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New York marathon could add second day (yes, another 26.2 miles)

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How about a second day of the New York City Marathon — that is, another 26.2 miles — the next day?

Organizers of the New York marathon, coming up Sunday, are considering a second day of running that would enable twice as many people to run the scenic urban course, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

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Already the largest marathon in the world, the New York race would be held on two successive days and could include as many as 100,000 people.

That would be a lot of carbo loading.

“We could run on Saturday and Sunday,’ Mary Wittenberg, race director and president of the New York Road Runners, told the Daily News. “The demand is there. When I started [in 1998], there was a feeling that the marathon absolutely can’t grow anymore. But I don’t think growth is capped. People desperately want to run this race.”

The New York marathon is already like the television show “Law and Order” — it touches every city borough and makes a mess of traffic.

On Sunday, about 47,000 runners are expected to cross the start line on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn. If a second day is added, traffic would be shut down on the course for the weekend and same-gender elite runners would race on the same day to ensure that weather doesn’t create advantages, Wittenberg told the Daily News.

“We can grow until we run out of hotel capacity,” Wittenberg said. “There’s no rush. We won’t ever have more than we can handle.... This is a joint venture with the city, and it is always a cooperative decision.”

City officials told the Daily News they were unaware of the plan.

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