In the wake of the fatal bombings at the Boston Marathon, the New York Road Runners, which organizes city races (including the NYC Marathon) throughout the year, announced some new procedures for this Sunday's Race for City Parks 4 miler in Central Park. For instance, runners are "strongly" encouraged not to bring bags and there will be no trash cans near the race.
As part of our ongoing focus on the safety of our runners, and in partnership with the NYPD, we have implemented enhanced security measures, detailed below, for this race. We ask that you arrive early on race day, and we appreciate your full cooperation with these procedures in order to avoid any interruption to the day’s events.
- Race-day registration, T-shirt pickup, and baggage drop-off will be located inside Rumsey Playfield. Everyone who enters Rumsey Playfield will be subject to a security screening.
- We strongly encourage you not to bring a bag to Central Park. However, if you’re registering or picking up your race materials on race day and bring a bag, you will be given a clear bag at the entrance to Rumsey Playfield. You must transfer the contents of your own bag into the clear bag before you proceed to the registration tent. Any unattended bags will be confiscated by NYPD and could cause an interruption to the day’s events.
- There will be no trash cans in the race vicinity this weekend. We encourage you to hand your trash to our volunteers and staff members.
- Toilets along the course will be located only at mile 2.
- Kids’ Races will start on West Drive (running east on the 72nd Street Transverse) and end at the same finish line as the adult race. Due to these changes, Kids’ Races will now start a half-hour later at 9:30 a.m.
- NYRR and the NYPD reserve the right to search any bag at any time, both within and outside the baggage area.
The New York Road Runners will also have an moment of silence at the start of the race and there are "I Run for Boston" back bibs for runners and supporters as well as 5,000 black ribbons.
They also created a t-shirt, "I run for... BOSTON", for the race. They'll be available at the NYRR's office at 9 E 89th St. in Manhattan tomorrow, Saturday, April 20 from 11:30AM-4:30PM. The NYRR notes, "The Ts are not currently available online. We are looking into this and will make a separate announcement if this changes. We ask for a $20 donation. 100% of proceeds will benefit The One Fund Boston. We accept cash or credit card payments." The NYRR is also looking into making these shirts available online.
