NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City is getting another major marathon that will be run through the streets of Brooklyn.
Runners will start in Williamsburg and make their way through Brooklyn to Coney Island as part of the new event.
It’s the first marathon in the city to be granted a permit to run through the streets since the New York City Marathon was established in 1976, according to Steve Lastoe the founder of New York City Runs.
“With the Brooklyn Marathon, we have a chance to, obviously, make a lot of local runners happy, but also to help a lot of local causes, local businesses and do a lot of really, really cool stuff and help build back New York to a better New York than we had before,” he said.
The 26.2-mile race will be held one week after the Boston Marathon with a field of 25,000 runners – which is less than half of the New York City Marathon’s pandemic field.
Lastoe says they are not trying to compete with the New York City Marathon.
“We have a different vision for the Brooklyn Marathon and Half Marathon – maybe a more locally oriented vision at this point. There's no reason they can't coexist,” he said.
He adds that the New York City Marathon will still draw thousands of people every year, but they would be happy to host a smaller event.
“From a business perspective and I always look at it like this: New York Road Runners has been Coca-Cola for a very long time and they deserve to be Coca-Cola, they've earned it. We'll be very happy we've had to be Pepsi,” he said.
Lastoe is hoping the race will provide runners with another opportunity to run, as the Boston Marathon is notoriously difficult to enter.
“There really isn't anything else on the East Coast in the spring so, this is going to be a real opportunity for runners, locally as well as all over the world – it doesn't currently exist at all,” he said.
His goal for the upcoming Brooklyn Marathon is to help local causes and businesses hurt by the pandemic shutdowns.
Registration opens on July 1. For more information, visit NYCRuns.com.
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