They're Here

As you knew they would, crews working for the NYC parks department have finished cleaning up the ING New York City Marathon course in Central Park, less than a week after an early season winter storm left a combination of strewn debris and dangerous broken limbs overhead.

The Associated Press reported that about 1,000 trees were expected to be lost, but NYC Marathon Richard Finn proclaimed yesterday, "The race course is clean. It's ready."

Meanwhile, Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News is asking if the Marathon might be ready to expand to a two-day affair. In fact, Bondy wrote: "Race director Mary Wittenberg says the event's population will only continue to increase, and she foresees a day when the marathon may expand to a two-day event that accepts as many as 100,000 applicants."

Wittenberg added that the Marathon could grow until it runs out of hotel capacity. The information and logistical bottlenecks that would have prevented such unprecedented growth, even a few years ago, have been eliminated through analysis and technology.

But for now, it remains a one-day affair and that day is Sunday. On the men's side, LetsRun.com is predicting the men's record to be lowered by one of five runners — Kenya's Gebre Gebremariam, Geoffrey Mutai, Mathew Kisorio and Emmanuel Mutai and Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede.

Reuters Africa has installed Kenyan Mary Keitany as the favorite, but also cites challengers Caroline Kilel of Kenya, Russians Inga Abitova and Galina Bogomolova, Isabellah Andersson of Sweden and Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia.

And, of course, Marathon Weekend is hardly limited to running. One example is the record number of bands — 130 — performing along the course. Another is the New York Road Runners' commitment to fundraising ($16 million so far!).

To follow along this weekend, you can visit the NYC Marathon's official website or check out the live in-event coverage from Runner's World.