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NEW YORK -- Forty years ago, the worlds top two marathon runners were each handed an envelope with a check in it for $3,000 -- secret rewards for helping raise the profile of the very first five-borough New York City Marathon.It was an instant hit, a `Wow! says George Hirsch, chairman of the board of the New York Road Runners club that on Sunday hosts the 2016 race.What is now the worlds largest marathon began in 1970 when 126 men and one woman circled Central Park. Six years later, about 2,000 amateurs, including Hirsch, took the race to the streets of New York for the first time, touching all five boroughs.Leading the pack were American marathon record-holder Bill Rodgers and Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter, paid to push the 26.2-mile run into the global spotlight. Hirsch -- then a prominent publisher -- passed them the checks under the table, he remembers.We wanted to give the most important runners in the world an incentive to be here, Hirsch says. They made a big difference.Rodgers won the first of his four New York marathons.The payments to hit the pavement certainly paid off.This year, about 50,000 people from more than 120 countries -- half of them women -- have registered. The elite athletes will be competing for a prize purse totaling $803,000, with potential time bonuses. The mens and womens champions will each receive $100,000. And $25,000 goes to the fastest competitor in a wheelchair.All eyes will be on the two Kenyans who won last year -- Mary Keitany, also the 2014 champion, and Stanley Biwott.Among Americans, Gwen Jorgensen, the triathlon gold medalist at the Rio Olympics in August, will be running her first marathon. Molly Huddle, who set a U.S. record while finishing sixth in the 10,000 meters in Rio, is making her first try at this longer distance.The star-studded American field also includes Olympians Dathan Ritzenhein and Kim Conley, who is making her marathon debut.Scattered amid the crowded, sweaty runners will be eight amateurs in their 60s and 70s -- all trailblazers in New York in 1976.Dick Traum was the first person to complete a marathon with a prosthetic leg, in 7 hours, 24 minutes. Asked to step off ahead of the thousands of others, he was the first person to start the five-borough marathon.I ran as if you broke your leg and had a cast, trying to get across the street quickly, hopping-style, says Traum, who has a business Ph.D. and created his own computer app company to help companies maximize resources.At 75, hell mount his handcycle Sunday at the start line near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the borough of Staten Island. A knee replacement on his natural leg disqualifies him from actually running; one leg must be intact by the rules of the race.He lost his limb as a young man when a runaway car crashed into him at a New Jersey gas station.Traum was a member of New York Road Runners, the club led by Fred Lebow, a Romanian-born New Yorker and avid runner whose energy fueled the early efforts to expand and elevate the marathon to a global level. Even after his death, Lebow symbolizes the race, his statue standing near the Central Park finish line.For the citys first five-borough run, Lebow, Hirsch and Percy Sutton, Manhattans borough president, had persuaded Mayor Abe Beame to ban traffic from the route that spanned the whole city. On the sidelines were tens of thousands of spectators -- a far cry from the 2 million or so now cheering on runners.The three men told the mayor that the crime-ridden, nearly bankrupt New York of the mid-1970s needed the marathon to lift the citys spirits, Hirsch says.Rodgers and Shorters payments were legal but defied a regulation of the sports governing body, now called USA Track & Field, which classified marathoners as unpaid amateurs. Many struggled financially.New York spurred the worldwide running boom, with ordinary people huffing and puffing their way through big urban marathons that followed in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai and elsewhere.The Boston Marathon is the oldest, launched in 1897.On the first Sunday in November, when exhausted participants finally finish, some collapsing into the arms of loved ones, many take away new friendships while collecting funds for more than 300 charities.Four decades after a small group of hard-core enthusiasts started it, the NYC Marathon has become an athletic and social democracy.In every neighborhood, spectators come at us with a lot of enthusiasm -- and that may be conga drums, it may be somebody banging on cookware, says Paul Fetscher, who ran in 1976. You get to see the best neighborhoods, you get to see the worst, you get to see the richest, you get to see the poorest, and you get to see the immigrant population of Brooklyn, where more than a million people were not born in the United States.But they all love sport, he adds. And running is the most basic of all sports: left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.In 1976, Fetscher aced the race in 2:29.At 70, still working in commercial real estate, he plans to run the 26.2 miles again.I can still do that, he said. Air Force 1 Alte Premium . Listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7pm et. The Raptors traded Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to the Sacramento Kings on Monday, in exchange for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes. Air Force 1 Alte Summaeverythang . John Tavares, Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo were also being counted on to slow down sizzling Rangers forward Rick Nash. That plan didnt go so well early. http://www.airforce1outletitalia.it/scontate-air-force-1-alte-qs.html . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Air Force 1 Alte Supreme . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. Air Force 1 Scontate . Thousands of fans at Mosaic Stadium will be cozying up to each other in an effort to stay warm in chilly temperatures and block the Prairie wind that locals say can knock your socks off. TORONTO -- Most of Team USAs players were on the Ricoh Coliseum ice before the resurfacing machine had even left it.It was a sign, perhaps, that the Americans are eager to put their miserable start to the World Cup of Hockey -- a 3-0 loss to Team Europe on Saturday night -- behind them.A fresh sheet of ice presented a fresh opportunity for them to play themselves back into contention with a pivotal game against powerful Canada looming Tuesday night.Pivotal, in fact, might be an understatement.Tuesday is our championship game, head coach John Tortorella said Sunday. We knew wed have to go through Canada. That game has just come earlier for us here, and thats the way were approaching it.The questions about how this might be achieved are twofold.First, what technical or personnel issues can be changed or addressed to make the U.S. a better team than the one that staggered through the shutout loss to Team Europe, a game marked by a lack of energy through the first 40 minutes and a series of defensive breakdowns that allowed the opportunistic Europeans to steal a game most believed the Americans would win.Sundays practice lines and drills suggest that veteran David Backes, a two-time Olympian for Team USA, will be the extra forward and Kyle Palmieri will draw into the lineup to give the Americans more speed and scoring touch up front.Palmieri had 30 goals last season for New Jersey. He worked Sunday with the teams top power play unit in practice along with John Carlson, Patrick Kane, Zach Parise and captain?Joe Pavelski.?Max Pacioretty, struggling to find his way with Team USA, was dropped to a checking line with Brandon Dubinsky and Palmieri.Kane is trying to shake off a disappointing turn against Team Europe that saw him cough up the puck, leading to an embarrassing 2-on-0 and a 2-0 Team Europe lead. He was working with Justin Abdelkader and Derek Stepan as Tortorella continues to try to find a combination that will unleash Kanes vast scoring potential.James van Riemsdyk, who started the tournament playing with Kane, dropped down to a line with Pavelski and T.J. Oshie.Ideally youd love to have four lines that youre rolling and youre scoring and are trusted in all situations, Backes said. But thats just not where were at at this moment. Weve got to deal with reality and not what wed hoped would be at the moment.First things first, were going to prepare to play the Canadians on Tuesday. We need to win that game, he said.Dustin Byfuglien?was?a surprise scratch for Team USAs first game. It would seem like his physical presence and booming shot in the lineup would be an advantage against Canada, although Tortorella declined to answer any questions about the teams lineup. Byfuglien did skate regularly with Jack Johnson and worked out with the teams second power play unit along with Ryan Suter, Stepan, Ryan Kesler and Oshiie on Sunday.ddddddddddddThats not my decision, Byfuglien said. All I do is come here, put a jersey on and go to work when Im told. Im just waiting for an opportunity. Thats all.One NHL executive said that when Byfuglien is on his game hes a tremendous benefit to his team -- but when hes not on his game, he can be a negative influence.At this stage, its hard to imagine that he wont be in the lineup Tuesday, especially given that the U.S. was 0-for-4 on the power play.Tortorella said he hopes his players can finish more plays against Canada. He feels that his offense had several opportunities available on Saturday but couldnt complete them.Its about getting to the net, the coach said. Its about getting to rebounds. Its about being closer to the puck. And thats kind of the next play. When you have a good forecheck, a good first man, I thought we were late with our second guy to establish that type of forechecking when we had it.Taken in isolation, those elements arent likely to be enough to secure a victory against a Canadian team that rolled over the Czech Republic 6-0 in its tournament opener Saturday night.Technical and/or personnel changes have to be accompanied by a mindset from the get-go that the Americans are going to play the way they are supposed to play. They will need to conjure up the kind of emotion they showed when they defeated Canada in a hard-hitting, often nasty pre-tournament game on Sept. 9.That shouldnt be hard to do, but the same could have been said about Team USA starting the tournament with more energy and purpose, something that was curiously absent.Normally, in a tournament like this or in a playoff series, a losing team wants to get right back at it, but Tortorella said he thinks the extra off day will be important as the Americans try to digest the depth of the predicament in which they find themselves.I think the guys are disappointed, he said. They are going to tell you they put it behind them. I dont think they have. Im glad we have the two days. Not so much for the physical and practicing, but the mental. This is either you are afraid of it or its just a fantastic opportunity we have in front of us Tuesday. I have the belief in our guys they are going to relish this opportunity, and thats the way we have to approach it.Still, Canadian head coach Mike Babcock said something after his teams emphatic win that resonated when it came to examining the U.S. situation. Babcock said that in these kinds of tournaments -- or sometimes in playoff series -- teams that win early get fat and happy, and conversely, teams that lose often get better in a hurry.The Americans, seemingly focused and committed to being better than what they were, are hoping Babcock is right. ' ' '