Michael Orzechowski has always dreamed big. His hope allowed him to know, as a five-year-old living in a fractured household on a soybean farm in rural Illinois, that he would transcend his upbringing and one day live in New York City. Perfecting his vocal gifts as a depressed, closeted and altogether lost soul at Southern Illinois University, Orzechowski had the faith to take a gamble and follow his vocal coach to unknown Delaware after his third year of college. And this deft ability to see beyond what currently is and grasp at what could be also allowed him, as president of Front Runners from 2002-2003, to change the face of the club forever.

With a flair for drama and gay snarkiness, Orzechowski likes to fancy himself a "big ol' bitch," but in truth he has the bottomless faith of a child when it comes to the people he loves and the things he believes in. This has been true throughout his life but has manifested itself with startling poignancy in his work with Front Runners over the last decade. "He saw the potential in the club as a running force that the others didn't," says Dave Pitches, current Front Runner of the Year and member since the mid-80s. "We were happy to be a gay group that also ran; he saw good runners who were also gay." Though myriad members have contributed to the club's greatness, Orzechowski most consistently gets the credit for transforming Front Runners into a competitive NYC team and for reviving the club's relevance within the gay community. Along the way, Orzechowski also managed to cobble together the family life he never had.

As a high school student in southern Illinois, Orzechowski did not appear destined for a future as president of a running club. "I was never good at sports," he admits, "and would do whatever I could to get out of gym class." He did, however, love many other extracurricular activities, including drama, choir, speech and student council. (Anyone who has worked with him on the Front Runner board can see the seeds of both histrionics and exquisite orderliness being sown herein.) Through the encouragement of his friends and his mother, Orzechowski availed himself of the discipline to wake at the crack of dawn on Saturdays and bike ten miles to professional voice lessons that cost a whopping $5 a pop.

The investment paid off. Orzechowski's voice allowed him to travel beyond the claustrophobic confines of his dysfunctional family and past the provincialism of his prairie town youth. And while his first steps forward were not exactly onto the Great White Way, he did enter a completely new world by following a football player friend to Southern Illinois University. "I hated it there, but it is where I came out, had sex for the first time, had my first relationship," says Orzechowski. "And it's where I learned to be a musical artist."

In starting his own life away from his roots, Orzechowski began to form strong relationships in the hope, still unconscious but very real, of having a loving family for the first time. As a result, he became involved with two controlling men who would shape his life over the next two decades—Dan, his voice teacher, and Sven, the man with whom Orzechowski would have his first long-term romantic relationship.

Having always found acceptance and encouragement through his singing, Orzechowski took a leap of faith and followed his voice coach to the University of Delaware Music Department after his junior year. "I actually lived with him and his family for awhile," says Orzechowski. "He made me believe he was the only person who could teach me to sing." Though a spate of low-end dinner theater jobs and long spells of depression made this one his darkest periods, Orzechowski still worked at his singing and continued the journey that was bringing him closer and closer to New York. Perseverance paid off when, through a recommendation from the brother of a friend, Orzechowski landed a job in the facilities department at Union Seminary in the summer of 1984. His childhood fantasy had been realized.

"Within three months of moving to New York, I had a job, an apartment and a boyfriend," he recalls. "How could life be better?" Indeed, Orzechowski quickly became part of the Union family and was also a regular on the family visits to his ex-partner Sven's childhood home in Astoria. But honeymoons yield all too fast to the harsh light of day. Orzechowski soon realized that Sven preferred a hermit-like existence of chain smoking and drinking. "The more we were together, the less Sven wanted to go out," he says. "I think I cooked dinner just about every day for almost 14 years … well, it felt that way."

Mired in a personally destructive relationship, Orzechowski still sang in a church on weekends and decided, in 1986, to finish his degree at Manhattan School of Music. He flourished immediately in the competitive setting. "Music conservatories are very much a sink or swim mentality," he says, "but even there I made friends and admirers." His talent won him work in opera productions as well as in three prestigious summer festivals. This fairy-tale turn in Orzechowski's career didn't dovetail well with his partner's inert lifestyle. "He wanted to stay home all the time," says Orzechowski, "and I wanted to do what I had come to New York to do." After a successful summer at the Tanglewood festival, Orzechowski had a chance to return with the future career prospect of working with the Boston Symphony. He declined due to the strains on his relationship. "It was the biggest professional mistake I ever made," he says.

Orzechowski was not afforded the luxury of navel-gazing over lost possibilities during the ensuing years. His partner Sven had begun to drink more heavily, to sleep incessantly and to dwindle down to sinew and skin. These were the early 90s in New York and the ghastly pall of AIDS darkened every aspect of gay life. "So many people died and died horribly. And alone," recalls Orzechowski. "And I can't say I did anything to help." For months and perhaps even years, Orzechowski had blamed Sven's increasingly harrowing state on poor nutrition and the alcoholism that he knew all too well from his youth. Sven was eventually diagnosed with full-blown AIDS with dementia, and Orzechowski vowed to nurse him back to health. "People admired me so much," he says, "but I was doing it for me as much as for him. I wanted to appease my guilt for our failed relationship, for my not helping others who had died."

Through therapy Orzechowski learned to focus on moving ahead with his own life. In the summer of 1998, that effort led him to the basement of Rutgers on the morning of his first fun run. "It immediately reminded me of the first time I went to a gay bar," he says. "When you walked in, everyone would turn to check you out—it was an intimidating experience." This sensation continued once he realized that he had to wear a rainbow pin identifying him as a newcomer in the park and that he was slower than almost every other runner there that day. Finishing the lower five-mile loop almost killed him, but the social hour connections made with fellow newbies Reuben Danzing, Jim Brigaitis and Sean Butler sold him immediately on the club. Front Runners offered Orzechowski—as it had done for countless other members before and since—a chance to begin again.

A leader by nature, Orzechowski immediately ran for secretary of the board under then-president Ken Majerus. After two more years on the board, he seized his opportunity to helm the club, feeling that Front Runners could relive its heyday. "Joe (Criscione) had often told me what the club was like in the 80s, how people would go to races, party together, men and women," remembers Orzechowski. "I didn't see why we couldn't be a club like that again."

Living in a spacious loft with lovely rooftop access, Orzechowski opened his home to many parties as president, fostering a come-one-come-all mentality. He came to realize two important things – to be equal in the running world, Front Runners would need to attract the best gay runners in the city and compete seriously with the local elite teams, and to stay vital in the gay community and grow as a club, FRNY needed to do far better in the recruitment of younger female and male runners.

To enhance the racing component of the Front Runner experience, Orzechowski rewarded runners who had done well for themselves and for the team. He sent personalized e-mails and gave them shout-outs at general meetings on Saturdays. "He raised our expectations of what we as individuals and as a club could attain," says Pitches. "Maybe we were not latent homosexuals, but we may have been latent competitors—he outed us as racers."

Aware of his own limitations, Orzechowski needed a faithful cohort to complement his style and talents. Orzechowski loved showering runners with attention, but he himself did not have the fast-twitch chops to lure the fleet-of-foot to Front Runners. In summer 2002, just before the Gay Games, he met the then 27-year-old Kelsey Louie. "It was a match made in Front Runner heaven!" exclaims Orzechowski. "The synergy between us was amazing," concurs Louie. "Mike O's emphasis on competitive running is what led me – and others – to be more active and involved with Front Runners."

In 2003, the second year of his presidency, everything came together for Orzechowki. The year kicked off with Front Runners inaugural Awards Night in the Great Hall at Union Seminary. The competitive spirit and team camaraderie rippled out from there as runners such as Louie and Kevin Brewer (an active master's runner at the time) and Rich Velazquez began posting marquis performances, culminating in FRNY's citywide victory among the NYRR "B" Division.

"2003 was a magic year for me," Orzechowski says, still very emotional over it all. "Everything I could have hoped for happened." And amazingly Orzechowski chose not to ride off into the sunset, watching FRNY from the sidelines in his beloved president's jacket (though he certainly wore the damn thing enough). In the years since his presidency, Orzechowski served as a race captain, won the highly coveted Guy Zelenak award for volunteerism and is in his fourth year as director of the Pride Run. Three years ago, at age 49, he also managed to qualify for the Boston marathon for the first time.

This summer Orzechowski will celebrate his ten-year anniversary with the club. A decade can be an eternity in an organization like Front Runners, and many new members may never know the indelible mark that Orzechowski left on the club. But it's easy to see Orzechowski has no real desire for legend status. Like any visionary, his dreams have always taken place in the future.

—Robert Lennon

Random Data

Coveted Super Power: The power to heal people

Best book of last year: Harry Potter VII

Favorite piece of running apparel: "My Boston Marathon running clothes … They remind me that I once qualified and ran the Boston Marathon."

Current Racing Goals: To run sub 1:40 at the NYC Half and to qualify for Boston at the Chicago Marathon