How many NYC marathon runners will finish in the dark this year? Last wave goes off at noon

Well if 30% finish in over 5 hours and sunset is at 4:45 it only takes some 5th grade level arithmetic to figure this out.

33000 multipled by 30 percent wrote:

Well if 30% finish in over 5 hours and sunset is at 4:45 it only takes some 5th grade level arithmetic to figure this out.

Math is hard.

Does it usually end up dark as soon as the official time the sun sets?

Not a huge deal.

All 30% don’t go in the last wave pal.

dio wrote:

Does it usually end up dark as soon as the official time the sun sets?

Not a huge deal.

This. Civil twilight is around 515 and nautical twilight (when light is needed to do activities) is around 545.

Phillypharm wrote:

dio wrote:

Does it usually end up dark as soon as the official time the sun sets?

Not a huge deal.

This. Civil twilight is around 515 and nautical twilight (when light is needed to do activities) is around 545.

And it’s my understanding that big cities often have street lights.

I’ve run a smaller marathon that started before sunrise. It was amazing watching the sun come up near the Missouri River after running like 8 miles. Finishing on tired legs with the sun going down probably not as transcendent a moment though.

bio Domer wrote:

And it’s my understanding that big cities often have street lights.

I’ve run a smaller marathon that started before sunrise. It was amazing watching the sun come up near the Missouri River after running like 8 miles. Finishing on tired legs with the sun going down probably not as transcendent a moment though.

And Central Park particularly has a lot of lamp posts for light, which is where these runners will be near the finish when it gets dark. So they'll be running during the day and potentially finishing up walking/jogging through Central Park in the earl evening.

I'm sure having tons of tall buildings around will affect the amount of daylight coming in as the sun gets lower. Even if it sets at 4:45 people could start to have some visibility diminishing. Pretty sure there will be plenty of lights along the way to make sure people see anything like a pothole or how close they're getting to a curb/cone while making a turn, which is where I'd expect to see issues popping up.

But I'm with RoJo, I think it would be awesome to have a major marathon taking place at night. It would be like night legs of long relay events, which are the most fun to run...you can't see the grade of the hills you're running up or down and have to just rely on instincts and feel.

not a big deal. NYRR puts on the Midnight Run every year in Central Park, so they know how to manage running in the dark.

not your buddy wrote:

All 30% don’t go in the last wave pal.

This. Some people are too snarky for their own good.

Maybe they will install some streetlights for the runners.