The annual New York City marathon will take place this Sunday, November 3rd.
50,000 runners are expected to participate in the 26.2 mile race, which snakes through all five of NYC’s boroughs.
The marathon will hamper traffic for thousands who travel in and around New York City. Dozens of roads, bridges and tunnels will be closed at certain times during the race. Drivers coming in from New Jersey should expect miles-long traffic jams and hours-long delays.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neil says that thousands of police officers will be on hand to protect the runners and an expected 1 million spectators along the route. Besides for the officers, security for the race will include helicopters and drones, 500 blocker cars, 100 sand trucks, hundreds of cameras, and even boats with radiological detection capabilities. There will also be a team of operators ready to deploy heavy weapons in the case of a serious security incident.
Although there are no credible threats to the race, the death of ISIS leader Baghdadi just a week ago has some worried that a sleeper cell might try to wreak havoc on the marathon. The NYPD is taking all necessary precautions to ensure that nothing bad happens.
“The developments regarding Baghdadi affect ISIS but won’t affect us because we were already at out highest levels,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller.