① The New York City Marathon was started by a man named Fred Lebow. It began in 1970 as a small important race. Only 127 people ran and just 55 of them finished. They ran around central park four times, few people watched them run. However, over the years the marathon grew and became more popular.

② Today people come from all over the world to run in the marathon. Runners must be at least 18 years of old, but there is no age limit. In fact, the oldest runner was an 89-year-old man. Recently, more than 27,000 people ran in the New York City Marathon. Large crowds cheered the runners and offered them cold drinks and encouragement.

③ The course（路线） of the marathon has changed, too. Instead of running around central park, the runners go through the five districts of New York City: Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. The marathon begins at the base（基座） of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Staten island. The runners go across the bridge into Brooklyn. Then they go up through queens and into the Bronx. The marathon finished in central park in Manhattan. The complete course is 26.2 miles, and takes the best runners less than 3 hours.

④ Although it has changed since 1970, the New York City Marathon is always exciting. Through the years, many unusual events have happened during the marathon. For example, Pat Tuz and Jone Weibaker got married a few minutes before the race. Then they ran the race with their party members, some people run the whole marathon as a family. Other people run the race backward.

⑤ In the fall of 1992, Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City marathon, slowly ran his last race. He was very ill with cancer, but he did not want to stop running. In October 1994, Fred died. However, the New York City Marathon, and all its excitement, will continue for many years to come.

The runners had to go through the five districts of New York city ______________.