 NYRR Logo | |
| Formation | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Ted Corbitt |
| Legal status | Non-profit (501c3) |
| Location | |
| Website | www |
New York Road Runners (NYRR) is a non-profit running organization based in New York City whose mission is to help and inspire people through running. It was founded in 1958 by Ted Corbitt with 47 members and has since grown to a membership of more than 60,000. As of 2012, it was considered to be the premier running organization in the United States. [1]
Following his establishment of the Road Runners Club of America in 1958, Ted Corbitt became the founding president of New York Road Runners later that year. Fred Lebow, co-founder of the New York City Marathon, served as president from 1972 to 1994. Under Lebow, other signature races, including the Mini 10K, 5th Avenue Mile, and Midnight Run, were established. [2] [3] Allan Steinfeld succeeded Lebow and was named technical director of the New York City Marathon, which he was credited with modernizing, in 1981. [4]
In 2005, Mary Wittenberg succeeded Steinfeld as president and CEO of NYRR. [5] She also became the first female director of the New York City Marathon. [6]
Michael Capiraso succeeded Wittenberg in 2015. [7] In 2020 Kerin Hempel succeeded Capiraso, and in 2022 Rob Simmelkjaer succeeded Hempel and is the current CEO of the organization. George Hirsch served as chair of the NYRR Board of Directors from 2004 to 2023 and is now the Board Chair Emeritus. [8] In July 2023, Nnenna Lynch succeeded Hirsch and is the current Chair of the Board of Directors. [9]
From 1981 through 2015, NYRR was headquartered on the Upper East Side on East 89th Street (also known as Fred Lebow Place), [10] not far from Central Park. Upon the sale of that building, the organization announced a move to and creation of a Run Center near Columbus Circle the following year. Prior to 1981, it was based at the West Side YMCA. [8]
NYRR serves runners of all ages and abilities annually through races, community open runs, walks, training, virtual products, and other running-related programming. The organization's free youth programs and events serve kids in New York City's five boroughs and across the country.
The club gives out the annual Abebe Bikila Award in recognition of individuals who have contributed to the sport of running. First awarded in 1978 and named in honor of Olympic marathon winner Abebe Bikila, the award is presented in November.
Races are held nearly every weekend and include destination races such as the:
Degaga "Mamo" Wolde was an Ethiopian long distance runner who competed in track, cross-country, and road running events. He was the winner of the marathon at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
The New York City Marathon, currently branded as the TCS New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 finishers in 2019 and 98,247 applicants for the 2017 race. Along with the Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon, it is among the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States and is one of the World Marathon Majors.
Grete Waitz was a Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder. In 1979, at the New York City Marathon, she became the first woman in history to run the marathon in under two and a half hours. Waitz won nine New York City Marathons, women's division, between 1978 and 1988, the highest number of victories in a single big city marathon in history. She won the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and a gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. She was also a five-time winner of the World Cross Country Championships.
Paul Kibii Tergat is a Kenyan former professional long distance runner. He became the first Kenyan man to set the world record in the marathon in 2003, with a time of 2:04:55, and is regarded as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners of all time. Runnerworld called him the "Most comprehensive runner of all time".
Shambel Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal, making him the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. In both victories, he ran in world record time.
Fred Lebow, born Fischel Lebowitz, was a Holocaust survivor, runner, race director, and founder of the New York City Marathon. Born in Arad, Romania, he presided over the transformation of the race from one with 55 finishers in 1970 to one of the largest marathons in the world with more than 52,000 finishers in 2018. He was posthumously inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Rome Marathon is an annual marathon competition hosted by the city of Rome, Italy.
Ted Corbitt was an American long-distance runner. The first African-American to run the marathon at the Summer Olympics and the founding president of New York Road Runners, Corbitt is often called "the father of American long distance running." He was also an ultramarathon pioneer, helping to revive interest in the sport in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. New York Times columnist Robert Lipsyte called Corbitt a "spiritual elder of the modern running clan". In a Runner's World feature honoring lifetime achievement, writer Gail Kislevitz called Corbitt a "symbol of durability and longevity". Corbitt was among the first five runners to be inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, and the first to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.
Germán Silva Martínez is a Mexican former long-distance runner who specialized in the marathon. His foremost achievements were back-to-back victories at the New York City Marathon in 1994 and 1995. He represented Mexico twice at the Summer Olympics, in 1992 and 1996. He also competed at the World Championships in Athletics on two occasions. His personal best for the marathon is two hours, eight minutes, and 56 seconds.
Mary Wittenberg is an American sports executive who formerly served as president of professional women's soccer club NJ/NY Gotham FC. She was previously the president of the EF Education–EasyPost cycling team, and president and chief executive officer of New York Road Runners (NYRR) through May 18, 2015. Wittenberg oversaw the TCS New York City Marathon and several other races, events, and programs that draw over 300,000 yearly participants.
Nina Kuscsik is a retired long-distance runner from the United States, who has participated in over 80 marathons. In 1972, she became the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon. After Beth Bonner, Kuscsik became the second American woman to complete a marathon in under three hours, running a time of 2:56:04 at the 1971 New York City Marathon.
Sports in Ethiopia include many fields, although Ethiopia is best known internationally for its middle-distance and long-distance runners. Seifu Mekonnen was an Olympic contestant for Ethiopia in boxing. The Ethiopian national football team won the 1962 African Cup of Nations. There are also traditional sports events, such as stick fighting which is popular amongst the Surma and Nyangatom people.
The New York City Half Marathon is an annual half marathon road running race from Brooklyn's Prospect Park to Manhattan's Central Park via the Manhattan Bridge, held since 2006. It passes through or by Times Square, Grand Central, and both Grand Army Plazas. New York Road Runners (NYRR) administers the race.
The Mastercard New York Mini 10K is an annual 10-kilometer road running competition for women that takes place in Central Park, New York City, in the United States. The race has been organised by New York Road Runners since 1972. The competition has both an elite-level race and a fun run, both of which accounted for a total of 5189 finishers in 2010.
The Abebe Bikila Award is an annual prize given by the New York Road Runners club (NYRR) to honour individuals who have made a significant contribution to the sport of long-distance running. The first recipient of the award was Ted Corbitt, a founder of both NYRR and the Road Runners Club of America, who received the honour on October 27, 1978. The award is named in honour of the two-time Olympic marathon winner Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia.
The Philadelphia Distance Run (PDR) is an annual half marathon road running event which takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States on the third Sunday of September.
George Aaron Hirsch, is a magazine publisher, a founder of the five-borough New York City Marathon, a former unsuccessful candidate for Congress, and a television commentator. Hirsch was founding publisher of New York, New Times, and The Runner magazines. He also was publisher of Runner’s World, the first publishing director of Men's Health, and the publisher of La Cucina Italiana. He was the chairman of the board of New York Road Runners from 2005 until June 2023, when he became chairman emeritus.
Norbert Sander was an American physician and runner who won the New York City Marathon in 1974. He has been described as "one of the most influential track and field figures in the city's history."
Allan Steinfeld was the president of the New York Road Runners and race director of the New York City Marathon from 1994 to 2005. During his executive career, Steinfeld was also the technical director of the New York City Marathon and the NYRR's chief executive officer during the 1980s. In 2009, Steinfeld received the Abebe Bikila Award from the NYRR. Outside of the NYRR, Steinfeld was a co-establisher of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races in 1982.
Jacob Caswell is an American long-distance runner and clinical analyst. They won the non-binary division of the 2022 New York City Marathon and the 2023 Chicago Marathon.