NEW YORK -- On Saturday afternoon Meb Keflezighi lingered in the lobby of his midtown Manhattan hotel, a man without a marathon.
On Sunday at 9:40 a.m., he will not be at the foot of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island awaiting the howitzer boom of the start of the New York City Marathon, which was hastily canceled late Friday afternoon.
So where will one of America's most accomplished marathoners be?
"A lot of things crossed my mind," he said. "I want to work with somebody. I don't mind going to Staten Island (which was greatly affected by the storm.) If I cannot run, I want to be positive. Or go to Central Park and let the runners know it's OK. I don't know. It's my first Sunday off in many years. How can I help?"
On Saturday, New York Road Runners President and CEO Mary Wittenberg met with the race's elite runners to explain the decision. It was an emotional meeting, Keflezighi said. He said Wittenberg told the runners that anger over the city's decision to initially hold the race was being directed toward the runners. "She said it wasn't safe," Keflezighi said. "You never know what's going to happen in the streets."
Keflezighi wasn't supposed to address the group but he felt compelled to stand up and speak on behalf of the athletes. "We understand," he told them. "It's like an injury. Sometimes you have to stop and come back stronger."
Keflezighi, 37, said he was committed to run the race next year. "I think it's going to be very emotional. It could be my last marathon next year. I was narrowing down my career, now it got narrowed down one less," he said with a laugh.
Even though he is one of the stars of the field, Keflezighi found out about the race cancellation late Friday afternoon from a television in the elevator in his hotel. The 2009 New York City Marathon men's champion had just returned to the hotel from a 6-mile run. Like all the 40,000 runners expected to compete Sunday, he was stunned. "I guess a lot happens in a 30-minute run," he joked.
Though he acknowledged it would have been easier if the race had been canceled earlier before most had traveled to the city – Keflezighi is from Mammoth Lakes, Calif. -- he didn't want the race to be a divisive force during a time of so much suffering after superstorm Sandy.
"It's not about me, it's about the city. If we're going to have a negative influence, then they have the right to cancel," he said.
The canceling of the race is a financial hit for many runners – from the travel expenses of recreational runners to the loss of potential prize money for the elite runners. The champions receive $130,000. Plus, depending on a runner's sponsorship agreements, there are performance-based bonuses in contracts. Also, there's bonuses from race organizers based on time and place finishes in addition to the guaranteed appearance fee.
"For the top of the food chain, this 50% of your income if you do well," said David Monti, a NYRR consultant who works with the professional athletes. There's also the time and training investment. "It's a three, three-and-a-half month investment of training with a highly specialized schedule to get on a trajectory to be here and ready to go on Nov. 4. It's very hard to salvage that training time."
Keflezighi said he felt well prepared less than three months after finishing fourth in the London Olympics. "Yeah, we get a financial hit, but money comes, money goes," Keflezighi said. "I'm a father (to three young daughters), and there's a lady that lost two of her kids in Staten Island. There's no coming back. Money comes, money goes, but how to you compensate for that loss?"
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