JFK Runway 5K Queens, NY   Oct 25, 2026

The “Run on the Runway” race, also known as the “JFK Runway Run,” has become one of the major fundraisers for the JFK Rotary Club. Funds raised from the race support scholarships; life‑saving heart surgeries for children from countries with limited access to specialized medical care and technology through Rotary’s Gift of Life Program; and annual holiday parties for children with disabilities from local schools (including Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf in Mill Neck, NY), held in the JetBlue hangar at JFK Airport.

The first race was run in April 1972. Until 2000 it was a 10K that started at the Ramada Plaza JFK Hotel parking lot, ran to the runway, and returned to the hotel. To address traffic control on public roads, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) requested that part of the course be moved off public roads and onto airport property; in 2002 it was changed to a 5K. It is a unique race in which an active runway is closed to aircraft for a few hours while airplanes use a secondary runway.