BY JOHN JEANSONNE |[email protected]

October 31, 2007

If ever there was an argument for more being better, it is the marathon, a footrace whose 26-mile, 385-yard distance pushes the outer edge of the comparative degree, just this side of the superlative.

There is some logic, then, to the extra steps being taken by the New York Road Runners Club this weekend in adding a Saturday marathon, which will serve as the 2008 men's Olympic qualifier, to Sunday's annual running-of-the-humans stampede through Big Town's five boroughs.

There will be 133 men racing Saturday morning for three berths on the U.S. Olympic team, then 38,000 to 39,000 storming Gotham Sunday, a few bidding for a portion of the $600,000 prize purse, most striving for reasons entirely personal. Road Runners president/CEO Mary Wittenberg is calling it "the greatest weekend in marathon running. Ever." Organizers have labeled the doubleheader a combination of "America's Race" and "The World's Race," with the promotional gimmick of an Olympic torch juxtaposed with a Statue of Liberty torch.