Runners take cups of water from volunteers along 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. The New York Road Runners, which produces the marathon, stocked 2.3 million paper cups for the event. In 2014, 50,530 runners finished the race, with an average time of 4:34:45.
Three percent of their run (0.8 miles) will be between the two towers of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1964. It was the last project of master planner Robert Moses, who was responsible for much of the highway infrastructure that serves the New York City metropolitan area. Moses loved bridges, and had hoped to build one more East River bridge at the Battery in Manhattan in the 1930s. After much political infighting, it was quashed by President Roosevelt. Projects for a crossing of the Narrows began to be launched in 1888, but the will and resources weren’t available until the 1950s. The bridge may not arouse the love that the Golden Gate does, but it’s a majestic gateway to Upper New York Bay.
Running in the marathon is a great way to visit all five boroughs. The 26.2-mile race starts at the tollbooths of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, on the Staten Island side. Here, Wave One of more than 50,000 contestants is waiting at the start on November 2, 2014. The cost of going through those toll booths starts at $216, for members of the New York Road Runners Club. Normally, for cars, it’s $15.00 for a round-trip over the bridge (less for E-ZPass holders). This will be the only toll bridge the marathoners have to cross today. New York eliminated tolls on the East River bridges in 1911: “For my part, I see no more reason for tollgates on the bridges than for tollgates on Fifth Avenue or Broadway,” said Mayor William J. Gaynor.
More than 50,000 runners covered the 26.2-mile, five-borough course of the TCS New York City Marathon Sunday, beginning at Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth and ending at Manhattan’s Central Park. Organized by the New York Road Runners, or NYRR, it is the last of the six annual events constituting the World Marathon Majors, or WMM. 2.3 million paper cups were stocked to make sure the runners were sufficiently hydrated over the 26.2 mile course through the five boroughs. A record number, 50,564 runners, successfully finished the 2014 Marathon which is 50,509 more than the 55 who finished the very first NYC Marathon in 1970.
Results:
OVERALL MEN
1 Wilson Kipsang 2:10:59 Kenya
2 Lelisa Desisa Benti 2:11:06 Ethiopia
3 Gebre Gebremariam 2:12:13 Ethiopia
4 Meb Keflezighi 2:13:18 CA United States
5 Stephen Kiprotich 2:13:25 Uganda
OVERALL WOMEN
1 Mary Keitany 2:25:07 Kenya
2 Jemima Sumgong 2:25:10 Kenya
3 Sara Moreira 2:26:00 Portugal
4 Jelena Prokopcuka 2:26:15 Latvia
5 Desiree Linden 2:28:11 MI United States
See more at: http://www.tcsnycmarathon.org/