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Philadelphia Adds 3,000 Slots After Sandy Forces Cancellation of NYC Marathon

By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Organizers of next weekend's Philadelphia Marathon are creating three thousand additional slots to accommodate some of the runners who had signed up for the cancelled New York City marathon.

The Philadelphia Marathon sold out on October 1st, but executive director Melanie Johnson says they decided to expand the field after getting inundated with phone calls and e-mails from disappointed New York City marathoners.

"We had over 600 inquiries, and I got a large number of phone calls from a number of charities that had wait-lists as well," she said today.  "So I don't really know if three thousand people will sign up, but we opened up three thousand spots.  If we get more than three thousand, we'll do a lottery system, computer generated, to choose."

New York marathoners interested in entering should go to www.philadelphiamarathon.com.  There is a $200 fee, half of which will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund.

The deadline to register is Thursday at 5pm.

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