By John Powers, Boston Globe

NEW YORK – This is where unfulfilled Olympians come for redemption and a Gotham-sized consolation prize, as Bill Rodgers first did in 1976. Paula Radcliffe came up lame in Beijing and placed a career-worst 23d. Catherine Ndereba thought she was winning until she discovered that Romania’s Constantina Tomescu-Dita had run away from the pack. Gete Wami, who’d been up with the leaders, dropped out with intestinal miseries. And Kara Goucher finished well out of the medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters on the track.

So they’ve all come here for this morning’s 39th New York City Marathon, which has gotten so big (39,000 runners) that there will be three separate wave starts on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The rewards, as always, are worth the trip.

For Ethiopia’s Wami, finishing first or second would mean retaining her WMM title and collecting another $500,000 payout. And for Goucher, a former miler who’ll be making her 26-mile debut, it’s a long shot chance to become the first US woman to win here since Miki Gorman in 1977, when 2 hours 43 minutes was good enough for a laurel wreath.

For Radcliffe, the defending champion, it’s the lure of a third women’s title, which nobody has managed since the legendary Grete Waitz claimed nine between 1978 and 1988.

“What Grete did there winning nine was amazing,” said the world record-holder, who won here in 2004 after dropping out of the Olympic race. “But to even just win New York three times is a big achievement and would be to me.”

For Ndereba, a Kenyan who has won four times in Boston and twice in Chicago, a triumph here would complete the American triple crown and possibly clinch the World Marathon Majors title.

“It means a lot,” said the two-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist, who has been runner-up here twice. “I don’t even have words to explain.”

“I hope I can fight through the pain,” said Goucher, who has never run more than a half-marathon. “It’s more like, ‘Please let me be able to keep going for 2 1/2 hours.’ ”

In the absence of Kenyan defending champion Martin Lel, who broke his left foot in the Lisbon half-marathon in September, the men’s race figures to be a jostle among the three previous titlists (Brazil’s Marilson Gomes dos Santos, Kenya’s Paul Tergat, and South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala) plus Morocco’s Abderrahim Goumri, last year’s runner-up, and top domestic hope Abdi Abdirahman, who dropped out of the Olympic trials here last year.

“If I didn’t have a chance of winning this race, or didn’t believe I can win the race, I wouldn’t come to the race,” said Abdirahman, who’d be the first US male to win since Alberto Salazar in 1982.

The Americans have been creeping closer, with Meb Keflezighi placing second in 2004 and third in 2005. Abdirahman, who was fifth in 2005, would have a decent chance in a tactical race.

“The things I’ve been doing the past few months indicated that I’m capable of running a real fast time,” said Abdirahman, whose personal best is 2:08:56 in Chicago. “And I’m ready.”

The odds are longer for Goucher, who’s up against a brutal field that also includes former champions Joyce Chepchumba and Tegla Loroupe of Kenya and Ludmila Petrova of Russia and a couple of Boston victors in Ethiopia’s Dire Tune and Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo.

“When I look over the field at everyone’s stats and everything they’ve done in the marathon, it’s a little bit overwhelming,” acknowledged Goucher.

Radcliffe’s stats are the most impressive. Besides the world mark (2:15:25 set in 2003), she has won every marathon she’s run outside of Olympus and probably should have skipped Beijing since she was recovering from a stress-fractured femur.

“It’s the Olympic Games,” Radcliffe said. “I wanted to go there and give it the best shot I could.”

Ndereba, who didn’t know that Tomescu-Dita already had dashed away from the leaders when she joined the pack, thought she had the gold medal until she spotted the Romanian up ahead with too little time to catch her.

“If I win New York,” she said, “I just count it as if it was Olympic gold.”

The Games have come and gone, but there’s still one more piece of glittering fruit on the global tree this year.

“I don’t associate New York with being a place where I have to go to get over something bad,” said Radcliffe. “But at the same time, I do have good feelings about the place that, yes, when I go there I can race well and something special can happen there.”

(John Powers can be reached at [email protected])