Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 103rd Rd. in Queens, a double stabbing on Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and an armed robbery on 94th St. in Queens. Get paranoid!: Not only is your nanny not nurturing your kid to the best of his or her abilities, she's probably beating her mercilessly. Not really, most babysitters love your kids and take good care of them. Set your watch by it: the Williambsurg Savings......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap:a large crowd at 165th St. and Jamaica Ave. in Queens, a robbery on Fox Ave. on the Bronx, and a serious multi-vehicle accident in Manhattan at 36th St. Space for a supermarket at the new Booklyn Bridge Park/Condo development is an inviolable piece of public property. Was the Trump Soho's concrete not dry enough when the forms were taken away, causing the collapse? New York Stock Exchange is buying......

With many people trying to keep up that perennial New Year's resolution to lose weight/work out/get in shape, they're hitting their computers (or CDs!) to create the perfect soundtracks for their workouts. The other day, the NY Times chatted with a number of experts - physicians, life coaches, workout music producers - to figure out what makes a good work out song. Of course, different music rhythms work better for different levels of activity.......

On Sunday, the worldwide running community lost an institution: Vic Navarra, a FDNY lieutenant who organized the NYC Marathon's start for 26 years, died at his home in Staten Island. He was 55 and had been battling sinus cancer. Navarra, a lifelong runner, fell into the job of organizing the NYC Marathon's start when he couldn't run (a rib injury from responding to a fire) in 1980, when he wanted to help out and he......

Ted Corbitt passed away yesterday, costing NYC one of its own icons of long distance running. The 88-year-old died from a respiratory condition related to separate cancers that outdistanced his life as a pioneer of racing. Ted Corbitt was a former and founding president of the NYC Road Runners Club, an Olympian, and a champion of ultra-marathon running. While the NYC Marathon is regularly won by Kenyans and other African runners, Corbitt established himself all......

The only time Paula Radcliffe seems to carry any body fat is when she's toting around her 9-month-old daughter around. Mothers, new and old alike, are still in awe over the British marathoner's ability to win the famed NYC marathon months after giving birth. The AP reports that she ran the 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 23 minutes (we've sat through football games this weekend that lasted longer) just 291 days after delivering little......

Photo of by Tomoharu Mizuno (snowman) djwerdna on flickr; Mizuno finished in 6:25:34 The marathon is the city's most lucrative single-day sporting event; this year, the marathon will bring in an estimated $220 million to city businesses. Blind marathoner Henry Wanyoike ran the course in 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 18 seconds. The NY Sun reports that Wanyoike, who is blind from a stroke, runs " tethered by a rope to his partner, Joseph......

More than 100 bands, of all different genres, took the city streets yesterday to serve up sonic inspiration for marathon runners. There were reportedly up to 4 acts per mile, we passed by one of them in Brooklyn and thought it was a terrific idea -- it even made us pick up our pace a bit on our way to get a latte. The NY Times reports on how the idea has grown, turning......

Yesterday, as many respectfully cheered on the marathon participants, a skateboarder ran directly into a wheelchair racer in Park Slope. Was it intentional? Witnesses say it was. From this Flickr thread:He came riding in from the side and didn't even try to stop himself. As soon as he stood up, he was smirking and after the NYPD yelled at him, when he retrieved his skateboard and walked up the block towards where I was standing,......

With considerably less fanfare than Diddy or Lance Armstrong, Katie Holmes ran the NYC Marathon in 5 hours, 29 minutes, and 58 seconds. She wore an FDNY baseball cap, black pants and a purple tank top - and was possibly surrounded by a security detail who might have been running alongside her. Mega-star husband Tom Cruise and child Suri Cruise, as well as her parents and mother-in-law, were on hand to give the former......

Britain's Paula Radcliffe made a stunning race to the wire to win the 2007 ING NYC Marathon in 2:23:09. Australia's Kurt Fearnley repeated as the champion in the men's wheelchair division. Kenya's Martin Lel won the men's division, finishing today's race in 2:09:04 with a 12 second margin of victory. We'll have more results as they become available. If you have any photos of Gothamist readers competing in today's event, please tag them "gothamist"......

Yesterday, there was excitement over the U.S. Olympic Men's Marathon Trial being held in the heart of Manhattan and top three finishers Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell qualifying for the 2003 Olympic team. But the event was also tragic: 2003 U.S. Marathon champion Ryan Shay suffered an apparent heart attack 5.5 miles into the race and died. Witnesses described that shortly after 8AM, Shay seemed to fall during the course near the......

Just a day before the running of the NYC Marathon, the U.S. Olympic trials for the men's marathon were marred by an untimely death today. 28-year-old Ryan Shay died while competing in the Olympic trials in Central Park, just a few miles into the 26.2 mile race. Shay collapsed at the 5.5 mile mark of the race and was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital where he was declared dead. The cause of death has yet......

Two years ago, we spoke to Birch Shambaugh before he ran his first NYC Marathon. We learned that spectators yelling "AWOOOOOGAH" was a preferred cheer and that He's running again this year, so we checked in to ask him about the second time around. Last time we spoke to you, you were running your first marathon ever (the 2005 NYC Marathon). How did it go? Have you run another one since? The '05 marathon was......

Photograph the 2006 New York City Marathon finish line by CraigsPage on flickr Marathon fans, your time is here because this weekend, there are two 26.2 mile races in the city. In addition to the New York City Marathon on Sunday, Saturday is the USA Olympic Trials for the 2008 Olympic Men's Marathon. Saturday's Olympic Trials will feature the country's best long distance runners as they contend for the first spots on the 2008......

It's a tie! Last month managed to tie 1947 as the warmest October in the 150+ years of Central Park weather observations. The last time the park had a record warm month was February 2002. The difference between sharing the record warm October with 1947 and breaking that old record was as small as could be. If the high or low temperature for any day last month been one degree higher October 2007 would......

A 1992 NY State Appeals Court ruling that we'll definitely keep in mind: Women have the right to go topless since men can show their chests whenever they want (like this guy). This equal opportunity decision wasn't something a police officer was cognizant of when he arrested Jill Coccaro, who was walking around topless in August 2005 (she was trying to cool off). Coccaro, also known as Phoenix Feeley, sued in October, citing that she......

Representative Anthony Weiner, he of 2009 mayoral ambitions, wants to introduce legislation to ban helicopters flying over Manhattan. While the bill would allow "police, medical and other authorized helicopter traffic" (probably news choppers), Weiner said, "We are taking a common-sense step to make New York safer" by restricting all other helicopters to fly over water only. He also said, "I am concerned about helicopters flying over a densely populated city. I think it's dangerous, and......

Jerry Reese didn’t waste any time remaking the Giants. On Monday he cut three players, all starters, as part of a roster overhaul. While it is hard to argue with waiving Carlos Emmons, a disapointment in his time as a Giant, and LaVar Arrington, a great talent who could not stay healthy, the cut of Luke Petitgout is interesting. Petitgout was also injured last year, but he was the only guy on the roster who......

Leave it to the Australians to sorta confirm what everyone has suspected: Talking on your cellphone can distract you while you're crossing the street. Here's an abstract of the study by Julie Hatfield and Susanne Murphy of the New South Wales Risk Management Research Center:Research amongst drivers suggests that pedestrians using mobile telephones may behave riskily while crossing the road, and casual observation suggests concerning levels of pedestrian mobile-use. An observational field survey of......

- While he was at USC, Reggie Bush paid homage to his hometown by writing "619" on his eyeblack. Now those that live in New York City can show off their area code pride with "212" sneakers from Nike. We doubt the sneakers will be be quite as coveted as an actual 212 phone number (limitless availability and ugliness of sneaker). And while we're all for representing New York, what about 347, 646, and......

If you didn't get a chance to watch the 2006 New York City Marathon in person yesterday, you missed out. There's nothing quite like watching elite runners zip by and throngs of runners from around the world run through the streets of New York. Some of our photos from yesterday are above in the slideshow, but there are many, many more photos out there. Our photos are mostly capture the strange outfits we saw......

For the first time since Tegla Laroupe in 1994 and 1995, the New York City Marathon has a repeat winner. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia repeated her victory last year with a time of 2:25:05. Prokopcuka was so far ahead of 2nd place women's finisher Tatiana Hladyr that she was blowing kisses to the throngs of spectators as she approached the finish line in Central Park. Prokopcuka finished a full minute ahead of Hladyr. Deena......

Jelena Prokopcuka won her second ING NYC Marathon in a row, finishing at 2:25:05, while Marilson Gomes Dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race with a time of 2:09:58. Latvian Prokopcuka broke away from the other elite women's runners from the start of the race in Staten Island, closely following the women's pace-setter, and never gave up the lead. Tatiana Hladyr of the Ukraine finished second and Catherine "Catherine the Great" Ndereba finished......

The ING New York City Marathon is just five days away, and many people are probably thinking about their viewing strategies. The marathon website has different suggestions for watching the professional marathoners and friends and family. If you're cheering someone on, the ING NYC marathon suggests:Mile 8 in Brooklyn , where the three starts converge, is a great place to catch runners looking fresh for photographs. A variety of subways can get you there:......

In a little more than two weeks, the ING NYC Marathon will take place. It's a little too late to sign up to run (unless you run for a charity - more here), but there are ways to get involved. One is to volunteer at the start of the race. Since the race starts early, volunteers are needed to help out at the start of the race in Staten Island - they will "help set......

Yesterday was the first NYC Half Marathon, which saw over 10,000 runners take over the streets of Manhattan. The course route was the loop in Central Park, and then down Seventh Avenue (through Times Square), making a left 42nd Street to head to the West Side Highway, and taking that all the way down to Battery Park. Kenyans won the men's and women's races - Thomas Nyariki finished in 1:01:22 and Catherine Ndereba's time......

It's nothing like what the weather will be like in November, but it's never too early to train for the NYC Marathon. Deena Kastor, who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics for the marathon and who happens to hold the American record for the women's marathon - 2:19.36 - after running this year's London Marathon, is in New York to train. And even in this gross weather, she's out running and talking to......

In about 198 days, Lance Armstrong is planning on running in the NYC Marathon on November 5. We bet he didn't have to wait for a lottery ticket! Armstrong told the AP, "I've been training some, but I wouldn't call it serious. It's just something to fill a void in my life after I quit competing as a professional cyclist." Not serious for Armstrong would probably mean a 2 hour 30 minute marathon! But really,......

Last year's New York City Marathon saw the closest women's race in history, this year's marathon saw the closest race in NYC Marathon history for men or women. Paul Tergat, the world record holder for the marathon, finished .32 seconds ahead of 2004 winner Hendrick Ramaala who collapsed just as he reached the finish line. Tergat's win came on his first attempt at the NYC Marathon. As we watached the men's lead pack run......