Track NYC Marathon laps with these smart apps

Now you can track your marathon runner’s laps with apps. Here are some ways to experience Sunday’s race, without breaking a sweat:

Athlete Tracker
* Follow your fave participant by punching in their names, bib number or country into ingnycmarathon.org. Runners will all have blue “D-Tags” with computer chips attached to their shoes acting as a mini-GPS. Free.

Athlete Alert
* A text-messaging system that lets you monitor up to three runners at a time. Sign up at ingnycmarathon.org. $2.99.

Mobile Marathon app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
* Download this at iTunes and use it to watch a live feed of the race, view photos and the leaderboard and track up to five runners. $3.99.

RunKeeper app for iPhone, Android
* Sign up at runkeeper.com, a smartphone app that logs athletes’ miles ran, calories burned, etc., to track about 240 runners in the race. Runners using the app get a Foursquare NYC Marathon badge when they finish. Free.