by Molly O'Toole for letsrun.comBut Once You Start, Finishing Is No Longer Much Of A Challenge
At the finish line of the 2009 ING New York City Marathon, winners Derartu Tulu and Meb Keflezighi have already crossed that lauded threshold, but runners continue to pour in from the crowd stretching around the last Central Park curve below fall leaves. If the exhausted athletes can break the front line of photographers ten feet beyond the finish, nearly 45,000 heavy gold medals stand ready to be added to the weight of 26.2 miles on the body.
Take a good look, because let’s face it — many of us will never see the start, much less that storied finish line, pass under our feet. But we, the runners who didn’t run Sunday, are as much the story of the world’s largest marathon as the ones wearing the bibs. Because for every professional out there vying for the tape, there are a hundred regular runners, who despite pounding the pavement with faithful feet, didn’t quite qualify this year, found others feeling uncharitable or found themselves out of luck in the lottery.
If everyone got to run, it wouldn’t be the New York City marathon. Without those whose toes never touch the start, crossing the finish would just be crossing another line.
NYC Marathon Turns 40: Then and Now
On the brisk marathon day a banner hung above the finish line, “40 Years of Fabulous Finishes in Central Park 1970-2009,” a reminder of the humble beginnings of a race that has become a veritable mecca of marathoners, runners competitive and casual, sports enthusiasts, media, and celebrities.
On September 13, 1970, New York City Firefighter Gary Muhrcke worked through the night, then in the morning, ran, and won, a marathon — the first ever New York City Marathon, the brainchild of the young New York Road Runners organization and race co-founder Fred Lebow — in a time of 2:31. That day, Muhrcke and 126 other American participants ran a rough course of four six-mile loops around Central Park, cheered by a little over 100 spectators. Muhrcke received a recycled bowling trophy for his victory. Competitors paid $1 to enter, and could register to run on race day.
This year when Muhrcke — now 69, with over 150 marathons (12 New York’s) under the band of his shorts — returned to race. He, along with 43,740 other participants, dealt with a different animal: the largest marathon in the history of the event. The 26.2-mile course from Staten Island, through Brooklyn and Queens, into Manhattan, up to the Bronx, and down Fifth Avenue into Central Park for the finish, is lined with over 2 million spectators. Athletes from 110 countries, looking to bring home a portion of the $800,000 total prize purse, with $200,000 and $140,000 in prize money and time bonuses going to winners Keflezighi and Tulu, according to the NYRR post-race breakdown.
Muhrcke told Runners World before the race, “I’m from a different era, and [when] I put a number on, I’m competitive with myself.”
“Forty thousand is a lot, but I’m not in awe of that … It’s very, very small. I would love for everybody in this country to run one marathon a year,” added Muhrcke who noted the value of the experience, whether a runner finishes in 4 hours or 2:15 (Muhurcke finished in 3:46:25 this year).
Muhrcke is indeed right when he says it’s a different era. On that hot day in 1970, only 55 male runners — 44 percent of the field— finished the first New York marathon. In 2009, out of a record-breaking field of 43,741 starters, only 266 runners dropped out — 43,475, or 99 percent, finished what they started.
In the 1970, the single female entrant, Nina Kuscsik, later one of two women to first run a marathon under 3 hours, was a DNF due to sickness. In the 2009 ING NYC Marathon, women represented 15,239 of the starters, and 15,121, or 35 percent, of the finishers.
Sunday’s race ended officially at 6:40 pm — though the timing system scores participants through 8:40 – that’s 10 hours and 20 minutes after the official 8:20 am start (or 23 minutes, 40 seconds per mile pace). Though this generous time allotment may contribute to the near certainty a runner will cross the finish line of the NYC marathon, it does nothing to indicate how many will make it to the start, by some perspectives an equally impressive feat, as just getting in is a marathon in of itself.
The Race to the Start: “Guaranteed” Entry
Today, interested athletes must apply for and earn entry to the NYC marathon. Despite the recent renewal of the “plodder” debate by the New York Times, the 2009 NYC Marathon was the most selective: out of 102,486 applicants, nearly 47,500 were rejected, over 24,000 more runners than ran the 2009 Boston Marathon. And though millions of sporting enthusiasts flock to New York each Fall, the average runner couldn’t automatically qualify.
According to Running USA’s “State of the Sport” report for 2008, the average U.S. female long distance runner is just over 39 years old, married, without kids at home, has run for over 5 years or more, and runs at least 4 days a week, for a total of 20 miles or above. She’s completed at least one marathon. The average U.S. male long distance runner is about 45 years old, married, without kids at home, has run for 10 years or more, and also runs a minimum of 4 days a week, for a total of 20 miles or more. He has completed at least two marathons. Both genders run, primarily, to lose weight, maintain health, and relieve stress.
Last year, the median finishing time for male marathoners in the U.S. was 4:16, a pace of 9:46 per mile, and 4:43:32 for females, a pace of 10:49, according to RUSA’s annual marathon report. In order to qualify for the 2010 NYC marathon in the Open category, ages 18 through 39 (containing the majority of marathoners in the U.S. last year), men must post a time of 2:55 or better, a pace of 6:41 per mile, and women a time of 3:23 or better, at 7:47 pace.
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