TCS New York City Marathon – De Blasio: Marathon “Synonymous with Spirit of City” – By Barbara Huebner, NYRR

By Barbara Huebner, NYRR

Who better to tell TCS New York City Marathon runners and spectators to “Get Your New York On” than the city’s mayor?

“Now, we’re New Yorkers, so from time to time we brag that the things we have are the biggest and the best,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the kickoff press conference to the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon. “This is a case where no one debates we have the biggest and the best marathon anywhere in the world.”

Mayor De Blasio called the marathon something that touches us all.

“It’s not just the way we see the people of all nations gathered together,” he said. “It’s not just the way the fans feel a closeness to the athletes. There’s something also about the endurance, the spirit, the ability to do something that seems beyond the human grasp that inspires us. The marathon … helps us to see things in ourselves we didn’t even know were there.”

Joining the mayor were William Bratton, the New York City police commissioner; Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of NYRR; Meb Keflezighi, the 2009 New York City Marathon champion; and Tatyana McFadden, who is seeking her third victory here in the women’s wheelchair division.

With a new mayor in de Blasio and a new title sponsor in Tata Consultancy Services, this marathon—often called the best day of the year in New York City—is celebrating a reinvigorating new beginning.

“Together, we have re-imagined this marathon in its 44th edition,” said Wittenberg. “More than ever, we will capture the passion and spirit of the event and celebrate our city and everybody who plays a part in it. We’ve got a new look, a new feel, full of splashes of color that to us represent the energy and the great diversity of our city.”

When McFadden, 25, broke the tape last year in Central Park, she became the first athlete to win the Grand Slam of marathons in London, Boston, Chicago, and New York in the same year. After an undefeated season in 2013 that included a record six gold medals at the IPC World Championships in addition to her four major marathon titles, McFadden launched 2014 with a silver medal in cross-country skiing at the Sochi Olympics.

Thanks to repeat victories this year in London, Boston, and Chicago, when McFadden starts off across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Sunday, she will be going for the double slam.

“Hello, New York!” said McFadden, adding that New York is “secretly” one of her favorite marathons. In what could serve as a definition of the term “melting pot,” she added: “What I love about marathoning is that it brings all walks of life together at that one starting line, and people gather here one weekend and you get to share stories and get to know other people.”

One of the stories they might share is that of Meb Keflezighi, who came to America when he was 12 as an Eritrean refugee who spoke no English but found running as a way to connect and succeed. He went on to win an Olympic silver medal in 2004 and the Boston Marathon last spring in addition to his surprise 2009 victory in New York, which also was the site of his debut at the distance in 2002. On Sunday, the 39-year-old Keflezighi will be on the starting line here for the ninth time.

“If it wasn’t for New York,” he said, “I wouldn’t be where I am.”

In honoring the next generation of runners and dreamers, Wittenberg and Mayor de Blasio presented Teianna Reed of Archimedes Academy in the Bronx and Miles Bernstein of P.S. 321 in Brooklyn with the first-ever NYRR Youth Running Ambassador of the Year Awards. Both youngsters will participate in the inaugural NBA All-Star Relay in Sunday’s race, running with Mike Breen, the ABC/ESPN and New York Knicks broadcaster, and Brooklyn native Bernard King, respectively.

But Bratton made it clear that you don’t have to be running in the TCS New York City Marathon to revel in it. While chief of the Metropolitan Police in Boston, Bratton was introduced to the race when Boston’s then-mayor, Ray Flynn, competed here.

Not only did Bratton marvel that a 26.2-mile race could be run entirely within a city’s boundaries, he said, but riding in the lead vehicle provided “a thrill of a lifetime” in more ways than one.

“Imagine … 26 miles without a red light,” he said. “When does that ever happen anywhere, particularly in New York City?” 

– See more at: https://www.tcsnycmarathon.org/about-the-race/pro-athlete-and-race-week-stories/de-blasio-marathon-%E2%80%9Csynonymous-with-spirit-of-city%E2%80%9D#sthash.fJ6fSU9C.dpuf