• Marathons
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• ING New York City Marathon

In 1970, the first New York City Marathon was held. A total of 127 runners, 126 men and 1 woman and only 55 men took finished. The total budget was $ 1,000. Since then the New York Marathon has grown to become one of the biggest and busiest races in the world: 54,000 athletes, 12,000 volunteers, thousands of New Yorkers, more than two million spectators on the streets of the city and more than ten millions viewers.

In 1976, coinciding with the celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S., the co-founder of the New York Marathon, Fred Lebow, decided to redesign the layout of the race to cover the increase in participants from previous years. Thus, the new route would cross the five districts or boroughs of New York City: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan. That year everything was confusion and even the best predictions have guessed what was to happen: Even Frank Shorter, who won the gold medal in the marathon of the Olympic Games in Munich (1972) and the silver medal in the same test of the Montreal Olympics (1976), made a condition that he would only run the marathon in New York if the police emptied the public away of the road where the athletes were running on. And so it was: Shorter, who finished second behind Bill Rodgers, together with 2,089 other runners who started the race.

Participation continued to grow in size and diversity. More than 9,000 marathon runners participated in 1978 and about 27,000 crossed the finish line in 1995. In the year 2000 the race included for the very first time an official category of wheelchairs and in 2001, almost two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11 against the Twin Towers, the marathon became a race of hope and renaissance for participants, spectators and citizens of New York.

In the 2002 edition, the elite female runners started 35 minutes before the rest of participants and that year set a record of participation, where 31,843 runners crossed the finish line. In 2003, the New York Marathon welcomed ING as the main sponsor of the race and in 2008, the start of the marathon took place in three different waves to reduce congestion of runners in both departure and on arrival. With the 2009 edition, it was held the 40th anniversary of the ING NYC Marathon which is and will still remain as the world leading marathon in number of participants, audience and general interest.