by New York is a city built on detours. Even the simplest journey can turn a dime – whether it’s an unexpected road closure, an unreliable subway or a taxi driver’s unorthodox navigation – into a prolonged, often painful expedition.
The city marathon is no exception.
As the Sun rises on Sunday, more than 50,000 runners will descend on Staten Island, overlooking Central Park. While the most direct route to the finish line would cover just over 16 miles, a 26.2-mile slog through the city’s five boroughs, over five bridges and a multitude of rolling hills lies for the runners.
The New York City Marathon is widely considered the premier major in the world for a reason.
Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia and Hellen Obiri of Kenya, each victorious a year ago, are back to defend their titles. They will face strong competition: other previous winners returning to the fray include Evans Chebet, Albert Korir and Geoffrey Kamworor in the men’s field; and Sharon Lokedi and Edna Kiplagat in women’s.
A series of American hopefuls are also in the mix, with Olympians Conner Mantz, Clayton Young and Dakotah Popehn from Paris; CJ Albertson competing just weeks after strong performance in Chicago; and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden, returning for the fifth time.
But the pack for the world’s largest marathon is as wide as it is deep. Former champions and Olympians facing this course will also lead a legion of runners – newbies, fundraisers and octogenarian veterans among them – on this convoluted tour.
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The Guardian spoke to four athletes as they prepared for Sunday’s race.
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A few minutes into the race, as the elite pack ascends the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and the highest point of the course, Linden gives himself a brief glance to the left. “I always take a moment to appreciate the views in the city,” she said. “It’s just spectacular.”
Weaving through each neighborhood and experiencing each unique community, “the roads are closed so you can be in the center and have a parade and take this tour of the city,” says Linden, a two-time Olympian.
The bridges are steep, but the ability to cross them — and take in the views — is “pretty special,” she adds. New York “is the center of the universe, especially on marathon weekend.”
Linden, 41, represented Team USA at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. She has captained Boston 11 times and New York Four. This time, the goal is a “same-day finish,” she says with a smile.
Hot favorites, including some of Paris’ dominant artists this summer, can be “a little too rich for me, at this point in my career,” she admits. “I enjoy and love racing, but I don’t have anything to prove, necessarily, at this point.”
But you never know how the race will go. “Anything can happen,” says Linden. “We’ll see how it goes.”
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Connie Brown, 80, has run this race more than any other woman: 44 times. For months, she has been training since the 45th.
She remembers finishing for the first time in tears, as her hope that she could do it gave way to the realization she had. She remembers the live bands, witty signs and kind words that helped get her to Central Park so many times since.
And she remembers celebrating early years by dancing the night away, including a post-race party at a Broadway nightclub.
Brown ran New York through heat waves and downpours, under Sunshine and Lightning – the latter was probably going to hit a building than a person, she said as she creaked above – and crowds passed from cheering spectators.
Days before she was scheduled to fly for this weekend’s race, personal circumstances forced Brown to stay home. in Sarasota, Florida. She still plans to run a marathon on Sunday, heading out around 3 a.m. to beat the heat.
At this point, effort is “part of who I think I am,” she says. “I am the person who runs at least one marathon a year.”
Over the decades, running “gave me confidence,” Brown says. “Whatever you put your mind to – make a goal, make a plan, follow it – you can do it. If you can do this, you can do anything.
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Thousands of runners travel across the world to take on New York. Nate Kahaiali’i, 33, traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Hawaii.
When the teacher and his neighbors were evacuated as wildfires swept through Maui last summer, he figured he would return soon enough. Kahaiali’i picked up a few pieces, not realizing what he chose would become all he had left of his home.
Like so many others, he lost his home.
Among the small collection he had collected was his trusted pair of bright orange Nike Vaporfly running shoes. For him, they became “symbolic, in a way,” of his hometown of Lāhainā.
Wearing them, as he will on Sunday, is “a way for me to honor, but also represent the community,” says Kahaiali’i, who has raised nearly $7,000 (and counting) for the rebuilding effort in selling t-shirts with the words “lāhainā fort”.
“The main hope — whether they buy the shirt or not — is just to keep Maui in people’s minds,” he says. “It’s been a year, but there’s still a lot of work for a lot of families here in Lāhainā.”
Kahaiali’i, who teaches health, also hopes his marathons inspire his students, who call him MK “Every time I come back, they’re like, ‘Did you win?’ Did you win? ‘,” he said. “I’m like ‘No, I’m not that fast’.”
He plans to wear his vaporflys in all six global marathons. With four to go, “They’re still in pretty good shape.”
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Concepcion Gonzalez, 65, hadn’t run “even a mile” before this summer. She is about to run her first marathon.
For years, Gonzalez — who has lived in New York for more than three decades — has sat in the stands cheering on his daughter, Teresita, and son, Luis.
She watched as hundreds of people, of all abilities, and from all backgrounds, crossed the finish line. “I saw people who looked like me, and I thought I could do this one day.”
Gonzalez is under no illusion that it will be easy. “Everyone goes through tough times,” she says. “People fall. They can get up. I too can embark on this journey. »
For many who attack it, this course is less a race than it is a feat of resilience; More a test of perseverance than pace. But she is prepared.
Gonzalez, who will run alongside Teresita, 29, and Luis, 32, on Sunday, is excited to see her city from a new perspective. “I feel a sense of pride, being a New Yorker,” she says, “being able to represent New York.”
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Brown, who first managed New York in 1978, has plenty of advice for newbies. “Don’t eat anything you haven’t eaten before” the night before, for starters. Don’t worry too much about sleeping well either. And if one of your knees starts to feel dodgy, “think about your other knee.”
Linden recommends treating the first two miles – a steep uphill climb on Verrazzano, setting up a sharp downhill descent – as a warm-up, and not worrying too much about pacing. “Really, it’s great,” she said, “because New York is just a 24-mile marathon when you take these two out.”
Conversely, once you reach Manhattan in the second half, try not to push too hard. The crowd is “just electric,” Linden says, “and you’re going to feel like ‘I have to win’ because they’re going so crazy. But you still have a long way to go.
Just soak everything, adds brown. “Don’t miss things,” she says. “Don’t be so in yourself and focused on your race that you don’t see the neighborhoods, that you don’t see the people that are there.”
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Some people run New York to show the world. Others are there to show off.
As elite marathon times get faster and faster, those at the front race against the clock. But the majority of runners who run through the five boroughs run For something.
For some, this marathon is a grueling physical test. Others will experience the mental challenges that materialize when your body is pushed to its limits. Many, if not most, will be forced to struggle with both.
It doesn’t matter what journey brought them here; Whether it’s their first time, or 45th; Whether they are a few thousand kilometers, or a stone’s throw, from home; Some 50,000 will gather in the early hours of Sunday with the same basic goal.
Central Park is waiting.
