When most people run races for charity, the idea goes that you raise money per mile, or perhaps by breaking a certain time threshold. But Amani Toomer played professional football for 14 seasons. There needs to be a more outwardly competitive element to maintain his interest. After all, if you’ve ever spent time around long-distance runners, you know an unsettling culture of supporting one another that doesn’t exist in many other sports. So when Toomer, who spent his entire playing career with the New York Giants, runs the New York Marathon this fall to benefit to benefit the New York Road Runners youth programs, he’s basing the amount he raises on the number of people he passes on the course. Probably good then that he starting last. When you consider more than 43,000 runners took part in last year’s race, that’s a potentially nice windfall for the youth program. And if passing tens of thousands of runners isn’t enough, Toomer wants to be the four hour, 26 minute time Lynn Swann finished with 17 years ago, when he was the last NFL player to take part in the race.
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When Amani Toomer Passes You, It’s Okay; It’s For A Good Cause
