27,000+ Runners Defy the Fog for 13.1 Miles in NYC Half-Marathon

More than 27,000 runners from around the globe galloped, jogged, and, in some case, trudged, from Brooklyn to Central Park in the New York Road Runners Club United NYC Half-Marathon on Sunday, March 16..

Weather for the event was decent, with temperature starting in the upper 40s and rising throughout a very foggy morning over which lay an occasional light mist. Even runners in the earliest waves, which began with the elite women at 7:20 a.m., were comfortable in shorts and singlets or T-shirts, though some did wear tights, light gloves, or vests.

In the elite fields, winners were both 31-year-old Kenyans, with Sharon Lokedi dominating the women’s race, and smooth Abel Kipchumba holding off a gritty 28-year-old American, Conner Mantz. Lokedi’s winning time of 1:07:04 averages out to a 5:07-minutes-oer-mile pace while Kipchumba’s 59:09 was a 4:31-mile pace.

Though the 2025 course was largely the same as in years past, going from Washington Avenue in Brooklyn and through Prospect Park to arrive at Central Park, there was one big difference. Because of ongoing East River Resiliency-related construction along South Street—a mess that was barely navigable last year—the race went over the Brooklyn Bridge instead of the Manhattan Bridge.

On the ground this means that, instead of taking Flatbush Avenue all the way onto the Manhattan Bridge, it swung left on Tillary Street passing both FDNY headquarters and McLaughlin Park.

Although omitted from Parks Department history, Hugh McLaughlin (1827-1904), the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants, was often known as “Boss” McLaughlin—an appellation he first earned as a civilian hiring boss at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the 1850s and kept for four decades following the Civil War as the unelected leader and power broker of the powerful Brooklyn Democratic machine.

Before New York Mayor William M. “Boss” Tweed and other Tammany Hall sachems, there was “Boss” McLaughlin: It’s true!

Nothing against the Brooklyn Bridge—which Straus News reports on often—but this change was unfortunate, as it meant that instead of the runners coming into Chinatown, they simply exited the northbound ramp to the FDR Drive.

While this has novelty value—it’s something no one in the race had ever done before—it was a shame to miss the ground-level street energy of Canal Street.

On the positive side, from the runners’ perspective, the Brooklyn Bridge is considered an easier climb, and the reduction of sharp turns makes the route marginally faster.

The FDR Drive itself—all four miles of it this year—is interesting. While in a car, it’s the road’s curves that are notable, on foot it’s the slightly rolling inclines that, for runners who went out too fast or were sick, or undertrained, can turn the run into a trudge.

Still, most people powered through and, inspired by happy crowds and a giant blue-and-white banner announcing to passersby that a place called “Stuy Town” is near, the runners made their way up to 42nd Street, where a slight climb up to First Avenue offered myriad rewards.

First, no one was charged a “congestion pricing” fee, despite the ostensible “loss” of revenue the MTA claimed when it tried to charge the New York Road Runners Club $750,000 for use of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge during the marathon, a brazenly absurd extortion quickly shot down by Governor Kathy Hochul.

Second, on a course mercifully free of excessively loud bands and DJs (something that can’t be said for the marathon), the runners were greeted at First Avenue by a genuinely great musical group, the Fogo Azul Bateria NYC–which is say to a drumline.

While all marching bands have their merits, Fogo Azul are striking both for their Brazilian-style rhythms and the fact that nearly all the 60-odd drummers were women of diverse ages and ethnicities, with a few trans and non-binary people mixed in. By any measure, the group’s bright uniforms and coordinated high-energy pounding made for a perfect welcome back to the Manhattan grid.

While eventual women’s winner Sharlon Lokedi had blasted away from her competition back on the FDR and was never in the slightest trouble, it was a still a two-man race between Abel Kipchumba and Conor Mantz when they hit 42nd Street.

A powerful surge at around the 10½-mile mark at Fifth Avenue gave Kipchumba the gap he’d hold up to Seventh Avenue, across Central Park South, and onto the East Drive before cutting over to the West Drive and the finish line at Columbus Circle.

Among the women, the first NYC finisher was Alana Levy, 35, of the Brooklyn Track Club. A former harrier at Cornell University, Levy earned the same honor last year. Her time of 1:07:04 averages out to a 5:54-minutes-per-mile pace.

The first NYC man was Colin Daly, 27, of the Manhattan Track Club and former track and cross-country runner at the University of Pennsylvania. His time of 1:07:16 was a zippy 5:08 pace.