More than 60,000 runners hoofed it 26.2 miles, from Staten Island to Central Park, at speeds ranging from a startling gallop to a grueling trudge in the TCS New York City marathon on Nov. 1. An estimated 2 million spectators also lined the streets at one point or another. Tracy Morgan was the race\u2019s Grand Marshal.<\/p>\n
Breaking the tape first in the women\u2019s race was the event\u2019s 2024 winner, 35-year-old Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui in 2:24:36 (5:31 mile pace), besting 34-year-old American Jess McClain by six seconds. In the race\u2019s most dramatic moment, McClain stalked last year\u2019s winner, 36-year-old Kenyan Hellen Obiri, smartly taking the tangents in Central Park before sprinting past Obiri in the race\u2019s last meters.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s race was won by 31-year-old Swede Andreas Almgren in 2:06:01 (4:54 mile pace), besting the Ethiopia-born Italian Yemaneberhan Crippa by 13 seconds. It was Almgren\u2019s debut marathon, following years as an elite, if not world-beating, middle-distance runner.<\/p>\n
Weather for the event was very good, sunny, with little wind and temperatures in the 50s. If this was a little too warm for many runners\u2019 optimum performance, it was excellent for most spectators. One exception to this is anyone who happened to be within earshot of one of this year\u2019s race innovations, an infinitely looped warning message blasted over loudspeakers at Fifth Avenue and 130th Street in Harlem:<\/p>\n
\u201cAttention runners: Due to warm temperatures course conditions may be dangerous. Please listen to your body. Slow down if necessary and stop at a medical tent if you feel feint. Don\u2019t try to beat the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course is difficult, with dragging hills and bridges. Indeed, many people have had their races later go cockeyed because they got overexcited running down the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn. The subsequent spans are the Pulaski, from Greenpoint to Long Island City; the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan; the Willis Avenue Bridge from East Harlem into Mott Haven, and Madison Avenue Bridge back into Harlem.<\/p>\n
It was on the Manhattan side of this last span\u2014a four-lane swing bridge over the Harlem River\u2014where this reporter made his base camp: Fifth Avenue and East 138th Street. This location was chosen because it offers the best combination of access and drama. It\u2019s far enough into the race\u2014just past the 21-mile mark\u2014that there\u2019s great suffering but still early enough that the front-runners are closely packed.<\/p>\n
What the Bronx lacks in miles, it makes up for in intensity, including the bridge itself, whose pedestrian walkway is a favored spot of knowing spectators who bring mordant signs with them such as \u201cLast Damn Bridge\u201d and \u201cF**k it up Buttercup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite these playful attempts at encouragement, many runners did f**k it up, paying the price here for prior over enthusiasm, coming off the bridge only to start walking or nearly collapse. With water, food and a race medical tent nearby, there were no major emergencies but the worries were real.<\/p>\n
Cheers and Perseverance<\/p>\n
Watching all this unfold on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 138th Street was a tall, lean, dapper-looking black gentleman in a hip-length black leather jacket, green corduroys and clean, crisp brown felt Homburg hat. His name is Ernest Connor and he returns to this spot every year.<\/p>\n
In 1980<\/a>, Connor set a world record for running the New York City Marathon… backwards, in 5 hours 11 minutes. Connor, now 82, was living in the Bronx then, which was in a very bad place. Running the marathon backwards, he explained, would prove how one can triumph over adversity. Connor lives in Atlantic City now, and drove up the day before.<\/p>\n Seeing a couple of NYPD Harbor unit officers standing next to Connor unaware of who he was, after asking where they parked the boat, introductions were made. The cops were genuinely inquisitive about Connor, who was happy to explain his astounding journey, again.<\/p>\n Running forward, the first female New Yorker\u2014and the first Manhattanite\u2014was Lily Murphy, 22, who finished in 2:30:06, 5:44 mile pace. Murphy ran track and cross country at the University of Pennsylvania and is presently an investment banking analyst for Barclay\u2019s.<\/p>\n Second among the local women was Alosha Southern, 31, of Brooklyn, who finished in 2:41:29, 6:10 mile pace. A former runner at Grinnell College in Iowa, Southern is a paralegal at Rottenburg, Lippman, Rich law firm.<\/p>\n