Spontaneous marathon in New York

"Everyone wait a minute," Matt White - a tall man in a gray shirt - announced, signaling that the race was about to begin.

A few minutes before 9pm on July 14, a small group of runners gathered around the Manhattan entrance to Williamsburg - the bridge over the East River, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn - hastily pasted homemade bib numbers on their shirts. When the clock struck 21 o'clock, White - regarded as the unofficial Running Director - assembled the group, and announced with a twinkle in his eye: "Run at whatever speed you want, whatever it is. what you feel is reasonable". Then the first lap of the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon took place.

Previously, in early July, White sent a link to invite people to attend the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon on Reddit at the r/RunNYC group. This run quickly went viral and sparked excitement in the New York running community.

The link announces the tournament "will start at 9pm on Friday 14/7" and is where runners "experience the excitement/joy/win/challenge of running more than 10 loops on the bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn" . But White emphasized that "runners may have to run more than 10 laps", because he is not sure the length of the Williamsburg bridge and can't find consistent results when "calling" Google for help.

White is a 28-year-old software engineer who used to play rowing when he was a student, and does not consider himself a track and field athlete. He runs a few months a year and likes to challenge himself with a unique endurance feat or two.

A few weeks before that, White excitedly applied for the New York City Marathon 2023 on November 5, but was turned down. That day, he decided to run a marathon alone on the track near Brooklyn. "I think it's funny," White said. "So I was looking for more interesting places to run." Then he chose the Williamsburg Bridge and came up with the idea of ​​a spontaneous run.

The humor, playfulness, and flair shown on White's Reddit link caught the attention of Reddit users and caused many runners like James Jackson to shelve plans and show up at Williamsburg on Friday night. Jackson read through and was immediately attracted to this website. "This is great, very interesting. Someone is crazy. But it's fun," he said.

Then, Jackson found the marathon that White organized on Strava - the world's most popular social network for running. "I've never heard of this guy. But White is like a cat with a paw and wants to run a marathon," Jackson said. "Someone took a screenshot of the announcement about this tournament, sent it to the chat group. And we all said that the tournament was very interesting, wanted to support."

Jackson's friend, Miranda Feamster, has never run a marathon. So when encouraged to attend the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon, Feamster suggested in the group chat that they compete as a team and split the distance.

At first, people were confused about the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon website, where there was no registration, no entry fee, no support station, and no event license. It was all like a joke. The tournament's trailer reads: "After months of exploring the route in New York, we are pleased to announce a route that runs straight and turns."

The trailer continues in White's humorous tone, as he says runners may encounter "several famous hills" along the way, including Williamsburg on the Manhattan side and Williamsburg on the Brooklyn side. Despite the hum of traffic beneath the pedestrian walkway, the Williamsburg Bridge is a popular spot for jogging, but it's not inherently one that can be run multiple laps in a row.

The runners quickly branded White a genius. His eccentricity attracted about 35 people to the unofficial race. There are green-clad attendees, like Emily Templeton, who started running a few months ago and is training for Warriors Ultra-Run, a 45-kilometer overnight run that recreates the movie escape. 1979, The Warriors. She sees the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon at night as a great opportunity to practice.

Several seasoned runners also participated. Unofficial champion of the tournament was Diego Arantes, 24 years old, with a time of 2 hours 33 minutes 49 seconds. He relies on the locator on his watch to know when he has run enough 42,195 km. Arantes aims to reach sub 2:20 (under 2 hours 20 minutes) at the Philadelphia Marathon or London Marathon, so he takes the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon very seriously. The Brazilian runner believes he was inspired "from random, crazy endurance challenges" at White's spontaneous run. Arantes also only found out about the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon the night before and thought, "Why can't I attend?".

The runners were all smiling as they ran through the cheering area, at the midpoint of the bridge, where there was electrolyte water, filtered water, pieces of dried pineapple and some beers. This is also where the runners participating in the group tournament change to the relay runners. In her first marathon, Feamster took on the task at the end and her team completed the 42.195 km in 3 hours 19 minutes 1 second. They then stepped off the Williamsburg Bridge and sang Queen's legendary song "We Are Champions".

Before the tournament, White was nervous because it was his first time running a marathon with a group. But then, when he got home and immediately went to bed, he woke up the next morning with optimism. Everyone has expressed excitement for the Williamsburg Bridge Marathon 2024 and the idea could inspire others to hold similar jackpots on other bridges.

White even reportedly ended the tournament with a message on Reddit expressing gratitude to those who attended the tournament spontaneously and informally. "It's been a pleasure to run on the Williamsburg Bridge with you guys," he wrote. "As I mentioned, when I left the apartment to go to the track, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I experienced exceeded the wildest dreams of this tournament."