Tens of thousands of weekend warriors will return to their day jobs, having lost only travel costs and entry fees with the cancellation of the New York City Marathon. But contenders missed a chance to earn what amounted to half a year’s salary.

A number of elite runners said they understood why the marathon was called off, given the public outcry against using essential services to monitor a race while many in the region are struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy. Still, cancellation brought a significant shortfall to the best runners in the field.

The world’s best generally run only two marathons a year, one in the spring, another in the fall. (Some had planned a third in this Olympic year.) The prize for the male and female winners in New York in 2012 was to be $130,000. For past winners like Meb Keflezighi of the United States (2009) and Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil (2006 and 2008), a repeat victory would have raised the prize money to $200,000. An American as successful as Keflezighi — he won an Olympic silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games and finished fourth at the 2012 London Games — would have negotiated an appearance fee worth as much as $250,000, agents said.

An additional bonus of $60,000 would have been paid for running the 26.2-mile course under 2 hours 5 minutes, $50,000 for running under 2:06. And New York is not only a place to triumph. It is a place to audition. Few marathons have such visibility. The top American male and female finishers on Sunday would have received $20,000 in prize money and a chance to increase their appearance fees at the next race. For an emerging second-tier runner, victory or a high finish could have meant a six-figure increase in a shoe-company sponsorship. Or a chance to have a shoe deal of any kind.