This year’s field is smaller by about 40 percent, down to 30,000 entrants from roughly 55,000 in years past. To reduce crowding on the course and at the start, those runners will be spread out over five waves, with longer intervals separating their starts than in years past.
The elite field has also been shaken up. The pandemic forced organizers of three major spring marathons to postpone them to the fall, creating a packed schedule of six major marathons inside a six-week window. The Tokyo Marathon was eventually canceled, but race officials in New York still had to compete with marathons in London, Berlin, Boston and Chicago for high-profile professionals.
As a result, some of the top distance runners will not be running this year, including Joyciline Jepkosgei, who chose to run in Boston instead of coming to New York to defend the championship she won in 2019.
Hempel and many of those racing do not expect the changes to dampen the enthusiasm from spectators, a distinguishing feature that they say sets the city’s marathon apart from other major races. If anything, they believe the sense of unity that characterizes the marathon will be particularly strong.
“To me, it just shows the power of the city itself,” said Bruna Martins, 34, a Manhattan resident who is running the New York City Marathon for the third time. “This year, after everything we’ve been through, if anything, people are just going to be really excited out there.”