New York City Marathon returning with smaller field

New York City’s annual marathon will be held later this year as planned but will feature tens of thousands fewer participants than in years past due to COVID-19 restrictions.

During a COVID-19 briefing held in the city’s historic Radio City Music Hall on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said the race would operate at 60 percent capacity, with 33,000 participants, down from the 55,000 that normally take part.

Health and social distancing guidelines will be in effect as well for onlookers, the governor said, though it wasn’t clear what restrictions spectators will have to follow.

“The marathon is back and that is a great, great New York event that excites people from all across the globe and does a lot of great work for the city and state of New York,” Cuomo said.

“In 2019, the New York City marathon broke records to become the world’s largest marathon ever,” Cuomo said in a news release from the New York Road Runners, which organizes the annual event. “While canceling the race was the right choice in 2020, we are excited to welcome runners back to our beautiful city. New Yorkers worked hard to flatten the curve after the COVID-19 outbreak and it is that work that allows us to be able to take this step in bringing normalcy back to our state.”

The governor also cautioned that while plans currently were expected to include COVID-19 restrictions, those measures including the race capacity restriction could be loosened should the state’s COVID-19 outbreak taper off before November.

Registration for the event is set to begin next month. 

“The New York City Marathon is a reminder of everything New Yorkers can accomplish with persistence, hard work, and community support,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said in his own statement. “As we build a recovery for all of us, there’s no better time to safely reconnect with the iconic events that make our city great.”