Walk the NYC Marathon Course

Join us for a 26-mile walk that follows the NYC Marathon route from Bay Ridge to the finish line in Central Park, two days before the actual marathon. This will not be one of Shorewalkers’ scenic hikes, but it is the route of the prestigious NYC marathon that attracts people from all over the world. While the NYC marathon traverses all five boroughs of the city, we will have to skip Staten Island, since we won’t be able to get on the Verrazano Bridge, where the marathon starts. But we will follow the exact route through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, with a few detours to get to restrooms. The walk will be entirely on city streets, mostly flat, except for the bridges we will cross. We will walk along Fourth Avenue through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Park Slope into downtown Brooklyn, then along Lafayette Avenue with its beautiful brown stones, to and along Bedford Avenue, through the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg to its hipster part north of the Williamsburg Bridge, to Greenpoint, over the Pulaski Bridge to Long Island City, over the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan and along First Avenue up to the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx and back into Manhattan over the Madison Avenue Bridge, and finally down Fifth Avenue to Central Park and the finish line at Tavern on the Green. We will walk about 26 miles (probably a bit more, due to detours to get to restrooms), at a brisk pace (3 mph) throughout the walk, from beginning to end.