The 2021 NYC Marathon
Last year, Covid-19 prevented the 50th staging of the world’s largest marathon and the signature event of the world’s premier community running organization, the New York Road Runners (NYRR) which is held every first Sunday of November. The 2019 event attracted 54,205 runners from 141 countries. Of the number registered, 53,627 crossed the finish line.
The New York City Marathon returned last November 7 to a limited field of 33,000 runners with health and safety protocols enforced. The 42.2-kilometer run took runners to the five boroughs of NYC with an 8am gun start at Staten Island then on to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and ended at Central Park in Manhattan.
Elite runners, as usual dominated by Kenyans, covered the distance in a little over 2 hours. 25,014 finished the race with an overall average time of 4 hours and 40 minutes for the course. Albert Korir of Kenya topped the race with a time of 2 hours and 8 minutes. Peres Jepchirchir, also of Kenya, topped the women’s field, timing in at 2 hours and 22 minutes. For their efforts, both went home with $100,000.
The men and women’s Open Division, where Korir and Jepchirchir were entered, equally received $267,00 shared according to the first 10 finishers based on gun start. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th finishers were rewarded with $60,000, $40,000, $25,000 and $15,000. 6th to 10th finishers received $10,000, $7,500, $5,000, $2,500 and $2,000.
There’s the USA Division, exclusive only to US citizens which gives prize money to the top five finishers in the men and women’s category. First place gets $25k, second gets $15k with $10k, $5k and $3k for 3rd to 5th placers.
The youngest finisher was 18-year old Abigail Solomon of NYC with a time of 5 hours and 29 minutes. Stephen Wertheimer from California, was the oldest finisher at 83-years old, crossing the finish line in 8 hours and 41 seconds.
A few weeks prior to the race, runners did their practice runs inside the 340-hectare Central Park as well as along the wide pedestrian sidewalks around the city, doing their thing well into the night, oblivious to the chilly weather.
Going to work on Monday, the day after the race, there was a good number of people proudly wearing their finishers’ medal going around the city. Late in the afternoon, there were still some people within the vicinity of Central Park and 5th Avenue with medals around their necks. They were really proud of finishing the world’s largest marathon, the NYC Marathon.
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