NEW YORK — It’s been more than two years since the tragic Boston Marathon bombings of 2013, leaving events such as the New York City Marathon on high alert for another attack with a heavy police presence at the finish line.

This year, however, the New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, are trying to lighten the heightened sense of security at the event, as detailed by the New York Daily News. The 45th annual running of the marathon is Sunday in Central Park.

“We sat down with the police [and] said we needed to make that more welcoming and not so it felt like you were coming into a prison yard, and they got it,” said Peter Ciaccia, NYRR’s marathon race director. The police will “be behind the scenes. Things will be going on that can’t be seen.”

It will be a particularly busy weekend for the New York Police Department as Saturday is the Village Halloween Parade and the possibility of Games 5 and 6 of the World Series slated for Saturday and Sunday night, respectively, at Citi Field in Queens should the series go that far.

“The NYPD is very large, and they’re very well prepared for this — the pope’s visit was a similar thing,” said Michael O’Neil, the former commanding officer of NYPD’s counterterrorism division, now the CEO of the consultancy firm MSA Security. “There really isn’t a better police department for this, and the NYRR is a very proactive group.”

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