PARK SLOPE — The winners of the Brooklyn Marathon will get something besides bragging rights this year — prize money.
The 26.2 mile race, now in its third year, will award $500 each to the top male and female finishers. That works out to about $19 per mile and pales in comparison to the $100,000 top prizes for the New York City Marathon.
"While the cash awards for this year's race are modest we felt it was important to reward top performance and, as the marathon grows in coming years, we will increase those amounts," race director Steve Lastoe of NYCRUNS said in a statement. "Supporting the running community is part of our mission.”
Second place runners will get $250 and third place finishers will get $125.
About 500 runners are expected to compete in this year's race on Nov. 17, double the number that ran in the first Brooklyn Marathon in 2010. The race is run entirely inside 585-acre Prospect Park. Runners make six full loops of the park and three smaller loops.
