50000+ Pheidippideses in New York

Tomorrow, Sunday Nov 1, New York City hosts the annual Marathon, famously known as world's largest Marathon.  Ever since Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens bearing news of defeat of the Persian army more than 2500 years ago there has probably never been a bigger line up of Marathon runners. Pheidippedes supposedly ran about 40 km nonstop, with no aid stations on the way, upon arrival at the Athenian assembly announced "We have won" and then collapsed and died. Since that time the Marathon has been a singular touchstone of human endurance. No wonder, Marathon has been a part of the Olympics  from its very first modern version in 1896.

The distances in early Marathons tended to vary around 40 km.  The current standard is 42.195 km which came into being in a somewhat arbitrary fashion. This distance was born in the 1908 London Olympics when the royal family wanted the race to start at Queen Victoria's statue at Windsor Castle and to end at the 'Royal Box' in the stadium.

Tomorrow is the big day in New York City.  Last year there were 50,530 finishers with an average finish time of 4:34:45.  Here is some useful information if you would like to watch or check out the status. The race will be telecast on the web http://abc7ny.com/ and on broadcast channels ESPN, ESPN3 and possibly others. Race starts in multiple waves with wheelchair division starting at 8:30 AM, pro women 9:20 AM, pro men and wave 1 at 9:30, and ending with wave 4 at 11 AM. Live tracker for all runners and the leader board will be available at http://liveresults.nyrr.org/e/NY2015#/tracker

Some big guns to watch  -

Men: Nick Arciniaga (US), Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico), Stanley Biwott (Kenya), Kevin Chelimo (Kenya), Lelisa Desisa (Ethiopia), Gebre Gebremariam (Ethiopia - past champion), Geoffrey Kamworor (Kenya), Meb Keflezighi (US - past champion returning in Masters this year), Wilson Kipsang (Kenya - defending champion), Daniele Meucci (Italy), and Krishnadas Kootale (okay...not yet :-)

Sponsors TCS have flown in two runners from home country India. Karan Singh and Arjun Pradhan, the top two Indian finishers from Standard Charterd Mumbai Marathon. Karan will be targetting 2:17 to qualify for the Olympics. Arjun has set a goal of 2:22.

Women: Christelle Duanay (France), Buzunesh Deba (Ethiopia), Priscag Jeptoo (Kenya - past champion), Mary Keitany (Kenya - defending champion), Sally Kipyego (Kenya), Sara Moreira (Portugal), Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia - two-time champion), Caroline Rotich (Kenya), Laura Thweatt (US), and Tigist Tufa (Ethiopia)

Interesting Marathon trivia:

The oldest marathon finisher - Fauja Singh (British - age 100) finished the 2011 Toronto Waterfront Marathon taking 8:11:05.  Because he could not produce his birth certificate from his rural birthplace Beas Pind, Jalandhar (from 1911) his age could not be verified and his record was not recognized by the governing body World Masters Athletics.

Youngest Marathon finisher - Budhia Singh (Indian - age 3) ran 65 km from Bhubaneshwar to Puri in 2006. Apparently, he had completed 48 Marathons by the age of 4. He was temporarily banned from running by child welfare due to risk to his life.

If THEY can run, WE can run!

Have a great weekend.


P.S. I took a break last week to recover from three half Marathons in the three prior weeks and to give some well-earned rest to my left ankle. I am back to my three runs this week.