New York, New York

Hello! Welcome to a special edition of Footprint.

Best of luck to everyone running the New York City Marathon today. See you out there.

As the sun rises over New York City, tens of thousands of runners are headed to Staten Island.

This city is noisy. It’s chaotic. Unpredictable. A bit daunting, too. And there’s really no such thing as a direct route, from A to B.

There’s no better tangible example of this than the New York City Marathon.

Some 55,000 runners are about to take the long way around New York: a meandering 26.2-mile tour around five boroughs, across five bridges, and through the heart of a city that does nothing by halves.

An estimated two million people are expected to cheer on a parade of runners – led by Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the greatest marathoner in history – as it makes its way through the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.

US Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel, who is running today’s race, likens the course to a 26-mile circus. And when the show begins, it won’t stop until Central Park.

“From start to finish, it feels like a party,” two-time finisher Nate Kahaiali’i told Footprint. “I found it very moving [to] see runners seeing loved ones and embracing with hugs and kisses.”

Marathons are simple, on paper. No rackets, points, or obscure rules – just a start line, a finish line, a clock, and you. In practice, of course, they rarely feel so straightforward.

Here is a challenge that can, and often does, feel insurmountable. Taking it on requires taking stock of where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to get there, without knowing exactly what lies ahead.

Toeing the line amounts to a bold bet on the future: a leap of faith, of sorts, albeit one with many thousands of steps along the way.

Johnny Pye, a stroke survivor from the Bronx, is one of four New Yorkers training for the marathon who feature in 26.2, a short film released by New York Road Runners this week.

“I’ve had some dark chapters in my life,” Pye says during the documentary. “But I like to think that the best ones are still coming. And the New York City Marathon, I’m hoping, to be my greatest one yet.”

“I don’t like running,” LaDawn Jefferson, an administrative aide at the NYPD and breast cancer survivor, declares during 26.2, while training for last year’s marathon.

But Jefferson is also running this year’s race. The marathon isn’t really about running.

Connie Brown, who appeared in the first edition of Footprint, has run the New York City Marathon 44 times. A year ago, for the first time since 1978, she couldn’t make it.

Brown, 81, was determined to return – and this weekend, she will. “I don’t expect to win my age group, like I did in 2023, but I will be at the finish line,” she assured Footprint in an email this week. “I don’t care how long it takes me.”

“I love running through the city and seeing all the people cheering,” said Brown. “I love running beside people from all over the world, knowing we are driven by the same desires to be out there.

“I love the excitement of the marathon, and seeing many friends I only see that first Sunday in November each year, but feel a close connection to them. Most of all I am grateful to be days away from reaching my 82nd birthday and still able to be out there.”