The New York City Marathon runs this Sunday and it's an odd thing. It's odd that, while the event
has grown hugely in participant numbers (some 40,000 this year,
compared to the few 55 maverick souls in the inaugural year, 1970) and
has attracted bigger and bigger crowds each year (some 2 million line
the neighborhood streets now, offering tastes of their Italian or
Polish or Vietnamese goodies as the runners stream by), but whereas the
event used to be televised nationally, its coverage is now a mere
one-hour packaged highlight show, offered only in the New York area...
