Dr. Tony Kovach
• 4:23 Mother's Illness and Viktor Frankl's Influence
• 8:39 Physician Burnout and Finding Meaning
• 13:40 The Human Side of Medicine
• 18:06 Running and Obsessive Personality Benefits
• 25:38 Kindness and Parenting Philosophy
• 31:52 The Spiritual Nature of Running
• 37:02 Being Last in the Marathon
• 42:15 Enjoying Retirement and What's Next

Transcript

Sherry Ehrin: 0:00

Hey, This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers. Today's guest is one of those rare souls who makes you feel better just by listening to him talk. Dr Tony Kovach is a retired pediatrician, marathon runner, writer and deep thinker whose legacy stretches far beyond exam rooms and finish lines. You might know him as Slow Tony, the last runner to cross the finish line at the 2025 Pittsburgh Marathon, cheered on by strangers and surrounded by squad cars, sweepers and smiles, but there's so much more to Dr Kovatch. You may have seen the viral photo, you may have heard the cheers, but what you might not have heard is the heart and humility behind Slow Tony.

Sherry Ehrin: 0:43

Today, we're honored to give him space to reflect on a lifetime of healing, running, parenting and doing good for goodness sake. In this episode, we talk about what it means to live a good life, how suffering shapes our purpose and why finishing last might actually mean you're winning at the things that really matter. Whether you're a parent, a caregiver or just someone trying to keep going. This conversation will remind you you are not alone and you are absolutely still in the race. We were hoping to start with a little bit of your personal and professional journey. If you could kind of lay out some of the pieces of who is Tony Kovach and how you got to where you are today.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 1:26

Yes, in retrospect, now that you're in retirement and you look back on your legacy, you kind of have different perspectives on things. I think I was sort of born to be a pediatrician. I just had one brother, but we had a large extended family. In those days people tended to stay in the same area where their parents grew up, so you had a lot of your family around and a lot of cousins. And I had an uncle. My mother's older brother was a family practitioner in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Both my mother and my father grew up in Hazleton Pennsylvania, which is in sort of the coal area of Northeast Pennsylvania. So my uncle was a general practitioner in Hazleton and they all wanted me to go back to Hazleton to also be a general practitioner. But at that point we had moved to New Jersey. I went to school in Jersey City and I wanted to spend my life in New York City, but it didn't turn out that way. I liked the big city, but I went to a Jesuit prep school in Jersey City. Then I went to the University of Pennsylvania which was a big change, going to a public school rather than a religious-oriented school. And then I went to Drexel Medical College in Philadelphia also it was called Honan and then now it's called Drexel. I did my residency at Long Island and I'll tell you later about how I got to Pittsburgh I think one of the main backdrops of my childhood.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 2:37

My mother suffered from a neurodegenerative illness called Huntington's disease. It's a genetic disorder which affects 50% of offspring. She developed symptoms when I was about 9, 10 years old. So much of my later childhood was concerned with taking care of my mother. Me and my brother had to help because my father was working all the time and there was dangers of losing our home, and eventually my mother was put in an institution. That colored my later childhood and adolescent years, even my young adult years. So, on the other hand, I think that suffering and stress did contribute to my own desire to enter the medical profession, the healing profession. If I had to say what was the one factor that made you enter the medical field, it would be that when I started my medical career, I wanted to be a neurologist, thinking that I could help people with the same condition that my mother had, but I was spared the disease. I would have had symptoms when I was in my mid-30s if I was going to have the same disorder. Me and my brother were both spared. Many of the people in my mother's family were not spared and I think it was trying to have some redemption by working as healing people who were suffering to pay back the divine powers that spared me from that illness. I consider myself lucky, as I look back on it years later, that I was not affected and then I did get through all my training properly.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 3:54

One of the important features of my young adulthood and in my adolescence was finding the knowledge that we all received from Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist. He was a survivor of the Holocaust, he spent years in concentration camps and he developed a theory called logotherapy, which he eventually championed when he was a practicing neurologist. The goals of logotherapy were that you have to find a meaning for your life, especially a meaning for your suffering, and his main saying was those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. So that no matter what things have befallen me, you know, like all of us, when these events of suffering would happen, I would always go back to Viktor Frankl. His main work was called Man's Search for Meaning right, Absolutely Man's.

Jodi Chestnut: 4:44

"Man's Search for Meaning right,

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 4:45

Absolutely. "Man's Search for Meaning. That was his main book. He's written others, one of the most influential books, they say, in the American literature. But his logotherapy has helped many people, I'm sure, not only the survivors of the Holocaust but people all along the way, since we all experience suffering at some point, especially when it's not really something we caused ourselves but it's part of the human condition. One of his sayings I always championed myself was without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete, and I always took that seriously that we all have to have a certain amount of suffering, and I'd also bring that up with my colleagues Now.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 5:19

You hear about physician burnout, which is suffering probably involved with losing your sense of purpose as you're caught up in all the sort of the busy work of practicing medicine. And I think physician burnout, which is suffering, probably involved with losing your sense of purpose. You're caught up in all the sort of the busy work of practicing medicine, and I think it's the same idea. This is suffering. If we have the right perspective on it and we can control our emotions regarding that, we can successfully combat burnout. Also, it's hard to deal with the external circumstances in the medical field that promote burnout among physicians. So I think physicians have to work within themselves, and I think that that's the core of many things. It's just that dedication and mindfulness is so important.

Sherry Ehrin: 5:53

It is that perspective that is so powerful, to be able to find the meaning in what you're going through and be able to use the perspective that you gain to help others and staying grounded.

Jodi Chestnut: 6:05

Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 6:06

I mean, that's the best way to put it simply. You have to have something, a higher meaning that keeps you grounded, and I think you have to practice it. You have to practice it every day. It's easy to sort of fall astray and get into that negative self-thought. You know, like you're a loser, you're never going to really accomplish what you should, and I think you have to pray often. I still say prayers, like I said when I was a little kid, before I go to bed at night, and it's just something that has to be pervasive in your life. It takes a lot of working it into your life schedule and also, I think gratitude is something that I have absolutely so many things to be, gratitude for, yeah, I have a wonderful wife. We met when I came to Pittsburgh. I have four really wonderful children. The last one just got married. Wonderful Congratulations Daughters, sons-in-laws, grandchildren that are healthy. I really have nothing to complain about and we all complain, of course, but when there's tough times and being a doctor nobody would doubt that being a doctor is a tough profession but it is definitely great payback or whatever and I feel that, due to my luck, I always think of, like, whether you get a genetic disease, it's just like the luck of the coin toss If you toss a coin, it's 50-50, whether you have a normal, healthy life or whether you have a life that could be cut short by all kinds of symptoms, both physical symptoms and psychiatric symptoms. So I think we have to have great gratitude that we stay healthy. We're sort of winning the coin toss, if you want to put it that way.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 7:47

If we're lucky enough to win the coin toss, then we have everything to be grateful for.

Sherry Ehrin: 7:54

You're absolutely right.

Jodi Chestnut: 7:55

Have there been any unexpected turns along the way in your journey?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 8:00

I think once I was a practicing pediatrician and I had established my family, I was between jobs it was probably like when I was about 12, 13 years into practice the organization I worked for sort of disintegrated as this was happening in medicine people would be buying out different medical groups and stuff out different medical groups and stuff. In that transition there was a period of about a month when I wasn't working and in that period being I'm the kind of person who gets a lot of anticipatory anxiety, so I started dwelling on that and worrying and it threw me into a period of sort of anxiety and panic. So it's funny, once I started working again I got back into my normal shape of working. But I remember talking to a psychologist trying to get some cognitive behavioral therapy to try to reverse this anxiety and I was quite worried because my kids were all little and I was worried that my wife had to take care of all them and I didn't want to have to quit working as a pediatrician. I felt so anxious. But I never forget the curative remark she made. She asked me why are you anxious? And I said I'm anxious because of my family and I'm anxious that my wife might see that I am weak. And the therapist said something that I'll never forget. She says your wife will not see you that you are weak, she will see that you are human. And that threw me out of the whole thing.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 9:33

All human beings have periods of anxiety, with big transitions, and I said I'm no different and I've always used that philosophy with the younger doctors of today. When they say that they have burnout, use that philosophy with the younger doctors of today when they say that they have burnout. I said you have to realize all us doctors are human. We can't be super doctors or super mothers and super fathers, which we all try to be and we just have to realize we're all human and subjected to the same limitations of all our humanness. So that was a big, it was a small thing, but it had long lasting consequences. When I'd have stressful situations like that, which we all do in the future, I was able to handle them better and that was kind of on the heels of my experience with Viktor Frankl and Logotherapy. So these are the kind of lessons you learn in life that hold you and keep you afloat.

Sherry Ehrin: 10:25

Right. So to me it sounds like you're describing the role that resilience has played, what's something that people often misunderstand about your field. I think that's kind of what you're saying. Doctors are human.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 10:39

Yes, I think doctors have the same fears and insecurity that all people have. Medical training tries to instill in doctors a facade of confidence and of vast knowledge, but any doctor who practices for a long time realizes there's always things that are over their head. There are all situations that you can control and the most important thing is to always offer words of comfort and to make the most effort to cure a situation, and that you can't always do that, but the most important thing is to always again offer comfort, be kind, and I think one of the most important things, as I always say, be kind. And I think one of the most important things that I always say, especially for pediatricians, is to never stop doing the little things for people. It's the little things you do for people that they remember. It's not the big diagnoses you make. You know, it's returning phone calls.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 11:45

You know, especially with pediatrics, pediatrics is 99% of your day at work is basically the same small little things over and over, and it's how you do it. It's being compulsive to clean earwax out of some kid. We know they're going to hate it and they're going to scream because you know they need to get that wax out so that their hearing isn't affected. It's comforting a nervous child who's having trouble getting back to school, maybe after an illness. It's comforting a parent who's worried about something that they really should not be worried about, but they cannot overcome it.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 12:21

It takes time to realize the important things that you do for people and the healing isn't always healing of just physical problems. It's just healing a lot of problems that stem from anxiety and insecurity or whatever. So pediatricians need to be kind, they need to be nonjudgmental. That's crucial these days, because so many times in medicine these days people are telling you what you must do and people have their own ideas on things. They want to control your own health measures. It's probably true today I've seen this through my children they want to maybe deviate a little bit with the vaccinations and stuff like that. So I think the main thing for a pediatrician, and probably for any doctor, is that you have to be just another member of the family, except that you have a little more medical knowledge than the other family members and that you're just in there with everybody else supporting them. That's what pediatrics is. You're basically a cheerleader for families and getting them through their tough times.

Sherry Ehrin: 13:24

Yeah, it takes a village, and the doctor is certainly an important part of it.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 13:28

People were using that term about. It takes a village with the marathon, with running too. They say they have these running groups and they say it's easier to get to be dedicated to running and get all your requisite time in there if you do it socially, with other people. That's something I've never been able to do. I don't run with a group. I find it interesting with this thing with other people. That's something I've never been able to do. I don't run with a group. I find it interesting with this thing.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 13:51

With the marathon, I was kind of fast across the finish line. I'm getting so slow now as I'm 74 years old, but I've been running marathons for 25 years and not always as slow as I did in 2025. But there have been people who have run marathons in a far better time than me, who were in their 80s, and I think Hot Harry was one of them. Hot Harry was a fellow who started running in. I think he was 45 or 50, sort of like me, and he had a running group in North Park, which is where I run a lot of times. He got a bunch of his friends together and they would just run around the park and he would give them beverages to drink to rehydrate and not hard drinks and snacks and stuff like that. Everybody knew hot harry. Hot Harry Kirsch was his name. He died at the age of 94.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 14:39

He ran into his 80s you know, I'm nowhere near the endurance or the longevity of Hot Harry. Maybe I can be someday. It'd be one of my goals if I could run into my eighties. But you need to start going at a certain point.

Jodi Chestnut: 14:53

Well, I was going to say so what keeps you going? Because I know myself. I keep trying to exercise a little harder and as soon as I get uncomfortable I'm like I don't know if I could do this. What? Keeps that motivation for you.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 15:08

I think if I had to answer in one word, it would be my obsessive, compulsive personality. Remember I mentioned when I was a kid I had anticipatory anxiety, which is a good thing, they say. A good doctor tends to be obsessive, compulsive, so you don't let things slip and you always pay attention to the things you have to do. And but I think that personality trait has kept me dedicated and I think if I didn't run I would feel remiss, left out, that I was harming my health. So I run for health reasons, but I think that it keeps you more mentally sharp. I like to think that it impedes the development of little dementia traits.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 15:49

I think my memory is definitely better after I run and the little things start happening to you in the 80s and 80s. So I think I'm trying to preserve my health, especially my mental health, and just sort of stay sharp. One of the main tenets of staying healthy and keeping your memory as you grow older is the most important factor is staying active, and it may just need to be like walk every day, but I think the more you do the better. Even though I'm slow, I do have the endurance, after 25 years of running, that I can run long distances and even swim without tiring too much.

Sherry Ehrin: 16:24

Yeah, that's pretty incredible. What was your time for the marathon? Hey it's faster than me.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 16:34

People always say it's faster than the people who are at home watching television. The important thing for a runner isn't the time when the clock starts, it's from when you cross the start line, and one of the reasons I was fortunate enough to get this fame about being the last to cross the finish line is because I was one of the last to cross the starting line, so that if you get by net time like when you cross the starting line to finish line I was like just over seven. That's really slow. I've never been that slow before, but it's over seven hours. If you go by when they actually started the whole race, it would be seven hours and 41 minutes, but because it takes that long, you don't have the different pods at the start of the race.

Jodi Chestnut: 17:18

It's still a really long time to keep going.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 17:23

You put the fast runners in A and then E is like where I was and E is like where I was. One of my compulsive traits is that I want to be absolutely sure, when I cross that starting line, that I have emptied my bladder so I don't have to keep going throughout the course. You're running for seven hours. Even if you're fast and you're running for three, four hours, you still have to go. You have to drink a lot of fluids, of course, to stay hydrated, and you're inevitably going to have to go to the port-a-john and you don't want to stop and wait in a line to get into a port-a-john, especially if you're an elite runner and your time is important. For me it doesn't matter, but with my slow times, but still, you spend your time out on the trail with the other people, not sitting in a port-a-john can I just say yeah, you want to start that line and get a little prayer and that kind of thing yeah, you've mentioned something that I really am impressed by and want to point out.

Jodi Chestnut: 18:09

I love that you mentioned being a little bit obsessive, compulsive as a trait and not a negative thing. And I know about anxiety as well, and I feel like there's such a negative connotation all the time. We treat everything like a disorder instead of just part of who we are. I think it's refreshing to hear someone describe that as just part of who we are. I think it's refreshing to hear someone describe that as just part of who you are. These are things about us that make us unique.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 18:38

One of my philosophies and what I would convey to parents is that you have three groups of people, but two big groups of people, two big groups of kids when they start emerging personality-wise. There's the ones with attention deficit disorder, who are very active. They have very positive traits because they're very dynamic and animated, but they have a lot of trouble with the concentration. So there's a big group of those. There's another big group of people that have anxiety and obsessive compulsive, who are a little more restricted, inhibited in what they do. They have to learn how to deal with that. Then there's a little slither of people that are a little more restricted, inhibited in what they do. They have to learn how to deal with that.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 19:10

Then there's a little slither of people that are a combination of attention deficit disorder and anxiety. There's a little slither of people in the middle that balance out. So there's for people that balance out. Everybody has, you know. I realized as I go back to the Huntington's disease. It is a very devastating disease because it starts so early in life and it progresses pretty quickly. But if you look at it, there are many hidden psychiatric disorders in almost every family. Every family has something. You see this out of practicing medicine for 40 plus years, you see that no family is spared, and it's better to know what you're dealing with than to have this stuff come up as a surprise.

Sherry Ehrin: 19:55

Yeah, and I think it's important for people to know that, because in so many cases it's something that families carry a lot of shame and guilt around.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 20:05

Absolutely.

Sherry Ehrin: 20:07

Yeah, and it helps for people to know that you're not alone and every family, as you said,

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 20:13

absolutely

Sherry Ehrin: 20:13

has somebody dealing with something.

Jodi Chestnut: 20:15

we all have more in common than not

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 20:17

absolutely yes

Sherry Ehrin: 20:19

yep

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 20:20

like you said that before, jody people, what a class of compulsive. They're the professionals of the world. You got to have dedication and that's part of dedication. People say ocd and think of it in a negative connotation, but really it's. I mean, you learn how to control it so it doesn't overwhelm you. But I always thought in my mind you know, here's some typical toddler comes in, ears are full of wax. Should you go through the suffering for yourself, the parents and the kids to get the wax out, or just ignore it? And a compulsive person would say I am obliged to remove that wax. That is part of my job or anything of that nature. I'm going to go ahead and get this ingrown toenail. I'm going to correct this. My kid's not going to like it. These are older kids and I'm going to do it, but I'm not just going to punt it over to a specialist. It's how, sometimes a negative trait will produce positive results.

Sherry Ehrin: 21:12

Well, as a person who didn't have Tony Kovatch as my pediatrician, I can say that compulsion is one of the things that have made you such a well-loved person, because I heard about you, obviously from the marathon, but as I started to read the articles and your name was popping up all over my Facebook from so many friends, " Dr Kovach, oh Dr Kovach. It is just so clear how well loved you are and how those traits have served you well and have served your patients over the years. So there's something to be said for that, for sure.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 21:46

It's a matter of longevity, too because when you're practicing in one community for 40 plus years, you get to know a lot of people and become a member of their extended family. It was very, very difficult for me when I retired, but I was sometimes generations.

Sherry Ehrin: 22:02

It's part of your identity.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 22:02

I would be seeing like that the grandparents were my patients and then their kids would be the parents and then the grandchildren would be like my younger, newer patients. So I think that I was very lucky in the sense that many of the kids that I saw in practice went to school with my children. They played in sporting events with my children, so you get around. Another thing is I always enjoyed going to sporting events, even with my patients. So some patients said we're having a big hockey game. Do you want to come? I would always go, my wife.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 22:34

I would tell my wife, just go for a little bit. I would go and you know I wasn't much of an athlete. I liked watching sports. I was a big Yankee fan and stuff. As a kid you know it was different and that sports were your main entertainment. You played on the sandlots playing baseball, you followed the teams. Every game you would listen. I was a New York Yankee fan. I would watch every game that was on TV and if it wasn't, I listened to it on the radio. I mean, nobody does that these days.

Sherry Ehrin: 23:04

Yeah, yeah. My dad did at the end of his life. He had glioblastoma, and it was only like six months from diagnosis to when he passed away. But that was what he enjoyed was listening to the pirate games because he couldn't see well, but he liked listening to the Pirate games and followed that way, and he would even listen on the phone with his brother. They would put it on and they would sit on the phone and be just connected to each other while listening to the games.

Jodi Chestnut: 23:33

Remember, like maybe at midnight, listening when the Yankees were out on the West Coast and you'd hear the voices of the old, famous announcers. And as these announcers would get older, I would notice too they became more philosophical about life in general too.

Jodi Chestnut: 23:47

It's all of our experiences give those perspectives and you start to see things a little

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 23:52

Yes

Sherry Ehrin: 23:53

Sometimes differently and sometimes more clearly.

Jodi Chestnut: 23:56

Vince Scully, who's the announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I think he was announcing until he was in his late 80s, and one of his sayings was ... H e was reading about who was injured and it said something like one, "of the players is listed from day to day with a lower extremity injury. And he pauses and then he says, "aren't we all? Which means, aren't we all just going from day to day?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 24:28

You know, especially after the crises that we see in the world today.

Sherry Ehrin: 24:31

Yeah, speaking of that, what message do you want people to hear and believe most about themselves? Through all of your experiences in your personal life, and then as well, as a pediatrician, is there something that comes to mind?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 24:45

Yes, I think much of this is very simple-minded stuff. Mind it is simple but very basic. It's at the core of everything and that is all their people, with kindness I mean, that's part and parcel being a pediatrician, but kindness is so important in this day and age. I think always, always be mindful of that. There is a Higher Power. It's sometimes hard to know what that higher power actually is. We all have our own what we know of God. I think it's important to stay grounded, but to always look up to that higher power. Keep Believing.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 25:20

It's very easy to become cynical in this day and age and not realize that we're indebted to a Higher Power. When I look back, I must admit that the three years I've been in retirement were very difficult. I was sort of preoccupied with my own legacy, like "how will I be remembered, even though I was still working and still writing and running and stuff like that. I said how will I be remembered? Will my children even remember anything about me?

Sherry Ehrin: 25:43

And so what do you want them to remember?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 25:45

And I think that just that you were a good father, good husband, as good as you can be A good grandparent, became very important, especially when they weren't so close, you know. And, just to be a good human being. Always look upon every other human being with kindness, know that all of us are human and that we just have to always keep that in the back of our minds.

Jodi Chestnut: 26:07

What about for parents today?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 26:09

Yeah, parenting has changed so much since when I was a kid to when I was a parent and now even as a grandparent. I think the main message is always use positive reinforcement and I try to do this with my grandchildren. I think so much of our lives we sabotage our own happiness by our own negative self-thoughts. And this is typical people oh, that's a compulsive people like me. I do something wrong with the computer or whatever and I'm immediately calling myself a dunce and you know and say what's wrong with you, could you do anything right? And that kind of negative self-thoughts you've got to eliminate. And, it's hard to eliminate. If I had to give a message to parents, always reinforcement. Every opportunity to say something positive to encourage your kids. not when it's not appropriate. But, you know, anything good that they do. I try to do that with my grandchildren, even if it gets to the point of being absurd sometimes.

Sherry Ehrin: 27:07

It's the ratio. It's 10 positives for every one correction or something.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 27:13

That's a good way to say it. You've got to increase the ratio of making it higher for positive interactions and less for negative interactions.

Sherry Ehrin: 27:22

Because what you say becomes their inner voice.

Jodi Chestnut: 27:26

I would just say anything to be positive. A good example are the nonverbal children with severe autism. They don't talk, you have no idea what they're thinking, but I think they understand affection, just like other kids. So sometimes, just like holding their hand if they're scared or giving them a little treat which I'm really at fault I just can't stop giving them little candies when I see them. I mean little things like that which they'll not even know you did it.

Jodi Chestnut: 27:54

Doing things without expecting a payback is important. If we learn in life not to expect and I was pretty bad with this I always want to kind of return on my investment. If I put effort into things, you can't look for any return on your efforts and any compensation. You just got to do it for good sake. That's probably the end of all things. What's the most important thing is doing good for good sake alone.

Sherry Ehrin: 28:20

Yeah, understanding that you're a part of something bigger, and the sooner you can get out of that self and just do the right thing, because it's the right thing.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 28:29

Yeah, that's true. We have to denigrate to the focus on our own self, our own pleasures, and just accept the suffering that we have. And I think every human being really is a physician. We're all there. We could all heal the wounds of society, the illnesses of our relatives, friends and even all people just by how we act. I've become much more aware of that as I've gotten older. It's just something as simple as talking about, even about running.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 28:58

I talked a little bit about George Sheehan in the past. George Sheehan was a guy who started running in late life. He was like the patron saint of the philosophy of running. His idea was that it's a spiritual enterprise running and I'm just going to give a quote here. That's pretty well known about George Sheehan, sure, and this is something that, as I get older and I get so slow, I kind of comfort myself with. But he had a very famous book called "Running and being about the spirituality of running. One of his last books was called Going the Distance. He wrote this as he was dying of prostate cancer. This is his philosophy, he said no matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower. I can certainly understand that.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 29:46

"My time becomes slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged. Each race a drama as well as a dream. Each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another and each race telling me more about myself and others. I think running, especially long distance running, it's a metaphor for life. You asked before why do you keep running? Not only for, hopefully, the physical, because you can't guarantee that, it's just keeping you grounded in the determination to have a good life. I mean, the simpler things the better.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 30:24

Living a good life is not that easy these days. You would think that it would be easy, but you got to have a mindset. You'll have constant challenges. Yeah, you're always challenged, and I think you just have to keep a very firm commitment. And I think one thing about running at any age is that you have that commitment. It keeps your determination.

Jodi Chestnut: 30:48

Sure, it probably helps with all the external noise too. We have so much externally distracting us all the time that you have to quiet that and refocus.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 31:01

It seems like every time I run in North Park I run into an old patient or somebody that I know. But most of the time you can run on trails. In the summer it's so hot and so sunny that I run on abandoned trails. That's, I think, the most. I want to call it spiritual. You're out there with nature. The only thing you're interacting with are the gnat. The trails at North Park especially are full of gnats and they're always in your ears and your nose and your eyes. You got to keep swatting them away. But that's not the only thing you're really dealing with. The rest of it you're just running, watching the rocks, watching them trip on a route. You're surrounded by trees and just the sky all the things of nature that we want to integrate ourselves with.

Sherry Ehrin: 31:38

Yeah, yeah, I wanted to loop back to the race. You finished last, correct?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 31:44

It became evident to me when I hit the midpoint. I was with the crowd of the half marathoners and then all of a sudden we crossed the Birmingham Bridge. They all went left down the hill to the city, and I was with all these people. I'm on the right side, going up to Shadyside area and Oakland, and all of a sudden I find myself alone. I realized at that point that I was last in the race. I wasn't sure, but I was with the stragglers at the end. And then I reached a point where somewhere around mile maybe 15, 16, where they usually have, like that entourage

Sherry Ehrin: 32:15

the sweep

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 32:16

the sweepers. And all of a sudden all those sweepers were behind me. I guess they had figured this Slow Tony guy had read my bib.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 32:25

I always put on my bib, Slow Vatch. But this time SlowV atch wasn't accepted. It comes from Slow Kovatch. I got it from my oldest son who called the brothers. He was just at the wedding. The three brothers called themselves BroVatch. He's sort of along that line, but anyway. So I made up the Slow Vatch thing. But they wouldn't accept that, so I put Slow Tony. That was accepted. But all of a sudden ,everybody had this "Slow Tony's coming or whatever. And at that point behind me this entourage, the sweeper bus that picks up people at the end who can't finish, a whole bunch of cop cars that open the roads and an ambulance. They all were running behind me, and they stayed behind me the whole second half, and I realized that I was last. But, I was trying at the end to like pass some of the people because I had no idea that I was going to be the last across the finish line and get any kind of fame because of that. But it just happened to turn out that at the end I really couldn't overcome anybody, so I wound up being last. So the entourage of the vehicles just stayed behind me. They were at my heels almost the whole second half of the marathon.

Sherry Ehrin: 33:31

Yeah, and I'm sure it's like in your mind, "while they're there, I can hop in.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 33:35

Yeah, yes, yes, you're right. I saw in front of me the seven mile pacers and I said, "I got to stay with those pacers because I was afraid they might. They'll suggest that you get off the course if you're so slow. I said if I stayed within them I'll be okay. But I didn't realize at that point that I, with my chip, time would have been from the starting because I started late to crossing the finish line. I really didn't realize that I was last. But there were probably some people whose time was more, but at that point I was in last. In the last few years I've been last in so many races. In the last few years I've been last in so many races.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 34:07

I think one of the things I say is that there's a lot of perks to finishing last Because there's a crowd they want to get the race over with. So they're all cheering you on Get them over the finish line. So the race is over. And then the people are cheering, they hang around. I guess they have a little warm spot in their heart for the person who's coming in last. And then in many races they have so much food and they want to get rid of it. So they said, hey, give it to him and they would give me a big box of bananas or oranges or drinks and stuff like that. So you get a lot of publicity just by being last. So I mean it's desirable and only in that way, not that you want to come in last when you know you're going to be last. Like me, you don't feel bad about it anymore. I stopped being bad about being a long time ago.

Sherry Ehrin: 34:54

Yeah Well, it's nothing to feel bad about.

Jodi Chestnut: 34:56

Like we said, there are all of us sitting home on the couch.

Sherry Ehrin: 34:57

Yes, we're behind you still.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 34:59

And the other thing is, I think when they see that entourage behind the Last Runner, the people that are on the sidelines they cheer. There's a lot of people that cheer in the people at the end and there was a lot here. And, as I said, I think when I finished my arms were tired from waving to the spectators at the end of the race and just saying thank you, thank you. I think my voice and my arms were more tired than my legs from all that waving and stuff. But I'm used to running. I must say, even though I'm slow, I'm in probably good enough condition that I could do these without being hurt. I think, because I'm short, it doesn't put as much wear and tear on my knees as it would on a taller runner, or maybe it's I'm short, squat, you know, and my legs are very long. It makes you slower, but on the other hand, I think it causes less pain.

Sherry Ehrin: 35:48

Yeah, you can do it for longer. If you want people to connect with you or follow your work. Where can they find you? Would you rather go back into just everybody leave me alone now.

Jodi Chestnut: 36:03

What's next for Dr Kovatch?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 36:09

I'm on Facebook. I don't put out much. I do do write blogs. I write for the Allegheny County Medical Society. I write for them probably every other month. I get an article in there and I write for the American Academy of Pediatrics. But I write for Medium, like you do, Jodi, right?

Jodi Chestnut: 36:20

Yeah.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 36:20

You know what? I wrote an article. Between the wedding and all this marathon stuff. I haven't really written anything. I used to comment almost every day on somebody's article because they have a whole section on running and about like slice of life type of stuff. So I want to get back to that.

Jodi Chestnut: 36:35

I read an article you wrote on Medium that was really impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed it. You're very talented at writing.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 36:45

Oh, thank you.

Sherry Ehrin: 36:45

Well, we can put a link to that in our show notes.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 36:48

I just started a couple of months ago. I started very diligent and reading every day, you know. And then with this whole step and I just look at them and I like reading them I want to write more. I have old things I put on there right away, but I just been sidetracked by what we call it, my 15 minutes of fame or, as I call it, my 16 minutes per mile of shame or whatever you want to say, or infamy, or whatever you know.

Sherry Ehrin: 37:12

Yeah, what's next?

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 37:14

I must say that as I've been in retirement the last three years, I've done everything in my power to sort of keep busy, keep involved and still try to practice the healing arts of pediatrics. I work part time, just three days a week, at a mental health center. I work at what are called residential treatment facilities. I'm just a pediatrician there. I don't do psychiatry, but it keeps me practicing and I also strive to write. I write articles for the Allegheny County Medical Society and American Academy of Pediatrics every so often. I try to write whatever I can and I write for a platform called Medium. I just started doing that, but I try to keep active. I keep up my running but in order to keep some of the wear and tear off my knees. I try to also cross train by doing some swimming, and I love to kayak. I find that to be a very rewarding kind of supernatural type of endeavor, you know going out on the lake in nature.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 38:15

It's really cool and me and my wife, like most old couples whose children have left the nest, when we're not visiting them, we love watching old Turner classic movies. I think of my years of retirement as being hopefully restful, but I think of it as like for the foot. You hear about the three R's reading, writing, arithmetic. I try to incorporate into my retirement years running, writing, reading, audio books, which I love to do, especially stuff I never read before. When I was younger I went back and read something like On the Road by Jack Kerouac, an old book about the beach generation. So I'm trying to catch up on my old reading. So I have running writing, reading audio books and then, lastly, resting on the sofa with my dear wife watching Turner Classic Movies.

Jodi Chestnut: 39:06

That's great.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 39:06

So it's the news, but Turner Classic movies are definite every night.

Sherry Ehrin: 39:13

It sounds like a life well lived.

Jodi Chestnut: 39:14

That's right.

Sherry Ehrin: 39:16

We're thankful to be able to share you and your stories with our listeners.

Sherry Ehrin: 39:22

So we really appreciate you giving us this time.

Jodi Chestnut: 39:23

I look forward to seeing your next race.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 39:27

Well, yes, you know, I ran a half marathon a couple couple weeks after the marathon in Ogden, Ogden Newspaper Classic Wheeling, West Virginia. I've run it many times. I probably came in last in that, too.

Sherry Ehrin: 39:39

Camera's following you around that time?

Jodi Chestnut: 39:42

No, no, no buses, no cop cars. no, nothing. There were very few people behind me, if there were any at all, and I want to focus on doing the triathlon, because that's a big challenge for somebody who's a slow swimmer like me. I need to get out there and get arms going and bike. I haven't biked in nine months, so I got to get out there and get my body adjusted to the demands of the triathlon.

Sherry Ehrin: 40:07

Yeah, your story, your honesty and your lifelong commitment to serving others have truly moved us. You may have finished last in the race, but you lead with kindness, and now hearing that you're training for a triathlon, that says it all. You're still growing, reminding us that purpose doesn't end, even with retirement. It just keeps evolving. You've lived a life of impact because you stayed consistent, compassionate and grounded. We're grateful for you and we're cheering you on every mile ahead. Dr Tony Kovach reminds us that a full life doesn't come from having a perfect pace. It comes from a meaningful presence.

Sherry Ehrin: 40:48

Whether tending to families in his care or showing up mile after mile, he's lived a life rooted in purpose, proving that small acts done with heart can carry lasting impact. If you're in the thick of it, feeling slow, uncertain or searching for what's next, let this be your reminder. Meaning can be found in steady presence and quiet service to others, and resilience is the courage to keep going even when it's hard. Stay in the race. Thank you, Tony, for reminding us what matters most.

Jodi Chestnut: 41:19

Dr Kovach, thank you for your time today.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 41:22

You're welcome.

Sherry Ehrin: 41:23

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The content shared is based on personal experiences and perspectives. Nothing shared on this podcast should be considered professional advice. Thriving Answers LLC, its hosts or any associated parties are not liable for any actions taken or consequences arising from the information provided. The views expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of any organizations or affiliations. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please reach out to a trusted professional. Thank you services offer 24-7 crisis intervention and stabilization services to all Allegheny County residents. You can reach them by calling 1-888-796-8226. If you are struggling with mental health, addiction, grief or any other serious personal challenges, we encourage you to seek support from a qualified professional.

Jodi Chestnut: 42:23

I'll never forget. That's what pediatrics is. It's fun forget.

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 42:30

Yeah, that's what pediatrics.. It's fun. You almost gotta have some fun involved.

Sherry Ehrin: 42:33

yeah same with life, same with life, because it's good stuff

Dr. Tony Kovatch: 42:37

I know absolutely.