The New York City Marathon is an yearly marathon that goes through all the five boroughs of New York City. This race is recognized as on the list of USA’s top sports events. The NYC Marathon is the biggest globally with 53,508 finishing the 2019 marathon. The marathon is so popular, that admission to it for the avergae runner is mostly by a lottery method with most wanting to get accepted missing out. A particular highlight of the marathon will be the almost 2 million spectators who line the route, nearly having a party with supporting all the competitors and cheer them on with activities all along the route. The NYC Marathon is set up by the New York Road Runners and it has been run every year since 1970, aside from two occasions. The 2012 marathon was cancelled as a result of flooding from Hurricane Sandy and in 2020 when it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 epidemic. The NYC marathon normally takes place on the very first Sunday in November. The 50th running of the event is planned for the 7 November 2021.
The first NYC marathon director or organizer was the late Fred Lebow who passed away in 1994. The initial run in 1970 merely had 55 runners who completed it. Lebow then developed the NYC Marathon to gradually become the awesome occasion that it is. The colour, the story, the character and the power of the celebration was caught in an entertaining 2009 book from the Liz Robbins, a former sports journalist at The New York Times titled ‘A Race Like No Other’. Her story was about the 2007 running of the marathon. Liz traced the stories of both professional and beginner athletes along the 26.2 miles of the route as it moved through the roads of New York City, from the starting line near the Verrazano Narrows Bridge all the way to the finish line that is in Central Park. Her book has sold well and narrated everything very well.
It was possibly the 1983 event that captured the attention of so many, particularly a nationwide TV audience as it had been broadcast live. Geoff 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 Rod Dixon coming from New Zealand. When there was 6 miles left, Rod was two and half minutes behind Smith however slowly came back to win by just nine seconds. Right after Dixon crossed the line to enjoy standing, Smith collapsed on the line. A picture caught that moment and became an iconic picture called the “Thrill of Victory/Agony of Defeat” image.
The present race record for males is 2:05:05, done by Geoffrey Mutai coming from Kenya in 2011 and for women it's 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo likewise from Kenya back in 2003. The recreational joggers have eight hours and thirty minutes in order to complete the distance. The Olympic runner Grete Waitz won her initial New York City Marathon back in 1978, winning in a back then course record time in 2:32:30. Waitz later went on to get victory in an additional eight NYC marathons, still holding the record for the most number of wins.