NYC Marathon Weekend arrives with opening ceremony hours away

Right here, it's marathon weekend and anticipation is building. 60,000 runners are starting their carbo-loading and millions of spectators are getting ready to cheer from the streets or their couch. Francis Wang on the Upper West Side ahead of the opening ceremony. You can feel it in the air. Plus, you see a lot of people getting their last-minute exercise in. I know, it's really admirable, Rosanna, and even I'm looking at these cars and these drivers thinking, hey, you're going to have your final moments, right, before Sunday. This stretch of First Avenue will be packed with runners and spectators. Speaking of drivers trying to have their final moments, but yes, this is mile marker 17, and at this point, runners will have made their way through Staten Island. Brooklyn and Queens. And from this point on, they still have more than nine miles to go. As you mentioned, the opening ceremony happening today. Preparation has been happening for months. Take a look at the moments of crews painting the iconic blue line along the marathon route earlier this week. Fifty-five gallons of paint to help guide runners through the city, but that's just one small part of what it takes to get ready for this race. The Department of Transportation says crews have been patching potholes, fixing roads, working with contractors and utility companies to make sure these streets are ready. And that work continues right up until Sunday morning. Over in Central Park, crews have also been working to get the finish line ready, where tens of thousands of runners will have their moment of glory come Sunday. Today, this year's race is special. Especially significant, marking 50 years since the marathon first expanded to all five boroughs back in 1976. Now back then, just about 2,200 runners lined up at the starting line. Fast forward half a century, that number has grown to nearly 60,000. And this year, runners from all 50 states and 150 countries are representing. Last year's men's champion, well he is back and he's pretty confident he might win again. New York City Marathon being the most prestigious marathon, I like the people, the spectators along the course. This makes it unique. I will be so happy to be part of this historic event, the 50th anniversary, to win back-to-back. And of course, with millions of spectators expected, security is also a huge undertaking. Thousands of officers will be deployed along the route, along with K-9 units, the bomb squad, helicopters and drones monitoring from up above. More than 10,000 metal barricades and hundreds of blocker vehicles will also be positioned to protect runners and spectators. And for anyone planning to watch from Central Park, do expect bag checks and restrictions on certain. items. And of course, Rosanna, it's going to be so exciting to see all the runners and all of their supporters cheering along. Whether you are a runner or supporter, you just me out and about in the city, make sure you want to be prepared. And Rosanna, I don't know if you heard that the winner from last year, he sounded pretty confident that he was going to take it again this year, but our Robert Moses is running the race. So I don't know. I think that guy has some stiff competition. My money's on Robert, and I'm already going to track him, Francis. He's on my Roadrunners map. So, yeah, we're going to cheer Robert on. All right, thank you, Francis. Thank you, Francis.