Sunday, March 15, New York will host the United Airlines NYC Half, the half marathon organized by the New York Road Runners that every year attracts tens of thousands of runners between professionals and amateurs. The 2026 edition includes over 30,000 participants, confirming the race among the most important appointments of the U.S. podistic calendar along with the most famous New York City Marathon. The distance is the classic one of the half marathon, 13,1 miles (about 21.1 kilometers), and crosses some of the most famous places in the city, transforming for some hours major roads and arteries into a sports route that connects Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The race provides for a clear start to manage the large number of members. The competitions begin in the early hours of the morning with the wheelchair division around 7:00, followed by elite athletes about twenty minutes later. Non-professional runners instead start in different waves between 7:20 and 9:00, a common mode in the big road races because it allows to better distribute participants along the route. In parallel there is also an event dedicated to the younger, the Times Square Kids Run, which brings hundreds of children to run in the heart of Manhattan.
The track is one of the distinctive elements of the NYC Half because it crosses two districts and some of the most iconic points in the city. The departure takes place on Washington Avenue, near the Brooklyn Museum, with runners who immediately face the climbs of Prospect Park, including the famous Battle Pass Hill. After leaving the park and passing the Barclays Center area, the route leads to Manhattan through the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most photographed moments of the race.
Once you reach Manhattan, the runners run several kilometres on the FDR Drive, overlooking the East River and the United Nations complex. The track continues towards Midtown, passing in front of the Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library. One of the most characteristic passages is that in Times Square, which for the occasion is closed to traffic and transformed into a corridor for athletes between two wings of spectators.
The last part of the race leads the participants to Central Park, where the route enters the 59th road and continues between the climbs of the park to the finish line on the West Drive, near the 72nd road. The final is traditionally one of the most crowded moments of the race, also because direct access to the arrival line is limited and many viewers have access along the last hundreds of meters of the track.
An event of this size has inevitable consequences on urban pathability. Several streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan are already closed in the hours prior to departure, while the FDR Drive remains partially closed to traffic until mid-day. The restrictions also concern some Midtown arteries and the Central Park South area. As with other major city races, organizers provide tracking systems via official app to allow family and spectators to follow the runners along the way.
In recent years the New York half marathon has also become an increasingly international race, with participants from dozens of countries. Among these there are Italian runners, both professional and amateur, attracted by the suggestive path that combines sports and tourism.
L’articolo Sunday runs the NYC Half, the half marathon that crosses Brooklyn, Times Square and Central Park proviene da IlNewyorkese.
