New York City Marathon
The New York marathon, like the London marathon, is one of the most famous and most popular marathons in the world, and it attracts thousands of people from all around the World and takes place on the first Sunday of November every year. The NYC marathon first started in 1970 after being organised by Fred Lebow who was the President of the New York Road runners; the first marathon saw just 127 people run a number of loops around the Park Drive of Central Park, the first man to complete the first marathon was Gary Muhrcke in 2 hours 31 minutes.
The marathons started to become more popular each year and in 1976 Fred withdrew the course and re-did it so the course included all 5 boroughs of the city. The marathon when on to become even more popular when Grete Waitz broke the women's world record finishing in 2 hours 32 minutes. In 2000 the marathon added a wheelchair and hand cycle division.
In 2003 the NYC marathon saw its highest number of runners take to the course with a huge 34,729 participants. In 2004 British Olympic Paula Radcliffe was the first women to pass the finishing line in just 2 hours 23 minutes finishing just 4 seconds before Susan Chepkemei.
The NYC marathon has since become less about the running and more about the sense of community; this was particularly noticeable in 2001 after the September 11th terrorist attacks. The marathon became the figure of hope with more than a million New Yorkers lining the streets to support those taking part.
The course starts in Staten Island close to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, after setting off the runners use both upper entrances to the bridge to cross over as well as the lower westbound side through to Brooklyn. The course crosses through neighbourhoods like; Bay Ridge and Williamsburg, through to Greenpoint, then across the Pulaski Bridge. The halfway point reaches the entrance to Long Island City, Queens, crossing the East River on the Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan (this climb up the bridge is known for being one of the toughest parts). After reaching Manhattan the course goes onto Fifth Avenue, through Bronx via the Willis Avenue Bridge, back into Manhattan via the Madison Avenue Bridge. It then goes through Harlem, down onto Fifth Avenue and into Central Park, where at the southern end of the park the course carries on cross Central Park South. The last mile goes through Columbus Circle, re-entering Central Park and finishing outside Tavern on the Green.
Due to the amount of people taking part in the race in 2008 the set up a corral system staggering the start of the race in three stages to reduce congestion. There are is also a different route (which is still the same length as the traditional one) that goes through Bay Ridge, up Fifth Avenue into Brooklyn and meets the other route at Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn at the 8th mile. Throughout the marathon runners step on timing mats that allow people following runners to track where they are and how they are doing in the marathon. There is currently an 8 and a half hour limit on completing the marathon.
The 1979 New York marathon became one of the most famous due to the winner of the race Rosie Ruiz being given the fastest finishing time of 2 hours 56 minutes and it later being found that she had cheated in order to get herself entered into the Boston marathon. It wasn't until she got the finishing time of 2 hours 31 minutes in the Boston marathon that it was questioned whether she ran the entire course in each of the races. This was investigated and it lately found that she had skipped part of the race taking the subway after a woman named Susan Morrow reported she'd meet her on the subway and that Rosie had said she was an injured runner. Susan said she walked Rosie to the race and then lost sight of her, when she heard about Rosie claiming to have won she stepped forward with her information. Boston officials took the title of Rosie and it was award to Jacqueline Gareau, Fred Lebow of the NY marathon went on to also take the title off Rosie a week later.
Like the London marathon a number of famous faces also run the New York marathon to raise money for their chosen charities. Some of the famous faces who have taken part over the years are;