The Marathon Was Cancelled. They Ran Supplies Instead.

The 2012 New York City Marathon never happened. On Sunday, November 4, more than 1,000 people, many of them runners who had planned to race, boarded the Staten Island Ferry instead, wearing race gear and carrying backpacks full of blankets, batteries and food for people whose homes Superstorm Sandy had destroyed.

The Race That Was Called Off

The marathon starts on Staten Island, one of the places Superstorm Sandy hit hardest. On Friday evening, about 36 hours before the start, Mayor Michael Bloomberg canceled the race.

Thousands of runners who had trained for it suddenly had nowhere to go. Many of them decided to run anyway.

A Facebook Post and 300 Expected Runners

Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports-medicine physician at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery, organized a relief run over Facebook. He had expected about 300 runners to show up.

Counts of the crowd varied by outlet, from hundreds in early wire reports to more than 1,000 in Time. Metzl was surprised by the overwhelming number of volunteers.

Runners from England and Scotland heard about the effort through Twitter. Emily Snyder found the group, New York Runners in Support of Staten Island, online.

Running Supplies Into the Worst-Hit Streets

The runners carried garbage bags and backpacks of donated supplies, including blankets and Home Depot gift cards. Metzl carried a backpack filled with batteries.

After the ferry, they split into groups and ran the supplies to the most severely damaged neighborhoods. One resident asked whether the runners had flashlights, and they did. A family asked for batteries and sweatshirts.

Meanwhile in Central Park

Elsewhere that morning, thousands of other runners lapped Central Park, where the finish-line arch was still standing. There was no official winner and no official times.

New York Road Runners later offered entrants a refund or guaranteed entry into the 2013, 2014 or 2015 marathon.

15 Miles and a Family's Home

Metzl's group completed a 15-mile route. Then they helped clear out the home of Alexandre Bersenev and his wife near Midland Beach. Bersenev had moved to Staten Island from Russia in 1992.

"The runners removed so much debris, and they did it smiling," Bersenev said.

Metzl called it "one of the most compelling things I've ever seen in my life." Jon Bennion, who had finished the marathon three times, said the anxiety of the cancellation gave way to "an overwhelming sense of community."