The result was an impressive ninth-place finish, and a 2:17:59, ranking Schlesinger in the elite group of sub 2:20 marathoners.

"You get to a point," Schlesinger says, "and you realize that this is it. So you push yourself." And when he returned to the States this summer, he pushed himself to a sixth place finish at the Falmouth Road Race, the most competitive 15-kilometer footrace in the world.

And he pushed himself some more six weeks ago, when he completed the Nike Marathon in Eugene, Oregon, in 2:13:59.

In a mere eight months, Schlesinger had risen to the ranks of the top marathon runners in the world. But he had more on his mind than racing and his 20 mile-a-day training regimen. He had growing responsibilities in his first, intensive year at the Law School.

"I thought maybe you run Falmouth, you run Nike, and then you stop running," he says. "After all, law school must have some kind of precedence."

But only two weeks before New York, Schlesinger cancelled his retirement plans. His father called the race's organizers to see whether Schlesinger's trip to the Big Apple could be financed. "If they had not offered to pay, I would not have run," he says. "I would have stayed home and caught up with my work."

"My worry was that I would trip, or that I would be stunned by some unexpected, spontaneous cataclysm inside me."

The race committee was offering free transportation to any entrant whose qualifying time was under two hours and 14 minutes. "I was 2:13:59," Schlesinger smiles. "I couldn't resist a free trip to New York."

The aspiring international lawyer will never regret his decision to fly to the City last Friday to run the race that threw this unknown translator of Korean languages into the limelight of international sports.

But a few days and 26 miles, 385 yards later, Dan Schlesinger is still not satisfied. While he has accomplished many of his goals in the sport, after each race, he sets his sights higher. After his performance on Sunday, he is close to the top of the running world.

But there's somebody Dan Schlesinger would like to catch the tall native Cuban that Schlesinger followed for most of the New York Race, undefeated marathoner Alberto-Salazar.

"I'm certainly not one to regard Salazar as anything less than a god," says the matter-of-fact Schlesinger, who pulled up alongside the champion for a few moments in the race's sixteenth mile.

Schlesinger is looking forward to encountering the deity of the roads again this April, in the Boston Marathon. "I may approach the next race differently," he explains. "I will not absolutely concede [to Salazar] I mean, I will have in the back of my mind the flickering thought that I may be able to chase Salazar further," he says.

Schlesinger adds that he has growing hopes of making the marathon team for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. "There are no guarantees, but there are hopes," he says.

As he recovers from his blistering performance last Sunday, hobbling around his apartment, shoeless, answering calls from congratulatory relatives and acquaintances, and trying to catch up on his law school assignments. Dan Schlesinger will have plenty of time to think about his hopes for the future. He has always had high aspiration in life and in running. "Now," he says, "I'm prepared to dream a little more."