The NYC Marathon was first established in 1970 and is traditionally run on the first Sunday of November each year.

The New York City course runs 26.219 miles through five of NYC’s boroughs.

The event was initially organised by local running club, New York Road Runners.

The first running in 1970 saw 127 entrants with just 55 finishes. The course used back then simply consisted of multiple laps of Central Park’s, Park Drive.

The current modern day course record is held by Kenyan, Geoffrey Mutai with a time of 2:05:06 set in 2011. The women’s record belongs to fellow Kenyan, Margaret Okayo who set a time of 2:22:31 back in 2003.

The 2012 NYC Marathon was cancelled at short notice due to the after effects of Hurricane Sandy which effected the USA’s East Coast. This was despite New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg originally declaring the Marathon would go ahead anyway.