Peter Ciaccia is president of events for New York Road Runners and race director of the TCS New York City Marathon.

“At New York Road Runners, we want to encourage people of all ages and abilities to be healthy, active, especially the youth of our City. With the support of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, we have been able to utilize spaces such as Van Cortlandt Park to give us the opportunity to put on youth running events that help kids. NYRR serves more than 200,000 kids, including more than 120,000 kids in New York’s five boroughs. We have seen a tremendous increase in youth participation in our cross country events over the last few years and have responded by adding additional free youth running programs. We developed the NYRR Youth Running Series, a three season program for kids during the school year with race distances varying between three-quarters of a mile to two miles. Within that series, we have our youth cross country races in the Bronx and Staten Island boroughs which give kids the opportunity to take part in a grassroots running event, experiencing the green spaces and running trails which are available to them in New York City.

“The beauty of cross country is the varying terrain and race distances that are available. Van Cortlandt Park has undergone considerable landscaping over recent years – we hope that any improvements give runners of every age and ability level the encouragement to take on new challenges and try out cross country.”

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