Over 300,000 Entered
NYRR Races Last Year
Posted January 16th, 2008 at 9:18 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons
The New York Road Runners are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and the group of about 40 runners who founded the organization dedicated to improving the world through running and walking back in 1958 could never have imagined how it would have grown. The nonprofit NYRR now has 45,000 members, and last year 309,003 runners signed up for their year-round calendar of 62 events. 230,702 athletes of all ages and abilities finished their races.
By far their biggest event was the ING New York City Marathon. Over 100,000 runners requested entry, but only about half that number were accepted through a system of lotteries, guaranteed entries based on performance and participation in other NYRR races, charity groups, and international tour groups. Through the normal process of attrition, entries dwindled to around 40,000 by race week, and 38,607 actually finished the 42.195 km event from Staten Island to Manhattan. That made it the largest standard marathon in history.
Their second largest event was the NYC Half-Marathon presented by NIKE last August, which had 9,927 finishers. The NYRR routinely holds events with more than 4,000 finishers, mostly in Manhattan’s Central Park.
The NYRR also hosted two national championships last year. The first was the USA Men’s 8-K Championship last March, won by steeplechaser Anthony Famiglietti, and then the USA Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon last November, won by Ryan Hall. One hundred eighty of America’s top athletes competed in these two races. The NYRR will again host the USA Men’s 8-K Championship on March 15.
The 2008 NYRR calendar will be just as robust. Of particular interest in the near term will be the Empire State Building Run-Up, an invitational race where athletes climb 1,576 steps to the 86th floor observatory of New York City’s tallest building.
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
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Tags: 50th anniversary, Empire State Building Run Up, ING New York City Marathon, new york, New York City, new york road runners, Nike NYC Half Marathon, ny, NYC Half Marathon, nyrr, u.s. olympic mens marathon trials, usa mens 8 k championship, USA Olympic Team Trials Mens Marathon
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The Final Sprint
[…] Over 300,000 Entered NYRR Races Last Year […]
January 16th, 2008 at 11:11 am[…] So what are the odds of getting a spot via the lottery ? NYRR does not officially release that information, but it’s possible to guesstimate … In 2007, there were 100,000 applicants., about 50,000 registered (including both lottery and guaranteed entrants), but only 39,265 people started the race as many either cancel or “no-show” on race day. The dropout rate for non-US residents should be very low as most have purchased tour packages guaranteeing entry. Looking at the finisher breakdown, about 18871 (49%) were US residents and 19736 (51%) were not. […]
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 pmSo your trying to guestimate, eh? I wouldnt do that if i were you, as I am sure that so called ‘lottery’ is very very fixed.. If your not from Zimbabwe and your name isnt Lance Armstrong - its probably an instant rejection. I have applied for 2 races in NYC the past month, my hometown, and got rejected from both. Everyone i know who applied via lottery for the marathon got rejected. They need a better system of choosing who runs. I want a real number of how many of those 40,000 ppl were from the lottery and how many are average folks.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:12 pm