First-time NYC marathoner Alice Yu of Long Island survived 9/11

Alice Yu never wanted to run a marathon.

A married mother of two preteen girls, Yu said she never saw herself as a runner — or an athlete. She escaped from the south tower in the minutes after the 9/11 terror attacks, giving her “a second chance,” in life. She became a runner, she said, because she was tired of being stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. She needed to break out.

On Sunday the 47-year-old bookkeeper from New Hyde Park will run her first marathon.

And, she’s starting with the largest marathon in the world: The 52nd TCS New York City Marathon. She’ll join a field of more than 50,000 runners in the 26.2-mile competition as they wind their way through the five boroughs.

"For me, the marathon is a bucket list item, something I thought I would never do, thought I'd never be able to do," Yu said this week. "I'm not going to worry about the time. My goal is just to finish …

“And, hopefully, to not get injured.”

New York Road Runners, the nonprofit that operates the marathon, said 36,000 entrants will be participating in the New York City Marathon for the first time. Almost a third of the field — 29% — will be running their first marathon anywhere, as well.

The marathon field is drawn from pool of more than 128,000 applicants from 153 countries and all 50 states. Of the first-time entrants, more than 19,000 are men, more than 16,000 are women and more than 60 are nonbinary. More than 21,000 of the runners in the field are from New York, marathon officials said.

'I wasn't a runner'

Yu, who grew up in Queens and graduated from Forest Hills High School then attended SUNY-Albany and SUNY-Buffalo, played soccer in high school and was on the bowling team. Running?

"No," she said. "I wasn't a runner. I'm slow."

Speaking this week Yu recalled that 2001 September morning, the one, she said, that changed her life.

Yu had just logged in at her desk at Morgan Stanley and was sending birthday greetings to friends when she was startled by the sound of a thunderous crash. Out the window she saw papers flying. And debris.

"Nobody had any idea what it was," Yu said. "A plane, a helicopter? Nobody knew. But you knew something hit something.”

It was 8:46 a.m. Terrorists had crashed American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 bound from Boston Logan International to Los Angeles, into the north tower, World Trade Center 1.

Yu was 24. She and hundreds of others were in the south tower stairwell, headed from her 71st-floor office to the street below, when 17 minutes later the second plane — United 175 — crashed into the building dozens of stories above their heads.

"At first when we were walking down we didn't feel any fear," Yu said. "But when the second plane hit, you could see it in everyone's eyes. You didn't know what was happening. You didn't know what you'd be walking into when you reached the street. It could have been a bomb. Or something else … When I got outside, I saw the debris of the plane, the AA on the tail. Everyone started looking up to see what was going on … ”

When she reached the street, Yu said she looked around, and didn't stick around to see what happened next — like Tower 2 collapsing, soon to be followed by WTC 1. Instead, she just kept walking. Walking, until she'd made her way to Chinatown.

"I'm Chinese," she said. "It was someplace familiar amid the chaos, someplace that didn't seem like it was under attack …

"I just needed to be in a place like that with all that was going on.”

First race in 2020

Twenty-two years later, Yu said that morning led her to rethink what was important in her life.

She became a regular blood donor. In addition to being active in the PTA, she does a lot of charitable work.

But, it was during the pandemic Yu first thought she might try running, to stay in shape.

One of her daughters was in gymnastics. Yu was tired of being housebound. When the world began to open up, she found herself waiting around for the gymnastics classes to end and realized the gym location in Plainview wasn't far from the Bethpage Bikeway. So, she started running it.

Yu did her first 5-kilometer race in 2020, her first 10-kilometer race in 2021 and then did a half-marathon in 2022.

Along the way, she learned the New York Road Runners, which represents almost 700,000 runners of all ages, had a program called 9+1 — meaning if you competed in nine sanctioned races, plus volunteered to serve at one race, you could gain entry to the marathon. Yu did so, volunteering to work the start area at the 2022 marathon.

Asked why she thought the New York City race might be the best place to start her marathon career, Yu said: "I know, I know, right? I've only run up to 20 miles in my training, though I did get a chance to run the last 10 miles of the marathon course just last week, so I have an idea. I'm assuming it's going to take me at least five hours.”

For the record, the men's and women's races were won last year by Evans Chebet of Kenya in 2:08.41 and Sharon Lokedi of Kenya in 2:23.23. The all-time marks for men and women? Try 2:05.06 by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 and 2:22.31 by Margaret Okayo of Kenya in 2003.

"It's going to be hard," Yu said, but "people said the crowd would push me through to the end. I might be walking by then, but I hope it's true."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”