"The New York City Marathon is a spectacle. It’s what people my age used to call a happening. The helicopters, the thundering horde crossing the Verrazano, the kids slapping your hands as you pass them in Brooklyn, the throng cheering as you tumble down the Queensboro ramp onto First Avenue and the stadiumlike scene as you approach the finish line in Central Park. Not even Boston is remotely like it. But for all that, even though thousands will cross the finish line before I do, the thing I’ll think about most for those 26.2 miles is what my final time will be."
15-time marathoner and NYC health commissionaire Dr. Thomas Farley (54)