Running Week

IAAF World Championships Marathon bronze medalist Reiko Tosa tuned up for the Beijing Olympic Games marathon by winning the Japan Run in Central Park on June 1 in 24:44. Tosa, her training partner Chisato Osaki, and translator Takeshi Yamazaki never stopped smiling as they celebrated Japanese culture and running in NYC.

NYRR has set up shop in Central Park for Running Week (through June 8) with our Runner Station, located on the bridle path at Engineers' Gate (near E. 90th Street). Expert coaches and staff are on hand to offer training tips, tools, and more. Click here for the Runner Station schedule.

Nine-time New York City Marathon champion Grete Waitz (top row, center), the chairwoman of the New York Road Runners Foundation, led 200 NYRRF kids in a one-mile run, a relay race, and other running-related activities at The Kids Aim for 50 on Monday, June 2, at Harlem’s P.S. 192.

Running Week kicked off at a Tavern on the Green luncheon on Monday, June 2, for media and some of the sport's greatest, including Bill Rodgers and Grete Waitz. Check newspapers, broadcasts, and online media throughout the week to read more about how these legends have shaped NYRR’s first 50 years.

Run for Your Life, a documentary film about the life and accomplishments of Fred Lebow, the NYRR president and CEO who pioneered the five-borough New York City Marathon, was shown at the Upper West Side's AMC Theatre on Monday, June 2. The film was well attended and has received excellent reviews.

Running luminaries, industry leaders, and NYRR staff members joined NASDAQ executives, including president and CEO Bob Greifeld, for the Closing Bell on Tuesday, June 3. The group posed in Times Square afterward as part of this special NYRR Presents Running Week celebration.

An NYRR spring tradition, Tuesday Night at the Races features numerous events, from 400 to 3000 meters, including a 4 x 400-meter relay. Local team members and unaffiliated runners can compete in as many events as they choose on the ultra-fast, Olympic-style Mondo track at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island. The final night of racing will begin at 6:30 p.m. on June 10.

Dana Ripley (left), head of external communications for ING Americas, and Otis Livingston (center), sports anchor for Newschannel 4HD's "Today In New York," join NYRR president and CEO Mary Wittenberg to announce the first lucky winners to receive entry to the ING New York City Marathon 2008 through the lottery drawing.

On June 4, 1958, a handful of dedicated runners met at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx to write NYRR into existence. On June 4, 2008, nearly 2,000 equally dedicated athletes met in Central Park, before dawn and in the rain, to celebrate our founding at the NYRR 50th Anniversary Run. What will it be 50 years from now?

The field for the NYRR New York Mini 10K on June 7 includes 2008 U.S. Olympic marathoners (l-r) Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, and Blake Russell, and Hilda Kibet of the Netherlands (r). The foursome appeared at a news conference on June 5. The Mini is the original women-only road race, founded by NYRR in 1972.

On Thursday, June 5, the 2008 U.S. Women's Olympic marathon team of (seated, from left) Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, and Blake Russell met local runners to offer training tips and sign autographs at the Running Week Runner Education Station in Central Park. All three were preparing to race the NYRR New York Mini 10K two days later.

Runners joined the green movement on Friday, June 6, for NYRR Run to Work day. NYRR staff led three group runs from origins in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx to various finishes in Manhattan. This group ran from Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn to City Hall. Half of the runners continued running until 59th Street.

Hilda Kibet and Madaí Pérez took on a formidable field on Saturday, June 7, in the NYRR New York Mini 10K, to place first and second, respectively. Despite hot and humid conditions, more than 4,100 women of all ages and nationalities celebrated the Mini’s 37th running.

The dual city Park to Park is a partnership between New York and Naples that celebrates green spaces and running. The Naples race occurred in the Capodimonte Woods on June 8, and the New York race will occur in Central Park on July 12. Pictured are the winners of Sunday’s race; Abdelaziz Rochdi, 30:22, and Carmela D'Ambra, 37:38.