For the last several months, runners training for Sunday\u2019s New York City Marathon have all been thinking about one thing: getting to the finish line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is now painted and ready to go. So is Manhattan runner Julie Pampuch.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year I come and I watch myself, I visualize myself crossing the finish line, and every year I get choked up about it because of what it took to get here, to be able to get there,\u201d Pampuch said.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
This year, more than 55,000 runners will take on the iconic New York City Marathon course through the five boroughs
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The city Department of Transportation began painting the 4-inch-wide blue line that guides runners through the course on Tuesday in Brooklyn and Queens
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Street and other closures will begin early Sunday morning. The upper level of the Verrazzano Bridge will be shut down at 11 p.m. Saturday to prepare for the first mile of the route<\/p>\n
This will be Pamchuch\u2019s 14th marathon. And each year, she says it is a special day full of strangers cheering on strangers to complete the daunting 26.2 miles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you just believe it, like you believe that people really want you to go out there and crush your dreams,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This year, more than 55,000 runners will take on the iconic course through the five boroughs, winding through dozens of neighborhoods, crossing major bridges and shutting down busy intersections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But despite the excitement of taking over city streets, runners say the best part \u2014 and what keeps them going \u2014 are the hundreds of thousands of spectators who line every mile.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just an incredible day where people just come out,\u201d marathon runner Sami Attia said. \u201cIt restores faith in humanity. Everyone is out there, it’s so fun. It’s a great day to be in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the amount of people that I hear like, cry spectating, just kind of says it all,\u201d runner Ruth Axton added. \u201cLike it’s such a day that, it will move you, it’s such a real thing. It’s the best day of the year.”<\/p>\n
The city Department of Transportation began painting the 4-inch-wide blue line that guides runners through the course on Tuesday in Brooklyn and Queens. That work will continue on Staten Island and in the Bronx.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, more than 66% of the runners will be running the race for the first time. And for all of the finishers, this year\u2019s medal is unique in its design.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows the elevation of the actual course,\u201d said Ted Metellus, chief event production officer and race director at New York Road Runners. \u201cWhat the runners will be feeling as they\u2019re out there going through 26.2 miles through each of the boroughs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it shows all of the highest points, which is Staten Island on the bridge there, through each of the boroughs, through Brooklyn, through Queens into uptown, into Manhattan, through the Bronx, make their way down into the finish, and then that slow, slight climb coming up here,\u201d Metellus added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Street and other closures will begin early Sunday morning. The upper level of the Verrazzano Bridge will be shut down at 11 p.m. Saturday to prepare for the first mile of the route.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says as always, the NYPD will be deployed along the entire route, keeping both runners and spectators safe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be supported by specialized units across the department, including our Emergency Service Unit, Mounted Unit, K-9, Harbor, Aviation, and our Bomb Squad,\u201d Tisch said. \u201cOur helicopters and our drones will also be deployed during the marathon to provide comprehensive coverage in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheelchair athletes will take on the course first, with their gun firing off just after 8 a.m. They will be followed by the professional runners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And then, the first wave of general runners will be at 9:10 a.m.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the last several months, runners training for Sunday\u2019s New York City Marathon have all been thinking about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14333,2296,11101,25,231,9,24,55,54,12,56,319,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-21484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-alyssa-paolicelli","9":"tag-app-human-interest","10":"tag-app-sports","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-city-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}