Peter Ciaccia, the new race director of the New York City Marathon, may not know his marathon time (3:15? 3:30?), but he knows how to give a party. Now he will have to determine the existential course of the world’s biggest marathon: Should it be more race, or more social event?
Ciaccia maintains that the race is for everyone, across the world, or at least as many as can make it under the ever-expanding 50,000-runner cap. (The lucky ones do not tend to be poor; just as property values have soared in this city over the past decade, with more demand than supply, marathon entries will continue to cost at least $227, and fewer than one in five of those who apply for the lottery receive one.