NYC double?

Apparently there's talk of running the NYC marathon at some point in the future twice, a race on Saturday and another on Sunday, because the demand is there.  When I ran NY in 2005?  2006?  2004?, it was the biggest marathon ever.  But it was only around 40,000 runners, so it's since been beaten. 

So I hate to post something someone else wrote, but this blurb was short and it really made me laugh -- some opposition to the two day running of NY. 

Here's the link if you want to click over:  http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/11/new_york_city_marathon_two_days.php

Otherwise, if you're as lazy as I am sometimes with clicking, here's the post by Jen Doll:

Marathons! Here's the thing. We do not get them. No, we don't get them at all. First of all, is it really healthy to force your body to move that far, for that long? Isn't "nipple chafing" a sure sign that you're doing too much? But, fine, we respect your right to run for a long time and then wrap yourself in a shiny, robot-esque, heat-sealing blanket afterward. We respect your right to consume strange untasty gels out of miniature packets. We respect your right to wear those horrible shoes that make your feet look like fingers. We respect it! You are better than us, and we know it. But! We must draw the line at making the New York City Marathon a two-day event as opposed to a one-dayer. We simply do not have enough strength in our upper arms to hand out bananas for that long!

The Daily News reports that despite our personal beliefs about marathons, a lot of people really like them, and the largest such race in the world, the New York City Marathon (this Sunday! Buy some bananas!) just keeps getting bigger. The race's organizers are considering making it a two-day event that could allow for 100,000 runners. Oh joy.

"We could run on Saturday and Sunday," said Mary Wittenberg, race director and president of the New York Road Runners. "The demand is there. When I started (in 1998), there was a feeling that the marathon absolutely can't grow anymore. But I don't think growth is capped. People desperately want to run this race."

Hence, there have been "initial discussions" about the idea of a two-dayer, which would require a traffic shutdown of the route for the entire weekend, making it, at this point, a bit of a far off idea, most likely. But, we have to say, making a marathon LONGER is so very marathon. You guys are nothing if not consistent!


47,000 runners will run this Sunday's race, compared to the 45,350 that ran last year. We'll be cheering you on from our couch, where we've collapsed from the effort of thinking about what we should wear to the gym.


By the way, there's a new mobile app for tracking people who run, which we like because, you know, anything that makes our lives easier.

Definitely a funny post worth sharing.  It does suck when there's a race in your hood that you're not running and it screws up your travel plans for the day!