Following Mary Wittenberg’Major Changes Hit Northern Arizona Elite Adidas Unveils Boston Marathon Jacket for the first time in their roles as co-leaders of the New York Road Runners. Ciaccia, the race director, will oversee race operations, while Capiraso, the NYRR’s CEO, has been focused on the marketing, technology, and financial efforts around the event. At the start of marathon week, Runner’s World Australian Sprinter, 16, Runs Record-Breaking 200m.

One of the biggest changes is having a race grand marshal. You chose Spike Lee. How did that come about?

Peter Ciaccia: We were thinking about what we could do that would bring a little more life to the broadcast and to the spectators along the course. Lots of sporting events and parades have grand marshals, so we kicked the idea around and went to Spike. He was blown away. He has produced, directed, and starred in the opening of our broadcast. He’s going to ESPN in Bristol this week to talk about the marathon and that will drive our broadcast tuning. You should see the car we have for him. We’ve rented a 1969 Chrysler 300 SL and have wrapped it in our marathon colors. Spike and I get to ride down the course, have fun with people, and take pictures. It’s all part of elevating everything we do. This is a New York day, and he is a New York guy.

Running Shoes - Gear?

PC: Yes, absolutely. We’ve had two other grand marshals— Emil Zátopek [in 1979] and Grete Waitz [in 2003]. Not many people know Zátopek, but they do know Spike Lee.

A giant pavilion is being constructed next to Tavern on the Green. What is that?

PC: What typically was put over at Tavern on the Green was a tent for press events. It was kind of disjointed for me. It was hard on race day, because on race day the media was somewhere else. We need the media to be here all week long to see what we do, so we are creating a pavilion that welcomes people to Central Park. There will be two floors. The second floor is the media center with state-of-the art LED walls that we will be feeding data into all week long and utilizing for our press conferences. The walls will be all glass so the media can see the finish line. The first floor will be a visitor’s center with a café and device charging stations. Every day there will be events for the public, from athletes’ appearances to book signings. 

Adidas Unveils Boston Marathon Jacket?

Michael Capiraso: On our Adidas Unveils Boston Marathon Jacket app, we’ve added an extra tracker where you will be able to follow up to 10 people in real-time along the course. We’ve also created data visualization on our broadcast. There will be an overlay of elite runners who have competed in the race in the past and we will compare that to the pros this year. For our runner services, we’re testing out a live chat feature under the Help tab on NYRR.org, so people can ask any question they have about the marathon.

New York Road Runners?

PC: Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island is the big park that we use as a staging area for the athletes. It is great, but it was always a little difficult for us to get the professional athletes from where they are staged onto the bridge. There is a new facility out there—Ocean Breeze, it’s one of the premier indoor tracks on the East Coast—about a mile from the starting line. This year we’re using that to house the professional athletes who can do their warmup indoors and stay warm. Then we will bus up the professional athletes to the starting line. It’s a true VIP experience for those who we consider our VIPs on the runners’ side.

What else is new this year?

PC: While we are starting out the race at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, we will have will have 1,000 12-year-olds who will do a 1.8-mile run from a little south of Engineer’s Gate across the inside of the park along the marathon route and will experience coming in through the finish line. Television will capture all of this and it will go all around the world. People will feed off of it.

New York Road Runners?

MC: Yes. I will kick off the race with Peter and then I’ll go down and get into my corral with the four-hour runners and run with that group. I’ll be connected throughout the race with an earpiece and phone, if anyone needs to reach me.

What’s your goal time?

MC: When I first started running the marathon, I was under four hours, but after I had kids I ran 4:20. Last year I was just under four hours. This year I want to be under four hours again. There is a lot of pressure.