The New York City Marathon is an yearly marathon that goes through the five boroughs of New York City (NYC). This marathon is recognized as one of the USA’s top sports activities. This event is the biggest in the world with 53,508 finishing the 2019 race. The marathon can be so popular, that admission to it for the avergae runner is usually by a lottery process with most looking to get accepted missing out. A certain feature of the race will be the almost 2 million fans that line the course, nearly having a celebration to support all the runners and cheer them on with activities all over the route. The New York City Marathon is organized by the New York Road Runners and it has been held yearly since 1970, aside from 2 yrs. The 2012 race was called off as a consequence of flooding from Hurricane Sandy and in 2020 when it was called off due to the COVID-19 crisis. The NYC marathon normally takes place on the very first Sunday of November. The half century anniversary running of the race is planned for the 7 November 2021.
The very first NYC marathon manager or organizer was the late Fred Lebow who passed away in 1994. The first run in 1970 merely had 55 runners who completed it. He then developed the New York Marathon to gradually end up being the fantastic event that it is. The color, the history, the character and the electricity of the marathon was narrated in an fascinating 2009 book by the Liz Robbins, a previous sportswriter at The New York Times titled ‘A Race Like No Other’. Her book was around the 2007 running of the event. Liz followed the experiences of both the top as well as beginner runners over the 42 kms of the route as it went through the streets of New York, from the start line near the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the finish line that is in Central Park. The book has sold well and caught it all very well.
It was maybe the 1983 New York City marathon which grabbed the interest of so many, particularly a nationwide TV audience because it was broadcast live. Geoffrey Smith from England was leading for the majority 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 left, Rod was two and half minutes behind Smith but slowly came back to win by 9 seconds. Right after Rod Dixon crossed the line to enjoy standing, Smith collapsed on the ground. A photo caught that moment in time and became a famous image called the “Thrill of Victory/Agony of Defeat” photograph.
The current course fastest time for males is 2:05:05, done by Geoffrey Mutai coming from Kenya in 2011 and for females it's 2:22:31 done by Margaret Okayo likewise from Kenya back in 2003. The slower joggers are given 8 hours and thirty minutes in order to complete the distance. The Olympic athlete Grete Waitz ran her 1st NYC Marathon in 1978, winning in what was back then course record time of 2:32:30. Grete later went on to get victory in a further 8 events, still holding the title for the most number of first places.
