Allison Scaia's Staging Area

Expo (mid-town) was very smooth to pick-up race bib and shirt

For the start, I followed the instructions from NYRR to be at the start by 6:40 AM for Wave 2. I was not checking a bag, so this ended up being really, really early, as the corrals didn’t open until 7:30 AM as fortunately, security was very quick to get into the start area. The subway station listed for those not doing bag check looked like a further walk from the start, so I did the subway stop indicating bag check, which was very close to the starting area.

It was very slow getting into the corrals – while I was supposed to start at 7:50 AM, at 7:45 AM, I was still waiting to get close to the corrals. Then, it was a mad dash for folks running to their appropriate corral, and it seemed like a fairly slow and congested start the first mile or so. There were port-a-potties in the corrals for reference.

The weather was very foggy in 2025, so it was hard to see much on the course (imagine weather is all over the place given timing in mid-March). On a clear day, I think it would have been a great sightseeing tour of NYC. The crowds were great once you got onto 42nd street (last few miles), but expect empty stretch on the FDR. I loved that there was a Maurten gel stop around mile 8. I thought the water stops were slow as there weren’t a ton of people handing out water, and you were mostly grabbing it yourself.

There were some hills throughout the course, but I didn’t feel like any were crazy.

Recommend to at least do the race once!

This is a fun race to do, but I’ll caveat that it feels more like a fun run / training run with a lot of people as opposed to a race. The corrals are not strict so you get a lot of paces, but the corrals were pretty spread out. Nice tour of the DC area!

I loved seeing 13.1 miles of Philadelphia – course had a few small inclines in the second half, but it wasn’t bad at all. There were great crowds of folks cheering, and there was a fun medal at the finish!

There were a few snags with COVID – long lines at the expo and to get into the race on Saturday morning – but given the circumstances, understandable.

I can’t share enough good things about the marathon! I’ve done it 6 times, and I can’t wait for more!

Packet pickup is great with shuttles from downtown to McCormick Center. There are tons of vendors at the expo, and the race shirt is generally a well designed shirt by Nike. There’s also lots of additional Nike race apparel for purchase.

The start is logistically friendly and very walkable from downtown hotels (just plan to pay a good amount for the hotel room), and the finish is close to the start, so an easy walk back to your hotel.

There are great crowds along the course, and there’s never a section where you don’t have crowd support! The first half is the more scenic part of the course, but you have a great last 3 miles running back downtown with the crowds really picking up as you get closer. There’s a tiny little incline at the end, which feels sizable since it’s in the last 0.2 miles of the race!