Today will be the biggest in the running career of Wanganui accounting clerk Rachel Townsend as she joins over 50,000 other runners from around the globe competing in the TCS New York City Marathon.
Held on the first Sunday of November, New York time, the runners will be competing for$700,000 in prize money.
About a third of them are from overseas and will include Townsend, who accepted an invitation to join a running group for the event last December. The women's winner of the Wanganui 3 Bridges Marathon in 2013, she has been training since that time for this event.
Run every year bar one since 1970, NYC Marathon is considered the pre-eminent run of the six races that make up the World Marathon majors, the others being Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin and Chicago.
It is organised by the New York Road Runners organisation and, because of its popularity, entry is chosen from lottery systems or via nominations from running clubs.
