Story By Elliot Denman // Title Photo By Victah Sailer/PhotoRun

Sure there was glory in the TCS NYC Marathon for champions Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany. He ran 2:10:59, she ran 2:25:07 in the wind and the cold to lead the parade of 50,564 finishers (gathered from 130 nations and all 50 American states) over the finish line at Tavern on the Green, but just as surely, there was glory in it for Lee Troop and Claudia Gelsomino, for Eddy Bossier and Karin Schon, for Jerry Hammervold and Chiro Yamauchi, for Herman Barrenche-Rios and Liz Borrett, for Koichi Kitabatake and Ginette Bedard, for Margaret Hagerty, and a whole heap of others, folks who almost surely got no major media attention - but nevertheless deserved it..

So, let's take time out now to recognize the many who earn our special applause. These folks for instance: Lee Troop of Australia (2:25:09) led all the 40-up men and Claudia Gelsomino of Italy (2:50:56) paced the 40-up women. Eddie Bossier of Belgium (2:42:29) and Karin Schon of Sweden (2:56:55) outran all the other 50-and-ups. American Jerry Hammervold of Sugar Land, Texas (3:00:11) and Chihiro Yamauchi of Japan (3:36:04) cruised home ahead of all the 60s. Two 75-year-olds, Herman Barreneche-Rios of Colombia (3:26:28) and Liz Borrett of Canada (4:16:39) raced in as the 70-up leaders. Speediest of all 80s were Koichi Kitabatake of Japan (5:44.26) and USA's Ginette Bedard of Howard Beach, Queens (5:10:42). And let's really hear it, too, for Margaret Hagerty of Concord, N.C.  Age 91, and punching in at 9:50:21, she was the fastest - and only - nonagenarian finisher.

The Five-Borough Challenge is always recognized as a major event-within-an-event.  So major recognition should - but probably didn't - go to Brooklyn's Michael Marando (3:47:22) who won over Staten Island's John Chan (4:02:50, Manhattan's Andrew Lawton (4:21:16), Queens’ Luis Marcial (4:23:22) and the Bronx's Judith Rubinstein (5:10:48).

Then again, they weren't the fastest runners of their boroughs.

These champions were Amado Tlatempa of the Bronx men (2:38:51) and Buzunesh Deba of the Bronx women (2:31:40), Ben Leese (2:31:52) and Katie Casto (2:57:12) of Brooklyn, Birhanu Dare Kemal (2:18:22) and Kate Pallardy (2:45:46) of Manhattan, Jerry Faulkner (2:26:31) and Jessica Gonzales (3:02:09) of Queens, and Joseph Brancale (2:53:43) and Michele Gonzalez (3:05:50) of Staten Island.

As it turned out, Kemal (2:18:22) and Deba (2:31:40) were quickest of all the New York Staters in the race, too. Fastest of the neighbor-staters were Hector Rivera (2:37:03) and Anna Steinman (3:05:09) of New Jersey; Joseph Darda (2:34:53) and Joslyn Dalton (3:02:54) of Connecticut, and Nick End (2:26:52) and Cassandra Tripaldi (3:03:21) of Pennsylvania.

Stepped-up security at the Marathon meant that more uniformed personnel were on duty than ever before, but that didn't prevent the best runners of the New York Police Department and New York Fire Department from going at it in their annual comrades contest.

Well, the NYPD (led by Mario Segura in 2:49:29) outran the NYFD (topped by Shane Clarke's 2:58:59) in the race for the Mayor's Cup Award. The police put 10 over the line in 3:25:03 or better, the firemen in 3:37:44 or faster.

Few realize that the TCS NYC Marathon is a team sport, either. But it definitely is.

Even with Meb Keflegizhi (fourth over-all at 2:13:18) in the New York Athletic Club lineup, the Winged Footers couldn't take the men's three-man team title.  

It went to the West Side Runners threesome of Kemal; 2:18:24, Negash Abebe Duki 2:20:15 and Teklu Tefera Deneke 2:25:07, over NYAC's Meb, James Kelly (2:26:56) and Jerry Faulkner (2:16:31), with the Central Park Track Club-New Balance trio of Jeff Ares 2:33:39, Greg Cass 2:33:41 and Phillip Falk 2:34:53 third.

It was the women of CPTC-New Balance prevailing in women's team scoring on the flying feet of Kate Pallardy 2:45:46,  Alexandra Bernardi 2:54:09 and Katie Casto 2:57:12. Runners-up were the NYAC trio of  Mallory Anderson 2:58:53, Arianne Field Perry 3:00:45 and Megan Tursi 3:05:14, with the Henwood Hounds Racing Team  trio of  Liza Howard 2:53:07, Laura Kirk 3:06:52  and Karen de Saint Phalle 3:09:42 in third.

An amazing total of 172 men's teams and 142 women's team were scored.

In 40-up men's team scoring, Julio Sauce's 2:39:57 paced West Side Runners to the team crown; Athena New York, led by Edie Perkins' 3:09:39,  ran off with the women's 40-up team title. 

The 50-up team champions were the men of West Side Runners, led by Felipe Vergara's 2:48:33, and the women of Athena New York, paced by Corinna Cortes' 3:24:31. The 60-up team scoring saw John Shostrom's 3:16:41 lead the Brooklyn Road Runners Club men to a big win, and Team For Kids, powered by Bonnie Keeler's 4:16:11, lead the ladies.

And then there was the special honor claimed by Katherine Slingluff  as the millionth finisher in the 44-year history of the NYC Marathon, dating back to 1970. The Brooklyn resident came across the line in 4:43:36 and thus won guaranteed entry into the race for life and a shopping spree for marathon gear. And she got her photo taken with the winners - Kipsang and Keitany. Going into Sunday, 974,257 people had completed the 26.2-mile course. So when she placed 25,743rd, she was the millionth.

Entries for the 2015 TCS NYC Marathon will be open on Jan. 15. As ever, thousands of candidates can't wait to sign up.