6 Reasons I Think City Cyclists Should Run The NYC Marathon
Especially if you don't have to pay for it
Leg Day is a newsletter about pursuing joy as a city cyclist. This is the last time I will write about running the marathon. I promise!
If you had told me last year that I had not only run the 2024 New York City Marathon, but actually enjoyed it, I would not have believed you. I probably still wouldn’t have believed you in August, when I found out that I won the Strava Bibaway and would now have to face the consequences of my careless action.
The race itself went as well as I could have hoped. I paced myself in the first miles, holding myself back even when a group of four people wearing thin blue line t-shirts passed me one by one on the Verrazano Bridge. Instead of giving into lizard brain chaser instincts, I let myself soak up as much atmosphere as I could. I read every sign I could see. I grabbed water at every station I passed. I hugged so many loved ones. I stretched my arms out like an airplane for my friend Christina’s camera.
After shuffling through the Bronx and making my way into Central Park, I realized my race was almost over. And somehow, I still had energy left. I slowly let myself increase my pace as I reached the final stretch. At some point, I passed one of the cop shirts. I almost didn’t notice because of how much fun I was having.
My brain was absolute mush after finishing, a true typhoon of thoughts I still haven’t quite parsed. But one big thought has stuck with me: everyone should get to do this.
Now that I have run the marathon, I firmly believe that anyone with the guts to bike in New York City can also run the marathon. Part of this just comes down to the numbers. 55,634 people finished the New York City Marathon this year, making it the largest marathon that’s literally ever happened.
If more than 55,000 people can do something like this every year, why do you believe you can’t?
You might genuinely have no interest in running a marathon, which is totally fine. But if you’re a city cyclist, I think you should. Here’s why.
You get to experience New York without cars
I am not sure how seriously the NYRR made good on its promise to crack down on cyclists pre-riding the marathon course. Assuming they were very serious, and knowing how much the NYPD loves to chase down cyclists who disobey traffic laws, actually running the marathon represents one of the only opportunities you have to experience one of the few massive glorious street closures that happen in New York.
I spent five and a half hours moving through so many neighborhoods without ever having to wait at a stoplight. Without ever having to hear someone absolutely laying it on the horn when they were upset someone wasn’t reacting to a light turning green fast enough. Without ever having to look both ways in case someone was going to blow through a red light.
It could always feel like this.
Variety is the spice of life
Nothing has made me appreciate how much I enjoy biking as much as running.
After having to spend so much time with my feet hitting the pavement, I have returned to cycling with a level of genuine enthusiasm that’s surprised me. It feels so good to get to move so much faster with so much less effort, and to know that it’s just the power my legs are producing that’s moving me forward. I’m not sure I would feel like that if I hadn’t spent so much of my last four months doing long runs.
Achieving goals helps you set better ones
My preparation for the marathon wasn’t perfect. I used the program from “Run Less, Run Faster” as the outline, so that I would still have plenty of energy to do the things I really enjoyed (mostly biking to different diners). I was lucky that I also won semi-regular group coaching calls through that Strava contest, and I tried to attend as many as I could.
The main thing I learned is that when you’re trying to build fitness, the most important thing is consistency. And though there were weeks where my runs weren’t exactly as long or as hard as they were supposed to, I managed to run at least twice a week for thirteen whole weeks in a row.
I’ve returned to my regularly scheduled cycling programming with this new awareness of my own capabilities. I can see a path I can take to become a stronger cyclist. I can also see that my goals aren’t all fitness related. I don’t want to just be a strong cyclist, I want to be a Good cyclist. I want to be working to make the sport, the hobby, the passion more accessible, especially in places like New York. The fact that I ran a marathon makes me feel way more confident, and honestly inspired, to actually try and do that.
No one knows what a gran fondo is
The average person gets running more than they get biking. Even if they don’t like to run, the idea of someone doing it is something they kind of inherently understand as interesting or impressive. If you need evidence this is true, know that over 2 million people and 10,000 volunteers lined the course last Sunday to watch mostly strangers pass them by.
Most New York City Cyclists will never get to experience the euphoria that accompanies millions of people cheering you on while you dump your energy into a hard effort. There are definitely bike races and events here, but to my knowledge, they’re almost exclusively attended by the people competing in them. Occasionally, an appropriately begrudging partner.
In the days since I did the marathon, the energy from these crowds has stayed with me. It showed up when I’m sitting at my desk trying to work through a weird sentence. It showed up when I didn’t want to cook for myself and considered ordering chicken fingers from my bodega. And it definitely showed up when I was biking up the “Hilly Route” in Zwift last week.
Running is fun (sometimes)
I run slowly. Whenever I tell people this, they usually try to argue with me. But you were gone for so long? A 12-min mile is fast! I would have been slower. I think they believe I am being hard on myself, and trying to downplay my effort. I am not.
I used to run too fast. I would lace up my shoes, step out the door, hit “go” on my phone, and immediately start quickly jogging. I would usually have a distance to reach in mind, but have spent no time evaluating why I was doing it or how hard I should actually be trying. Within 15 minutes, I would feel terrible, but push through until I had reached whatever arbitrary benchmark I had made for myself. When I got home, I could lay on the ground in front of my air conditioner.
As long as this is how I was running, I hated running. Now that I don’t run like this, I think it’s kinda fun!
I start all of my runs with a series of stretches. Knee raises. Hip rotations. Leg swings. Arm circles. Shoulder rolls. Calf raises. Then, I try to start my runs as slowly as possible. You could hardly call it running, it is more like a purposeful amble.
I run slowly.
This is not a brainless activity. It’s often kind of hard to make yourself run easy.
Plus, running in New York requires attention to your surroundings. You have to look for cracks in the sidewalk. Handcarts full of Seagram's Ginger Ale. Extremely adorable dogs. Snack-laden strollers. Gray Citi e-bikes1, which seem to embolden even normally cautious cyclists into, frankly, car-brained behavior.
To both avoid these hazards and manage my effort requires a specific amount of focus. When I am running, probably a third of my thoughts are “watch out for that.” Another third is “slow down.”
Everything else comes from my lizard brain. It’s whatever floats up from my subconscious and presents itself. Did I word that text weird? What happened to that guy who made me watch “Rock of Love” in middle school? That pizza smells great, when am I getting pizza next? Should I have said yes to that? Is it time to start therapy again? Does that dog hate that tutu? Who was the President who died from milk I did a report on in elementary school?2
“Slow down”
When I run slowly, I feel like I get to experience the most fun corner of my brain. I can see all the lovely trains of thoughts as they make non-consequential connections between informational junctions. I never feel like this when I’m working, arguably when I’m using my brain most. I also don’t feel like this when I’m in media consumption mode, with my body relaxed. Something about the exact amount of focus and effort I need to run slowly grants me access.
You can obviously get to this same point on a bike, but it usually takes way more time for me to get tired enough to enter this zone of thought. So, I’ll probably keep running.
At least, a little bit.
People spend more money to do dumber things
Sky diving. Journalism school. Winning the Democratic primary in American Samoa. Bonus: once you’ve finished, they give you this extremely orange cloak. Future vintage!
We have to figure out what to call these. Currently, I’m just saying “those gray guys.”
Answer key: Yes. He’s in real estate now. Tonight. No. Yes. Probably, but the owner seems really happy. Zachary Taylor.