The 2020 New York City Marathon Goes Virtual
Race organizers from New York Road Runners opted to call off the in-person race, but the virtual format allows runners to design their own route and race day conditions
On the first Sunday in November, thousands of people usually gather at the entrance to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on Staten Island itching to run the first miles of the New York City Marathon. This year, with coronavirus rendering large-scale road races verboten, the iconic race is taking place on sun-drenched streets in San Diego, sprawling cornfields in Central Illinois and thousands of other locales across the world.
Like most businesses operating during the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 New York City Marathon has gone virtual. And it’s not just frustrated amateurs who are participating to ease the disappointment of the real race being called off—some elite runners also plan to run virtual races.
Race organizers from New York Road Runners in June opted to call off the in-person race. In a typical year, the marathon snakes through all five of New York’s boroughs and draws upward of 50,000 participants and thousands more spectators. Since 2018, there has also been a virtual version of the race, though it has seen much smaller engagement.
Making the race virtual in 2020 is an attempt to give the marathon life while the world waits out the pandemic. Anyone could complete the race this year from anywhere in the world, so long as they logged a 26.2 mile run between Oct. 17 and Nov. 1. Previous iterations of the virtual race had 425 and 2,828 participants, respectively; over 24,000 pledged to complete the virtual marathon in 2020.
Qualifiers for the 2020 road race were given the choice of complimentary access to the virtual race, a refund or deferred entry until at least 2021. For everyone else, running the New York City Marathon came at no cost (though receiving a finisher medal cost $60). Participants could also pay $150 to receive guaranteed entry to a future marathon upon competition of the virtual race.
Because there will be as many marathon courses as marathoners this year, New York Road Runners will not award prize money. Despite the lack of financial incentive, several elite athletes jumped at the opportunity to “race” New York, as the virtual format promised to give them unprecedented control over course design and race day conditions.
“In a sense it’s really a cool opportunity for me to practice,” said 36-year-old professional runner Steph Bruce. “There’s actually a lot I can control because it’s my own virtual race.”
Perhaps the most significant variable athletes can control in 2020 is the terrain. New York City’s point-to-point course is notable for its punishing uphills over five urban bridges and varied pavement conditions. Virtual marathoners can make those factors disappear, with many choosing to run on flatter, circuit courses that feature laps around the same route.
New York Road Runners discouraged virtual marathoners from attempting to follow the race’s traditional course because busy intersections throughout the city will not be closed off to let runners through. Instead, the organization crowd sourced route recommendations in each of the five boroughs, many of which are loop courses.
Circuit courses are more conducive to fast times, according to Alan Culpepper, who twice represented the United States in the Olympic marathon and now coaches runners in Boulder, Col. That’s part of the reason why Eliud Kipchoge ran his unofficial sub-two hour marathon on a flat 6-mile loop through Vienna last year. The advantage is especially true for average runners who will be responsible for maintaining their own aid stations during their marathon attempts.
Bruce will get her New York City kicks on a four-mile course in Camp Verde, Ariz., a small town located at 3,150 feet above sea level about 55 miles away and 3,700 feet below where she trains at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz. She plans to run alongside a teammate for about 20 miles and her husband and coach Ben—a former Team USA steeplechase athlete himself—for the duration; sons Riley, 6, and Hudson, 5, will cheer for mom near a homemade fueling station.
“It’ll be a little different than standing on the Verrazano Narrows bridge and wondering how this race is going to go,” she said. The terrain of her course will also be starkly different: “We have two corners that have a slight uphill and slight downhill, but they would be like speed bumps in New York.”
The main downside to loop races is their repetitive nature, something American long distance specialist Emily Sisson, 29, cited as rationale for choosing an out-and-back course on a paved bike path on Coronado Island in San Diego, Calif. The 2020 New York City Marathon was slated to be Sisson’s second race at that distance, so her coach suggested she treat her virtual race like an especially long training session.
“More than anything it was something on the calendar to look forward to,” she said.
Virtual racing removes one of the most significant hurdles from the marathon equation: weather. There is no penalty for changing the date of the race so long as it occurs within the two-week window.
“In a typical New York City Marathon, you get what you get. And if it’s unpleasant or if it’s hot or windy, that’s what you have to deal with,” said Culpepper. “In this instance you could say, ‘Let’s wait another day.’”
That’s what happened for defending wheelchair division champion Daniel Romanchuk, who moved his race up three days to Thursday, Oct. 22, after seeing rain in the forecast for the weekend. The 22-year-old and his mother, Kim, scouted lightly trafficked roads near their home in Champaign, Ill., and drew up a route through soybean and cornfields, past deserted graveyards and weathered barns.
Racing in the autumn brought an added challenge: “It’s harvest time right now, so there’s a lot of farm equipment out, combines and things like that,” said Romanchuk. He and his mother tried to track when work got under way at the farms so they could avoid areas where heavy machinery might block roadways.
Romanchuk started the race near the town of Bear Creek, Ill., a place with a large Amish population that made him unexpectedly nostalgic for the Big Apple.
“I got a little taste of Central Park this morning, because there were some horses and buggies out,” he chuckled.
The bucolic course proved to be a boon for his finishing time: he completed the marathon in one hour 13 minutes and 57 seconds—about four minutes faster than previous world-best time for a men’s wheelchair race, though his time will not count as a new record because it did not occur on a certified course.
Romanchuk employed his imagination to stay motivated while racing without company. “When I’ve got tall corn on either side, that’s when the fans are really thick in that area. It’s fun,” he said.
Bruce is also hoping to stave off fatigue when she runs her virtual race on Sunday by visualizing Gotham’s vibrant crowds.
“I’m channeling the five boroughs and I’m hoping to section off the marathon in my head,” she said. “I will imagine how I’d be running up Fifth Avenue, about to turn into the park towards the finish line”