George Hirsch, the Last Living Trailblazer, Reflects on the NYC Marathon's 50th Anniversary — Health and medicine

At 92, George Hirsch stands as the sole surviving member of the group that transformed the New York City Marathon into a five-borough event in 1976. As the race approaches its 50th anniversary of this iconic course, Hirsch recalls the ambitious origins and the unexpected public embrace that turned a local event into the world's largest marathon.

The upcoming Sunday marks a historic milestone for the New York City Marathon, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course first established in 1976. While the race began in 1970 as an event confined to Central Park, a coalition of five men—Ted Corbitt, Fred Lebow, George Spitz, Percy Sutton, and George Hirsch—spearheaded the effort to expand the route across all five boroughs, starting in Staten Island and finishing in Manhattan. Today, George Hirsch is the only surviving member of this group, whom the New York Road Runners (NYRR) refers to as "trailblazers."

Hirsch, a longtime magazine publisher who served as chairman of the NYRR board from 2004 to 2023, played a pivotal role in generating the initial media buzz and securing funds for the 1976 race. In an interview conducted in mid-October, he reflected on the challenging context of the mid-1970s, a period marked by high crime rates, economic struggles, and mass suburban flight. Hirsch noted that closing down major parts of the largest city in the United States for a foot race was considered an unheard-of ambition at the time, yet the group successfully secured backing from Mayor Abe Beame.

Despite initial nervousness about how the city would react, the 1976 event proved to be an immediate success. Hirsch recalled lining up on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and being met with extraordinary crowds cheering along the route into Brooklyn. He finished the race in 2:49:29, placing 156th out of 1,539 finishers, while Bill Rodgers won the men's title and Miki Gorman topped the women's field. The atmosphere following the race was electric, with Hirsch hosting a victory party at his brownstone to celebrate what he described as a triumph that "just worked" against the odds.

Following that inaugural year, the five-borough format became permanent, and the event grew steadily. By 1980, finisher numbers had reached 12,512, rising to 23,774 a decade later. The race surpassed 40,000 finishers in 2009 and is now routinely one of the largest marathons globally, with the upcoming 2026 event potentially seeing a record 60,000 participants. Hirsch described the five-borough marathon as the most important development in running history, noting that it paved the way for urban marathons worldwide.

Hirsch has witnessed multiple surges in running popularity, from the jogging craze of the 1970s to the current boom spurred by the post-pandemic era. Demand for the NYC Marathon has reached a fever pitch, with only 1 percent of the 240,000 applicants accepted for the 2026 race. Hirsch characterized this as the biggest boom in his lifetime, marveling at how the event has evolved from a fringe race into a citywide holiday attended by over 2 million spectators and nearly one-third foreign runners.

Sources: Runner's World.