2018 New York City Marathon Applications Open

NEW YORK, NY — The New York City Marathon is one of the most famous road races in the world. It's also one of the hardest to get in to. New York Road Runners — the group that organizes the marathon and other road races in the city — is now accepting applications for runners in this year's marathon.

Applications opened Jan. 15 and will remain open until Feb. 15, according to the New York Road Runners website. The drawing for marathon runners will take place Feb. 28, which will give accepted runners plenty of time to train for the big race.

There are three ways that runners can apply to enter the marathon. The first is to enter the drawing — leaving it up to luck— the second is to qualify for the race and the third is to run for charity. Entering the race as part of the New York Road Runners Team for Kids — which raises money for the organization's youth fitness initiatives — guarantees entry to the race.

Runners entering the drawing will be assigned to one of three applicant pools: New York City metro area residents (within 60 miles of the city), U.S. residents from outside the metro area and international residents.

Last year's drawing saw 98,247 applications and 16,211 runners accepted into the race.

In order to qualify for the race, runners need to submit a valid time from a race that occurred during the year of 2017. Here's a list of qualifying times based by age groups.

For more information, check out New York Road Runners' official website.

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