{"id":354873,"date":"2026-09-23T18:51:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354873\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:51:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:51:04","slug":"the-nyc-marathon-is-changing-its-course-for-the-first-time-in-15-years-to-solve-a-real-inconvenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354873\/","title":{"rendered":"The NYC Marathon is changing its course for the first time in 15 years to solve a \u2018real inconvenience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re running the New York City Marathon<\/a> this autumn and have every late-race turn committed to memory, there\u2019s one small section that you\u2019ll need to relearn.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s race brings the first course tweak<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

And in all honestly, two fewer turns at mile 20 probably won\u2019t generate many complaints from the 50,000+ runners on the course.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. \u2018This is our only supermarket,\u2019 Jennifer Alicea, who lives in the area, told The New York Times<\/a>. She said that trying to navigate the neighbourhood around the race had become \u2018a real inconvenience\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ted Metellus, Race Director of the New York City Marathon and NYRR\u2019s Chief Event Production Officer, told the Times that this year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018I had some sensitivities to that because those sections of the Bronx are food deserts,\u2019 he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and travelled through all five boroughs in 1976. Before that, runners were confined to Central Park for four long loops.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll just get there with two fewer turns \u2013 and without making food shopping quite so difficult for everyone else. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re running the New York City Marathon this autumn and have every late-race turn committed to memory,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,567,132275,569,88284,26027,9,24,63,132274,108292,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-354873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-5b884965-ae85-42f0-a027-fbb36cbede20","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-true","tag-locale-gb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-shorttitle-the-nyc-marathons-route-has-changed-heres-why","tag-sponsored-false","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}