40th Anniversary of the NYC Marathon

This weekend, on the streets of the Big Apple, drama unfolded. No, it was not the Yankees taking another game from the Phillies. Instead, one of the greatest road races in the country and, arguably, the world was run. This year, the 40th running of the ING NYC Marathon saw an American male athlete win the race for the first time in more than 20 years. To many people this was just a blip on the radar screen, but to marathon junkies like myself it was a pretty incredible feat. In many ways, I believe it demonstrated the resurgence of American distance running and its return to the international running scene. Congrats to Meb and Ryan and the other American athletes who performed so well on Sunday.

As I watched the race on TV, I could not help but think back to the 2 times I had the opportunity to cross the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, run up 4th Street through Queens and over into Manhattan, run up 1st Avenue with thousands of people cheering me on, catch a glimpse of Yankee stadium as I entered the Bronx, and running the final 4 miles of the race through the middle of Central Park. To put it simply, it was an incredible experience. An experience I hope I get another chance to do again.

So if you have any aspirations of running your first marathon or you've already competed in several marathons, you need to look into running NYC. You will never regret it. They have already opened the lottery system for the 2010 race next November. Check it out here.