Sunday, September 7th is going to be one of the busiest days of the year on the sports calendar in New York. Kickoff of the football season will have Giants and Jets fans in tailgate mode for the first time in 2025, the men’s finals at the U.S. Open will play out in Queens, and the Yankees and Mets will try to position themselves in the playoff hunt as the baseball season starts to wind down. But if you’re a fan of running and in the Big Apple, you won’t be left out of the fun, as the 2025 New Balance 5th Avenue Mile will take place Sunday morning and afternoon.
The Mile, a September staple since 1981, is the centerpiece attraction for a day of racing events sponsored by the New York Road Runner’s Club. WOR will cover the spectacle on Sunday beginning at noon, with Larry Mendte and Tim McLoone anchoring the Mile at 60th Street near the finish line, with WOR Beat on the Street reporter Natalie Migliore reporting from near the starting line at 80th Street. McLoone, who is an accomplished entrepreneur as well as the cross-country and track coach at Rumson-Fair Haven High School, appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to discuss what makes the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile such a compelling watch.
McLoone says it sounds easy, but the race is not just a straight sprint for a piece of ribbon: “It’s hard for the runners… When you get on a long straightaway, you just don’t know where that finish line is. I mean, you can see it, but it seems like it’s never going to get there. It’s psychologically very difficult for runners to run in a straight line. And then, the other part of it is that there’s undulations on the course. There’s an uphill section- I mean, it’s not a big hill, but 5th Avenue does go up and down a little bit, so that’s also something else that they have to deal with.”
Coverage of the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile will air from noon-1pm on 710 WOR, which will also have coverage of the New York City Marathon on November 2nd.
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