Track your favorite NYC Marathon runner with this official app

I’ll be attending my first NYC Marathon this Sunday, November 6th. As a spectator of course. The ING New York City Marathon is a yearly event, and is attended by people from all over the world. Over 47,000 runners are expected in NYC this weekend.

Tracking your favorite runner is nearly impossible, especially if they’re not favored to win the race. My dear friend Ethan Zohn, who announced that he is once again battling Cancer, will be the runner I’m there to track and cheer on.

The Official ING New York City Marathon Mobile Spectator App Presented by Subway, Powered by MapMyRUN, will let you do more than track NYC Marathon runners. The app is available for both iOS and Android.

Tracking your favorite runners

Each NYC Marathon runner has a device on their numbered bib, which tracks their location. The runners can also download the app for iOS or Android and keep it open during their run. Their up-to-the-second GPS coordinates are then passed back to the app and spectators.

The app lets you search for a runner based on their name or bib number, then prompting you to let your Facebook and Twitter friends know who you’re rooting for.

Unfortunately, you can only track up to ten runners, which seems to be a completely arbitrary number. If you’re a real NYC Marathon fan, you would probably want to track as many runners as you want.

Marathon messages and media

As you move around the race area, you’ll be given notifications of things going on around you, weather updates, and messages about who is leading the Marathon.

Video clips and live streaming is also available from within the app, making watching from the race or from home super simple.

Having all of this information in one app is way better than trying to track the NYC Marathon from TV coverage and the web. The app is powered by the developer behind the popular app “MapMyRun“, so its beautifully designed and very well done. We wish all of the runners good luck on Sunday, and I personally hope that Ethan shows everyone how a real “Survivor” runs.