New York – With one of the strongest men’s field assembled and the expectation of another world record for finishers, today’s New York City Marathon will showcase the sport’s burgeoning appeal in the media capital of the world.
The field includes the reigning Boston Marathon champion, the reigning London Marathon winner, the reigning New York champion, world record-holder Paul Tergat of Kenya and American Meb Keflezighi, the Olympic silver medalist. Race organizers expect the number of finishers to surpass the record of 36,562 who ran here last year.
But race organizers and other players in the sport already are looking for ways to build on the marathon momentum they see here and around the world. Last summer the New York race formed an alliance with other major marathons in Chicago, Boston, London and Berlin. Race directors from the “Big Five” met here Thursday to push forward their plan.
“This is an opportune time to take this sport to its highest level ever,” said Mary Wittenberg, CEO of the New York Road Runners and race director of the New York marathon. “We have major marathons in major cities that have reached great individual success.
“We have organizations that share a passion to take this sport to its highest heights. Now is the time for us to work together, leading a much larger group of organizations – federations, running groups, races – as we all strive to create a sport that is recognized on a global level as a sport on a par with our other great sports – to create a sport where our stars are recognized as stars, and people follow them from race to race.”
Plans include creating some sort of series incorporating the Big Five races and the world championships in a Grand Slam of marathoning, with runners accumulating points to crown an overall winner. The concept is in its formative stages, but the alliance has hired a firm to market and promote it. They hope to have the details worked out next spring.
“We look to New York, Boston, Berlin and London, but we also look at the PGA Tour, we look at NASCAR, we look at the sponsor dollars that flow into those events,” said Chicago Marathon race director Carey Pinkowski. “How can we create something not to rival (the other sports), but to elevate? What can we do for the betterment of our athletes, to make our athletes more visible, to create more opportunity, to be more competitive?”
The number of marathoners continues to grow. On the top 10 list of largest marathons, the only one before 2002 was the 1996 Boston Marathon, which was the 100th running of that race.
“We can line up our Olympic champions, our world record- holders, alongside Joe Public,” said London Marathon race director Dave Bedford. “They are competing in the same race, they are competing at the same time with the same challenges. They understand each other. No other sport can do that. That, I think, is the magic of our event.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
