City Has Festive, Lucrative Marathon Day
By SARAH PORTLOCK,
More than 2 million spectators, many holding posters and noisemakers, lined the route of the ING New York City Marathon through the five boroughs yesterday afternoon as 39,000 runners competed.
Konrad Fiedler
Runners participating in the ING New York City Marathon pass residents in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, yesterday.
The race has become the city's highest-grossing single-day sporting event and one of its most spirited celebrations. The 38th annual marathon is expected to bring in $220 million for the city this year, according to the New York Road Runners and the New York City Sports Commission. In Manhattan, businesses along First Avenue on the Upper East Side opened early and set out food as friends and families cheered on the runners.
The owner of Aprovecho, Ignacio Manso, said he has opened his Mexican restaurant early on marathon days for several years. This year he made extra chili and empanadas to sell from a stand on his sidewalk. "It's almost like a holiday," Mr. Manso, 35, said. "It's very festive."
After the race, several experienced marathoners said the constant cheering made this race among the most lively and energetic in which they have competed. "It's one big party with cheering everywhere," a 49-year-old veteran of 35 marathons who was running his first in New York, Jim George, said. "It was wonderful and I really enjoyed it."
A runner from Brooklyn, Benjamin Carter, 30, said the crowds provide the motivation he needs to keep going. "Coming across the Queensboro Bridge is the best part. No one is on the bridge so it's really quiet, and then you come off and everyone's cheering," Mr. Carter, who met his goal by finishing in 3 hours, 13 minutes, said. "The fact that everyone cheers and stays out cheering is one of the really great things about the marathon."
Some runners, including famed bicyclist Lance Armstrong, wore black ribbons in memory of the elite runner Ryan Shay, who died Saturday in Central Park.
Martin Lel of Kenya won the men's title yesterday, finishing in 2 hours, 9 minutes, and the world record-holder, Paula Radcliffe of England, placed first among the women, in 2 hours, 23 minutes.
