As a sporting enterprise, there is nothing quite like the spectacle of a big-city marathon — pioneered by New York in 1976 after a five-year run entirely within Central Park. But what would soon emerge as a huge international event proved hard to keep up with for the journalists who covered it.
What makes the so enticing — its freewheeling march through neighborhoods, scooting around corners and over bridges, and the boisterous crowds — also made it a storytelling puzzle: trying to piece together the elements of the victorious runs based on shards of information and sketchy interviews.