Spectators’ creative signs were the stars of the sideline as they encouraged and delighted runners trotting through the five boroughs on Sunday, Nov. 2.
More than 59,000 runners were greeted with fleets of homemade signs and millions of spectators at every mile of this year’s TCS New York City Marathon organized by the nonprofit New York Road Runners.
From references to the Broadway hit, “Hamilton: An American Musical” to Vice President JD Vance, crowds swarmed the sidelines holding signs with some dressed in costume alongside the 26.2 mile route that began in Staten Island at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and winded its way to the finish line in Central Park in Manhattan.
“If you go anywhere else and run a half or a full marathon, there’s a few people, maybe, by the finish line. In New York City, it’s every mile,” said Joey Edell, 27, an Upper East Side resident and fourth-time marathon spectator. Edell’s sign caught laughs from runners and spectators who appreciated his reference to a scene from the Prime Video series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” “Everyone knows the iconic scene where Belly runs to catch Conrad on the train, so what better motivation? Channel that inner Belly, you know?” Edell said.
Sidney Freireich, 23, a Manhattan resident, joined the sideline festivities to support her three best friends running the marathon for the first time.“I wanted to make a funny sign, and our government is currently a s— show, so I thought, why not try to make light of it?,” said Freireich, who returned to the same watch spot she visited last year on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.
Nicole Whiting, 52, has been an enthusiastic spectator ever since she moved to midtown Manhattan four years ago and cheered on her husband this year as he neared the halfway point. Whiting’s sign plays on a line from “Hamilton,” “Immigrants: We get the job done.” “There are so many different shapes, sizes, backgrounds and abilities, and they’re all doing the same thing. That should be the goal for the country,” Whiting said.
A former marathoner herself, Kara Cuzzone stopped by Central Park this year to watch six of her friends cross the finish line.“I felt that, being towards the end, it would give people a little boost psychologically. That worked for me on the course,” said Cuzzone, a New York-based journalist.
Zayn Aldabagh, 28, concluded a long day of marathon festivities at Central Park where, holding a collection of memes mocking the vice president, he referenced a viral moment in the Oval Office in February when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was berated for not thanking President Donald Trump. As a finisher of the marathon last year, Aldabagh credited spectators with bringing energy to the event especially near the finish line.
Tina Kim, 31, who lives in Brooklyn, stood at the Central Park sidelines to cheer on her coworker. Kim’s sign teased runners with an inflated race distance as they neared the finish line, referencing the current economy. “We all hate inflation. I just thought of adding the Venmo at the end. Signs aren’t cheap, you know!” Kim said.
Ryan O’Neil, 30, a Brooklyn resident and first-time marathon spectator, cheered on several friends throughout the day, with Central Park being his fourth and final stop. “I think the signs bring people who aren’t running together, and it brings the runners a little bit of joy because along the way, they’re going to need distractions,” O’Neil said.
