The NYC Marathon Turns 50 and Finally Listens to the South Bronx
Sunday's race marks 50 years of the five-borough course, with its first route change in 15 years made for Mott Haven neighbors. Halloween leads in.
More than 50,000 runners are expected on Sunday's 50th-anniversary five-borough course. Photo: Tong Su / Unsplash.
There are two weekends a year when New York stops pretending to be too cool to care. This is one of them. Saturday night, the city puts on a costume. Sunday morning, it laces up and runs through all five boroughs while strangers scream your name off a cardboard sign.
This year that Sunday carries extra weight. The TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 1 marks 50 years since the race left the loops of Central Park and took to the streets of every borough. And for the first time in 15 years, the course is changing. The place it changed? The South Bronx.
A route bent for the block
Here is what happened. For years, between miles 20 and 21, runners came off the Willis Avenue Bridge into Mott Haven and made a tight loop around a block on East 140th Street. That block holds a Western Beef supermarket and a 24-hour laundromat. On race day, closures made both hard to reach for hours.
Across Morris Avenue sit the Patterson Houses, a public housing development of nearly 1,800 units, according to Time Out New York. 6sqft reports the change came after Patterson Houses residents said the old route cut them off from the supermarket and other local businesses.
The new course, per Yahoo Sports and amNY, keeps runners on Alexander Avenue past East 138th Street, then sends them left on East 141st Street, left onto Third Avenue and right onto East 138th Street before they cross the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan. Morris Avenue, East 140th Street and Rider Avenue come off the course. Seven turns become five.
New York Road Runners called the changes "minor adjustments." Its statement to Time Out put it this way: "The TCS New York City Marathon wouldn't be what it is without the support of the communities the course runs through."
Why two turns are a big deal
On paper, this is a small edit to a 26.2-mile map. In the Bronx, it reads differently.
From where we sit, as a media brand built by a kid raised in the South Bronx, the story here is not the asphalt. It is who got heard. Marathon Sunday is one of the most beautiful days in the city, but it has always asked neighborhoods like Mott Haven to give something up: their streets, their bus routes, their access to groceries. Most years, that sacrifice goes unmentioned in the highlight reel.
This year, residents of a public housing development pointed at a problem and the biggest marathon in the world rerouted. That is civic power in its most practical form. Not a protest, not a lawsuit. Just people saying, "We live here," and being taken seriously. Every block association in the five boroughs should take notes.
It still won't be a normal Sunday in the Bronx. Time Out reports that sections of East 135th Street, Alexander Avenue, East 141st Street, Third Avenue and East 138th Street close from 7am to 8:30pm, and the Willis Avenue and Madison Avenue bridges close from 7:30am to 6:30pm. Plan your grocery run for Saturday.
Fifty years of running the city
The scale of this race is wild when you trace it back. The first five-borough marathon, run Oct. 24, 1976, had 2,090 participants and 1,549 finishers, according to amNY. Last year, 59,226 people finished, a world record for the largest marathon ever, per amNY and endurance industry outlet Endurance.biz. More than 50,000 runners are expected Sunday.
Getting in is harder than ever. New York Road Runners received more than 240,000 applications for this year's general drawing, a record, with only about 1% expected to get in through that route, Endurance.biz reported. The charity program has more than 670 partner charities, about 60% of them based in New York City, chasing a goal of more than $100 million. Last year's runners raised a record $80 million.
That money matters. A lot of the city's community organizations, the kind that run after-school programs and food pantries in our neighborhoods, lean on those dollars.
The race up front
The pros start Sunday morning on Staten Island. Hellen Obiri returns as defending women's champion after setting a course record of 2:19:51 last year, according to Citius Mag. Benson Kipruto, who won the men's race by three-hundredths of a second, is chasing back-to-back titles. Sifan Hassan is back too, with a line she gave Citius Mag that is pure New York energy: "New York was my boss last time. So this time, I'm going to be the boss of New York."
The race will also honor Miki Gorman, the 1976 and 1977 women's champion.
Where to watch: 6sqft points spectators to Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn for miles 2 to 6, First Avenue on the Upper East Side for miles 16 to 18, and the Official Charity Cheer Zone at Fifth Avenue and 120th Street in East Harlem for miles 19 and 20. That last stretch, uptown and right before the Bronx, is where runners start to break. Go be loud there.
Saturday night first
Before any of that, the Village takes over. The 53rd Village Halloween Parade steps off Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7pm from Canal Street, heading up Sixth Avenue to 15th Street. This year's theme is "Body & Soul," which Time Out describes as the connection between our physical selves and the spirits inside them. Marching is free for anyone in costume; you line up at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue between 6:30pm and 9pm. Street clothes don't get in.
On Saturday, the marathon's Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K also runs, and some closures start that day. So yes, it is a long weekend for the city. Body Saturday, soul Sunday.
The Den's take
The best New York traditions are the ones where the whole city performs for itself. The parade and the marathon are exactly that. But this year's real headline is quieter: a public housing community in the South Bronx asked for two fewer turns, and got them.
If you're running, take that Alexander Avenue stretch with some respect. If you're watching, go uptown. Mile 20 needs you more than mile 26.
Your turn
Where's your spot to watch the marathon, and what's the best sign you've ever seen on the course?
Follow @theinnovatorsden.
Sources: Yahoo Sports · Time Out: route change · amNY · 6sqft · Time Out: closures · Endurance.biz · Citius Mag · Time Out: Halloween parade