Officials from the N.Y. Road Runners began work yesterday to determine how Sunday's ING N.Y. Marathon “might be affected by flooding and power outages” from Hurricane Sandy, according to Belson & Pilon of the N.Y. TIMES. N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg last night said that the race "would go on as scheduled, but that additional details would be provided” today. Race officials were “weighing which race-related events to reschedule or eliminate, and waiting to see how many runners would seek to defer their entries.” NYRR BOD member Norman Goluskin said, “There will be a marathon. I don’t know how many thousands of people will run it, but I will say with confidence that 47,000 people will not be the number.” Belson & Pilon note runners and fans have been “arguing whether holding the marathon is an act of triumph or tastelessness in light of the storm.” For now, the course “remains a question mark,” as many of the city’s bridges and tunnels “only reopened Tuesday afternoon and some roads are still impassable, so race officials had not determined whether any part of the 26.2-mile course was flooded.” The course “does not pass through Lower Manhattan, which lost power Monday night and had significant flooding.” But about “half of the nearly 50,000 runners take the Staten Island Ferry, which leaves from the Battery, to get to the starting line early Sunday morning.” The ferry “may resume service, but subways leading to the Battery may not be operating” (N.Y. TIMES, 10/31). NYRR yesterday sent out a press release stating it “remains 100-percent committed” to staging the race. The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Sara Germano reported “thirteen minutes later the organization retracted the statement.” Then NYRR President & CEO Mary Wittenberg “ninety minutes later” issued a statement to media that “did not guarantee the race would happen” (WSJ.com, 10/30).
