why not have two NYC marathons next year back-to-back?

For starters, there's no way they'd ever shut down the Queensborough Bridge for two straight days.

Why not?

This is a brilliant idea.

I have been wondering if this is one of the things that is holding them up from providing information. Perhaps they are trying to push for this option with the city/working out the logistics, but they don't want to leak anything in the event things don't work out. Mary W has mentioned making it a two day event to make it even larger... maybe next year is when that happens, but at the same time, I am not sure how the public will react to shutting down the city streets for two straight days with all the current negativity already surrounding the race...

They should run it every weekend

Was Mystified wrote:

For starters, there's no way they'd ever shut down the Queensborough Bridge for two straight days.

It's named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge now.

Just one is better otherwise Mary has to double the union bribes and $250/hour pay to NY pig dept militants.

Or have one race the last Sunday in October and the 2nd race the 1st Sunday in October.

9/10 for absurdity and trolling the founder.

Or........

They can just run the marathon like normal and expect people to understand that the city got blasted by a huge hurricane, but then that would be way too much to expect out of self absorbed runners.

Look this issue is over. Stop beating this very very dead horse.

So if I ran the race on Saturday and on Sunday would I still be able to call myself a "Marathon Maniac"?

Technically, they were held on back to back days so I should get credit. Then again, even though they were held on back to back days, I ran the 2012 race in 2013 so the possibility does exist of them not letting me in based upon this.

I am so confused.

Go ahead and retire this as the dumbest idea of the month.

There has been alot of talk in the past 2 years to make the marathon a two day event anyway. Their plan was to do women Saturday and men on Sunday, this might be a good time to do it.

ArloTheHouseCat wrote:

Look this issue is over. Stop beating this very very dead horse.

Considering that the NYRR hasn't said what they're doing next year, the issue is so NOT over. I was in NYC for that marathon cluster-you-know-what and believe me, a lot of the locals don't want the race to mess up traffic for one day let alone 2. Bunch of whiners, seriously.

Transparency ? Open the books ? How much does Mary pay out for perks to Stephanie, Pinkowski, and other cronies ? Union bribes ? NYPD overtime rate ?

Eugene, OR is the only Track Town, USA !

it would be interesting to see if the spectator support and enthusiasm would be watered down with two race in two days.

Some of the rappers and guys with microphones stay out there for hours. It would be difficult to come back and do it again one day later.

This is a great idea and is actually exactly in keeping with Mary's ambition for the race, which is to expand to two days (she floated the idea of having the women on Saturday and the men on Sunday, or the like) so that she can expand to 100,000 per year. This idea would get the city accustomed to having the two days of marathon closing the streets, and then in 2014, she'd be able to bring in 100,000 new entries as she already stated was her desire prior to this year's catastrophe.

See the evidence:

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-11-04/news/30352479_1_race-director-mary-wittenberg-marathon-organizers-elite-runners

Clearly the NYC Marathon operated at capacity already prior to 2012.

Runners start getting to the start around 5am with the first start being 9:40am. The last start is 10:20 with an 8 hour time limit (yes, really!!!) and an estimated 10 min that it takes runners to clear the start that has the last official finishers at around 6:30pm, or right around dusk.

So yes, two days would be the only option if you want to increase the field.

Or get rid off all the penguins.