NYC Marathon will change its route for first time in 15 years
Credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA on Flickr
The New York City Marathon returns to the five boroughs next month with a new route for the first time in 15 years. Taking place on Sunday, November 1, the race will send tens of thousands of participants along a slightly different course in the Bronx, cutting the number of turns runners must make from seven to five and minimizing the event’s impact on Mott Haven residents. In previous years, the roughly one-mile-long stretch in the borough looped around a block containing a supermarket and laundromat, cutting off local residents from accessing them. The new route will redirect runners around the block, maintaining access to the businesses while reducing the number of turns they must make.
For years, runners have traveled up Morris Avenue, turned left onto East 140th Street around the Western Beef supermarket’s parking lot, and then turned left onto Rider Avenue. The route cut off residents of the Patterson Houses, located on the opposite side of Morris Avenue, which has nearly 1,800 units, according to the New York Times.
Starting this year, runners will stay on Alexander Avenue and travel north past 138th Street, where the route turned left in previous races. They will continue to 141st Street, turn left onto Third Avenue, and then turn right onto 138th Street.
From there, they will head straight over the Madison Avenue Bridge and back into Manhattan instead of looping around the supermarket block.
The main reason for the change was to restore access to local businesses, Ted Metellus, chief event production officer and race director for New York Road Runners, told the Times. Metellus said the neighborhood has become more residential in recent years, amplifying the route’s impact on local residents.
“I had some sensitivities to that because those sections of the Bronx are food deserts,” Metellus, who grew up in the borough, told the Times.
He also noted that since the race is on a Sunday, people were more likely to be running errands at those locations.
The organization worked with the city and local community to find an alternative ahead of the course’s required recertification this year. The change occurs between miles 20 and 21 and was one of two options presented to the city and NYPD, which approved the alteration.
The change comes as the race marks the 50th anniversary of its current five-borough form. From 1970 to 1975, the course consisted of just over four loops of Central Park. In 1976, the race used the same two bridges to enter and exit the Bronx, but made only a “quick loop around a light pole” before leaving the borough, Metellus told the Times.
After the Bronx borough president at the time asked race organizers to add more distance to the Bronx portion of the course, organizers adjusted the route to its current format.
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