NEW YORK -- Fast or slow, everyone in this race was wearing No. 1.
And that's not all the 150 or so runners in the Memorial Day Marathon in New York City's Van Cortlandt Park had in common. They also were running for free and far from the Big Apple's crowded streets.
"This is more of a community event," said David White, a 41-year-old runner from Manhattan. "It's just a small-town kind of thing. This is the love-of-running type thing."
Welcome to Holiday Marathons, a series of races in New York City's fourth-largest park that forsakes the electronic timing, extensive swag and large entry fees common at the corporate-sponsored events that populate the running calendars across the country.
"This is the anti-New York Road Runners race," said Kate Donovan, a Van Cortlandt Park regular who lives in the Bronx. "It's for free and for fun."
Race organizer Mike Oliva says the concept of low-cost races is common in ultrarunning and trail-running circles, where local runners put on events without the help of big sponsors.
"They're usually a lot of fun with a lot of people helping out," he said.
Oliva and Mike Arnstein, his Holiday Marathons co-founder, had talked about organizing a free race for a couple of years before their discussions achieved critical mass last fall.
"Ten days before Thanksgiving we decided to give it a shot," Oliva said. "We whipped up a website and put on a race."
The inaugural Thanksgiving Marathon succeeded beyond their expectations, with extensive promotion on the Internet and good weather combining to lure 300 runners to the park that is nationally known for hosting high school and college cross country meets.
Besides the identical race bibs -- the numbers vary each time but every runner gets the same one -- many people wore holiday-themed garb while running the 6.55-mile loop course that's all on trails or cinder paths. Runners have the option of opting out after each lap, ending at the start-finish line that is appropriately located by a statue of the tortoise and the hare.
"It was really festive. We gave out free forks," said Oliva, a trail coordinator for East Coast Greenway. "We planned to engrave them but ended up doing it in magic marker.
"Our goal at that time was just to put on a killer race. The feedback we got was amazing. We had a lot of people who hadn't even run in a while. That really got us motivated. We said, 'Let's try this out again on Christmas. If we can make it work on Christmas we can make it work anytime."'
The Christmas race also went off better than expected, drawing runners in Santa hats and costumes.
Races on New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Easter followed, all averaging about 300 participants with more holiday appropriate outfits.
"On Valentine's Day we had 2 feet of snow," Arnstein said. "It was a snowshoe race without the snowshoes."
At the Easter race, organizers placed a gong at the start-finish line so runners, many with rabbit ears, could announce their arrival by walloping it with a mallet.
With the Memorial Day race in the books, Oliva and Arnstein are now looking to complete the 10-race slate with events on July 4, Labor Day and Halloween.
A committed group of volunteers helps Oliva and Arnstein promote and support the Holiday Marathons, especially on race days, with about 100 hours going into organizing each event. Though there's a donation box at the start-finish line, Arnstein covers much of the $3,000 he says it takes to put on each race.
"Organizing the races is my way of giving back to the community," said Arnstein, an Internet and e-commerce entrepreneur. "It's my charity so to speak."
Arnstein has been running for more than 20 years, having competed at distances from 1 mile to 100 miles. He recently has been focusing on ultramarathons and marathons, with a personal best of 2 hours, 28 minutes at 26.2 miles.
"I run now just for running itself. Just to feel good," Arnstein said. "On the holidays, there is nothing better than celebrating health and the environment. And this is a great way to do both of those."
Arnstein, using a portable PA system, kicked off the Memorial Day race with a short speech reminding the entrants that the holiday commemorates the sacrifices our armed forces have made for the country. Then his wife, Victoria Toussie Arnstein, gave a moving rendition of "God Bless America," and the race was on.
"What's impressive to me is the large number of young people," said Dick Conley, a Bronx resident and a member of the Van Cortlandt Track Club. "It seems to be mostly Internet generated."
Though Bob Kennedy was among those who found the race online, he wasn't necessarily among the younger participants. In town for his niece's graduation, the resident of Durham, N.H., was running in Van Cortlandt Park for the first time since he had competed there in a high school cross country meet 46 years ago.
"There's no other place in New York City where you can run a trail race," said Jill Staats, another VCTC member. "It's a lot easier on the body."
And the atmosphere is conducive to mental health.
"It's more like a fun run. You don't feel the pressure of being timed," Staats said. "It's a revolution. We'd like to see more people support this and keep it going."
That's exactly what will happen if Oliva and Arnstein have their way.
The duo would like to export the Holiday Marathons concept to other cities around the country by attracting more runners and getting sponsors.
Arnstein believes this can be done without compromising the grass-roots nature of the races.
"The mission is to keep it a no-cost or low-cost donation-based event," he said. "We don't want to make it commercial."
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