New York City Marathon

The New York City Marathon began in 1970. It was a small affair with no hint as to its future prominence. Fred Lebow and the New York Road Runners ensured the New York Marathon its success. In fact, the NYC Marathon serves as a model, along with the Boston Marathon, for other marathons.

The entrance fee for the first New York Marathon was a modest $1. There were only 127 entries. New York Marathon results of this time show, of these 127, only 55 finished the race. At fault, perhaps was the simple loop course. Runners ran a number of times within famous Central Park. Six years later, however, Lebow changed the course to make it reflect the character of the city and to challenge the runner. The new New York City Marathon course map took the runners through various well-known neighborhoods and past familiar landmarks, including Staten Island, the Bronx and Queens. Even famous Manhattan became part of the New York Marathon route.

In 1976, the new course attracted 2,090 runners and Olympian Frank Shorter. This grew to 9,000 in 1978 when people lined the streets to see Grete Waitz, a Norwegian, set a record for women’s marathon running. Her time was 2:32:30. The New York Marathon quickly became attractive for national and international runners. Media and sponsorship together with New York Marathon posters and the New York Marathon logo helped to promote the racing event.

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As the years went by, the New York City Marathon began to include other events as part of the Marathon experience. The wheelchair division became official in 2002. The New York Half Marathon began its run in 2006. That same year 90,000 people applied to run in the 2006 New York City Marathon. Less than half crossed the finish line. The prize for winning the race, for successfully the course outlined in he New York City Marathon map, was around $600,000. New York City Marathon results for that year indicate the winner of the men’s race was Marilson Gomes dos Santos while Jelena Prokopcuka took first place for the women.

In 2007 and into the following decades, New York City Marathon posters can proudly proclaim New York Marathon to be one of the five World Marathon Majors along with the Berlin Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the Flora London Marathon and the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.