New York City Marathon Recap

The biggest party race of the year puts the spotlight on community once again.

New York, New York. Is there a better showcase of the running community than the New York City Marathon? There’s certainly no bigger party: New York Road Runners reported that this year’s race set a new world record. A total of 55,646 runners crossed the finish line, making it the largest marathon in history. This was my seventh time running the NYC Marathon, which I still consider my “hometown” race; there’s nowhere I feel more at home than this event.

I was invited to run this year with Westin Hotels & Resorts and Hyperice, two brands that have created a really special partnership to support runners participating in the Abbott World Major Marathons. 

In 2023, Westin teamed up with the Abbott World Marathon Majors for the first-ever hospitality collaboration to help athletes get to the starting line and cross the finish line of the world’s most coveted marathons. When I checked into the hotel, I had a Gear Lending Kit by Hyperice—which includes the Hypervolt Go 2 portable massage gun, Hypersphere Go massage ball and the Normatec Go compression sleeve system for calves—waiting in my room. Not having to pack those tools made my life SO much easier. And I’m not a picky sleeper, but the Westin Heavenly Bed was legit. It’s got a silver fiber weave delivers natural antimicrobial and antibacterial properties while pulling heat away from your body, and a temperature-regulating gel-infused foam that stimulates air flow resting on top of individually pocketed coils that relieve pressure points and reduce motion transfer. Considering I got about 5 hours of sleep max per night while I was in the city, this was much appreciated. 

This year, Westin started a new program that offers Marriott Bonvoy members the chance to redeem points for bibs at all six of the Majors. The experience includes a marathon race bib and a two-night stay at The Westin, VIP access to the marathon finisher’s tent, Westin’s Marathon Recovery Zone with Hyperice Gear Lending Kits, a pre-race carb-loading dinner and post-race spa treatment. The Tokyo bib went for nearly 1.3 million points, and you can bid for Boston and London bibs now. The rest of the Majors will follow.

Because I raced the Toronto Marathon last month, my goal was always to fun run the NYC Marathon. Two marathons in two weeks is a huge physical undertaking, and I’ve never run two so close together. And it’s not really something I recommend, unless you’re an experienced runner and you can be strategic about “racing” (I wrote about this a few years ago for Runner’s World). But my plan was to pace my friend Caitlin Carlson to another course PR, same as we did last year. 

We were both invited as media to once again participate in the Mastercard Priceless Start,  a VIP experience (it costs $1,750 and does not include a bib) that gives Mastercard cardholders a chance to purchase a head start in the race. Last year was wild—for 12 miles, it felt like we were the only two people on this course. This year was a little different; while we ran on the right side of the bridge, guided runners ran on the left. There also seemed to be more participants, or at least more participants who were running closer to our goal pace. It felt a little less lonely on the Verrazzano and in Brooklyn, which I didn’t mind! The elite women also started earlier, so they passed us at 5K instead of 10K. But the men and mass start runners didn’t pass us until the same areas as last year, around miles 9 and 12. 

We also noticed more spectators out earlier in Brooklyn this year. And that really set the tone for the entire race. The New York City Marathon is always electric, but the spectators really took it to the next level this year. There wasn’t a single part of the course—minus the bridges—that felt quiet. I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces along the course, starting well before the 10K mark. Soaking up that support—from friends and strangers—was so motivating. It’s the reason I keep coming back to New York; I feel so at home here a) because I do still feel like a part of the New York running community and b) because even if I didn’t, there’s no city that’s more welcoming to runners during an event of this magnitude. 

From a racing perspective, Caitlin and I were shooting for a 4:05—the lower end of the range the Runna app she’d been training with recommended. Pacing is a serious undertaking. The person you’re pacing is trusting you to not only hold their goal pace, but to adjust in real time when the inevitable obstacles that always arise over the course of running 26.2 miles come up. It’s not just about being someone to follow or helping someone overcome the physical challenges of running a certain distance. It’s helping them navigate the mental and emotional hurdles, as well. It’s about understanding when to apply tough love versus when that walk break is really necessary. It’s about putting someone else over yourself. That can be really hard in the middle of a marathon! But when you both succeed? It’s so incredibly rewarding. 

I was more nervous to pace this year than last year, because I didn’t know how my body would handle another marathon just two weeks after running my own PR marathon. Right from the start, my body felt rough—two weeks is barely enough time for me to recover from that distance (I usually take three weeks off). And even though I was running at an easier pace for me, everything hurt very early on. It wasn’t my muscles; it was my joints. (The average 10-minute mile consists of 1,700 steps, according to ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, and each step generates forces around 2.5 times your bodyweight. No wonder my joints hurt!)

In the end, I was grateful for my pacing duties; Caitlin’s goal was my “why” out there on Sunday. Without that finish time to aim for, I know I would have struggled for a reason to keep going. I would have walked a significant amount of the race, I would have been way too focused on my discomfort, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. In pacing her, my body still felt uncomfortable, but I had a good reason to persevere—and in doing so, proved to myself that I’m tougher than I give myself credit for sometimes. 

We finished in a 4:05:05—a nine-minute course record for her! I’m very proud of how we ran that race, how we dealt with the challenges that came up, and how much fun we had out there. More importantly, this whole week was a welcome reminder of the positive power of the running community. I’m leaving New York with a full heart, andI hope I’ll get to experience that again next year.

the rundown

Nike x Hyperice Booties
At the Olympics this summer, Nike and Hyperice unveiled the Hyperboot. This wearable, mobile  recovery “shoe” features Normatec dynamic air compression technology that’s powered by the HyperHeat™ technology featured in the Venom line. Runners had the opportunity to test the Hyperboot at Nike’s new community space in New York this marathon week, and I can confirm that these are, in a word, awesome. I loved the targeted compression around my ankles and feet, especially my plantar fascia. The heat aims to decrease the thickness of the fluid between the muscles and tissue, so the fluid can act as a lubricant; the compression then moves the heated fluid up the leg. And the fact that these don’t confine you to a chair (there are no external cords and batteries!) makes them way more versatile than the uber-popular leg sleeves. 

Run Club Membership Makes You Faster
Run clubs: not just for dating! (That’s a joke.) There’s a significant association between running club membership and marathon performance, according to a 2024 study published in PLOS ONE. The researchers analyzed a substantial sample of over 206,000 marathon runners who participated in the London Marathon from 2018 to 2023, and found that club membership can potentially mitigate pace decline with age and result in substantial improvements in finishing times of up to 40 min (interestingly, the club membership association is slightly more pronounced among males). Is it just that faster runners are more likely to be club members? Or does the social element of a club truly make people faster? It’s probably a little bit of both, IMO. 

Running Influencer Enrages Participants at New York City Marathon
I am not anti-influencer; I think storytelling and representation are important to growing the sport. That said, it’s frustrating to hear Matt Choi once again openly flouted race rules for the sake of content, with an e-bike crew following him on course at the NYC Marathon, disrupting other runners’ races and allegedly injuring some (here’s the full story from Canadian Running Magazine). I really hope races start to penalize runners who have unregistered friends jump in and disrupt already overcrowded events—at the expense of other runners’ safety—just to film social media content. (NYRR has received an onslaught of complaints and will be addressing the issue after meeting this week.) I also hope brands think twice about elevating and investing in influencers who continually act as if the rules don’t apply to them, and instead spotlight those who use their platforms to uplift, not just entertain, other runners.

Aescape Robot Massage
For TIME’s Best Inventions issue, I wrote up a number of innovative products, including Aescape’s “robot massage”—and had the chance to test it out in person in New York this week. Two fully automated robot arms extend over the massage bed, and after performing a full-body scan and using machine learning to create a personalized plan for you, they mimic motions performed by an actual massage therapist. There’s a touchscreen below your face that allows you to control the arms’ pressure, target specific areas, and change the music and lighting. I was skeptical going in (I love my massage therapist), but I was actually surprised by how effective the massage was. It certainly won’t replace a sports masseuse, but that’s not the goal; instead, it aims to make massage more accessible—especially to people who don’t want to get naked (you wear a spandex-y set) and don’t want to interact with another human during the massage. You can find Aescape massage at some Equinox gyms in New York City, the Kimpton Epic Miami, the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, or the Four Seasons Baltimore (with more locations coming).