Tiki Barber
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A running back for the New York Giants from 1997 to 2006, it’s fitting that Tiki Barber followed up his NFL career by becoming an avid runner. Since running the NYC Marathon in 2014, he’s run more than fifteen marathons, he shared on the New York Road Runners podcast Set the Pace.
News anchors Errol Barnett, Liz Cho, and Mike Marza
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CBS anchor Errol Barnett ran the NYC half last year and shared about it on YouTube, while ABC New York anchors Liz Cho and Mike Marza, both of whom were part of the Eyewitness News relay team that ran the NYC Marathon last year, will also be participating.
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Justin Britt
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You may know him as a former offensive lineman for the NFL, but since retiring in 2022, he’s become a serious runner, telling the Chicago Sun-Times in 2025 that the sport helped immensely with the mental health struggles he experienced after leaving football. “Ultimately, I’m racing myself,” he told the outlet. “That’s the cool part.”
Jordan Litz
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The Broadway actor known for playing Fiyero in Wicked made headlines last year when he ran the NYC marathon before performing in back-to-back performances. His final performance as Fiyero was last month, so rest assured he won’t be following up his NYC Half race with several more hours of cardio.
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N.O.R.E.
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Victor James Santiago Jr. (second from the right) rose to fame in the ‘90s as Noreaga, one half of the rap group Capone-N-Noreaga, before embarking on a successful solo career under the shortened moniker N.O.R.E. These days, N.O.R.E is the cohost of the popular podcast Drink Champs—and a newly minted marathoner, having run the NYC Marathon last year.
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes
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The former Good Morning America co-anchors and current co-hosts of their podcast Amy & T.J. recently got engaged, per Entertainment Weekly, in the happiest possible conclusion to a cheating saga for the ages. Running is a shared hobby for the happy couple, and they ran the NYC Half together in 2024; in a post-run Instagram post, Robach called it “13.1 miles of pure joy.”
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Nev Schulman and Laura Perlongo
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Most famous for hosting MTV’s iconic Catfish, Schulman has since done Dancing With the Stars and even told Variety last year that he was getting into real estate. But he’s been a serious runner for a long time; in a 2025 interview with Red Bull, he said he first started working with a coach in 2015. But his long running career was very nearly cut short in 2024, when he got into a car accident and broke his neck. He had been training to run his seventh NYC Marathon as a blind runner guide for friend Francesco Magisano, he told People, and after the accident, he didn’t think he’d be able to do it. After a miraculously quick recovery, he ran the marathon three months later. This year, he’ll be running the NYC Half with his wife, Laura Perlongo.
Mickey Thomas
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Some runners cross oceans to participate in the NYC Half, and this year, the legendary pro soccer player Mickey Thomas will be one of them. Thomas is 71 and started his career in 1971 with Wrexham Association Football Club. Now, just a few years after U.K. outlet The Leader reported that he had announced his full recovery from stomach cancer, he’ll be running the NYC Half as part of a team to support the Wrexham AFC Foundation and partner organization Kick4Life.
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Peloton instructors Matt Wilpers, Kristen Ferguson, and Mariana Fernandez
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Some of your favorite Peloton instructors will be participating in the NYC Half this year, including Mariana Fernandez, who took part in a Reel announcing Peloton’s partnership with New York Road Runners, and Matt Wilpers, who is hosting a Peloton shakeout run the day before the race.
Katja Vujić is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, The Cut, Allure, Architectural Digest, The Boston Globe Magazine, and more. You can find more of her work on her website.
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