Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Bigger Marathons?

How big can you get?

New York Marathon guru Mary Wittenberg has indicated she'd like to expand the current race size, and the wave start may be precursor.

Other marathons may grow as well as more and more people participate in the 26.2-mile event. But in some cases, the roads simply can't handle the size of the race.

An interesting discussion in this morning's NY Times.

P.S. Aren't you glad the race wasn't yesterday? Latest weather forecast for Sunday, high of 50, with that threat of showers seemingly dissipated

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The quote from the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, who has clearly never tried to find a piece of ground at the Athlete Village to sit on while waiting for the start, or had to wait on a potty line, suggests that if the marathon brings tourist dollars to New York an expansion to 50,000 runners just requires thinking harder.
If attracting tourists is the objective, we can expect that entry requirements for New Yorkers wouldn't be eased, in fact that perhaps the "nine race" requirement could be even more demanding.