By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved (used with permission)

The New York Road Runners announced earlier this week that registration had opened for the 2008 NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE, scheduled for Sunday, July 27. 

The application process will be open through Tuesday, May 27, after which a lottery will be held to decide who will be accepted for the event.  Last year's race, the second annual, recorded 9,920 finishers.

The race offers runners a unique course which begins with a loop of Central Park, then storms through midtown Manhattan, running through the heart of Times Square before finishing in lower Manhattan with a view of the Statue of Liberty.

"The NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE has quickly established itself as one of the world's must-run races," said NYRR president and CEO Mary Wittenberg in a prepared statement. "We expect this race, which will be run only a few weeks before the Olympic Games, to be a final tune -for many of the leading professionals and a dramatic preview of the distance races in Beijing."

Applications are available at www.nyrr.org.