Free Republic

A limited field of 33,000 runners will jog off the Verrazzano Bridge and wind its way toward Central Park on Sunday as the New York City Marathon returns for its 50th edition after being wiped out in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic ...The race's 1970 debut — staged entirely in Central Park — hardly resembled the five-borough track that has drawn millions into the Big Apple's streets on the first Sunday of nearly every November since. Adaptation, though, has seemingly always enabled the second oldest of the world's marathon majors to do more of what it does best — inspire...

The race — which hosts more than 50,000 runners from all over the world — had been set to celebrate its 50th anniversary in November. “While the marathon is an iconic and beloved event in our city, I applaud New York Road Runners for putting the health and safety of both spectators and runners first,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Last summer, Kaitlin Gregg Goodman felt poised for another breakthrough. She’d just signed a new contract with the Boston Athletic Association High Performance Team and Adidas. Her training for the New York City Marathon was clicking—enough, she hoped, to improve on the 2:32:08 personal-best she’d set at the 2017 California International Marathon the previous December. All that changed in an instant. At the end of an easy second run one early August evening, about a quarter-mile from her Providence, Rhode Island, home, a distracted driver nearly struck her. She leapt to safety, but the fall partially tore the tendon attaching...

Though Allison Longest had a normal pregnancy, soon after she gave birth to her son, Zachary, on December 16, 2013, she and her husband noticed that something was wrong. “He wasn’t eating very well, and after looking into it, the doctors at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health discovered that he had a heart murmur,” the 39-year-old from Indianapolis told Runner’s World. “But it was minor, and no one was that worried about it.” Two weeks later, Zachary was brought in for a heart check-up on Christmas Eve. To the surprise of his parents, the doctors diagnosed him...

Rosie Ruiz, whose name is notoriously synonymous with marathon cheating, died on July 8, from cancer, according to an obituary posted by her family in Palm Beach, Florida. She was 66 and known as Rosie M. Vivas. Ruiz infamously jumped into the 1980 Boston Marathon in the final stretch of the race and claimed the women’s win ahead of the true champion, Jacqueline Gareau of Québec. Runners and fans have always resented that Ruiz basked in acclamation for her supposed come-from-behind victory and refused to admit guilt. Gareau had to cross the finish line with no recognition of her course...

Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon on Sunday since 1977, pulling away from Mary Keitany in the last three miles of the race for her first major marathon victory. Keitany had won three straight New York marathons, but Flanagan pulled away from the Kenyan great with about three miles to go and finished with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 26 minutes, 53 seconds, about a minute faster than Keitany. The last American woman to win New York was Miki Gorman, who won consecutive titles in 1976-77.

But Staten Island resident George Rosado assailed the decision. "It's repulsive," said Rosado, who spent two days scrubbing sludge from his tiled floors and was preparing to demolish the water-logged walls of his home a block from the water. He added: "They should be getting resources to the elderly people who can't fend for themselves. That's more important than a marathon right now." Some marathon runners agreed, posting Facebook messages vowing to head to the race's starting line in Staten Island to spend the day volunteering, not racing. "Let's not waste resources and attention on a foot race," marathon entrant...

On Sunday, Mike Huckabee crossed the New York City Marathon's finish line after a grueling race that he says was both his proudest, and for sure, his most painful. Until last week, he was unsure if he would be able to run in what would be his fourth marathon, due to a nagging knee injury that had forced him to go under the doctor's knife twice to drain a buildup of fluid. The thought of not running on Sunday was devastating to a man who had trained so hard for so long. He finally told his doctor that he...