NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The New York City Marathon returns this weekend, but with a pared down field due to COVID-19 restrictions, some are choosing to run the race virtually.
Instead of being part of the crowd running through the city Sunday, 30-year-old Danny Su of Brooklyn will chart his own marathon course.
"I live in Bensonhurst so I'm going to be running up Ocean Parkway, past Prospect Park, connecting to Flatbush, crossing over the Manhattan Bridge and then running along the West Side Highway all the way up to the GWB," said Su.
He is one of 9,000 runners registered for the virtual marathon, said Christine Burke, senior vice president of the New York Road Runners.
"Because of the international travel ban some of those runners are not able to get into the country and so they've trained and they're going to participate virtually," Burke said.
The TCS Marathon app records their miles with GPS while giving the virtual runners much-needed words of encouragement.
"They will press start and if they want to wear headphones, we will narrate for them across 26.2 miles and we'll share with them some sights and sounds of New York. There will be some sounds of the crowd playing in the background," Burke said.
Su who used running as a way to beat depression during the pandemic doesn't feel as if he's missing out by participating in the virtual marathon.
"I think the best thing about it is you get to do it on your own time. You know, you don't have to wake up at 6 a.m. and travel to the start line, you can do it anytime you want," Su said. "It's a race, but you get to do it on your own time and you get to design your own route to run."
His brother will be waiting for him at the George Washington Bridge.
"And we're going to go across to New Jersey to this Japanese market place called Mitsuwa and we're going to eat a lot of ramen," Su said.
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