Friends and members of the Puglia family sift through the remains of their missing home for valuables on November 6, 2012, after Hurricane Sandy hit Staten Island, New York. View photos of New York preparing for Sandy.
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(CNN) -- On her way to pick up her New York City Marathon bib number Friday, longtime New Yorker Lauren Mandel was having second thoughts of running in the iconic race.
Just four days after Superstorm Sandy hit her city, she was wracked by a knot in her stomach as she got closer to the convention center serving as the hub for race participants.
"Walking past ... generators heating up tents for people to eat pasta tomorrow night when there are people who haven't eaten a hot meal in five days" left her with the feeling: "This is so inappropriate and this is so wrong," she said.
NYC marathon will go on
Obstacles and challenges after Sandy
Those feelings of outrage echoed across the city and nationwide since Wednesday, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the race would go on as scheduled.
The announcement sparked a chorus of criticism from local authorities and residents, inspired a boycott effort on Facebook, and became a trending topic on Twitter as users called for the race's postponement.
And after the public outcry grew close to deafening Friday, city and race officials announced they would cancel the race for the first time in its 42-year history.
"While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division," a statement from the mayor said.
NY Marathon 'was going to be divisive,' says deputy mayor of cancellation
NYC marathon will go on
Staten Island reeling days after Sandy
Obstacles and challenges after Sandy
First held in 1970, the New York City Marathon attracts about 47,000 runners and 12,000 volunteers. An estimated 2.5 million spectators typically line the course, which winds through all five city boroughs.
But it was the starting line in Staten Island -- one of the areas hardest hit by Sandy -- that drew much of the criticism. At least 20 people on the island were killed in the storm, which left homes in shards and large portions of neighborhoods under water. Residents on Staten Island pleaded Wednesday for gas, food, and clothes. One woman said she had eaten one slice of pizza in the past two days.
U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, who represents Staten Island and Brooklyn, said before Friday's announcement that the city had its priorities wrong.
"We're still pulling bodies out of the water and the mayor is worried about marathon runners and returning to life as normal," Grimm said in a statement. "The Verrazano Bridge should be used for getting fuel and food in to Staten Island, not getting runners out."
A series of photos of the island's devastation went viral Friday. The post by BuzzFeed ended with the line: "The NYC Marathon is still scheduled to run on Sunday."
Meanwhile, a group of runners scheduled to participate in the race started a boycott page on Facebook, vowing to wear their bib numbers while they volunteered in recovery efforts on Staten Island.
And Friday's cover of The New York Post also weighed in on the controversy. A simple, but powerful, headline over a photo of two generators read: "Abuse of Power: These massive generators are providing electricity to the marathon's tent in Central Park while NYers suffer!"
The response to the cancellation announcement was immediate:
"Canceling the NYC Marathon was 100% the right decision," Parth Desai tweeted.
Karim Lebhour was set to run in the race and said that while he was "disappointed" with the decision, he admitted "nobody really was in the mood."
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San Francisco-based runner Dean Karnazes also said canceling the race "was the right thing to do."
"I'm going to stick around and help out. Now is a time to lend a hand, not run," he tweeted.
The "Boycott the 2012 NYC Marathon" Facebook group echoed Karnazes' comments, saying the volunteer effort in Staten Island will go forward Sunday in the wake of the cancellation.
Other Twitter users began sharing a link to Race2Recover.com, which is encouraging runners to donate their hotel rooms to displaced residents.
But some runners, especially those who traveled from outside the United States to participate in the race, were frustrated by the last-minute cancellation of an event in which not everyone is guaranteed a bib.
To guarantee a spot in the race, runners must pledge to do the event for charity or qualify with a fast marathon or half-marathon time. For the majority of the race participants, they're in by being one of the lucky ones chosen in a random drawing.
"It's a huge frustration," said Juan Carlos Arevalo, who traveled from Argentina. "It really is an effort to come here and participate."
Neil Robbins flew in from Scotland on Thursday, planning to run the race to raise money for cancer research. Now he'll be spending the next week in New York.
"I tried my best. I did my training. I came across, but unfortunately ... Sandy has put an end to my dream," he said. "But such is life. I'll try again next year, maybe."
Wednesday, in announcing his decision to move forward with the race, Bloomberg said "an awful lot of small businesses" depend on the annual event.
On Thursday, the mayor brushed aside concerns that the marathon would direct crucial resources away from recovery efforts, saying electricity would be restored by race day, thus freeing up police currently manning intersections where the traffic signals and electricity have gone out.
"To host the New York City Marathon in the middle of what is complete devastation and a crisis in parts of this city is just wrong," said City Councilman Domenic Recchia, whose south Brooklyn district includes Coney Island and other areas that suffered heavy damage.
Bloomberg continued his fight for the marathon early Friday, recalling another time when city officials were forced to make a tough decision during a sensitive time.
"As Rudy Giuliani said to me this morning, he said, 'You know, right after 9/11 people said exactly the same thing.'" Bloomberg said, adding, "You have to keep going and doing things and you can grieve, you can cry and you can laugh all at the same time. That's what human beings are good at."
City and race officials met throughout the week, up until Friday afternoon, weighing their options including considering whether to postpone the race or shorten the course.
In the end though, "it was clear that this was not going to be a celebration of New York," said Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson. "It was going to be a divisive, difficult day instead of a day of celebration."
Shortly after 5 p.m., the cancellation announcement was made.
Mike Denton, a New Yorker who was set to run the race, said he was looking forward to the opportunity to "use this as a way to build some energy and kind of remind myself why New York is awesome."
Now, he said, five months of training is "for nothing."
New York after Sandy: A tale of two cities
Others expressed concern for the economic implications of canceling such a huge revenue-generating event.
Olympic marathoner and former New York City Marathon champion Paula Radcliffe said on Twitter that the city needs "the solidarity, the lift, and the economic boost that Marathon Sunday brings to NYC."
Tony Ruiz, a running coach with the Central Park Track Club, said Thursday that the consequences of canceling "would be very severe and possibly hurt the city even more, and certainly hurt economically."
The marathon is also an important fund-raiser for hundreds of charities who recruit runners to raise funds, and they stand to lose their pledged donations, said Lee Silverman, president of JackRabbit Sports, a running gear retailer that works with many of those charities every year. More than $34 million was raised in 2011 by runners doing the race for charity, according to the marathon website.
New York Road Runners, which puts on the marathon every year, said it is donating $1 million to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund and encouraged others to donate as well.
After getting over the shock of the race's cancellation, Denton said he and his team will put away their running shoes Sunday and put on their work gloves as they join the volunteer effort.
Mandel, for her part, ended up leaving the race expo before hearing the news that the event had been canceled, having already made up her mind that she would not run this year.
"It's a wonderful experience. I've done it many times. It's not the right time," she said.
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CNN's Melissa Gray, Heather Butler, Eden Pontz and Chris Kokenes contributed to this report.
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A part of a house that floated off its foundation during the storm now sits in the middle of a coastal estuary in the Oakwood Beach area of Staten Island.
New York City police officers and a resident warm up in front of a fire in a blacked-out area of Oakwood Beach on Staten Island.
A woman looks through a sand covered parking lot used as a donation center on November 5 in the Rockaway neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
Volunteers who call themselves the Broad Channel Police Department help clean a neighbor's damaged house.
People wait in line for food at a distribution center at Coney Island.
A dump truck empties trash collected from homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy on Saturday, November 3, in the Midland Beach neighborhood of Staten Island, New York. New York is trying to clean up and resume normal activities days after the storm hit.
A volunteer places donated clothing in plastic bags to protect it from potential rain at a relief center on Saturday in Midland Beach.
A damaged chair sits on the beach in low-lying Coney Island on Saturday.
A man salvages a set of drums at Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, on Saturday. Most of the Rockaway Peninsula remains without power.
People gather among debris from Superstorm Sandy and boxes of donated goods on Saturday in Rockaway Beach.
Boats that were swept aground during Sandy sit against homes near a marina on Staten Island on Friday, November 2.
Eddie Liu uses a broom to clean up mud and water from a flooded coin laundry in Coney Island on Friday.
Michelle Dumas hugs her daughter Olivia to warm her up as they wait in an hours-long line for gas at a station Friday on Staten Island.
Men try to clean up the destruction in a flooded deli in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday.
Members of the Traina family on Friday sort through photographs and other personal items from their Staten Island home that was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, replacement power utility poles are transported along Old Country Road on Friday in Plainview, New York.
Abandoned and flooded cars are piled up on Friday, November 2, in the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood, in Queens, where a large section of a landmark boardwalk was washed away.
Food trucks and men selling bread and cheeses line Broadway at Union Square on Friday in New York as the city recovers from the effects of Superstorm Sandy.
Debris piles up near the foundations of the iconic boardwalk, which was washed away in the Rockaway neighborhood in Queens.
A man rides his bike through the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood.
Matthew Mark Meyer, left, and Annie Barwick, center, sit in a darkened Randolf Beer Restaurant which is using generator power to reopen on Friday in New York City.
People walk through the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood.
Commuters pack into a train on Thursday in New York City. Limited public transit has returned to the city, where 14 of 23 subway lines are running.
Commuters ride the subway. Public transit is operating in New York City, but travel times are long, up to five hours in some cases.
A police officer directs passengers waiting on Thursday to board city buses into Manhattan at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. About 4,000 buses are replacing the subway lines still closed by Superstorm Sandy damage.
Thousands of people wait to board city buses into Manhattan, and some subway lines remain underwater. Getting water out of the tunnels is "one of the main orders of business right now," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
A police officer directs traffic entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway into Manhattan.
A police officer checks cars entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to confirm that they have three occupants before allowing them to cross into Manhattan on Thursday. Limited public transit has returned to New York, and most major bridges have reopened. However, vehicles must have three occupants to pass.
Parts of lower Manhattan are still without electricity on Thursday. Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall along the New Jersey shore on Monday, October 29, left much of the Eastern Seaboard without power, including much of Manhattan south of 34th Street.
Residents of New York City's East Village enjoy a bonfire on Wednesday, October 31.
East Village residents charge their phones with power from a generator on Wednesday.
Traffic snarls in New York City on Wednesday. Residents and businesses across the Eastern Seaboard are attempting to return to their daily lives in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
A Caring Foundation worker hands out food to residents of the heavily damaged Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
Water floods streets in the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
Traders stand outside of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday. Stocks advanced as U.S. equity markets resumed trading for the first time this week after the storm.
A man surveys damage on Wednesday, October 31, in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Superstorm Sandy.
Residents walk with their belongings through the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
The remains of homes burned down in Rockaway are seen Wednesday, a day after an inferno spread across the flooded neighborhood.
Firefighters continued to survey the damage in Rockaway on Wednesday. At least 80 homes were destroyed.
People wait for buses on Sixth Avenue in New York on Wednesday as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
People attempt to squish into a crowded bus on First Avenue in New York on Wednesday.
Con Edison crew members work on a steam pipe on First Avenue on Wednesday.
The foundations to the historic Rockaway boardwalk in Brooklyn are all that remain after it was washed away Wednesday during Hurricane Sandy.
People walk to work Wednesday on a normally busy street near the New York Stock Exchange.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday after it had been closed for two days.
Commuters arrive in Manhattan by ferry from Jersey City, New Jersey, on its first day back in business after Sandy.
CNN iReporter Jordan Shapiro captured this view of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30. Half of the bridge and Brooklyn is lit, while the Manhattan side and the surrounding part of the island remain shrouded in darkness.
A subway station and escalator sit underwater in New York on Tuesday.
Much of the New York City skyline sits in darkness Tuesday evening after damage from Superstorm Sandy knocked out power. About 6.9 million customers are without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia, according to figures compiled by CNN from power companies.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, center, views the damage Tuesday in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, where a fire broke out during Superstorm Sandy and destroyed at least 80 homes.
A resident looks through the debris of his destroyed home in Breezy Point, Queens, on Tuesday.
Burned-out vehicles and destroyed homes line a street in Breezy Point, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula in New York.
A fire continues to burn Tuesday in the remains of a structure that was destroyed by the Breezy Point blaze.
A New York City man hands a dog to first responders while being evacuated on Tuesday.
A bartender at the International Bar in the East Village neighborhood of New York City makes drinks in the dark on Tuesday as electricity remains out for many in the city.
Water floods the Plaza Shops in New York, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on Tuesday, October 30.
Con Edison employees monitor the drainage of water being pumped out of Seven World Trade Center in the Financial District of New York on Tuesday.
Onlookers watch a construction crane dangling from a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise after collapsing in high winds.
The construction crane dangles from a high-rise in midtown Manhattan.
Ramiro Arcos clears debris from a storm drain in the Financial District of New York after Sandy swept through the city.
A couple walks in the rain Tuesday, with the East River and the Lower Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
The Manhattan skyline remains dark after much of the city lost electricity in the storm.
Cars float in a flooded below-street-level parking area in the Financial District on Tuesday.
People take a Tuesday morning walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, which remains closed to traffic after the city awakened to the storm damage.
A car sits crushed by a tree in the Financial District on Tuesday. 
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