The New York City Half Marathon is an annual half marathon

Half marathon

A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...

 road running

Road running

Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...

 race. It passes through famous landmarks such as Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

 and Times Square

Times Square

Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...

. The 5th annual race took place on March 21, 2010, with 11,604 finishers and victories by Peter Kamais

Peter Kamais

Peter Kamais is a Kenyan long-distance runner who specialises in road running events.He was the winner at the Oeiras International Cross Country and Almond Blossom Cross Country races in 2006, but it was at the Cursa de Bombers 10K where he established himself, taking consecutive wins in 2006 and...

 and Mara Yamauchi

Mara Yamauchi

Mara Rosalind Yamauchi is a British long distance track, and road running athlete. She currently holds the second fastest time by a British woman over the marathon, behind the world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe....

. The New York Road Runners

New York Road Runners

New York Road Runners , founded in 1958 with 47 members, has grown into the foremost running organization, with a membership of 40,000. NYRR conducts more than 100 events each year, including races, classes, clinics, and lectures...

 administers the race.

Several world class runners have participated in the race, including marathon record holders Haile Gebrselassie

Haile Gebrselassie

Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon...

 and Paula Radcliffe, Olympic marathon

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...

 medalists Catherine Ndereba

Catherine Ndereba

Wincatherine Nyambura Ndereba is a Kenyan marathon runner. She has twice won the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics and won silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008. She is also a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon...

, Meb Keflezighi, and Deena Kastor

Deena Kastor

Deena Michelle Kastor is an American long-distance runner. She holds American records in the marathon, half-marathon, and numerous road distances. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece...

, 2008 U.S. Olympic marathoner Dathan Ritzenhein

Dathan Ritzenhein

Dathan Ritzenhein is an American long-distance runner. He held the American record in the 5,000 metres from 2009–10, when it was broken by Bernard Lagat...

, and American half marathon record

United States records in track and field

The following are the national records in track & field in the United States maintained by USA Track & Field .Key:-Men:-Women:-Men:-Women:+ = en route to a longer distanceA = affected by altitude# = not officially ratified by IAAF...

 holder Ryan Hall

Ryan Hall (runner)

Ryan Hall is an American long distance runner. He won the marathon at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials and placed tenth in the Olympic marathon in Beijing. He holds the U.S. record in the half marathon . With his half marathon record time, he became the first U.S...

.

Gebrselassie set the men's course record in 2007 championship, with a time of 59:24. On March 20, 2011, Caroline Rotich set the women's record with a time of 1:08:52.

The course starts with a clockwise 6.2 miles (10 km) loop around hilly Central Park. The course then flattens and goes along Seventh Avenue

Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)

Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....

 to Times Square, where it follows 42nd Street

42nd Street (Manhattan)

42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...

 to West Side Highway

West Side Highway

The West Side Highway is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A that runs from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern tip of Manhattan. It replaced the West Side Elevated Highway, built between 1929 and 1951, which was shut down in 1973 due to neglect and lack of...

, adjacent to the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

. The race finishes near Battery Park

Battery Park

Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...

.

In its earlier years, the event was run on various dates in the summer; in 2010, it was moved to March. The 2010 race had a field of 14,821 registered runners. Mary Wittenberg

Mary Wittenberg

Mary Wittenberg is the President and Chief Executive Officer of New York Road Runners . As leader of the organization, Wittenberg oversees the ING New York City Marathon and several other races, events, and programs that draw over 300,000 yearly participants.Under Wittenberg's leadership, the NYRR...

, president of the NYRR, said in 2010 that she expects a possible growth of over 20,000 participants in future years.

Winners

Key:

Edition	Year	Date	Men's winner	Time (h Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... :m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )	Women's winner	Time (h Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... :m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )
1st	2006	August 27		1:01:22		1:09:43
2nd	2007	August 5				1:10:32
3rd	2008	July 27		1:00:58		1:10:19
4th	2009	August 16		1:01:06		1:09:45
5th	2010	March 21		59:52		1:09:17
6th	2011	March 20		1:00:23