The 2025 New York City Marathon saw a record number of runners
Almost 60,000 people took part in the NYC Marathon this year — as celebrities, influencers, and hordes of routine-starved young people keep long distance races on trend.
On Sunday, the streets of the five boroughs were swarming with sprinters and supporters, as the NYC Marathon took place with near-perfect weather (and a hotter-than-usual political climate).
The day saw a new women’s course record set by Hellen Obiri, who finished the race in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 51 seconds, with fellow Kenyan runner Benson Kipruto winning the men’s by less than a second. But the city’s 54th official installment of the 26.2-mile, Greek-mythologized endurance run was also a little busier than usual.
Warming up
According to event organizer New York Road Runners (NYRR), the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon saw ~59,000 runners — which would be the most participants of any recorded marathon in history, beating the record set at the TCS London Marathon in April of ~56,600 finishers.
In the long run
This marks a 6% uplift on 2024 — which also broke the world record at the time — including ~2,400 more female participants. More broadly, with the exceptions of 2012 and 2020, when the race was called off due to Hurricane Sandy and COVID-19, respectively, the NYC Marathon’s popularity has boomed over the past two decades.
It’s not just New York: people the world over are increasingly lacing up their sneakers of choice for marathons, despite their expensive price tags (London, for example, charges ~$300 for international participants). Now, the likes of Harry Styles and other famous faces can be spotted at the starting lines of equivalent contests in Berlin and Tokyo.
Besides celebs making running cool again, people are turning to endurance races for structure, discipline, and community in the post-pandemic world; for some younger people, run clubs have also become dating hot spots. At any rate, though, for NYC and other major cities, the growing popularity of marathons means hundreds of millions in additional spending as partakers and spectators splash the cash.
