Central Park

The Daily Plant : Friday, November 4, 2005

RUNNERS, START YOUR ENGINES!

One of the world’s greatest annual road races will take place throughout the City Sunday, November 6, coming to a finish in one of the world’s great parks. The ING New York City Marathon will span across all five boroughs, beginning at 10:10 a.m., and will conclude with an exciting photo finish in front of Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Be one of the more than two million spectators to witness these amazing athletes carry out what many have placed on their lifetime accomplishments wish list.

The ING New York City Marathon attracts 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 passionate cheering spectators and 260 million worldwide television viewers.

Starting in Staten Island, runners will spend two miles in this borough, running over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, then down into Broolyn. The first section of the Brooklyn trail will take runners on a flatter but longer 6-mile trail, then into a second, hillier 5-mile trail past a ING Cheering Zone at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and over the Pulaski Bridge.

Runners will have just passed the halfway mark as they head into Queens past the second ING Cheering Zone, before coming to the Queensboro Bridge. On the other side of the bridge, runners take their first dip into the island of Manhattan, heading up First Avenue until they hit the Willis Avenue Bridge just before the 20-mile mark.

Over the bridge and into the Bronx, runners will follow the trail in this borough just long enough to find the relief of the third ING Cheering Zone, then head back down into Manhattan and towards the finish line in Central Park.

The ING New York City Marathon and New York Road Runners support two official marathon charities, New York Road Runners Foundation Team for Kids and Fred’s Team. Five hundred participants are running with New York Road Runners Foundation Team for Kids, whose 2005 fund-raising goal is $1 million for New York City school fitness initiatives.

Fred’s Team was founded by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Fred Lebow in 1991 in an effort to raise funds for research at the cancer center. Since then, Fred’s Team members have more than $14 million for MSKCC. Although Fred lost his battle to cancer in 1994, his life’s work lives on in the Fred’s Team runners.

"Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn’t the dream destroy reality?"

(1873-1958)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center