By: Lauren Male ’27

The annual New York City Marathon just made its revisit to the city on Sunday, November 5, wreaking the same havoc it does every year: closing down some major New York City streets for up to ten hours and hindering city residents’ weekly Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods runs. Like me, many other out-of-state Pace students may not have known of the immense gravity or deep history of this event as it passed—literally—across the Brooklyn Bridge.  

The first New York City Marathon was run on September 13, 1970, in Central Park. The race has grown considerably since its humble beginnings; its 55 finishers in 1970 grew to 51,402 in 2023, and its entry fee of $1 (about $8 in today’s money) has increased to $295 for runners from the United States, and $358 for those from other countries. It wasn’t until six years after the first Marathon event that it grew into a city-wide run that passed through all five New York City boroughs, thanks to some hefty donations from a wealthy real-estate family. It was this that finally launched the Marathon into what would become the annual international wonder, the symbol of humanity and community, that it is today.  

The 2023 New York City Marathon was the world’s largest marathon this year. 148 countries were represented, along with all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam. In the men’s open division, Tamirat Tola from Ethiopia placed first, with a time of 2:04:58, and Hellen Obiri from Kenya placed first in the women’s, with a time of 2:27:23. They each won a cash prize of $100,000. The 2023 Marathon was notable for several reasons: Tamirat Tola broke the men’s record by 8 seconds; Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his third consecutive and sixth overall race in the Marathon’s wheelchair division; and four finishers from the wheelchair division, Daniel Romanchuk, Aaron Pike, Susannah Scaroni, and Tatyana McFadden, have already earned spots on Team USA for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the first to be named on Team USA for any sport. 

The New York City Marathon never fails to make history in its annual returns to the city on the first Sunday of November. The race and its participants have made strides in fostering gender equality, especially when it comes to athletic events, as well as an international sense of community that is found in few other events, and always reminds spectators and runners of their faith in humanity to come together despite ongoing political tensions between participating countries. I, along with the rest of the world, cannot wait to see what records are broken next year!