The Magic of the New York City Marathon

The New York City Marathon is an yearly race that goes through the 5 boroughs of New York City. This race is recognised as on the list of USA’s highly regarded sports activities. The NYC Marathon is the biggest worldwide with 53,508 finishers in the 2019 race. The marathon can be so popular, that admittance to it for the general runner is mainly by a lottery system with most seeking to get in missing out. A particular highlight of the run is the almost 2 million fans that line the course, virtually having a celebration to back up all the runners and cheer all of them on with celebrations all over the road. The New York City Marathon is set up by the New York Road Runners and it has been run every year since 1970, aside from 2 yrs. The 2012 marathon was called off a result of the flooding from Hurricane Sandy and in 2020 when it was called off as a consequence of COVID-19 epidemic. The race normally takes place on the first Sunday in November. The 50th running of the race is planned for the 7 November 2021.

The first New York City Marathon director or organizer was the late Fred Lebow who died in 1994. The initial run in 1970 merely had 55 runners who completed it. Lebow then developed the New York City Marathon to gradually end up being the awesome celebration that it is. The color, the history, the nature and the electricity of the celebration was narrated in an interesting 2009 book by the Liz Robbins, a former sports journalist for The New York Times named ‘A Race Like No Other’. Her plot was about the 2007 running of the event. She traced the accounts of both professional and also newbie athletes over the 42 kms of the route as it went through the roads of New York City, from the start line near the Verrazano Narrows Bridge towards the finish line which is in Central Park. It has sold well and captured everything so well.

It was maybe the 1983 run which grabbed the interest of so many, especially a national television audience because it had been broadcast live. Geoffrey Smith from the UK was in front for most of the way and he was caught and passed at the 26 mile mark in Central Park by Rod Dixon coming from New Zealand. With 6 miles to go, Rod was two and half minutes behind Smith however slowly came back to get victory by 9 seconds. Immediately after Dixon passed the finish line to enjoy standing, Smith collapsed on the road. A photograph caught that moment and became an iconic photo called the “Thrill of Victory/Agony of Defeat” photograph.

The current course record for males is 2:05:05, set by Geoffrey Mutai from Kenya in 2011 and for females it is 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo also from Kenya back in 2003. The back of the pack runners have eight hours and thirty minutes in order to complete the distance. The Olympian Grete Waitz won her initial New York City Marathon back in 1978, winning in what was then course record time of 2:32:30. She went on to get victory in another 8 races, still holding the record for the most number of wins.