<P> Grete Waitz again won the women's race with a finish time of 2: 27: 33, becoming the first woman ever to break 2: 30 . In a normally trivial mistake, Rosie Ruiz was accidentally given a finish time of 2: 56: 29 . This qualified her for the 1980 Boston Marathon, where she crossed the finish line with a record time of 2: 31: 56 . It was quickly determined that she had not run the entire course in either race, igniting the best - known scandal in the history of modern distance running . New York Marathon chief Fred Lebow rescinded Ruiz's time after determining she had not finished the 1979 race, and officials in Boston quickly followed suit . </P> <P> Alberto Salazar's 2: 08: 13 was initially considered to be a world's best in the marathon, but the mark was later rescinded by The Athletics Congress, now known as USA Track & Field, when the course was measured to be short by approximately 150 meters . Salazar remarked in 1985 that he would continue to believe that he ran a full marathon, since the lack of crowd control forced him to run wide during his turns . He has also suggested that a change in how courses were measured after the 1981 race attributed to the discrepancy in the course length . </P> <P> The national television audience was treated to a thrilling race as England's Geoff Smith held a lead through the last half of the race . He was caught at the 26 mile mark in Central Park by 1972 Olympic 1500 metres bronze medalist Rod Dixon from New Zealand, who won by just 9 seconds . Dixon had been as far as 2 and a half minutes behind with 10 km to go, but steadily loomed over Smith's shoulder . The result was also one of the great "Thrill of Victory / Agony of Defeat" photos of all time as Dixon stood at the finish line celebrating with a collapsed and defeated Smith on the ground behind him . Video highlights on YouTube </P> <P> Grete Waitz completed her last New York Marathon with her friend and race co-founder, Fred Lebow, in celebration of Lebow's 60th birthday . Lebow had been diagnosed with brain cancer and died two years later in 1994 . They both completed the race with a time of 5: 32: 35 . Waitz would herself succumb to cancer in 2011 after what she called the toughest fight of her life . </P>

Where does the new york marathon start and finish