This city marathon will be run -- in Brooklyn
Runners who were planning to participate in the New York City Marathon, which was cancelled due to superstorm Sandy, instead ran through Central Park in Manhattan. (Nov. 4, 2012) Credit: AP
Organizers of Sunday's Brooklyn Marathon are calling the second-year event "the 2012 New York marathon that happened" and expect "more than a few" of the race's 500 entrants to be runners who had planned to run the Nov. 4 New York City Marathon that was cancelled in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
Decidedly low-key compared to the five-borough New York City event, the Brooklyn Marathon will be run in loops in and around Prospect Park, which has had to be cleared of downed trees and other debris following Sandy.
The Brooklyn race was started last year by 40-year-old Steve Lastoe, a self-described "middle of the pack" runner who is founder of NYCRUNS.com and the NYCRUNS newsletter, which provides information on races and running clubs in the metropolitan area.
There were 350 runners in the inaugural Brooklyn marathon last year. One Web posting on NYCRUNS.com claimed the race will "give hundreds of New Yorkers (and a few from as far away as Europe) a chance to run a timed 26.2-mile race right in the heart of New York City . . .. New York needs to heal, but it also needs a marathon. And in 2012, we're here to make that happen."
NYCRUNS also plans some post-storm relief efforts, donating a portion of each runner's entry fee to help the Prospect Park Alliance repair damage in the park.
