Meet the New York marathon's first Black race director

(Credit: Getty Images)

This year’s New York City Marathon will prove a major milestone in the metropolis’s comeback from a pandemic that has sidelined the city’s marquee events for more than a year. It will be the city’s largest public event since the COVID-19 pandemic shut New York down—and special for other reasons as well: The race will be the 50th running of the world’s largest marathon and the first major marathon ever overseen by a Black race director.

While Ted Metellus—who also oversees the New York Road Runners’ other 50-plus races a year—isn’t nervous, he does understand the importance of this particular running of the New York City Marathon, the Bronx native’s first since taking the race director reins in February.