“One minute, everybody,” announced a tall man wearing a gray shirt, indicating that the race was about to begin. A reused bib number clings to one leg of his black shorts.
A few minutes before 9 p.m. on July 14, a small group of runners huddled around the Manhattan entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, a suspended footbridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, hastily affixing homemade bib numbers to their shirts. Once his Garmin struck 9, the tall man—the de facto race director—gathered the group together and said, with a twinkle in his eye, “Run whatever pace you want, whatever feels correct.”
The first lap of the makeshift Williamsburg Bridge Marathon was underway.
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“Somebody's nuts. How fun."
When Matt White dropped a link for the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon in the r/RunNYC subreddit in early July, the cleverly written registration page went locally viral. New York runners laughed that the race claimed to be an “Official Silicon Valley Bank 2023 Marathon Selection.” The website gave a loose 9 p.m. Friday night start time to “experience the unequaled excitement/joy/triumph/challenge of crossing between Manhattan and Brooklyn over 10 times.” White, the guy behind this whole endeavor, clarified, “it may actually be more than 10, I’m not sure how long the footpath is and Google gave conflicting answers.”
White, a 28-year-old software engineer and former collegiate rower, doesn’t even describe himself as a runner. White picks up the activity for a few months every year and likes to challenge himself with one or two unique feats of endurance. He was struck with inspiration just a few weeks ago, after getting rejected from the 2023 New York City Marathon. That day, he decided to run a solo marathon on the track near his home in Brooklyn. “I thought it was funny,” he said before the race. “So I’ve been looking for funnier places to do one.”
Mindless loops on the busy Williamsburg Bridge seemed funny enough.
White’s playful sense of humor and flair for stunty runs is what captured the attention of Redditors and led runners like James Jackson to drop everything and show up on a Friday night. Jackson read through the website and was immediately drawn to it. “This is very cool. This is very interesting. Somebody’s nuts. How fun.”
Then he found White’s marathon on Strava.
“I’ve never heard of this guy, But you know, he just was like a lap cat, cranked out a full marathon!” Jackson said. “Somebody took a screenshot of that and put it in the group chat, and we’re like, alright, this is sick. We gotta go support.”
Jackson’s friend, Miranda Feamster, had never run a marathon. So when their group chat started encouraging her to make her first one memorable, she negotiated, proposing that they make it a group effort and split up the mileage. “Boom. The relay was born.”
People were confused by the race website at first—its offerings were unusual, $0 entry fee, no aid stations, and no event permit. It kind of sounded like a joke. Then there was the course preview, which read, “After months of route exploration in the New York City area, we’re excited to deliver a course jam packed with straight line and U-turn action.”
The elevation preview continued in White’s droll voice, detailing the “number of famous hills” runners could expect on the course, including Strava segment links for Williamsburg Bridge Climb (Manhattan Side) and Williamsburg Bridge Climb (Brooklyn Side). Despite the loud traffic rattling below the pedestrian walkway, the bridge is a popular spot for local training runs, but an unlikely destination for going back and forth ad infinitum.
Let the GPS Tell You When You’re Done
NYC runners soon crowned White a genius. His whimsy is what drew a modest but enthusiastic crowd of around 35 participants to the unofficial race. There were green attendees, like Emily Templeton, who only started running a few months ago, and is training for the Warriors Ultra-Run, a 28-mile overnight running experience that will recreate the escape route from the 1979 film, The Warriors. She figured a night marathon over the bridge would be an excellent opportunity to dial in her race plan. “I mean, I just try to make running fun,” she said.
Seasoned competitors turned up, too. The unofficial champion of the event was 24-year-old Diego Arantes, who clocked a smoking 2:33:49. He relied on his watch GPS to know when he was done, running a quarter mile past the cheer zone and then turning back so he could finish with pomp. A Brazilian distance runner who raced three Ironmans last year, he has his sights set on breaking 2:20 at the Philadelphia or London marathon. While he’s serious about his performance, Arantes also gets “a kick out of crazy, random endurance challenges.” He’d only learned of the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon the night before and thought, “Why not?”
Runners were all smiles coming through the cheer zone, at the bridge’s midpoint, where there was a stash of Gatorade, water, dried pineapple chunks, and hidden celebratory beers to go around. There, relay runners staged their transitions, passing a watch between them, and jamming to an 80’s playlist, even as a summer thunderstorm rolled through. Feamster, the marathon newbie, didn’t mind. “That actually made it more fun,” she said. She took the last leg, and her team finished in 3:19:01, before a triumphant walk off the bridge to Queen’s “We are the Champions.”
The Start of a New Tradition?
Before the race, White admitted he was a little nervous; it was the first time he’d run a marathon with a group. But afterwards, after heading home and going straight to bed, he woke up the next morning with a sense of optimism. People were already expressing excitement for next year’s Williamsburg Bridge Marathon, and the concept may inspire others to host their own ad hoc races over other bridges, like a more DIY approach to the popular Take the Bridge series.
Though the spirit of the race was a wink and a nod, White closed out the race report he posted to Reddit the Sunday after the race with an earnest note: “I used this time to reflect on how immensely grateful I was for everyone who showed up to run, race, and help keep the vibes high. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to do things that feel physically hard, and this certainly met that bar.”
“It was an immense pleasure to share the bridge with you all,” he wrote. “As I mentioned during the race, when I left my apartment heading to the course I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found at the start and on the bridge exceeded my wildest dreams of what this run could be.”
Abby Carney is a writer and journalist in New York. A former D1 college runner and current amateur track athlete, she's written about culture and characters in running and outdoor sports for Runner's World, Like the Wind Magazine, The New York Times, and other outlets. She also writes about things that have nothing to do with running, and was previously the editor of a food magazine.
