TCS NYC Marathon 2023: NYPD’s Tanya Kinsella and Glorisel Lee describe preparation for this year’s race
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) – Among the tens of thousands of people running the world’s most famous marathon are dozens of New York’s best, including some at the very top.
Tanya Kinsella is the second highest ranking person in the NYPD. Her best friend, Glorisel Lee, runs a precinct on Staten Island.
They emerged together in a field that was once dominated by men. They trained together and they will run together.
“We have to be there for each other,” Lee said. “Motivate each other and hold each other up. I think we want to show other women that you can do it too.”
“We motivate each other because there was a time when, even in running, a woman wasn’t allowed to run marathons,” Kinsella said. “And now, in this day and age, we rule the world.”
Kinsella has run hard throughout her career. This year she became the first woman to be appointed first deputy commissioner.
This will be her fifth marathon, but she’s not running for time.
Up to 50 NYPD officers run the marathon each year, and they run for a variety of reasons.
They run for personal fitness, they run to be part of a team, to represent, but they are also police officers, and at a time when securing the marathon is as important as ever, it offers a whole another level of protection.
With the war in Gaza raising concerns about terrorist attacks in the West, there are no specific or credible threats against the marathon, according to the NYPD. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t ready.
A whole year of preparation culminated in a tabletop exercise.
Only Eyewitness News was present at the exercise, where top managers from every city agency worked through every possible scenario that could arise along the 26.2-mile route.
“If something happens, we know what to do. “So if there is an active shooter, if a bomb goes off, everyone knows what to do, how to do it quickly, be precise and mitigate the threat to our community,” said Chief John Chell of the NYPD Patrol Services Bureau.
But assuming everything stays safe, there’s another prize for the cops along the way.
Every year the NYPD and FDNY compete for what is known as the Mayor’s Cup. The winner is the agency that is the first to see 10 of its runners cross the finish line.
It’s a friendly competition, but Kinsella and Lee say their team won’t go down without a fight.
“We’ll take it home,” they said. “We’re staying where we should be this year. The team has worked very hard, so I know we are ready to lift the trophy.”
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