Results tagged “running”

                            

Yesterday's 40th running of the ING NYC Marathon saw over 40,000 people traveling across the five boroughs to clock in 26.2 miles of running, walking, handcycling, and more. Besides the men's and women's race winners Meb Kelflizighi and Derartu Tulu, there were other champs:

This Sunday, not only is it time to fall back for Daylight Savings Time, it's the 40th ING NYC Marathon. An expected 40,000 runners will be ready to hit the roads from the start at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Staten Island and through the four other boroughs with about a million people cheering them on from the sidelines.

Things are heating up in marathon running circles, or should we say slowing down? The New York Times reported that by allowing slower runners on the New York City Marathon route, the intensity of the debate over how quickly an able-bodied runner should finish the once-elite event is increasing.

As the New York City Marathon approaches (November 1st), the NY Times looks back at the first one in 1970 through the eyes of Steve Pusztay, who says on that day he was “just trying not to die,” He told them, “After I finished. I swore I would never run another marathon again.” And then he went on to run 47 more (but never returned to the one in Central Park).

       

Yesterday morning, Briton Paula Radcliffe won the women's NYC Half Marathon, with a time of 1:09:45—her first race since winning last year's NYC Marathon. Tadese Tola of Ethiopia won the men's race, finishing at 1:01:06. Radcliffe, who had bunion surgery in March and is considering running a marathon in Berlin this weekend, decided to run in the race at the last minute. She told the New York Road Runners, "I needed to blow out some racing cobwebs. I’m the first to admit that this is an unorthodox way to test myself for a marathon—running a half-marathon a week out."

Runner's World has an interview with Governor David Paterson this month, discussing how running have given his confidence, which he probably needs these days. (The Post is in a tizzy over the photo of running-shorted Paterson in his office.) Paterson, who is on the Achilles Track Club's board and ran the '99 NYC Marathon, said, "Running gave me the chance to be athletic, and to be good at something, which I think everybody wants to have. As a teenager it was particularly frustrating; all my friends would play these sports that I couldn't play." Paterson prefers to run with a guide and for distance (he has an 11-minute mile). On how his success in running has helped his political career: "Whenever they mention in my introduction that I ran the marathon, the audience just starts cheering, and I think that it did help me to believe in myself. I never thought I'd be Lieutenant Governor, and I never thought I'd be Governor. But I will run for reelection, and I'll be running while I'm running." Related: Former Governor Spitzer, also a runner, recorded a podcast to accompany a 3-mile run at a 9-minute pace back in 2006.

The NY Times reports on a very original birthday gift. On his 40th birthday, Michael Chambers received a visit from Richard Kiplagat, former star Iona runner. Chambers, an investor, is an avid runner inspired by Kenyan runners. His family, who already planned a gift of a trip to Kenya, called up the New York Road Runners Club, asking if there was a Kenyan runner who could run with Chambers: "Sam Grotewold, manager of professional athletes for the Road Runners, made the connection with Kiplagat’s manager. Kiplagat was game. Not having a precedent for such a gift, they decided on the rather arbitrary figure of $400." Kiplagat, who used to run five miles to and from school (barefoot) as a child in Kenya, ran with Chambers in Hudson River Park and told the Times, "When it comes to running, I’m always ready to do it."

Despite rising numbers of local participants running in its races, the New York Road Runners announced that will put caps on how many entrants they allow starting next year. The races in Central Park will now have a ceiling of 5,000 runners--a number surpassed by over a third of 27 its races this past year. The change is being made to enhance the overall experience of runners, not for any specific health or safety concerns. The 5,000 cap will not apply to the two biggest races--the New York City Marathon and NYC Half-Marathon, much bigger affairs--but those will now see limits as well. Mary Wittenberg, NYRR President, told the Times, “The biggest change is that it will force runners to decide early what races they want to run in. Up until now, they had the luxury of waiting basically until race day."

We've already seen the Borat speedo marathon get up--but a new video shows Steve Guttenberg, of Police Academy fame, upping the ante in revealing running gear. NYMag notes that he's "clearly in on the gag," but 1 minute and 44 seconds of a pantless Guttenberg running and stretching in Central Park is the end result none-the-less (consider that a warning).

On a very windy day, Paula Radcliffe, last year's ING NYC Marathon winner, won the women's race today with a time of 2:23:556. Radcliffe had looked to the NYC Marathon as her redemption, after a stress fracture earlier this year and a 23rd place finish at the Beijing Olympics. Second place winner was 40-year-old Ludmila Petrova, the 2000 winner, at 2:25:43

Today is the ING NYC Marathon, and you can check out the action by cheering alongside the route (see spectator guide here) or watching it on NBC 4 or on the Internet, via Universal Sports, which lets you choose between three feeds (men's, women's and main). There are also a few road closures.

Photo of marathon runners last year by sgoralnick on flickr

Last year Katie Holmes ran (or pretended to run) the NYC Marathon, and this year the sweating, panting herd of runners will be graced with the presence of soon-to-be now official Mr. Scarlett Johansson. Joining Team Fox in support of Parkinson's disease (his dad is afflicted), Ryan Reynolds invites one and all to come watch him on November 2nd, adding: "Feel free to bring a smile, automated defibrillator, or a fresh set of nipples." He also writes on the Huffington Post about seeing the marathon in Central Park a few years ago, saying, "I saw an incredible spectacle of people pushed to the very brink of collapse. The pain was etched into their faces so deeply ... I saw guys coming in to finish with bleeding nipples. Why in the hell were their nipples bleeding? People were crying. People were limping, hobbling, screaming, crawling." Good Luck, Ryan!

A lawsuit against the MTA is about to go to trial surrounding the rape of a woman on a G train platform in Queens three years ago. And the victim, now 25, told the Daily News this weekend that she forgives her attacker ("I know he was sick in the head"), but not the token booth clerk at the 21st Street station, "I can't forgive those five seconds when I stared into his eyes, screaming for help, imploring him with my tears and all I got back was a cold stare."

With less than two weeks to go until the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Kenya's Catherine "The Great" Ndereba came into today's NYC Half Marathon for a final tuneup. She walked away with her 2nd victory in the three-year event, (she was 2nd in 2007) finishing in a time of 1:10:18. 20-year-old Tadesse Tola of Ethiopia won the men's race in a time of 1:00:58, saying afterwards that it was his "best performance ever." Dathan Ritzenhein, running for the the United States marathon team in Beijing said that the conditions in today's race are similar to what he expects in Beijing. The 13.1 mile course began in Central Park, down 7th Ave through Times Square, west across 42nd St, and down the West Side Highway to a finish in Battery Park. For their winning efforts, Ndereba and Tola each walk away with $10,000.

Just because Mayor Bloomberg has denied running for governor in 2010 doesn't mean it has to be true! The Sun's Davidson Goldin thinks that for Bloomberg, "Running for governor is likely, and becoming more so."

Early this morning brides-to-be lined 14th Street in hopes of finding their dream dress at a discount price. The annual wedding dress sale at Filene's Basement, dubbed The Running of the Brides, included around 2500 gowns (of which reportedly zero are left). And every lady wants to find the designer dress with an off-the-rack pricetag, which can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Typically dresses go for $249 to $699, and would normally cost around $10,000.

Ending months of speculation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed he will not run for president in the 2008 election. And he did it with an op-ed in the NY Times, titled, "I'm Not Running for President, but..."

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.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens.
• An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was also sure to repeatedly refer to black people using the "N-word." [No link yet, but we saw the story on NY1.]
• The mother of an escaped convict is telling him through the press to keep running, and knows some day he'll be exonerated of his crime. We foresee either a one-armed man eventually brought to justice or subsequent imprisonment in a South American jail.
• Civil disobedience on 5th Avenue. We did not realize this, but the city has offered free vendor licenses to military veterans since the Civil War. Dan Rossi is protesting the curtailment of the practice by parking his hot dog cart right in front of The Metropolitan Museum.
• There's an interesting installation at the Gavin Brown Enterprise on Greenwich St. created by artist Urs Fischer, who's dug a hole in the ground. It is an absolutely enormous hole in the ground.
• Michael Douglas is the new announcer for the NBC Nightly News. Anderson Cooper responds that he would also consider a celebrity announcer, like Fran Drescher, Clint Eastwood, Paul Reubens, or Cher.
• Macy's is going to stay open 24 hours a day until Christmas Eve. Those are going to be some tired elves.
• A siamese cat named Yoda was bludgeoned to death in an Upper East Side doorman building. Sarah Favorite, the girlfriend of Yoda's owner, was arrested and is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

New York City is getting safer and safer. Well, at least Manhattan is. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau told reporters yesterday that there have only been 65 murders in the borough this year, down 40% from last year. When Morgenthau took office in 1975, the borough had 648 murders, accounting for almost 40% of the city's total. The 65 homicides this year account for just 14% of the city total. The 88-year-old DA attributed the drop to "excellent work done by the police and prosecutors." Police stats project the entire city with 500 fewer murders this year, the lowest number since 1963.

What is Rudy Giuliani getting for the new year? It looks like he's in for some campaign tactics from families representing firefighters that died on 9/11 that The Post is calling "Swift Boat" like. James Riches, a deputy fire chief who's son James Jr., a firefighter who died at Ground Zero, is organizing the campaign against the former mayor. Riches told The Post that things should be "up and running" for January 1st and that "the purpose is going to be to set the record straight about 9/11. Rudy Giuliani is not a hero."

A poignant week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure?

The spread opened at 27 points. It's recently settled at 24 1/2 points, which, if held, would be the largest ever for an NFL game. More went into that spread than a terrible team playing an unbeaten one on the road. The Patriots have been running up the score on opponents all year, and everyone thinks they're doing it to teach the league a lesson after it was exposed -- on the word of jets Coach Eric Mangini -- that New England was recording the Jets' defensive signals during a Week 1 win in the Meadowlands.

With Christmas less than two weeks away, the annual holiday light display is raging through the nights in Dyker Heights, home of TV’s Scott Baio. Every year tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to the outer-borough Brooklyn neighborhood to gawk at the private homes decked out with millions of dazzling lights.

SHOP: Still looking for that perfect gift? The Brooklyn Historical Society is holding the 4th Annual NY Creates Craft Fair, and they may have just what you're looking for. Check it out today and tomorrow, and it will be back the 22nd and 23rd for the real last-minute shoppers.

Just because the 2009 elections are over 22 months away doesn't mean some interesting moves can't happen. Adolfo Carrion Jr. (pictured, on left), the Bronx Borough President, has decided to run for City Comptroller in 2009, making it a tough field and shedding light on the mayoral contest.

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...

Robert Morgenthau's stranglehold on the position of Manhattan District Attorney has lasted 33 years but today's Post tittered that he was mulling an "early exit." Page Six reported that a "well-connected legal source" said the 88-year-old DA was orchestrating a retirement to have Cyrus Vance Jr. installed for a few years. Apparently Morgenthau wants Vance Jr., once an assistant DA, in place to block his former protegee and 2005 Democratic primary opponent Leslie Crocker Snyder,...