wejo wrote:
Mary Wittenberg, the NYRR director, just said she expects a few hundred thousand people to come out for the Trials to watch.
For a city that prides itself as "The City that never sleeps," weekend mornings are dead. If 30,000 are in the park by 9:00am consider that a huge success.
I work in midtown (around 34th St) and have not seen any advertising for the trials or NYCM.
I also have not seen too many articles in the paper about it. I was expecting more hype.
Although, I plan on coming in and spectating, an 8 or 9 am start makes more sense. I'm sure there were other legit considerations that caused it to have the 7:30 start.
In any case, should be real exciting.
Do not underestimate Mary Wittenberg.
discusstu wrote:
cbax wrote:But I'm sure Mary is going to count all the homeless people, drug addicts and hookers on the route as cheering fans.
If you had been to NYC in the last 10 years, you wouldn't make such a stupid statement. I am guessing your perception of the city comes from watching too much "Law and Order," or a short trip you took to the city before Guiliani was mayor.
Let me get this right. Are you saying that New York is not the way it's portrayed in that movie "The Warriors"?
Hmmm... Mary Wittenberg... where have I heard that name?
I got it, isn't she one of the organizers of the Indianapolis Classic Marathon?! That one's supposed to have 40K runners!
Do not mess with Mary Wittenberg. Mary Wittenberg once wouldn't let an elite athlete drive home from a race after-party. But he wouldn't let Mary Wittenberg drive him home, either. So Mary Wittenberg picked up the car, with him in it, and carried it to his house ... in Connecticut!
NY sub elite wrote:
Once again, I sit here amazed at the lack of sophistication of people at this board and in general those who don't live in New York.
200,000 will be on the low end of spectators. You have to remember this is the first time the trials are being hosted by an organization of this substance.
Even residents who aren't runners will be out to watch the trials because they know the spectacle of Olympic qualifying on the worlds greatest stage is an event not to be missed. The media coverage will be unprecedented as Mary, the NYRR and the grandeur of Gotham push the marathon into the countries consciousness.
uhhh...no, you're quite wrong. not a chance that hundreds of thousands will drag ass out of bed to watch some guys run by. i hope this gets bumped again after the race so you can see how ridiculous you sounded!
There's been the usual NYC Marathon ad blitz on buses and at subway stations, but this time they're hyping both the OT and the NYCM.
And I for one am thrilled by the return of NY sub elite to this forum.
Weldon,
What else was discussed amongst those guys about the trials?
Well...NYC is more than twice as large as the next largest city in the US. So, there's a lot of people in the city. There are 40,000 members in the NYRR. There's an estimated 2 million spectators at the NYC marathon (according to a little googling). The marathon had 37k finishers last year. So, round up to 55 spectators per runner so with 131 OT qualifers let's say 55 x 131, just over 7k spectators. That's my bet.
Alan
Munson wrote:
And I for one am thrilled by the return of NY sub elite to this forum.
Why thank you, I now know you are a man of great sophistication and style......like me.
NY Sub Elite is always checking letsrun, but due to my many sophisticated pursuits in the greatest city in the world, I am not always able to share my worldly knowledge.
You can expect me to be more active in discussions leading up to the trials so all can have a sophisticated viewpoint of what will be the greatest trials held on American soil.
MSK wrote:
I heard it now starts at 7:35, so that will give everyone five extra minutes to get down there.
Hah!
wejo wrote:
Mary Wittenberg, the NYRR director, just said she expects a few hundred thousand people to come out for the Trials to watch.
Do you think that many people will turn out?
The only way that 200,000+ spectators will show up is if they advertise the heck out of it: Radio spots, billboards, buses, etc. And even then they better lie and say that it's the women's marathon trials and that the competitors will be running naked.
And saying that the size of the crowds will be similar to the number of spectators for the regular five borough race ignores the fact that the regular race is basically a 40,000 person parade that comes right through millions of peoples neighborhoods.
So I doubt the number will be as high as Ms. Wittenberg (the "Ms." is for you NY Times readers) is guessing. After all, anybody outside of mid-Manhattan will need to either run, hop on a bus, subway or taxi to get to the park. And let's face it, watching a marathon on site, even on a loop course, is not exactly a scintillating spectator event if you don't know running, or even if you do know running.
With that said I still think that it's great it's in NY City in the park. (And I'm from California.)
columbus running co. is bringing 20 or so people out to watch. that is roughly 1/1000 of 200,000.
keep it real. see you there, distance running fans.
The number of New Yorkers making a point to get up that early on a Saturday morning to watch the trials will be limited to maybe only half of the serious runners in the New York metro area, (the general public will not care in the least) - so I'd guess maybe 20,000, plus the friends and relatives of the runners and limited number of out-of-towners, so maybe 25,000 max, and that's a big maybe. Of course that doesn't count the thousands of people that are normally in the park on a Saturday morning that will have no idea what's going on, and won't care, including the non-serious runners. One thing the joggers will be pissed off about is that part of the road will be closed to running.
Saturday morning is about the only time that New York City sleeps.
Uh, the world's greatest stage will be Boston hosting the Women's Trials next April.
my posse will be rollin' 10 deep for the trials. nonetheless, the only way they're gonna get joe public out there to watch the race is if they give away thundersticks (organge ING thundersticks, of course) or have a free pancake breakfast.
the 7:30 start is going to be fun for us west coast guys. it'll be like waking up at 2am. but then again, who can sleep the night before a marathon anyway?
I think 100m is possible. If they get word out to all the NYC marathon tourists there will be a good show.
I've got 10 people coming that I've told... How many more will come from the 10 people that they tell?
Put Joe Torre in the lead car like he was at NYCM a few yrs. ago and you'll have your 100K spectators no problem, especially if George gives him the axe.