Sunday’s New York City Marathon was supposed to be a sunny, hometown 26.2-mile debut for New Jersey’s Julie Culley, fresh off her Olympic finals berth in London and capping off her career year. But Hurricane Sandy changed all that, as it reshaped so many lives in and around New York this week.
Culley was stranded in Virginia as her parents Paul and Maggie were evacuated from their New Jersey summer home on Long Beach Island to Clinton, N.J., where they are safe but still without power or heat. She arrived Wednesday night to find the summer home underwater and her first Marathon embroiled in controversy.
“The house is under water, to what extent we don’t know,’’ said Culley, the 31-year-old former Rutgers All-American who made the Olympic 5,000-meter final. “We will not be allowed on the island until at least next week. There are gas lines broken and power lines out. It’s a mess … It’s been a crazy time for our family, a lot of families.
“But we’re lucky it’s a secondary home and not a primary residence. Our family escaped the worst of it. I’ve seen terrible pictures of houses uprooted out of the foundation, completely knocked down … so if water damage is the worst for us, we’ve escaped the worst.’’
The scope of that devastation is the cause of the backlash in some quarters. With the death toll from Sandy already at 80, there has been a hue and outcry against Mayor Bloomberg’s call to let the Marathon run as scheduled Sunday.
“This city is a city where we have to go on,’’ Bloomberg said in a press conference, adding that the Marathon won’t divert precious city resources from the cleanup and recovery.
“It’s the mayor’s decision on whether the Marathon should be run,’’ said Mary Wittenberg, the race director and CEO of the New York Road Runners.
Culley said she was “nervous’’ at first about what the reaction would be. “If it’s going to be something that lifts the city, it should absolutely go on,’’ she said. “If we’ve gotten to a point where people are with power or are taken care of, the Marathon will be a really uplifting thing. It was after 9/11.
“The Marathon has always served as a way of lifting the city through whatever type of crisis was going on, personally or as a [community]. … I think the more people focus on the positive, the more it helps us step outside the moment.’’
Culley will be making a huge jump up from the 5,000 after her personal best of 15:05.38 in the Olympic semis. Training with venerable coach Frank Gagliano, she’s hoping to crack 2:34 Sunday.
“Last year, I was on the [lead] truck; the year before I was sitting at the finish with Gags and he’s telling me someday this is my fate, that I’m not a spring chicken and I’m getting older so I’ve got to start thinking about it soon,’’ said Culley. “I’m scared. I’m nervous. It’s New York, almost a hometown race for me, so my excitement’s been tremendous. I hope I’m as excited after Sunday as I am [now].’’