Thousands of runners in New York took to Central Park and Staten Island on Sunday morning, to both celebrate their sport and help those devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

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Central Park, which would have hosted the finish for today's now-canceled ING New York City Marathon, was packed with runners from across the globe – running in every direction. Foot traffic was so heavy in what would have been the last 20 meters of the marathon course that anything faster than a walk was close to impossible.

Many runners who had planned to run the New York City Marathon instead instead headed to Staten Island with relief supplies. Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters

International runners carried flags of their nations and shouted greetings as they passed each other. Many wore their orange 2012 New York City Marathon shirts; some had on their race numbers. Spectators, especially near what would have been the finish line and on the other side of the park, at East 90th Street, gathered to cheer runners as they did one, two or more laps of the park's 6-mile perimeter.

About 250 runners showed up for the Plan B Marathon, hastily cobbled together by Paolo Silva, a local coach who didn't want his runners' training of the last several months to be for naught. Low-key aid stations sprouted up, offering not just water and sport drink but energy bars, pretzels and even hastily handed-off tangerines.

Meanwhile, hundreds of runners took morning ferries to Staten Island, many carrying backpacks with supplies to help residents of the hard-hit borough. Several groups arranged impromptu gatherings of runners to go to Staten Island today, after the city and race officials announced late Friday that the marathon was canceled. New York Road Runners CEO Mary Wittenberg was among the crowd waiting for a ferry this morning.

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Many runners were among those volunteering their time on Staten Island on Sunday. Photo by Robert Reese

Also Sunday, the NYRR announced it has donated or is in the process of donating the following to NYC-area recovery efforts:


297: Poland Spring Water Skids (35 cases per) gallon jugs
263: boxes of non-latex gloves
75: hand sanitizer wipes (cartons)
7,000: T-shirt total
14: AEDs
132: cots
47,500: sponges
50: Flavor Tshirts and aprons via PowerBar
122: wool blankets
2,256: Gatorade bottles
2,256: Published: Nov 04, 2012 12:00 AM EDT
33: Mylar blankets
60: boxes of pretzel bags
104,400: We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back
9,600: We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back
480: runner bags - blue contains Poland Spring Water, PowerBar, Emerald Nuts, bag of pretzels, apple
23,500: PowerBars
28,620: bagels
1,750: pounds of ice
54,000: runner bags - blue (contains Poland Spring Water, PowerBar, Emerald Nuts, bag of pretzels, apple)
10,000: runner bags - green (contains Poland Spring Water, Emerald Nuts, bag of pretzels)
40,000: apples
5,544: Health - Injuries
2,000: cases of salted almonds
52,000: Gatorade 24oz bottles
35,000: orange ponchos
600: volunteer t-shirts
35,000: runner shirts
70,000: Running in the Cold
6,000: medical blankets
130: prepaid phones
Medical supplies

Some volunteers, on Staten Island and elsewhere, shared photos of their efforts via Twitter or Instagram—here are a couple of the earliest:

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