From 2,000 runners to 60,000: The 5-borough New York City Marathon at 50

NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty years ago, the New York City Marathon ran through all five boroughs of the city for the first time. There were just over 2,000 competitors in that seventh running of the race, including only 88 women. Now about 60,000 runners will step up to the starting line Sunday with nearly half of them women. Bill Rodgers, a year after winning the Boston Marathon for the first time, won in the debut of the five-borough course and is the only man to win the event four times, from 1976-79. “I remember everything distinctly, it was so intense,” Rodgers recalled Thursday. “The first time being on the Verrazzano Bridge (at the start), we were nervous. It was so different as we were used to running in Central Park.” The race was moved out of Central Park in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial and to help uplift the city, which was struggling. It ended up turning into one of the marquee events in New York and marathoning for the past 50 years. “The sport really evolved that day,” R