NYC Marathon brings out more than a million spectators, friends and family as runners support causes large and small
As more than 50,000 runners hit the pavement Sunday for the New York City Marathon, a slew of friends and family turned out to support them, as well as the myriad causes for which they ran.
More than a million spectators from around the globe lined Gotham’s streets to scream and hoot for the runners as they threaded their way through the five boroughs in the 26.2-mile race, which began near Staten Island’s northeastern tip and ended near Central Park.
Some competitors ran simply to challenge themselves, but others were participating in the grueling race to raise money for a good cause or to honor loved ones who are no longer with us and couldn’t be there in person.
Among the cheering throngs were Cali Carpenter and Carol Rauschberg, who held signs for David Rauschberg, 45, and Trey Faulkner, 46 — who were both running to remember their deceased friend, former Navy fighter pilot John Hefti, who died in a car accident three years ago, Carpenter told The Post.
The two founded a charity scholarship organization, Bag’s Buddies, in Hefti’s honor.
“He was just wonderful,” Carpenter said. “He was deployed all over … You want to have the bravest and the smartest people. He was certainly one of them.”
The winners — Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya — secured their victories after deploying late bursts of speed that separated them from the competition in the last few hundred yards.
The first-time victors pulled through with incredible times: Nageeye finished at a blindingly fast 2 hours, 7 minutes and 39 seconds — a blistering pace of 12.31 mph — while Chepkirui crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 24 minutes and 35 seconds, maintaining a pace of 10.87 mph.
But for most attendees of the iconic marathon — now in its 54th year — it wasn’t all about winning.
Sarah Pearson, a 57-year-old from California, was here to root for her 26-year-old daughter, Emma Seevak, as she tried to set her own personal race record.
Seevak, a medical student at Harvard, was running for AMIGOS, an international volunteer program that promotes cultural exchanges, Pearson said.
“Hi mom!” Seevak yelled with a wave as she passed on Lafayette Avenue.
Two other woman — Gloria Romero-Gallon, 63, and her sister Berta Romero-Gallon — flew in from Medellin, Colombia, to cheer on Berta’s son, Andres Giraldo, as he ran.
They wanted to make sure Giraldo, a 38-year-old engineer from Hoboken, saw them — so Berta brought her accordion and Gloria held an attention-grabbing squeaky rubber chicken.
Gloria said she admired her nephew for his dedication.
“I couldn’t do it,” she said. “My knees are killing me.”
Sarah Montes, 29, and her friend Lindley Bell, 34, held aloft a taco-shaped balloon in the hopes that Montes’ boyfriend, Matthew Simonian, would notice it when he jogged by.
“I just wanted to get something he would see,” Montes said, as she wore a T-shirt with his face printed on it. “So I got a floating taco balloon. You can’t miss that!
Near the finish line, Maria Halverson of Seattle huddled with her three kids — ages 12, 9 and 5 — as they ate pastries from Rosetta’s Bakery and waited for their dad, Taylor, to zip by.
“We are so excited,” she said. “They haven’t seen their dad in a big race like this.”
Kerry Reilly Bennett, 36, sat with her husband, Robert, and their twin sons to cheer on friends running to support Christopher Reeve’s organization.
Reilly Bennett ran the marathon last year for her brother, who committed suicide, and her dad, who died suddenly about seven months earlier.
“It was the greatest day of my life,” she said of running the marathon.
Her husband agreed, saying that aside from the day his sons were born, he’d “never been more proud of my wife.”
Reilly Bennett, who ran a year after their birth, said the long runs gave her time to reflect on being a new mom — and the recent deaths she’d endured.
“It was a healing experience to run because I was allowed to share my brother’s story to raise money and to raise awareness,” she said, adding that she ran for the National Association for Mental Illness.
“As a New Yorker, there is nothing greater than to run through your city and feel the love and the energy in the streets.”
