The New York City Marathon is an yearly marathon which goes through the 5 boroughs of New York City (NYC). This marathon is regarded as among the USA’s premier sporting events. It is the largest one in the world with 53,508 finishers the 2019 event. The marathon is so popular, that admittance to it for the general runner is mainly by a lottery method with most wanting to get accepted not getting in. An important highlight of the race will be the almost 2 million spectators who line the course, practically having a celebration to support all the runners and cheer all of them on with festivities all along the course. The New York City Marathon is organized by the New York Road Runners and has now been held each and every year since 1970, aside from two years. The 2012 marathon was called off because of the flooding from Hurricane Sandy and in 2020 when it was called off as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The marathon typically takes place on the initial Sunday of November. The fiftieth running of the race is scheduled for the 7 November 2021.
The first NYC marathon director or organizer was the late Fred Lebow who died in 1994. The initial event in 1970 merely had 55 runners who completed it. He then nurtured the New York City Marathon to progressively become the awesome occasion that it is. The colour, the history, the character and the power of the marathon was captured in the absorbing 2009 book from the Liz Robbins, a previous sportswriter at The New York Times named ‘A Race Like No Other’. Her narrative was around the 2007 running of the event. She traced the stories of both professional and also newbie runners over the 26.2 miles of the course as it moved through the roads of New York, from the starting line at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge towards the finish line which is in Central Park. It has sold well and captured everything so well.
It was probably the 1983 New York City marathon that caught the eye of so many, in particular a national TV viewers as it had been broadcast live. Geoffrey Smith from the UK was in front for the majority of the way and was caught and passed at the 26 mile mark in Central Park by Rodney Dixon coming from New Zealand. When there was 6 miles left, Dixon was two and half minutes behind Smith however slowly came back to get victory by 9 seconds. Just after Rod Dixon crossed the line to rejoice standing, Smith collapsed on the road. A picture captured that moment in time and became a famous photograph referred to as a “Thrill of Victory/Agony of Defeat” photograph.
The current course fastest time for males is 2:05:05, set by Geoffrey Mutai coming from Kenya in 2011 and for females it's 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo also coming from Kenya way back in 2003. The slow runners have 8hr and 30 minutes in order to complete the marathon. The Olympic runner Grete Waitz won her 1st NYC Marathon in 1978, coming first in a back then race record time in 2:32:30. Grete went on to win another eight races, still having the record for the most number of wins.
