Piles of crushed green Gatorade cups fill the gutters. The crowds have left and the tables and stands have been dismantled.  Most of New York returned to its routine now that the excitement of the New York City Marathon has died down.

But David Fraser continues to push off the ball of his right foot, his manual wheelchair inching along in reverse. His feet aching, his ankles numb, he looks over his right shoulder to see where he is going, but his head lolls with exhaustion. At times his head drops to his chest, giving a little grunt, which makes his guides think he might have fallen asleep. But then he lifts his head up again, pushes back and keeps going. The day grows dark and cold. The only time Fraser takes off his signature plain black baseball cap is to put on a warmer tracksuit jacket.

Tricia Williams, Sonja Kerlen and Meggie Singh have been his guides throughout the race. At four months pregnant, Williams’ lower back is aching, and she admits that walking the marathon is tougher than running it. Kerlen, an experienced guide who has never run the marathon, says running after Fraser on the downhill has taken its toll — she limps slightly. Singh is surprisingly energetic, running along and jogging briskly with Fraser as he speeds on the downhill.

Andy Ashwell, a member of the Achilles Track Club, joins the group as they re-enter Manhattan, and is there for moral support. Michael Oliva, Fraser’s long-time training partner, joined the pack on First Avenue up to 125th Street.

At first the race was going well and it seemed that Fraser would reach his goal of completing in under nine hours. At the halfway mark, his time was just over four hours.

But the 59th Street Bridge became a steep and lonely battle, windy with no spectators and an unforgiving incline. Fraser lost a lot of time. In upper Manhattan, the race was rerouted and he was forced into traffic, waiting for red lights and slowing his time. It became difficult to maintain motivation. Remembering his wife Nora, says Williams, Fraser kept going.

Only marathoners can really appreciate the pain of the incline going on Fifth Avenue from 125th Street to Central Park. For Fraser it is even more pronounced.

“It’s only when you walk this city with him that you realize how many inclines and declines there are,” says Williams.

Fraser has to remain in reverse to fight the uphill. Passing intersections became like a countdown as his guides called out the numbered streets, signs that he was getting closer to the finish. Fraser has to stop often, his body throbbing. His guides cheer him on, not allowed even to give him a little push.

Passers-by cheer clap and call out Fraser’s name from the sign pinned to his back. One woman even has a cowbell. Maria Davis, one of the last runners, stops to take a picture with him. “If he could push his way to the end in a wheelchair,” says Davis. “I have two feet, I can finish the race.”

But Fraser doesn’t need a cheerleader, he needs a distraction. The guides keep the conversation going, talking about anything except the pain Fraser is in. Singh gets in Fraser’s face to poke fun at him. Fraser responds to this needling the best and he still manages to laugh and joke along. Cursing also helps and everyone joins in.

His guides remind him that if he doesn’t speed up, he’ll miss that night’s World Series Phillies-Yankees game. Shouting, “Let’s go Yankees!” Fraser keeps pushing.

On 59th Street at the edge of the park, Fraser defied the race officials and went along the horse-carriage path. The cobbled sidewalk would have been agony for Fraser. His guides moved to left side, their arms stretched out as a protective barrier from the traffic.

The last quarter mile inside the park is a steep uphill. Still, entering Central Park has given Fraser a final burst of energy. His pushes seem to become stronger. The handful of people and volunteers still at the finish line begin to cheer wildly. Fraser waves and smiles, regaining his strength.

With a final push, he crosses the finish line, his arms up in victory. Suddenly he is surrounded by officials in orange. In a blur, he is awarded his medal, wrapped in a foil blanket and handed champagne in a plastic cup. His time is 9:27:32.

Fifteen minutes later, it is all over. Williams pushes Fraser to her car. She can now call Fraser’s wife, Nora, and tell her that he’s made it.

Read more about Fraser’s story here,

More than 100 musicians and bands performed along all 26.2 miles of the New York City Marathon’s course, pepping up the runners and providing entertainment for the onlookers. On Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, about 10 groups were set up on the street corners, including The Delay, an indie rock band from Staten Island, N.Y.; Soul Minds in Dub, a dub reggae group from New York City; Dared The Knot, a progressive industrial band from Astoria, Queens; and Matty B & the Dirty Pickles, a “picklebilly” threesome from Erie, Pa.

— Spencer Bailey and Alexander Hotz

Two runners in today’s marathon carried an extra weight as they crossed the Central Park finish line, just moments before the official eight-hour cutoff.

Michél Bach, a 64-year old Frenchman, ran the race inside a 26-pound, 10-foot metal Eiffel Tower, which he hoisted on his shoulders. Soon after he unfastened the replica of his country’s most famous monument, Brad McKee, a 24-year old Iraq vet from Louisiana, pulled himself across the finish line with an Army backpack loaded with 50 pounds of sand strapped to his back.

“I can’t believe it. I had a tenth of a second left,” said McKee, who was dressed in camouflage pants and a military shirt. He gazed down at the illuminated 7 hours, 59 minutes, .9 seconds on the face of his stopwatch. Two American flags pinned onto his army-green backpack stood straight up.

After the first mile McKee’s right knee couldn’t bend. “It buckled and I had to limp the rest of the way,” he said. But as he approached the finish line, he gained speed. His goal was to receive a gold medal, only given to runners who complete the marathon within eight hours.

McKee, who served as a Marines sniper for four years and served two terms in Iraq, is using running as a way to raise awareness for wounded and fallen soldiers. Last weekend in Washington D.C., he ran in the Marines Marathon and in April, he will run 100 miles in New Orleans. Two of his friends will be filming him for a documentary on war stories.

War included, McKee said this past week has been one of the hardest in his life. “It is all about forgetting the pain and raising awareness for wounded soldiers,” he said, “I’ll do it till I die.”

After he crossed the finish line, McKee lay flat out on the road, covered in aluminum blankets. He had never run a marathon before this week, but conceived the idea after hearing about a friend who completed a 100-mile run after being wounded in Iraq. “He could do it with a cane so I thought I can do it with two fresh legs.”

Not far from McKee, the Frenchman’s Eiffel Tower stood erect. Bach sat next to it on the curb. The muscles of his thighs trembled.

“He’s a little crazy,” said Sylvie Cadeurno, who accompanied Bach, who lives outside of Paris, on the 26.2 mile run through New York City. Encapsulated in the light metal structure created by French students, Bach depended on Cadeurno for all of his water breaks. “He couldn’t use his hands,” she said.

Bach has run in many marathons, from the six-day Marathon des Sables in Morocco to the Bordeaux Marathon, where donning an elaborate costume is the norm. This is fourth time Bach has run in the New York City Marathon, but his first with an Eiffel Tower.

“It started with a backpack with lots of medals and flags in the desert,” he said. Eventually his running shrine grew to include this “beautiful symbol” of his country, he said.

As Bach headed back to his room at the Waldorf Astoria, Eiffel Tower under his arm, medical workers lifted McKee onto a stretcher to examine his knee.

As one medic lifted his backpack, he asked, “What’s in here?”

“Fifty pounds of sand,” he said.

“You carried that, the whole way?”

“Yes, I did,” he replied, as he was rolled away.

Meb Keflezighi blessed himself and kissed the ground after bursting through the finish line tape at the ING New York City Marathon today, a day of historic firsts for the event’s male and female winners.

Keflezighi, a 2004 Olympic silver medalist, is the first American man to win the marathon since Alberto Salazar stood on the platform in 1982. Derartu Tulu took first place in the women’s division — beating three-time winner Paula Radcliffe — making her the first Ethiopian woman to take the title in the marathon’s 40-year history.

Wheelchair athletes also made their mark on the event: Australia’s Kurt Fearnley made his fourth consecutive New York win, while Switzerland’s Edith Hunkeler won her fifth women’s race.

More than 40,000 runners, including Olympic-level and amateur athletes, participated in the marathon, which drew longtime attendees and newcomers who lined the streets throughout the five boroughs.

Lynn Leigh, who said the marathon tends to be an emotional occasional for her, has attended the marathon for the past 10 years.

“I always cry when the runners come through,” she said, as the wheelchair athletes whizzed through Columbus Circle.

A number of attendees, such as Bruce Tomlinson who waited at the 26-mile mark, stood on the sidelines to cheer on friends and family members participating in the race.

“I am amazed at the athletes,” Tomlinson said, as he waited for relative Ryan Branski to pass by. “They finish with more energy than I could even start with.”

At Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, the crowd was up to five people deep in some places. Screaming fans waving signs edged closer and closer to runners who raced past the neighborhood’s delis, barbershops and churches. By 10:20 a.m., an hour into the race, the pack thickened.

Marathon runner Lori Bezahler’s whole family stood waiting at Bergen Street. Bezahler was participating in the marathon to celebrate turning 50.

Her father Harvey, who turned 79 today, kept watch while her husband, Jon, adjusted his camera settings.

“She’s meant to go by at 11:30,” Jon said. “We’ve been here since 9:45.”

One block down, across from the Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios, William Cathcart cheered for as many runners as he could by name.

“Go Sofia!” he screamed, reading the white letters on a blonde runner’s shirt. “Go Evan!
Yeah Alex!”

He did not know any of them personally, but figured they could use his support.

He said he had been cheering for over an hour, and planned to stay until he had to pick up his daughter from a birthday party.

He cheered the loudest for a small, grey-haired Asian lady, who ran slowly as she was accompanied by a friend holding a sign that said, “Seiko – 75-years-old.”

“Go Seiko!” Cathcart screamed. “I’m practically in tears watching this. It’s so touching.”

In the Bronx, at 138th and Alexander, runners made their way through the final six-mile stretch of the marathon. The crowd cheering outside St Jerome’s Catholic Church could tell the runners needed an energy boost by this point in the race, as many looked weak with fatigue and drenched in sweat.

“You’re almost there! Don’t give up now!” yelled Hector Cortes, a retired fireman from the South Bronx who had been standing on the side of the road, by hundreds of discarded Gatorade cups, for most of the day. His walking stick lay on the ground by his side.

“Did you see the guy with the robotic legs?” he asked, after a runner with two prosthetics raced past. “If I was the director of this thing, I’d have put him out in the front. It’s just amazing.”

Further down the street, Wayne Ritter waited for his two good friends Rick and Pat to run past. When they did, it was within minutes of each other. Ritter, a UPS worker who lives on the outskirts of the Bronx near Westchester County, said he was relieved to be able to leave the crowded streets and go celebrate at a Brooklyn restaurant.

“I’ve been out here cheering from an hour,” he said. “Now I want to catch up with my buddies.”

Even at this late stage of a long race, one runner’s sense of humor was intact. As a short, grey-haired man rounded the corner in Harlem, he shouted a question to the cheering crowd: “Have the Kenyans come by yet?”

Two days before the New York City Marathon, Jessica LeBron is styling. Her makeup is impeccable. She wears a houndstooth cap, oversized belt and skinny jeans to her daughter Sami’s parent-teacher conferences. But her shoes aren’t very chic. Despite the frosted-pink lining, her A6 sneaks clash with her fall fashion attire. Trendy shoes are one of the many luxuries that LeBron sacrificed to participate in the 2009 ING New York City Marathon.

“Marathon costs add up,” LeBron says. “I don’t buy real shoes anymore. I buy sneakers.”

LeBron is a single mom representing the Bronx in the Foot Locker Five Borough Challenge. It’s a challenge sponsored by the sports equipment and attire chain that pits working mothers from each of the five boroughs against each other for a Tiffany & Co. trophy and bragging rights. Like many recession-era runners this year, LeBron is cutting costs to participate. With a teenage daughter who “wants everything,” LeBron has had to “make little sacrifices and minor adjustments” in her own wardrobe.

“I buckled down,” she says, describing how she was able to afford marathon expenses. “I thought, fees are coming up. You’ve gotta pay them. Gotta enroll.”

Other marathon runners share LeBron’s drive, even if the race cuts into tight budgets. Richard Finn, a spokesman for marathon organizer New York Road Runners says that no special arrangements have been made for low-income runners who cannot meet the costs of participation. But even in the ongoing economic crisis, runners like LeBron believe that fitness and love of the sport outweigh expenses.

Fees for this year’s marathon were $145 for New York Road Runners members – annual membership is $40 — and $185 for non-members. For non-U.S. residents, the fee is $265.

Marathon fees can weigh heavily for those already struggling to stay afloat. But in a publication it released called the 2008 State of the Sport, the New York Road Runners predict that the sport is flexible enough to survive the global economic downturn. At the least, application figures show the marathon is still going strong.

“We had more than 100,000 applicants last year and this year,” says Finn. “The allure continues to be as strong.”

“I wanted to show Sami I’m doing something I never thought I’d be doing, and I succeeded anyhow,” LeBron says.

The price of role-modeling is steep. While LeBron makes a decent living at a Manhattan-based advertisement company, she is also working toward an associate’s degree in marketing at a Bronx community college. Compounded by tuition fees and the cost of living, running expenses eat into her wages.

Finn believes that costs don’t present an insurmountable barrier in marathon participation, as they do in more expensive sports like tennis and skiing. “You don’t need to buy a fancy racket or a pair of skis,” Finn says. And, he adds, running requires nothing more than a road.

Tell that to marathoner Sean Francis Kearny, a graduate student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I am spending money on flights, shoes and other apparel in order to be ready to go,” he says, “I would say my total expenses are over $600.”

“If I weren’t spending the money on the marathon,” Kearny says, “I would probably try to go to some football games out of town or some concerts.”

Bronx resident Brian Abe is another graduate student just surviving on a modest budget. “The marathon is expensive! I was originally hesitant to sign up, but I thought the experience would be worth the money invested,” Abe says.

Lucy Aboytez, a Brooklyn student, is also struggling to balance tuition and marathon costs.

“I assume the greater majority of entrants understand that running a marathon is not something you do on a whim, and are prepared to dedicate both time and money to making sure they make it across that finish line,” says Aboytez.

In a financial crunch, runners like LeBron, Kearny, Abe and Aboytez are willing to pony up the costs of participation. They are all compelled by a desire to maintain physical fitness in a sport they love.

“If you are a runner, and it’s something you really want to do, costs would be something you figure out,” LeBron says.

LeBron may still break even. She received free Foot Locker sneakers and two Timex watches for her participation in the Five Borough Challenge. On the Saturday evening before the run, she will carb up with all her fellow runners at a free pasta dinner sponsored by Barilla pasta.

David Fraser trains for the 2009 ING New York Marathon

By Lynsey Chutel

David Fraser will spend today pushing himself backwards in his wheelchair, using his right foot to power the 26.2 miles of the New York City Marathon. He’ll do it for the personal challenge, but also to honor his wife, Nora, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer three years ago.

“The first year I did the marathon I did it for me,” said Fraser, 42. “And now every year I do it, I do it for my wife. If my wife can overcome cancer, then a marathon should be no big deal for me.”

Fraser has cerebral palsy and has been in a wheelchair since birth. One of nearly 300 disabled runners participating in the race, Fraser will have four guides to give assist him.

Fraser trains an average of 10 hours a week after work, often with his friend and guide Michael Oliva. On the weekends, he spends a full working day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., training in Central Park, covering a distance of more than 2o miles. Even after a long days’ work on a chilly damp fall afternoon, Fraser was in the park with his guides preparing. Marathoners with disabilities run the same course as able-bodied runners, but are accompanied by an able-bodied guide.

Oliva insists that Fraser only really needs him to carry his gear and keep him company. This year, Tricia Williams will also be his guide since Oliva will be running the marathon on his own for this first time. She will be joined by Sonja Kerlen and Meggie Singh, who will also support Fraser from start to finish. Once Oliva has completed his own race he will come back to join Fraser and complete the race with him. The pair met when Fraser was training for his first marathon in 2007.

Williams herself has run the marathon four times. Since she is four months pregnant this year, she has signed on as a guide with the Achilles Track Club for athletes with disabilities. Two more guides will join him on the course.

It is important that Fraser stay dehydrated and energized throughout the race. His favorite race snacks are Propel Enhanced Water and raisin bagels. Williams, who is a chef and holistic nutritionist, has been trying to put Fraser on a healthier diet before the race. She will, however, be carrying his favorite Milky Way candy bars on the day of the race.

“I’m his chef for the day, packing his meals and carrying his water,”said Williams. “Anything I can do to make the day easier.”

Fraser says music sustains him during his training for the race. He owns five iPods and carries three at all times, in case a battery runs out. His playlist reads like an ecelctic catalog of music, with everything from opera to blues, from Cindy Lauper to AC/DC, with a sprinkling of Vanilla Ice and 4 Non Blondes. Tupac’s gangster raps keeps him motivated during training.

Fraser believes that music is a universal communicator, showing how insignificant the differences are among people.

“My wife and I are complete opposites,” says Fraser. “For a disabled black man to marry a Hungarian Jew, that can tell you about the type of person I am. I believe that I am here to teach people about other people.”

Fraser and his wife met at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus 19 years ago. They married three years later and now live in Brooklyn with their three sons: David Jr., 15; Christopher, 10; and Nicholas, 8.

An accountant for Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State in Midtown, Fraser says his disability has never been an obstacle to him.

“When I was growing up I was never treated as if I had a disability,” says Fraser. “Whatever kids did in the neighborhood, I did it along with them. I know that I have a disability, I know I do. But I don’t live it.”

Today’s challenges will start early, with the trip to the start of the race on Staten Island. Fraser will have to take public transportation from Brooklyn to Manhattan at 3 a.m. On the course itself, the up-hills put a strain on his ankles and he is prone to tumbling out of his chair. Still, according to Oliva, no one takes a fall as beautifully as Fraser does. And while the up-hills are strenuous, when the course changes to a downhill, Fraser spins his chair around and flies down.

Rain might also bring an added difficulty. “When the ground is wet I can’t get the traction I need,” says Fraser. “I have never done it in the rain. But I know it will take me much longer.”

Fraser intends to complete the race in less than eight hours. This would mean shaving an hour off his previous time. Professional wheelers finish the race in less than two hours.

Oliva and Williams think his goal is overambitious; just finishing is an accomplishment in itself. Oliva says he will never forget the first time Fraser completed the marathon.

“He collapsed at the line and kissed the ground,” says Oliva. “That was pretty powerful.”

Finishing the race with David Fraser

Not bad for a man of 88 who has never been to a gym. (He rejects the notion of exercising in a room filled with recycled air.)

Harangozo is the oldest male participant in today’s New York City Marathon.

The oldest female runner will be Yolande Marois, 84. Between the two of them, they have crossed more than 50 marathon finish lines. And neither runner intends to make this year their last. Still, that doesn’t make them immune to some pre-race jitters.

“I’m scared to death,” Marois said from her home in Quebec earlier this week. “I’m scared because it is a challenge. I’m getting old. It’s not just demanding – it’s long.”

Harangozo was a Hungarian freedom fighter in World War II, and escaped Hungary in 1950. He returns to his home country every summer and usually runs a marathon while he’s there. At his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Harangozo has a stack of medals, certificates and trophies that are proof of his success as a runner.

“Up till age 70, I used to make it under 3:30,” said Harangozo, a wiry man whose running shorts expose sinewy legs. “I used to make first, second or third place up to 60 years of age.”

Last year, he finished the race in slightly more than six hours.
He chuckles. “Now I walk fast. I can walk almost as fast as running because I run slow now.”

For Harangozo and Marois, exercise is simply part of their daily routines.

“I run almost everyday,” said Marois. “If I don’t run, I do the bicycling, which is supposed to be very good for your legs.”

But, she said, “I don’t get rigid about it. I do it when I feel like it.”

She says there is something addictive about running.

“It’s like a drug, I guess,” she said. “You do get high, you know. It’s just that’s what happens when you run. You get in touch with the mental.”

Both are happy to share the secrets to their success in marathon careers that span decades. A healthy diet is critical, Harangozo believes. He is so fanatical about health food, he would make Jack LaLanne proud.

“I eat beans,” Harangozo said. “Lots of beans.”

Harangozo, who ran marathons in the early 1980s with legendary marathoner Alberto Salazar, vividly recalls the sound of Salazar passing him by on the 26.2-mile path.

“He was breathing like a horse.”

That breathing technique, Harangozo explains, allows twice as much oxygen into the system. He calls it the sound of a winner.

Marois focuses on the mental aspect of surviving the marathon.
“You have to brainwash yourself and say ‘I can do it,’” she said. “My point is just to achieve it. It’s good for people who see me. All you need is a good pair of shoes and legs.”

The rush, challenge or mere love of sore hamstrings and long course running is not the impetus for 6,000 of tomorrow’s 40,000 expected runners at the ING New York City Marathon. They are aiming for the Central Park finish line for cancer, the environment, children, AIDS, and gay rights among many other causes.

Long hailed as the individualist’s sport, running in the New York City Marathon is more than ever wedded to charity. Runners will keep their cause in mind tomorrow and find more reasons to celebrate after crossing the finish line.

Along the 26.2-mile, five-borough course, runners will represent 75 charities — a record number. Their goal: $21 million, exceeding last year’s take of nearly $19 million raised for 41 charities.

“Sometimes people think it is not enough do it for themselves, for the mere sentiment of success,” said Jay McKay, who ran last year with Team Continuum, which raises money for cancer patients, after his girlfriend’s mother was diagnosed with cancer.

“It was really a no-brainer,” said McKay at the marathon’s Health and Fitness Expo on Thursday night. “I had two reasons to do it. One was myself – the adrenaline – and the other was the cause.”

During the expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, runners could learn about charities for all sorts of causes, from fighting cancer to building esteem in teenage girls, at information booths that shared space with aisles of health and fitness products and marathon souvenirs.

“I looked through the lists of charities and found the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,” said McKay’s sister, Allison, 29, a New York University recruiter who is running the marathon for the first time. She has friends who have been treated there. “I thought it would be good to run for something.”

Some runners organize happy hours to raise funds, while others say the best approach is writing personal letters to friends, family and co-workers asking for donations.

Team in Training raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The group has mustered 174 runners, 10 of whom are cancer survivors. Ben Nilson, a 64-year-old Swede who now lives in Georgia, has run the New York City Marathon four times with the team. He signed up to support his daughter-in-law, a cancer patient.

Training for the marathon starts months in advance and is very intensive. Team in Training members meet twice weekly and the members try to keep in touch to exchange words of encouragement. “It makes all the difference in the world when you are doing it with a team,” said Nilson.

SoleMates, a charity running team, joined the marathon to raise money for “Girls on The Run,” a national program that coaches third, fourth and fifth grade girls about self-esteem, nutrition, health, community involvement and leadership skills. The team, which has recruited 25 runners for today’s marathon, has raised $80,000.

Team leader Erin Davis, 26, joined the team because of the positive message the organization sends to girls.

“Girls are told to be pretty and well-behaved,” she said. “This program teaches them that they don’t to have to fit stereotypes. They can be so much more.”

— Artis Henderson and Wadzanai Mhute

12:30 p.m.
The men receive their medals. First-place winner, American runner Meb Keflezighi, smiles and holds the silver trophy — a tray designed by Tiffany & Co. — above his head as the crowd chants,”U-S-A.”

12:15 p.m.
The top three women receive their medals from Mayor Bloomberg. Gold medalist Derartu Tulu, wrapped in the Ethiopian flag, is all smiles as she shakes hands with the mayor and fellow runners.

11:52 a.m.
Meb Keflezighi crosses the finish line, blessing himself and kissing the ground after he bursts through the tape. In his final half-mile, as it became clear he was the winner, he smiled and waved to the crowd, flashing a double thumbs-up and gesturing to the USA on his tank top. Keflezighi is the first American men’s winner since 1982.

11:51 a.m.
The men are coming through.

11:45 a.m.
Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu wins her first ING New York City Marathon. Ludmila Petrova finishes second, Christelle Daunay finishes third and Paula Radcliffe comes in fourth.

11:30 a.m.
Mayor Bloomberg in an orange jacket crosses the finish line not on foot, but while riding in a black convertible decorated with American flags. The crowd cheers as he passes through.

11:18 a.m.
The leading women runners are about to come through Columbus Circle at any minute. The live band has kicked it up a notch, while an excited crowd tries picking the best spot for a good view. While the area is still not packed, the mood is festive with cheers all around. Wheelchair participants are still coming through.

11 a.m.
Spectators are armed with cowbells as the bleachers and finish line area begins to fill up. The crowd is waiting for British running celebrity Paula Radcliffe. Choppers are circling overhead, which signals that the front runners are on their way.

10:25 a.m.
Wheelchair participants begin whizzing by Columbus Circle, less than a mile short of the finish line. The crowd is not quite full capacity yet, but the bleachers are beginning to sell out rapidly. Australia’s Kurt Fearnley is declared the winner of the men’s wheeler race, while Switzerland’s Edith Hunkeler wins the women’s race.