Things You Missed At The 2024 New York City Marathon

With the final finishers crossing the line of the 2024 New York City Marathon, the year’s Majors have come to an end. 

Here are some of things you may have missed from the record-breaking New York City Marathon.

NYC 2024 WAS THE BIGGEST MARATHON EVER!

55,646 people completed the 2024 New York City Marathon, which is a new world record for the most finishers of a marathon. This beat the previous best in New York of 53,639 finishers from 2019.

56,012 people started the 2024 race, which gives an incredibly high finish rate. 

There wasn’t just a lot of runners: over two million people were cheering on the streets around New York!

IT’S BEEN A BIG YEAR FOR MARATHON FINISHERS

This is the third time the world record for marathon participants has been broken in 2024!

In April, 54,175 people finished the Paris Marathon, then 54,280 people finished the Berlin Marathon, now we jump to 55,646 finishing the 2024 New York City Marathon. 

There were four Majors with over 50,000 runners for the first time ever, and record-breaking numbers of finishers in each of those races. 

Here are the number of Major Marathon finishers in 2024:

• Tokyo Marathon: 35,443
• Boston Marathon: 25,554
• London Marathon: 53,980
• Berlin Marathon: 54,280
• Chicago Marathon: 52,150 
• New York City Marathon: 55,646

RUNNERS FROM 137 COUNTRIES FINISHED THE RACE

There were 30,795 male finishers, 24,731 female finishers and 120 non-binary finishers, which is the highest ever number of women and non-binary finishers in New York.

Among the finishers, 17,859 were international runners from 137 different countries. All 50 US states plus D.C., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam were represented.

MORE RUNNERS, AND FASTER OVERALL

While there were more finishers than ever before, 2024 was a faster year than 2023 and 2022. 

Here are the average finish times for runners at the most recent runnings of the New York City Marathon.

The race in 2022 was very warm, which contributed to slower overall times, while 2024 had perfect weather for running. 

NEW WORLD RECORD FOR A MARATHON RUN IN CROCS!

Kevin Leimkuhler ran the 2024 New York City Marathon in 2:51:27… wearing Crocs! That’s an average pace of 4:04 per kilometre or 6:32 per mile.

He beat the previous record of 2:58:24 set by Chris Howett at the 2024 Manchester Marathon. 

TWO NEW MAJOR MARATHON CHAMPS

Despite both the men’s and women’s elite fields each featuring four previous Marathon Major winners, we saw two new Major champions in New York.

Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui won the women’s race in 2:24:35 and the Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye won the men’s race in 2:07:39.

Apart from Nageeye, it was a Kenyan sweep of the podiums.

It’s the second time this year that we’ve had two new Major winners in the same race after Ethiopians Milkesa Mengesha and Tigist Ketema won the Berlin Marathon. 

THE WINNING SHOES

What shoes were the winners wearing in New York?

On the women’s podium, the winner wore adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4, with second place in On Cloudboom Strike LS and third in Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 2. 

On the men’s podium, the winner wore Nike Alphafly 3, with both second and third wearing adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4.

MANTZ & YOUNG ARE INSEPARABLE

American runners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young train together in Utah and have raced four marathons together in the past 13 months. In each of those races they have finished one place apart, and always inside the top 10, with a cumulative total of just 67 seconds between them across all four races! (That’s 67 seconds out of almost 31,000 seconds of racing!)

It’s incredible to see two of America’s best runners succeeding together. Young documents his training on YouTube (with Mantz featuring in all episodes) and it’s an excellent watch if you want to know how the best marathoners prepare for races.

THE NYC MARATHON JACKET

Marathon jackets have become a big deal. It began with the Boston Marathon, and they’ve had a Celebration Jacket since 1989, which runners queue up to buy each year. Since then, other Majors have introduced their own jacket, but this year in New York the jacket almost sold out on the first day of the Expo.

For some it means more than the medal. Sure the medal is great, but you can’t wear it every day, unlike the jacket which you can wear forever to let everyone know you’ve completed one of the greatest marathons in the world!

SUPER MARIO IS THIS YEAR’S FINAL OFFICIAL FINISHER

Mario ‘Super Mario’ Bollini was this year’s final official finisher in a time of 10:01:47. The 74-year old completed his 37th New York City Marathon since 1985, and was welcomed to the finish line by Ted Metellus, the race director. 

Bollini finished a few minutes behind Danielle Grimley, who crossed the line on crutches, having stopped at a medical tent around mile 17, received treatment, and requested crutches to help her get to the finish. Hundreds of people had remained at the finish to cheer for the final runners. 

The finish line remained open after the last ‘official’ runner, with the race’s oldest participant, 88-year-old New Zealander Garth Barfoot, completing the race in 11:23:49. 

WE WELCOME SYDNEY MARATHON AS THE SEVENTH MAJOR!

As runners were still finishing in New York, the story broke that the Sydney Marathon will be an Abbott World Marathon Major from 2025. We’ve got the full story here. It becomes the seventh Major and will be part of a new Nine Star medal in the future. 

All images from NYRR