New York will get another marathon, entirely in Brooklyn

After years of trying to make it a reality, NYCRuns announced the inaugural Brooklyn marathon is finally slated to be held in April 2022

By Duncan Freeman

Runners rejoice: After a decade of false starts, city officials have finally approved a new marathon to be held entirely in Brooklyn. The inaugural 26.2 mile race to be held in April 24, 2022, with a tentative route that starts at McCarren park, winds down the Williamsburg and Dumbo waterfronts, passes through downtown Brooklyn and Prospect Park, then heads down to Coney Island before hooking back up to finish in Prospect Park.

Steve Lastoe, the founder of NYCRuns, announced the new marathon at the conclusion of the Lousy T-Shirt Race, held on the tenth anniversary of NYCRuns’ first race. “It was just an idea … let’s have a marathon in the streets of Brooklyn and we didn’t know how hard it was,” he told the crowd at the closing ceremony. “It turns out it takes about 10 years to get the race you want.”

The New York City marathon is the largest in the world, and as the New York Times notes “has far more applicants than slots,” meaning that many New York runners don’t get to participate each fall. The Brooklyn marathon will provide another opportunity for many of New York’s 8+ Million residents (over 2.5 million of whom live in Brooklyn) to run a marathon on the streets of New York.

“Whenever New York runners have more opportunities to race, that’s a good thing,” said Kerin Hempel, the CEO of New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the NYC marathon each fall, in a statement to Brooklyn Magazine. She noted that the announcement of the Brooklyn marathon comes after a year when runners had fewer opportunities to compete given that theNYC marathon was cancelled because of the pandemic.

“Running participation has surged over the past year, [making this] an exciting time in our sport to build off that momentum and provide more local racing opportunities,” she wrote. “We know that running makes a lasting impact on its community and runners, and the addition of the Brooklyn marathon is another avenue for runners to enjoy.”

Lastoe told the New York Times that he expects to register between 18,000 and 20,000 runners for the Brookyln marathon, about a third of whom would run the full marathon with the rest running half the course. This would make the Brooklyn marathon one of the biggest in the country, yet still less than half the size of the NYC marathon which usually has around 50,000 runners.

“You’re gonna have a hell of a time,” he told the audience at his announcement. “You’re gonna run one of the most iconic, most epic races of your lives.”