Runners from around the globe will descend on Jersey City Sunday for the 2nd Annual Jersey City Marathon & Half Marathon, which will traverse multiple neighborhoods near the waterfront and shut down roadways in the process.
The event begins at 7 a.m. in the Newport neighborhood and impacted roads will close at 6 a.m., with the exception of Washington Boulevard which will close at 4 a.m. All PATH stations will remain open during the event, and its organizers are encouraging runners and others traveling into or through the city to use public transportation.
“There’s mobility, it’s just not as quick as we’re accustomed to in Jersey City, and we’re appreciative to the residents for their patience to allow this to go on,” said race directorSteve Lipski.
The event has grown by 1,500 participants since last year, with a current enrolledtotal of 7,500 runners, Lipski said. New sponsorships and community support are also expanding the event’s scale, including deals available for race participants in at least 60 businesses via a Hudson County Chamber of Commerce initiative.
Neighborhoods that the course travels through include much of Downtown Jersey City — including Newport, Exchange Place, Paulus Hook and the Historic Downtown — as well as Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville. Half marathon runners will complete a single lap while marathoners will perform two.
The northern-most road on the race route is 18th Street and the southernmost is Neptune Avenue. Street parking will close on impacted roads beginning just before midnight on Friday and continuing through Sunday at 3 p.m., with alternate parking available at 11 schools, Jersey City Medical Center, City Hall and Newport South Garage.
The race course as well as a full list of blocks that will be closed for parking can be found at https://www.jerseycitymarathon.com. Mailers with the same information were sent to homes in impacted neighborhoods.
“I’ve run 13 marathons myself as far north as Maine and as far south as the Inca Trail Marathon in Peru, and I have to say Jersey City’s marathon is a very, very special route in that it captures so many different aspects in such a short amount of space of both natural and manmade grandeur,” Lipski said. “It’s really a very incredible race.”
Weather is looking better for both runners and cheer squads after a rainy first year. Anticipated temperatures in the 50s with some clouds will be “perfect for runners,” Lipski said.
Prominent runners include more than 100 elite and seeded runners and some local familiar faces: Derby Chukwudi (Miss New Jersey), Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Jersey City mayoral hopeful and former Board of Education president Mussab Ali.
Lipski said he encourages residents to come out to cheer on the runners.
“We’ve got people from across the country and throughout the world who are coming here because Jersey City’s a special spot, and I would just ask people to give runners and the race the benefit of the doubt for the period of time that they’re inconvenienced and to take part in this magnificent event,” he said.
A portion of Garfield Avenue, which had been ripped up for underground work has been temporarily repaved for the marathon, a bill in the range of tens of thousands of dollars that the event itself, not the city, is footing, Lipski said.
Councilman Frank Gilmore said that he has decided not to run in the marathon, despite training extensively, because he has constituents who are upset that the roadwork, which has inconvenienced their neighborhood, was prioritized for the race.
“Their whole position was we’ve been inconvenienced all this time and no one seemed to care but for running you’ll make it convenient for them and then we’ll go right back to our inconvenience,” Gilmore said.
Lipski said that the race route had already been certified, so paying to temporarily repave the road was the best option.
“We knew the work was going on, but like the residents there we were hoping it would have been done by race day,” he said. “Cities and workers encounter challenges and inevitably at times it will delay a project, so we’re not uncomfortable with that and we understand that the taxpayer should not have to bear the cost of a marathon in its totality.”
