If the idea is to innovate, do something different, fun and also fill you with energy to start the new year with good vibes, all you have to do is join the midnight race promoted by the New York Road Runners, whose spirit is to involve more people to be part of the global community of thousands of runners united by the love of exercise.
And literally, the entity calls for participation in a way that could not be more creative: Start the new year on the right and left foot! The countdown to start the Midnight Run or Carrera de Medianoche with which 2023 is received begins at 11:59 pm in the middle of a fireworks display that lights up the New York sky to give way to the 4-mile test .
“The New York Road Runners Midnight Run has become a staple in the city, and we are excited to celebrate 2023 with fireworks and thousands of runners bringing a lot of positive energy!” said Ted Metellus, vice president of events and director of the TCS New York Marathon.
Many of those who participate in the test on December 31 and have NYRR membership are runners who enroll in the 9+1 program, which consists of completing nine races of different distances throughout the year and doing a volunteer activity for for guaranteed entry to the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon.
According to Metellus, the race offers a unique and festive way to celebrate the New Year that begins with a countdown at 11:59 p.m. and at midnight, thousands of runners take the route through Central Park in an atmosphere of music, fireworks and when they reach the finish line they celebrate with sparkling cider. It’s a high energy event!
The organizers recommend the use of masks at the beginning and at the end of the race as a prevention against Covid, but not while the runners are on the course. The race starts in Central Park at the height of Fifth Avenue and Central Park West.
A tradition of more than four decades
The Midnight Race is not new, in fact, this year it celebrates its 43rd edition. It is held annually on New Year’s Eve and is one of the oldest traditions dating back to 1979.
The idea of starting a race at midnight was the subject of casual jokes for years within the NYRR. The recurring question was: Why not have a midnight race on New Year’s Eve, just like Silvestre’s race, in Sao Paulo Sao, Brazil?
The Brazilian race is one of the most iconic, lively and prestigious races in the world. If for the South Americans, it is like a Rose Bowl of races and for the Europeans, it is a great day of great. So why not a midnight race in New York? Some NYRR volunteers were continually questioned.
According to a file from the organization that tells how the first Midnight Run in Central Park came to fruition, it was the editor of Runner magazine, George Hirsch, who shaped the project and together with the New York Road Runners they put launched the idea that infected the local runners with the promise that it would become the biggest racing party in history.
Thus it was that in 1979 some two thousand runners, the vast majority disguised, with tuxedos and the ladies in evening dresses, some brought noisemakers, whistles, others scattered confetti, a complete atmosphere of merriment gave way to the first Midnight Race in NY.
Many still remember with a mixture of nostalgia and joy when the fireworks exploded over Sheeps Meadow, one of Central Park’s best-known landscape spaces. It was Commissioner Gordon Davis, who fired the gun giving the 12 o’clock signal marking the beginning of the party and the New Year.
To complement the message of the transition between the year that was ending and the new one, it was recalled that Barry Monaghan represented the father of time and Bob Merolla gave life to the baby Año Nuevo, who at the end of the race together with all the runners put together a party where hot cider was drunk.