NYC Marathon 2012: Mayor says race won’t divert resources from storm victims

NEW YORK — The blue and orange finish line is in place in Central Park, no superstorm debris in sight.

Little else is normal with the New York City Marathon.

The course will be the same since there was little damage but getting to the finish line could still be an adventure for runners from outlying areas.

Such is life in Sandy’s aftermath — disrupted trains, planes, buses and ferries, flooded buildings, blocked roads and knocked out power.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg saw none of this as insurmountable and defended the decision to hold the race, insisting resources wouldn’t be diverted from storm victims. He noted Thursday that electricity was expected to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up “up an enormous number of police.”

“This city is a city where we have to go on,” he said.

City Council member Domenic Recchia Jr., however, called plans to hold the race “just wrong” in light of the ongoing misery among residents with no food, shelter or electricity.

The marathon brings an estimated $340 million into the city. Organizers will also use it as a backdrop to raise money for recovery efforts. New York Road Runners, which operates the event, will donate $1 million to the fund and said more than $1.5 million in pledges already had been secured from sponsors.

Some runners will take ferries to the start on Staten Island as in past years. After the storm, organizers initially planned to use only buses, but the city wanted the ferry to be involved. Bloomberg expected full ferry service to resume by Saturday.

Runners from Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and New Jersey, with trouble reaching Manhattan, will be bused directly from those areas to the start. Organizers planned to release complete details on transportation Friday.

Many of the nearly 30,000 out-of-town entrants were still scrambling to get to New York, aided somewhat by the reopening of the area’s three major airports. NYRR President Mary Wittenberg predicted more than 8,000 of the 47,500 entrants originally expected won’t make it.

Wittenberg said runners who had to cancel did not seem concerned about losing their entry fee, per race policy, but were simply relieved they would be guaranteed a spot in the popular race next year.

Kenyan runners, including men’s favorites Wilson Kipsang and Moses Mosop, flew from Nairobi to London to Boston, then drove to New York, arriving late Wednesday.

Favorites in the women’s race include Olympic gold medalist Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia, bronze medalist Tatyana Arkhipova of Russia and world champion Edna Kiplagat of Kenya.

The course winds from Staten Island to Brooklyn, then Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and back into Manhattan for the finish in Central Park. The park was still closed Thursday, but will be ready by Sunday. The route has never included areas hit hard by flooding, such as Coney Island and Lower Manhattan

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