New York City marathon returns one year after Hurricane Sandy cancellation

The New York City marathon will return on Sunday, one year after it was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

About 45,000 runners will participate in the race, which will see extra security in place following the bombings at the Boston marathon in April.

The New York course begins in Staten Island and winds through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx before ending with a sprint finish in Manhattan's Central Park.

Thousands of runners are already in Manhattan ahead of the race, with Airbnb alone reporting it has booked 10,000 visitors over the course of the weekend.

Many runners were at the marathon’s “health and fitness expo” – a place to collect your race number and also be bombarded by advertisements from running companies – on Thursday, as barriers were placed on some streets in advance of Sunday.

In among the pop-up Asics clothing shops and booming speakers announcing the purity of Poland Spring mineral water was New York City resident Lisa Kesselman. She was due to run the marathon for the first time last year, but Sandy put a stop to that.

"I was disappointed when we cancelled it, but we went and volunteered," she said. Kesselman, 48, and three friends helped out in Oceanside and in the Rockaways on the day of the race and during the week after.

"We were cleaning people's houses, picking up all the debris, we donated items, we brought water and food to the people that were displaced," she said.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg had initially vowed that the race would go ahead in the days following Hurricane Sandy, which was ultimately blamed for at least 182 deaths in the US and caused property damage estimated at $65bn. Bloomberg cancelled the marathon less than 48 hours before it was due to start.

Staten Island was particularly hard hit by the storm, with some in the borough yet to return to their homes. The course begins with a run across the 1,298m Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn.

"I love the beginning. Once you cross the bridge and you look backwards you can see all the people running behind you," said Alethia Puga, 24. "It's amazing."

Puga was in town from Guadalajara, Mexico, to run the marathon last year. It was terrible to hear that the race was cancelled, she said.

"Because we had been training for a year. We ran a symbolic 42k in Central Park, so in the end it was OK. It's always a nice vibe to be around runners."

Mark Nielsen, 23, had travelled to New York from Copenhagen to take part in the race – his first marathon.

“I heard that running in Central Park at the end should be just completely amazing,” he said. “When you reach there you can just run the end of it on people screaming and supporting you. So I’m looking forward to that.”

The NYPD has bought 100 mobile security cameras in anticipation of the race, the Associated Press reported this week. Two bombs were detonated at the finishing line of the Boston marathon in April, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

The cameras will be positioned along the race route in places where there are gaps in the sight-line of permanent cameras, police said. Hundreds of officers will be posted along the course while police helicopters and boats will also be deployed.