York City Marathon

NEW YORK -- Last year, the New York City Marathon attracted the world record-holder for the women's marathon, Paula Radcliffe, who won, redeeming herself after dropping out of the Olympic marathon. This year, the race has the men's world record-holder, Paul Tergat of Kenya. Tergat, who ran his record-breaking 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003, could only manage 10th in the 2004 Olympic marathon and eighth in the London Marathon this spring. A victory today would put him back in the spotlight.

Patty Snodgrass had qualified to run in her first New York City Marathon three years ago, but injuries derailed the retired U.S. Treasury Department employee from fulfilling that dream. She was going to use what is essentially a rain check from the New York Road Runners Club to enter this year's event, which was scheduled to be held last Sunday. Snodgrass and her husband, Don, left their Annapolis home for New York a few days before the race, only to be among the tens of thousands of runners to find their plans changed dramatically by the cyclone Sandy.

Marylanders Chandini Bachman and Dan Zottarelli have learned to set their calendars by the New York City Marathon.Bachman, a resident of Baltimore, and Zottarelli, who lives in Chestertown, are both in double digits for the New York Road Runners Club's annual 26-mile, 365-yard trek through the five boroughs of New York City -- Bachman having completed her 10th in 5 hours, 7 minutes, 20 seconds Sunday and Zottarelli finishing his 11th straight in 3:51.Bachman,...

Julie Culley had retired from competitive running, finishing her career at Rutgers burned out and banged up as a fifth-year senior. She had started the next phase of her life, coaching the women's track team at Loyola College and assisting the men's and women's cross country teams. Then she bumped into American coach Matt Centrowitz at a meet and confusion set in. "He really brought me back to life as an athlete," Culley, now 31, recalled. "He asked me why I was coaching. He said, 'You're too young to be coaching full time.

The year was 1986, a time when men were winning the New York City Marathon in the low 2:11 range, when Willie Mtolo ran a scalding 2:08:15 at a race in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The accomplishment of the 22-year-old Zulu tribesman was met with great skepticism, if not outright disbelief.It had been so many years since South Africans had been allowed to compete internationally due to the Union's apartheid policy, the track world figured there was no way the country's athletes could keep up, competing only occasionally and in small meets at home.

NEW YORK -- Tough day for the Kenyans.Tougher day for the Americans.But it was a great day for Italy's Giacomo Leone, who won yesterday's New York City Marathon in the time of 2: 09: 54; and for Romania's Anuta Catuna, who won the women's race in 2: 28: 18.Second place in the men's division went to Ethiopia's Turbo Tumo, who finished in 2: 10: 09. Third was Joseph Kamau of Kenya in 2: 10: 40.Second in the women's division was Franca Fiacconi of Italy in...

NEW YORK -- Good luck convincing your kids to tie their shoelaces today.In a steady rain and blowing wind, Kenyan John Kagwe, his right shoelace untied and flapping against the Central Park pavement with every stride, won the New York City Marathon yesterday, prevailing in a race notable as much by the late fade of the favorites as by the lousy weather.If Kagwe, 28, who ran 2 hours, 8 minutes and 12 seconds for the second-fastest finish in the race's 28-year history, was a surprise even among the dominant Kenyans, then the women's winner -- Franziska Rochat-Moser, a Swiss restaurateur and lawyer -- was a shock.

The primary question regarding Lance Armstrong used to involve the number of times he would win the Tour de France. Sunday, it's how low can Lance go in the New York City Marathon? New York City Marathon Sunday, 10:10 a.m. (open field), 26.2 miles, Staten Island through four other New York boroughs

Sen. Heberto Castillo,68, for decades a leftist opposition leader, died Saturday of complications from a heart attack in Mexico City.Mr. Castillo, who was once jailed for his activism, was best known as an opponent of Mexico's entrenched ruling party.Colleagues said his death may complicate efforts to reach a settlement to a smoldering rebellion by Indian peasants in the southern state of Chiapas.They said Mr. Castillo was the moral leader to mediators.August Heckscher,83, a former parks commissioner who helped bring the New York City Marathon andBarbra Streisand to Central Park, died Saturday in New York.

NEW YORK -- Fred Lebow, the president of the New York Road Runners Club and the driving force behind the New York City Marathon, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan's Upper East Side. He was 62.The cause of death was brain cancer. He was admitted to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center on Feb. 17 after a magnetic resonance imaging revealed a recurrence of lymphoma the brain, which first was diagnosed in 1990. He also underwent surgery in 1991 to have a malignant tumor removed from his thyroid gland.

Sure, it's his sisters in the race, but Michael Phelps has become the punchline of New York City's running marathon joke. Because of extensive damage to Manhattan from Hurricane Sandy -- including flooding and continuing power outages -- many folks think this weekend's New York Marathon should have been canceled. But the race is on -- with Michael Phelps' sister Whitney running the marathon and sister Hilary Phelps taking on the 5K. And the critics have started a joke that's been passed on -- and on and on -- all day Friday on Twitter.

The primary question regarding Lance Armstrong used to involve the number of times he would win the Tour de France. Sunday, it's how low can Lance go in the New York City Marathon? New York City Marathon Sunday, 10:10 a.m. (open field), 26.2 miles, Staten Island through four other New York boroughs

Twenty-six people and places in the 2006 Baltimore Running Festival, one for every letter in the alphabet - or mile in the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon. A is for Mykola Antonenko, the defending champion from Ukraine. B is for Trinidad & Tobago's Pamenos Ballantyne, one of the best out of the Caribbean. C is for Kenya's David Cheruiyot, who won Houston earlier this year in 2:12. D is for Lyubov Denisova, the half marathon favorite who's gearing up for the New York City Marathon. Her best is 2:25.

NEW YORK -- Susan Chepkemei threw up, looked over her shoulder and kept running. Hendrick Ramaala threw himself across the finish line, fell down and lay spread-eagled on the timing mat. Both had been winning the New York City Marathon. Both lost. "In my wildest dreams, I don't know that I thought we'd see races like that," first-year race director Mary Wittenberg said. After 26.2 miles, the men's race came down to a sprint. World record-holder Paul Tergat of Kenya outkicked Ramaala, the defending New York champion from South Africa, in the last few steps in the closest finish in the race's 36-year history.

NEW YORK -- Last year, the New York City Marathon attracted the world record-holder for the women's marathon, Paula Radcliffe, who won, redeeming herself after dropping out of the Olympic marathon. This year, the race has the men's world record-holder, Paul Tergat of Kenya. Tergat, who ran his record-breaking 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003, could only manage 10th in the 2004 Olympic marathon and eighth in the London Marathon this spring. A victory today would put him back in the spotlight.

College basketball: Get ready for the Atlantic Coast Conference season with previews of every team in the league on Comcast SportsNet. Tomorrow's programs run at 11 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Maryland is at 6.) On Sunday night, the previews air 7 to 8 and 8:30 to 10. College football: No. 5 Miami is at No. 3 Virginia Tech (tomorrow, 7:45 p.m., ESPN) in a game that could potentially decide the ACC Coastal Division champion. The Hokies and Hurricanes have the conference's No. 1 and No. 2 scoring defenses, respectively.

College basketball: Get ready for the Atlantic Coast Conference season with previews of every team in the league on Comcast SportsNet. Tomorrow's programs run at 11 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Maryland is at 6.) On Sunday night, the previews air 7 to 8 and 8:30 to 10. College football: No. 5 Miami is at No. 3 Virginia Tech (tomorrow, 7:45 p.m., ESPN) in a game that could potentially decide the ACC Coastal Division champion. The Hokies and Hurricanes have the conference's No. 1 and No. 2 scoring defenses, respectively.

NEW YORK -- Cox's Sword got caught in traffic again on Monday, but at least this time he was running among horses and not automobiles.For the first time since he escaped from the Belmont Park training track and sped westbound on the Hempstead Turnpike nearly two weeks ago -- a trek that covered two miles and took him into two counties -- Cox's Sword returned to safer racing at Aqueduct, finishing third in the third race at the track."

Kenny Nacke never planned to run in today's New York City Marathon, but fate intervened. Nacke's brother Louis, who was known as Joey to his family, was on United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, when it went down near Shanksville, Pa. Now Nacke, and 17 others who had family on that flight, have joined together to become "The Family Runners." They have trained for seven months and will run this marathon in tribute to the ones they lost. "Anything I can do to keep his memory alive for his sons and my children, I'll do," said Nacke, who lives in Dundalk and is an officer with the Baltimore County Police Department's K-9 unit.

Rejected by the Marines? Banned in Boston? Tired of the city that never sleeps? Well, now local runners have a marathon to call their own. Mayor Martin O'Malley and leaders of the business community announced yesterday that city streets will take a pounding Oct. 20 in the inaugural running of the Baltimore Marathon. The event will fill a glaring hole in the city's running resume -- that of being the only one of the nation's 30 largest cities to be marathon-less, organizers say. Filling the void, O'Malley said, will prove to the rest of the country that Baltimore is "a world-class city" and help persuade Olympic officials that the region is capable of playing host to the 2012 Summer Games.