The NYC Marathon is changing its course for the first time in 15 years to solve a ‘real inconvenience’

If you’re running the New York City Marathon this autumn and have every late-race turn committed to memory, there’s one small section that you’ll need to relearn.

This year’s race brings the first course tweak in 15 years, although you would be forgiven for barely noticing it. The adjustment comes in the Bronx between miles 20 and 21, where runners will take a more direct trip through the borough before heading back into Manhattan.

And in all honestly, two fewer turns at mile 20 probably won’t generate many complaints from the 50,000+ runners on the course.

Until now, everyone came off the long First Avenue stretch and crossed the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx, before eventually making a short loop around a block near East 140th Street, then working their way back towards Madison Avenue Bridge. This year, you can say goodbye to that little detour.

Instead, runners will continue north on Alexander Avenue to 141st Street, turn onto Third Avenue, then head south on 138th Street towards Madison Avenue Bridge, trimming the Bronx portion of the marathon from seven turns to five.

The actual reason for the course tweak has very little to do with saving tired legs. The old route effectively boxed off a Western Beef supermarket and 24-hour laundromat for much of race day, making two heavily-used neighbourhood businesses difficult to reach for nearby residents. ‘This is our only supermarket,’ Jennifer Alicea, who lives in the area, told The New York Times. She said that trying to navigate the neighbourhood around the race had become ‘a real inconvenience’.

Ted Metellus, Race Director of the New York City Marathon and NYRR’s Chief Event Production Officer, told the Times that this year’s required recertification gave NYRR an opportunity to rethink that stretch of the Bronx with input from city officials and people who live there. Metellus, who grew up in the Bronx, also noted the importance of maintaining access in an area where grocery options can already be limited.

‘I had some sensitivities to that because those sections of the Bronx are food deserts,’ he told the newspaper.

The timing of it all does have a little extra significance, too. This year’s race, which will take place on Sunday 1 November, marks 50 years since the marathon first expanded beyond Central Park and travelled through all five boroughs in 1976. Before that, runners were confined to Central Park for four long loops.

As for the overall 26.2-mile tour of New York City, it remains very much intact, with runners still hitting all five boroughs and crossing back into Manhattan from the Bronx over Madison Avenue Bridge.

They’ll just get there with two fewer turns – and without making food shopping quite so difficult for everyone else.