Faces of the finish line: TCS NYC Marathon

ByAlex Meier WABC logo
Monday, November 6, 2017
Faces of the TCS New York City Marathon finish line
Watch the moment runners cross the TCS New York City Marathon finish line.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- This year, more than 51,000 people ran the TCS New York City Marathon. Meet a few of them.

Tomo Hirario
New York City

"I ran as a Pikachu outfit and everyone was cheering for Pikachu so that was very nice."

Robert Sanchas
Rhode Island

"What moved you to run the marathon?" "Foot in mouth syndrome. I made a comment to a friend. She was moving up to New York, and I said before she moved, I'd do a half marathon. I didn't realize she was moving in five weeks, so I had five weeks to go from walking one mile ... to running a half marathon. Then I put my other foot in my mouth and said, 'Well, I ran a half, might as well do a whole.' And the half was in May."

John Pierre
New York City

"He's been known as the ultimate running machine for years. Everybody knows ... He's a New York running celebrity."

Theodora Blanchfield (left) & Leah Wenger (right)
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

Leah: "The woman who was training us ... said Theodora should walk starting at mile 12 in Williamsburg ... anyway, we didn't walk until mile 24, and we did the whole thing in."

Theodora: "We were both under trained. We had a hard time training all summer because I was sad after losing my mom, but we did it."

Fritzline Montalmant
Brooklyn

"Just wanted to check it off my bucket list." "First marathon?" "Yeah, first and last. It was hard, the training was hard but doing it was well worth it, finishing was all worth it." "Hardest mile?" "All of them. I think around 20 was hard. But the crowd just keeps you going it's so amazing. My mom and my daughter, they motivate me to reach limits and surpass all my goals so this is for them."

Marie Bartoletti
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"393rd. Last week I did Ireland. I ran my first marathon at 37. I'm 60 years old ... I've ran 63 marathons since my stroke."

Yecheskiyahu Herz
Brooklyn

"I did 26.2 miles, and I did a burpee at every single mile ... I feel great. The last burpee was the strongest one because I knew I wouldn't have to do another one."

Guadalupe Arellano
New York City

"This is my second time running. I've been wanting to run the marathon since I was 13. You have to qualify by 18, so last year was my first one. I just want to do it every year. At Mile 19, I caught a cramp right on my thigh, so I kept trying to massage it and trying to get through it because I wanted beat my time from last year. Last year I was just worried about finishing it so I did it in 5 hours and 15 minutes. This year I believe I did it in 4 hours and 30 minutes."