Once upon a time, I had serious intentions of running the New York marathon. It was back in 1979, and the whole thing was much less formal than it is now. Indeed, it was sufficiently informal that Rosie Ruiz was accidentally given a “finished time” of 2:56:29 for the New York event that year, which qualified her for the 1980 Boston marathon. It was later discovered that she had not run the entire NYC course (nor did she do so up in Boston on April 21, 1980), and her time was ultimately rescinded in both races. Had her times stayed in the record books, her Boston time of 2:31:56 would have been the fastest female time ever in the Boston marathon and the third-fastest female time ever recorded in any marathon…
Informal as the New York marathon was in those ancient days, you still couldn’t just show up at the starting line and expect to be welcomed. On the other hand, all that was necessary to get an official invitation was going down to the main branch of the U.S. Post Office on 34th Street at midnight on some long-forgotten summer night,and waiting in line with a bunch of equally crazy people. I got my entry ticket (or letter, or certificate, or whatever it was) a few days later, and began following a fairly serious training regimen, working my way up to a modest 10-mile race … until a business trip took me to Sydney, Australia for most of the month of August, 1979. Between business and social events, and the cold, wet weather of Sydney’s winter season, I didn’t do any running at all for that whole month … and with my training regimen broken, I wisely decided not to run the marathon at all.
But since then, I’ve always had a fondness for the NYC marathon — especially considering how much it has grown, and what a city-wide celebration it has become. I missed the event in 2013 and 2012, so it has been three years since I watched on the sidelines in 2011. With the promise of cold-but-sunny weather this year, I decided to return once again — and, as in 2011, I positioned myself at roughly the 24.5-mile point, at the beginning of a downhill run at roughly 78th Street, at the side of the Central Park “inner roadway.”
The runners pass by all afternoon, and well into the evening; but it’s a little more difficult to anticipate when the lead runners will reach any particular point. There are now so many participants in the marathon (about 50,000) that the runners are released in “waves,” beginning with those on hand-operated wheelchair/bicycles, and the “elite” women, the elite men, and three or four waves of mere mortals. There was an additional delay this year, because the headwinds were so strong that the initial wave had great difficulty propelling their wheeled vehicles up over the “hump” of the Tappan Zee bridge. So if you’re standing somewhere along the route, at the 10-mile mark, or the 20-mile mark, or (as I was) the 24.5 mile mark, you can only guess at the moment when the lead runners — or a friend or family member whom you want to cheer onward to the finish line — might be coming near you.
On the other hand, there are some clues. Helicopters hover above the lead runners, low enough that you can hear the roar of their blades; and there are two or three waves of police cars and motorcycles zooming ahead of the runners, pushing people back to the sidelines, and ensuring that there are no disruptions or obstacles to slow them down. Then — and it’s always an adrenaline rush! — you see the official race car, driving just a few feet ahead of the lead runners, with a huge race clock mounted on its roof, showing those fast-moving runners the exact number of hours, minutes, and seconds since they started their journey back at the edge of Staten Island.
The lead runners, of whom there are often two or three or four even up to the last mile, are often several minutes ahead of the next ones; but those who are in positions three, four, five or ten, and who will get no recognition at all from the press, the media, or the crowd when they finish … well, they still run as if their lives depend on it. And the crowd cheers them on, clapping and calling out their names and urging them onward.
One of the differences I noticed this year was the widespread use of bicycle horns and cow-bells that the onlookers used to create a cacophony of merry noise; I don’t know if the runners took it as a sign of encouragement, but it sure sounded that way to me …
I stayed longer than I had intended, and took several hundred more photos that I had planned … but they’re all just bits on the camera’s digital memory card, so it doesn’t really matter. One might argue that I should have stayed for eight or ten hours, until the last runner had straggled by. And perhaps I should have photographed each of the 50,000 runners, for I’m sure they each had their own story to tell. But after a while, it gets overwhelming — and the faces and bodies and brightly colored shirts and tights and shoes begin to blur…
I think I got a representative collection of photos; and the video clips will give you a sense of the noise and the motion of what seemed like an endless stream of humanity racing past … but to really understand it, you need to be there in person. Barring a crippling storm (like Hurricane Sandy, which forced the cancellation of the 2012 marathon), you’ll find another crowd of 50,000 runners racing through Central Park at the end of next year’s marathon, on the first Sunday in November. And with any luck, I’ll be there with my camera …
Who knows: maybe even Rosie Ruiz will be there, too. It turns out that she was arrested in 1982 for embezzling $60,000 from a real estate company where she worked; after a week in jail and a sentence of five years’ probation, she moved back to south Florida, where she was arrested in 1983 for her involvement in a cocaine deal. But as of the year 2000, she still insisted that she had run the entire 1980 Boston marathon. C’est la vie…
“When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.” — Karen Blixen
1) Two Oceans Half Marathon
Run where the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans meet — you can actually see the place where they collide here — at this race that runs in the shadow of Table Mountain National Park, the majestic flat mountain that looks over the city.
March • Cape Town, South Africa
2) Diacore Gabarone Half Marathon
This five-year-old race through Botswana’s capital city raises money for charities across this southern African nation, where you can take in a safari on one of its plentiful wilderness areas before or after your race.
Sunday, May 13, 2018 • Gaborone, Botswana
3) Malawi Impact Half Marathon
You’ll run a sandy, dusty trail route in the early going at this beautiful race through what organizers describe as “the warm heart of Africa,” a landlocked nation that lies along Lake Malawi in southeastern Africa, where you’ll finish the race with a long stretch along the lake’s shoreline.
Sunday, May 27, 2018 • Mangochi, Malawi
4) Sierra Leone Half Marathon
What Runner’s World magazine calls the world’s “craziest and most worthwhile marathon” awaits at this race, which tromps through the lush jungle forests just outside the city of Makeni while raising money for Street Child, a charity that works to get children in the west African country off the streets and back into family homes and schools.
Sunday, May 27, 2018 • Makeni, Sierra Leone
5) Uganda International Half Marathon
Nestled along the massive Lake Victoria in central Africa, this landlocked nation plays host this winter to this race’s second annual running, unfolding through rural villages and along dirt roads, with stunningly beautiful forests surrounding you as you run.
Sunday, June 2, 2018 • Masaka, Uganda
6) Big Five Half Marathon
Known for its almost indescribably beautiful route, along which you’ll likely see African wildlife from giraffes and antelope to elephants, rhinos and buffalo, this race unfolds through one of the most famous game reserves in South Africa — where nothing will be between you and the animals as you run.
Saturday, June 23, 2018 • Entabeni Safari Conservancy, South Africa
7) Safaricom Half Marathon
Run through the stunning, 62,000-acre Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya, where you can see the famed “big five” African animals — lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and Cape buffalo — this race is considered one of the toughest in Africa and one of the Runner’s World’s “must-do” races anywhere on the planet.
Saturday, June 30, 2018 • Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya
8) Victoria Falls Half Marathon
Ready to run across these world-famous iconic waterfalls, where you’ll feel the water spray on you as run across the Victoria Falls Bridge? All that awaits at this race, which will also take you across the Zambezi River and briefly into Zambia before heading back into Zimbabwe for the race finish.
Sunday, July 1, 2018 • Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
9) Knysna Forest Half Marathon
While the full marathon runs 20 miles through a deep, dark forest, the half marathon likewise runs through the forest before joining the tar-surfaced road that heads into this town along the coastal stretch of South Africa known as the Garden Route, about halfway between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.
Saturday, July 7, 2018 • Knysna, South Africa
10) Mauritius Half Marathon
Surrounded by the blue waters of the Indian Ocean about 1,200 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, the island of Mauritius plays host to this scenic race that also features a full marathon and 10K, and runs along coastal roads past beautiful lagoons to the finish at St. Felix Beach.
Sunday, July 15, 2018 • St. Felix, Mauritius
11) Cape Town Marathon Peace Trail Run
While there isn’t (strictly speaking) a half marathon that’s part of this stunning race through South Africa’s wondrous capital city, the event includes a 22-kilometer Peace Trail Run that unfolds between the mountains of Lion’s Head and Signal Hill inside Table Mountain National Park, named for the towering flat-topped mountain that looks out onto the city below.
Saturday, September 22, 2018 • Cape Town, South Africa
12) Kenya Impact Half Marathon
Now in its second year, this race through tea plantations and local villages in the Kenyan countryside is part of a week-long cultural exchange that introduces the runners to the people of Nairobi and its nearby communities, where you’ll tour a slum and wander the markets in Kerochi before running the race on Saturday.
Saturday, October 20, 2018 • Nairobi, Kenya
13) Sharm El Sheikh Half Marathon
Part of a 25-year-old race that includes the International Egyptian Marathon and the 100-kilometer Pharonic Race, this half marathon starts at the Sharm-El Sheikh resort overlooking Shark’s Bay and then unfolds along a point-to-point route on the Gulf of Aqaba, all the way to the finish line at Zouara Beach.
Friday, January 11, 2019 • Sharm-El Sheikh, Egypt
13.1) Kilimanjaro Half Marathon
At 19,341 feet above sea level, Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, a place of stunning natural beauty where you’ll run through the town of Moshi that lies at its base, past coffee plantations and forests as locals crowd along the course to cheer you on.
Sunday, March 3, 2019 • Moshi, Tanzania
