by New York is a city built on detours. Even the simplest trip can light a penny – whether it is an unexpected road closure, an unreliable metro or the unorthodox navigation of a taxi driver – in a prolonged, often painful expedition.
The city marathon is no exception.
While the sun rises on Sunday, more than 50,000 runners will descend to Staten Island, the views to reach Central Park. While the most direct route to the finish line would cover just over 16 miles, an Slog of 26.2 miles through the five districts of the city, out of five bridges and a multitude of rolling hills are for the runners.
The New York Marathon is widely considered the main major in the world for a reason.
Tamirat tola of Ethiopia and Hellen Obiri from Kenya, each victorious a year ago, are back to defend their titles. They will face a strong competition: the other previous winners returning to the fray include Evans Chebet, Albert Korir and Geoffrey Kamworor in the male field; And Sharon Lokedi and Edna Kiplagat in women.
A series of American hopes are also in the mixture, with the Olympians Conner Mantz, Clayton Young and Dakotah Popehn from Paris; CJ Albertson in competition only a few weeks after a solid performance in Chicago; And the winner of the 2018 Boston marathon, Linden, returning for the fifth time.
But the pack of the largest marathon in the world is as wide as it is deep. The former champions and Olympians confronted with this course will also lead a legion of runners – beginners, fundraising and octogenial veterans among them – during this convoluted tour.
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The Guardian spoke to four athletes while they were preparing for the Sunday race.
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A few minutes after the start of the race, while the elite pack evolves the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge, and the highest point of the route, Linden gives himself a brief glance on the left. “I always take a moment to appreciate views in the city,” she said. “It’s just spectacular.”
Weave in each district and live each unique community, “the roads are closed so that you are in the center, have a parade and make this tour of the city,” explains Linden, twice Olympian.
The bridges are steep, but the possibility of crossing them – and taking the views – is “quite special”, she adds. New York “is the center of the universe, especially at the Marathon weekend”.
Linden, 41, represented the United States team at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Rio 2016. She managed Boston 11 times and New York Four. This time, the goal is a “finish the same day,” she said with a smile.
Hot favorites, including some of the dominant artists from Paris this summer, can be “a little too rich for me, at this stage of my career”, she admits. “I appreciate and love races, but I have nothing to prove, necessarily, at this stage.”
But you never know how the race will take place. “Anything can happen,” explains Linden. “We will see how it goes.”
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Connie Brown, 80, ran this race more than any other woman: 44 times. For months, she has been training since the 45th.
She remembers having finished for the first time in tears, because her hope that she could do it gave way to the awareness she had. She remembers live groups, full -minded panels and kind words that have helped her go to Central Park so many times since.
And she remembers celebrating the first years dancing all night, including an post-race party in a Broadway nightclub.
Brown ran New York through heat waves and showers, Sous Sunshine and Lightning-The latter was probably going to hit a building than a person, she said that they were cracked above-and crowds spent from acclaim spectators.
A few days before she was to fly for this weekend race, personal circumstances forced Brown to stay at home. in Sarasota, Florida. She always plans to run a marathon on Sunday, heading around 3 a.m. to beat the heat.
At this point, the effort is “part of whom I think I am,” she said. “I am the person who flows at least one marathon per year.”
Over the decades, running “gave me confidence”, explains Brown. “Everything you put your mind – make a goal, make a plan, follow it – you can do it. If you can do it, you can do everything.
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Thousands of runners travel around the world to face New York. Nate Kahaiali’i, 33, has traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Hawaii.
When the teacher and his neighbors were evacuated while the forest fires swept Maui last summer, he thought he would come back early. Kahaiali’i picked up a few songs, not realizing what he chose would become everything he had left from his house.
Like so many others, he lost his house.
Among the small collection he had recovered was his pair of Nike Vaporfly Orange Vifness racing race. For him, they have become “symbolic, in a way”, of his hometown of Lāhainā.
Wearing them, as he will do on Sunday, is “a means for me to honor, but also to represent the community,” explains Kahaialei’i, who collected nearly $ 7,000 (and count) for the reconstruction effort in Selling t-shirts with the words “lāhainā strong”.
“The main hope – whether they buy the shirt or not – is simply to keep Maui in the minds of people,” he said. “It’s been a year, but there are still a lot of work for many families here in Lāhainā.”
Kahaiiali’i, who teaches health, also hopes that his marathons will inspire his students, who call him MK “Whenever I come back, they are like:” Have you won? ” Have you won? ”, He says. “I am like ‘no, I am not that fast’.”
He plans to carry his vaporflys in the six global marathons. With four to do, “they are still in fairly good shape.”
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Concepcion Gonzalez, 65, had not run “even a mile” before this summer. She is about to run her first marathon.
For years, Gonzalez – who has lived in New York for more than three decades – has been sitting in the gallery encouraging his daughter, Teresita, and her son, Luis.
She looked at hundreds of people, of all capacities, and from all horizons, crossed the finish line. “I saw people who look like me, and I thought I could do it one day.”
Gonzalez does not make any illusions that it will be easy. “Everyone goes through difficult times,” she says. “People fall. They can get up. I too can get into this trip. »»
For many of those who attack it, this course is less a race than it is a feat of resilience; More a test of perseverance than rhythm. But it is prepared.
Gonzalez, who will run alongside Teresita, 29, and Luis, 32, Sunday, is delighted to see his city from a new angle. “I feel a feeling of pride, from New York,” she says, “being able to represent New York”.
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Brown, who managed New York for the first time in 1978, has many tips for beginners. “Don’t eat anything you didn’t eat before” the day before, to start. Don’t worry too much about sleeping well either. And if one of your knees begins to feel doubtful, “think of your other knee”.
Linden recommends treating the first two kilometers – a steep climb on Verrazzano, setting up a sophisticated descent – like a warm -up, and not to worry too much about the rhythm. “Really, it’s great,” she says, “because New York is just a 24-thousand marathon when you get these two out.”
Conversely, once you reach Manhattan in the second half, try not to push too hard. The crowd is “just electric”, says Linden, “and you will feel like” I have to win “because they go so crazy. But you still have a long way to go.
Just soak everything, adds brown. “Don’t miss things,” she says. “Do not be so in yourself and focused on your race that you do not see the neighborhoods, that you do not see the people who are there.”
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Some people run New York to show the world. Others are there to show up.
As the time of the elite marathon becomes faster and faster, those at the front take place against the clock. But the majority of runners travel the five districts run For something.
For some, this marathon is equivalent to an exhausting physical test. Others will meet the mental challenges that materialize when your body is pushed to its limits. Many, otherwise most, will be forced to struggle with both.
Regardless of the journey that led them here; Whether it is their first time, or 45th; Whether they are a few thousand kilometers, or a stone throwing, from their home; Some 50,000 will come together in the early hours of Sunday with the same fundamental objective.
Central Park is waiting.
