Some runners questioned whether the food used for the race should be diverted to the hundreds of thousands of people who lost power. Others, including a few who would have come from overseas, said they had already deferred their spot in this year’s race and were hoping to recoup the cost of their plane tickets and hotel rooms.

For now, the course remains a question mark. Many of the city’s bridges and tunnels only reopened Tuesday afternoon and some roads are still impassable, so race officials had not determined whether any part of the 26.2-mile course was flooded. Typically, race officials drive the course several times in the days before the race to ensure that nothing is blocking the roadways and their equipment is in place.

The marathon’s course does not pass through Lower Manhattan, which lost power Monday night and had significant flooding. But about half of the nearly 50,000 runners take the Staten Island Ferry, which leaves from the Battery, to get to the starting line early Sunday morning. The ferry may resume service, but subways leading to the Battery may not be operating.

And although the starting line is high up on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the first leg of the course in Brooklyn curls up Fourth Avenue, not far from areas that were flooded Monday night. From there, runners head north through Queens, hugging the East River and crossing over the Queensboro 59th Street Bridge.

The course winds up Manhattan’s Upper East Side, through the Bronx and down into Central Park, which will remain closed until debris and fallen trees are cleared. Critically, many fans, runners and volunteers rely on New York City subways to get to the race. Limited bus service was expected to return Tuesday night, but there is no timetable for the resumption of subway and railroad service.

Race officials said they were in contact with city agencies. At least for Road Runners, electricity is less an issue because it uses its own generators to power equipment at the start and finish lines.