Sunday NYC Marathon in the Park
Finally the day has come. The 2005 New York City Marathon is taking place on this first Sunday of November. A record of 85,000 applicants from all over the world came to this prestigious event.
I woke up very early this morning with my bike, wanted to make selfishely sure to find Central Park available only for me before all the crowd arrive. I took some shots of the landscape with the feeling that if I didn ‘t all these beautiful colors would go away with the new arrivals.
The premier event of New York Road Runners, the New York City Marathon is one of the world’s great road races, The race attracts many world-class professional athletes, not only for the more than $500,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to excel in the media capital of the world before two million cheering spectators and 260 million worldwide television viewers. It is taking today it is taking place in the Streets of New York’s five boroughs: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. The course united dozens of culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, passing over bridges, dodging a few potholes. As any one of the 635,000 past participants will attest, crossing the finish line in Central Park is one of the great thrills of a lifetime. 2000000 fans offering water and any kind of encouragement a 100 bands played music all over the park.
Tergat of Kenya captured the Marathon in the closest finish in the race’s history, defeating defending champion Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa by less than a second on Sunday. Tergat was clocked two hours, nine minutes, 29.90 seconds with Ramaala at 2:09:30.22. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia won on the women’s side. Prokopcuka ended 14 seconds ahead of Kenyan Susan Chepkemei. Prokopcuka finished at 2:24:41’.
After watching this unforgettable event for several hours, I took my bike and headed directly (with the help of many of the thousands volunteers who bravely helped to organize the flow of the runners their families, the press and fans) to my gym the Reebook Club on the West side where I quikly jumped on a treadmill and, tremendously inspired, I ran for 55 long minutes watching the champions on replay on the well-equipped treadmill’s TV with “Luxurious”, the new Gwen Stefani hit playing on my iPod. What’s my score? 4 Miles? It’s ok. I have a whole year to work on my 26.2 of the course New York City Marathon.
