As the leaders of Sunday’s New York City Marathon came bounding down Central Park South toward the finish line, they were greeted by hundreds of supporters who were there not just to watch their spectacular achievement, but also to send a loud message to the world: “Bring Our Hostages Back.” 

A little more than an hour before the runners started arriving at the 26.2-mile marker, hundreds gathered just east of Columbus Circle to show their support for Israel and demand the return of the 230 hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 terrorist attacks. 

The somber group might have been runners or spectators in the past, and yet on Sunday I could not help but feel the sense of urgency while walking into the sea of red balloons and blue and white Israeli flags waving in the wind. This was mirrored by the posters depicting an hourglass that read, “Time is Running Out,” and the rallying cry being chanted by the hundreds, “Bring them home now.”

In other areas of the city, spectators chanted “Free Palestine,” and waved Palestinian flags. Some passing runners gave high-fives; others were thumbs downs. 

An organizer of the group Hostages and Missing Families Forum in New York, Shany Granot-Lubaton, explained to the New York Times that she hoped the global stage and widespread broadcast of the marathon would bring attention to the cause. 

The New York City Marathon, the world’s largest, with more than 55,000 runners participating from more than 100 countries this year, is a historic unifying event that marks the first Sunday in November. Setup began last week, and the large flags of all the participating countries were hung in Central Park.  One flag was obviously missing: that of Israel. 

When asked, New York Road Runners explained that the Israeli flag would be raised only for limited hours, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., when it could be guarded, out of fear of desecration or theft. (All other flags were unattended and left up at night.)   

Participating in the marathon requires months of disciplined training that is not for the faint of heart, but for one group of runners, training for the marathon was a matter of life and death. 

Yaniv Zaguri was so exhausted from an earlier 22-mile run that he needed to skip his normal training with the Sderot Front Runners the morning of October 7. His running group normally ran through Kibbutzim near S’derot, including Be’eri and Re’im. Of the three who went running that day, two never came back, having been murdered by Hamas terrorists. 

“You could say that the New York marathon saved me,” Mr. Zaguri said in an interview with a national newspaper. 

The sole survivor of the group, Ram Hayun, offered a horrific account of the day, about how he attempted to hide with two of his running mates for hours and then witnessed them being murdered by Hamas gunmen. They were Neomi Shitrit Azulai, 52, a wife and mother of three children, and Kobi Periente, 43, husband and father of four. Two other members of the club were also killed that day, Mr. Zaguri said.

In the weeks after October 7, many of the group members who were slated to run in the New York City Marathon decided they did not have the emotional bandwidth to do so, being deep in mourning for their loved ones or having been called up as reserves to fight for their country. 

Mr. Zaguri decided to run. As he told reporters, “I felt if I didn’t run then I would be surrendering to Hamas.” 

In addition to Mr. Zaguri, at least two-dozen marathon runners planned to wear photos of children being held hostage by Hamas.   They were expected to pass nearly 2 million spectators who come out every year to watch the marathon. As they traversed the five boroughs of New York, attempting with each stride to bring attention to the cry for the safe return of the dozens of kidnapped children who are nearing a month in captivity, one can only hope they were met by bystanders who want the same.