NEW YORK (16-Jul) -- Organizers are billing the third edition of the NYC Half-Marathon presented by NIKE here on Sunday, July 27, as "an Olympic summit of running" because the race will feature a number of Beijing Olympic Marathon athletes, several with legitimate medal hopes.
American Dathan Ritzenhein is one of those Olympians who will be using the New York race as his final tune-up for Beijing, betting that the typically warm and humid conditions here will at least partially simulate Beijing's weather. Other Beijing-bound athletes include 2004 ING New York City Marathon champion Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa, two-time world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, Mexican marathon record holder Madai Perez, and 2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships gold medalist Benita Johnson of Australia.
The race also has a superb supporting cast of road racing specialists, including last year's IAAF World Road Running Championships silver medalsit Patrick Makau of Kenya; former Berlin, Chicago, London and Rotterdam Marathon champion Felix Limo of Kenya; Japanese half-marathon speedster Yuri Kano (1:08:57 PB); and two-time Olympian Alice Timbilil of Kenya.
The race begins with a hilly loop of Central Park (about 10 km), followed by a run through the heart of Times Square before heading west for a very flat final 5 km to the finish just north of Battery Park. Despite the hills in the first half, the course can be very fast, evidenced by the course records of 59:24 by Haile Gebrselassie (2007) and 69:43 by Catherine Ndereba (2006).
The New York Road Runners, who founded and organize the race, reported yesterday that about 19,000 runners attempted to gain entry to the race through a special lottery. About 14,000 were accepted. Last year's race had 9,920 finishers.
There's $70,000 of prize money on the line with $10,000 going to each of the race winners.
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