2023 NYC Marathon sidelights
With a cannon boom, the 53rd edition of the world’s most anticipated and popular marathon happened last Sunday under clear skies and moderate weather with participants egged on by Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”.
More than 128,000 applications from 153 countries and all 50 states for the NYC Marathon were received with 51,900 registered entrants. A runner’s Expo took place at the Javits Center where runners are required to pick up their race materials. Visitors as well as runners spent an estimated $430 million which gave revenues to the city from hotels, restaurants and other related activities. Almost all the registered participants finished the race.
Including Cebu’s Afshin Ghassemi, 235 were registered under the Philippine flag and they had a carbo-loading party at the Philippine Consulate at 5th Avenue hosted by Consul Adrain Cruz.
Of course, the biggest marathon in the world also generates a huge amount of trash. Last year, exactly 235 tons of Gatorade cups, energy gel packs, banana peels, plastic water bottles and discarded signs from spectators were gathered.
80 volunteers were stationed at the start and finish lines to sort trash for recycling and composting. With mechanical brooms and backpack blowers, 250 sanitation workers cleaned up the miles of trash and by Monday morning, the entire route had been cleaned.
And yes, going to work early Monday morning, we met several people along the way, from the yuppie types to the older mature types, who obviously had finished the marathon as they were proudly wearing their finishers’ medal on their necks. Late afternoon, we still saw a few coming out of their hotels wearing medals. I probably would be that proud too if I had achieved that feat.
With a few members in the race, a running club called Run and Chug handed out free cups of light beer to runners, some of which happily took. They meet every Wednesday for a four-mile night run and head to a bar afterwards.
Along the route, protesters on the Israel-Hamas war were present but they coexisted peacefully. Palestinian flags were waved several feet away from people waving the Israeli flag. Runners interacted with them, giving either the thumbs up or thumbs down, making high fives.
Officially finishing at 51,258th place with a time of 8 hours, 43 minutes and 34 seconds, 65-year old Joel Kauffman of Queens, brought the rear of the NYC Marathon and closed the race. The race is officially closed 8.5 hours after the last wave of runners crosses the finish line at 11:30am. Give or take several minutes, any runner who crosses the finish line by 8pm is still considered a finisher.
Aside from medals, finishers receive an orange poncho, a recovery bag containing Gatorade products, an apple, protein bar and a pack of pretzels.
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