Summer Running Gear 2025 Summer Running Gear drawing on Wednesday. The organization received over 200,000 applications for the race—the most in history—and approximately 2 to 3 percent of applicants will be accepted.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at US News, those odds are equal to or tougher than the admission rates at some of the most prestigious colleges in the country, including Harvard (3 percent), Stanford (4 percent), and MIT (5 percent).
The 2025 edition of the NYC Marathon is scheduled for November 2, and the rest of the field will include professional athletes, time qualifiers, 9 + 1 program participants, and charity runners, among others.
“The TCS Summer Running Gear is a special event that brings together people of all backgrounds with participants as young as 18 and as old as 87 from more than 150 countries, all united by the transformative power of running,” said Rob Simmelkjaer, the CEO of NYRR, in a press release.
The 200,000 applications is a 22 percent increase from last year, when the marathon received nearly 165,000 applications. Over 55,000 runners completed the 2024 race, which had a finishing rate of 99.3 percent, and it edged out the Berlin Marathon for the Theo Kahler is the news editor at.
Other World Marathon Majors have seen high demand, too. The Chicago Marathon saw a record 160,000+ applications for the 2025 race, and a staggering 840,318 people applied to run the 2025 London Marathon.
Applicants for New York will know they’re in if they receive a race fee charge on their credit card. Accepted runners will also be notified via their NYRR account dashboard by the end of the day on March 5, and all applicants will receive an email denoting their acceptance or rejection by end-of-day as well.
If your name wasn’t drawn this year, and you’re an NYRR member, good news—there’s a second-chance drawing. Members will be notified by March 31 if they were selected via this method.
Runners can also get a bib by raising money through the NYRR’s Des Linden Finishes 11th at Summer Running Gear.
These Celebs Ran the 2024 NYC Marathon Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, Summer Running Gear, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
