The 2009 New York City Marathon

The first Sunday in November is known as 'Marathon Sunday' in New York. Two million spectators and more than 300 million worldwide television viewers devotes this day to enjoying the New York City Marathon. Cheering fans are lined up along the entire course. After the race starts to the sound of Frank Sinatra singing 'New York, New York', 100 live bands can be heard throughout the day.

The 2009 New York City Marathon is scheduled to be run on November 1, 2009. More than $600,000 in prize money will be awarded to the winners this year. The course will begin on Staten Island. From there, the runners will cross over the Verazano-Narrows Bridge and into Brooklyn and then Queens. They will then cross the Queensboro Bridge and circle Manhattan before entering the Bronx. Once in the Bronx, the race will come to an end outside the famous restaurant Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

The first New York City Marathon was run in 1970 starting with 127 runners making several laps around Central Park. Throughout the past 39 years, it has grown into a grueling, but awesome 26 mile course covering 5 suburbs of New York. An average of 100,000 runners apply for the privilege of entering this race each year. However, only 38,000 of these applications are accepted. Most of the runners are selected in the random lottery drawing.

There are several ways to be accepted to participate in the 2009 New York City Marathon:
1. Guaranteed entry for NYRR members - (For eligibility for guaranteed entry to the 2009 New York City Marathon runners must become members of NYRR by January 31 to qualify for the following year's New York City Marathon. They must then run 9 races during the year prior to the year they will be running the marathon.)

2. Lottery - (Lottery applications for the 40th annual 2009 New York City Marathon will be available online at www.ingnycmarathon.org from February 19, 2009 until June 1, 2009 for US citizens and from February 19, 2009 until May 1, 2009 for non-citizens. Lottery results will be posted on the website in mid-June. ***Your acceptance will automatically be guaranteed if this is the fourth straight year that you have joined the lottery and you were not chosen the 3 previous years.***)

3. Raise $2500 for a NYRR charity - (You can be guaranteed an entry into the 2009 New York City Marathon if you raise $2500 for a charity. More information and a partial list of the participating charities can be found at www.ingnycmarathon.org/charities_index.htm)

4. Meet certain qualifying times - (If your completion time in a prior race was within certain limits, you automatically qualify for the 2009 New York City Marathon. More information on qualifying times can be found on their official website, http://www.nycmarathon.org/)

5. 2008 dropout - (If for some reason, you had to withdraw from the 2008 New York City Marathon prior to the day of the race, you will automatically be guaranteed a spot in the 2009 New York City Marathon.)

Sources:
1) www.ingnycmarathon.org
2) www.ingnycmarathon.org/charities_index.htm
3) http://www.nycmarathon.org/