2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon Daily Recap

The 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon is now complete. Runners had until 11:59 p.m. on November 4 to upload their 26.2-mile run to Strava in order to be counted in the results, and official results are now available.

Over the course of these 16 days of racing, we're recapping what happens in the top-10 standings for men and women each day, along with any other interesting notes we may have uncovered along the way.

All results listed are unofficial and are based on the Strava leaderboard as of 12:00 p.m. ET on that day.

Jump to a Day:
Final Results | Day 17+ | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Final Results

Total Finishers: 14,327

We know, we know, you spent a good part of last week waiting—seemingly endlessly—to find out the results, and after a while it felt like you'd never find out how things were going to turn out. But fear not, because the results have been counted and processed and verified and tabulated, and we now can announce the winner!

(...the winner of the Virtual Marathon, that is, just in case there was something else on your mind last week.)

Taking first in the men's division was Kevin Quinn of Carshalton, England, who recorded a 2:23:48, while Stephanie Bruce of Flagstaff, AZ finished on top of the women's division in 2:35:28; Bruce's time also placed her 10th overall.

A full list of official results is available on our results page, and we're listing one final top-10 leaderboard here on this page to close out our 16-plus days of coverage.

Please note: There may be some discrepancies between how an athlete is listed on this final list compared to how they were listed throughout the recap; this is due to differences in how their name and hometown is listed on Strava versus how it is listed in their NYRR account. (It's still the same person, just with a slightly different name or hometown, is what we're saying here.)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

Two new women made it onto the list between the race's end date and the deadline for uploading results: Emily Sisson—twice the runner-up at the NYC Half—ran a 2:38-flat to place second, and Emily Dix of Melbourne, Australia recorded a 2:58:31 to place seventh. Additionally, it appears that a result listed in the men's top 10 on Day 16 may have been flagged or removed from the results, moving the 11th-place finisher up one spot. In any case, congratulations to all who made it onto the final top-10 list, and to all who made an appearance on the list throughout the 16 days of racing!

Now let's take a look at some other facts and figures from the race.

• Number of Runners to Reach the #1 Rank: 7 (4 men, 3 women)
• Number of Athletes to Appear on the Leaderboard: 83 (42 men, 41 women)
• Number of Countries Represented on the Leaderboard: 19
• Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, United States
• *Among runners who listed a hometown in their Strava account
• Days with the Most New Runners Added to the Leaderboard (besides Day 1): Sunday, October 18 (13) and Sunday, November 1 (11)
• Days with No Changes to Either Leaderboard: 3
• Thursday, October 22; Wednesday, October 28; and Friday, October 30
• Most Consecutive Days Appearing on the Leaderboard: 15 – Guilherme Ferreira (Neto) and Carmen Martinez

And now, for one last bit of statistics / one more way to get down and nerdy, let's take a look at what it took to make it onto the top-10 leaderboard on each day of the competition:

Congratulations to all who participated in the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon—we hope to see you (virtually) at another race sometime soon!

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Day 17 and Beyond

Finishers to Date: 13,074 as of 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 2

The 16-day race period has come to a close, and now we await the official results. We will update this page one last time after the official results are compiled this week.

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

Only one new runner joined the leaderboard since last night: Brianna Villareal ran some of the fastest miles of her day in her final 10K, and the effort paid off: She finished six seconds under the three-hour mark, becoming the seventh woman in the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon to go sub-3. Her 2:59:54 ranks her seventh currently.

Virtual Marathon runners have until 11:59 p.m. on November 4 to upload their 26.2-mile run to Strava and mark their activity as a Race—so if you haven't done that already, get to it!

We'll be back with a final leaderboard update and a link to official results on or after November 10.

Go to the Final Results | Back to top

Sunday, November 1 (Day 16 / The Final Day)

Finishers to Date: 11,041 at 12:00 p.m. ET (+2,606 today)
11,984 at 4:00 p.m. ET (+3,549 today)
12,413 at 8:00 p.m. ET (+4,025 today)

It's all come down to this. Three hundred and sixty hours of racing completed so far, and we're now in the final 24.

Who will end the day on our top-10 leaderboard? We'll be keeping track throughout the day, so check here for updates.

Men's Leaderboard – 12:00 p.m. ET

Women's Leaderboard – 12:00 p.m. ET

Two runners from South America join the men's list, as the women's leaderboard gets a shake-up in the mid-pack, with four new names added this morning.

Antonio Marco is now the fastest of three Brazilian runners in the men's top-10 standings, having logged a 2:32:09 to put himself into fifth place. Hugo Ruiz, of Cali, Colombia, sits just behind him in sixth with a 2:34:13.

To note: Men's 10th-placer Dennis de Knijff, of Almere, the Netherlands, is the only athlete currently on the leaderboard to have recorded more than one Virtual TCS New York City Marathon. (He's recorded two, and his faster run came in an activity titled "Almerathon," which ran on the course Almere uses for their marathon—now who doesn't appreciate a good portmanteau every now and then, eh?)

On the women's side, the first two names added this morning took two different approaches to running their Virtual Marathon in New York City: Teresa Esco rolled over the hills of Central Park, dipping under the three-hour mark with a 2:58:44 for fifth place, while Mia Hegazy opted for the flatter West Side Highway path, recording a time of 3:00:32 to move into sixth place.

Also joining the leaderboard were Stefania Zilli, who recorded her 3:00:50 in and around Lecce, Italy (located in the "heel" of the boot-shaped country), placing her seventh, as Diana Marcela Castillo from Colombia recorded a 3:01:31 for ninth. These changes to the women's list move Cat Cummings, our leader on the first day of competition, out of the top 10 for the first time. Carmen Martinez continues to hold her lead, which she's held since Day 2.

More to come as the day progresses!

Men's Leaderboard – 4:00 p.m. ET

Women's Leaderboard – 4:00 p.m. ET

We've got a new leader in the women's race! Steph Bruce—who finished 11th in the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon and 10th in the 2017 race—has taken control of first place with a 2:35:28 run on a four-mile loop course outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Bruce ran alongside her husband, Ben Bruce (currently 10th on the men's list), as well as some of her training partners, and her time ranks her 11th overall. Bruce's performance also knocks Carmen Martinez out of the top spot, which Martinez had held since October 18.

Joining Ben Bruce on the men's leaderboard are Addison Albin, who won an in-person marathon in Springfield, Missouri with a 2:28:28, good for third in virtual version of New York City; and Cole Crosby, who put together an out-and-back loop along the Millstone River in Central Jersey (which, the Garden State recently confirmed, is a real place) to finish in 2:33:08, ranking him seventh.

We'll check the leaderboards once more tonight—around 8:00 p.m.—to see if any West Coast-ers (or late-in-the-day East Coast-ers) might sneak their way into the top 10 before the midnight deadline. Stay tuned!

Men's Leaderboard – 8:00 p.m. ET

Women's Leaderboard – 8:00 p.m. ET

Just one update this evening, and it's on the women's side: Hiroko Suzuki stepped into ninth place with a 3:01:02 run in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

Runners still have time to upload results, though, even after tonight's midnight deadline, so we'll be checking in again tomorrow to see if anyone new has made it onto the leaderboard!

Go to Day 17+ | Back to top

Saturday, October 31 (Halloween / Day 15)

Finishers to Date: 8,435 (+1,055 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

We've now got four New Yorkers in the top 10 on the men's side, as Brian Reis (third place) and Michael Zelwin (sixth place) are joined by David Roeske in fourth place (2:31:14) and Danny Ocean in ninth place (2:36:40). Had Ocean run just two seconds faster, he'd have ranked eighth, and I could have made some reference to Ocean's 8. Alas, that's just how the race played out, so he sits in ninth.

Also debuting in the top 10 today were Jorge Santos of Brasilia, Brazil, running 2:36:15, good for seventh place, and Ernesto Mejia (location unlisted) running 2:37:01, good for 10th.

One change on the women's side: Shannon Kelsey Schilthuis of Hamilton, Ontario made it on to the list in seventh, clocking a 3:05:26 on her run along Lake Ontario. Had she run along Lake Erie, though, I could have made some reference to the run taking place on Halloween (something like "an eerie day for a run on Lake Erie), but again, alas.

In Other News

Des Linden—you may remember her from such races as winning the 2018 Boston Marathon—completed her "Run Des-tober" challenge with 31 miles' worth of Central Park. The challenge called for Linden to run the same number of miles each day as the calendar date (so 1 mile on October 1, 2 miles on October 2, ... , 31 miles on October 31), and she closed out her 497.6-mile month right here in New York City.

For her 31-mile grand finale, Linden ran loops of Central Park and concluded the run just outside of Tavern on the Green, the same location where she's crossed the New York City Marathon finish line three times (to date)—and in one of her signature moves, she celebrated with a little bit of the bubbly, toasting with champagne served in a running shoe. (See her Strava activity for photos).

Also of note: Linden finished first on the women's side—and second overall—at last year's Virtual Marathon, as she counted her in-person TCS New York City Marathon result (a 2:26:46, which placed her sixth in the women's open division) toward her virtual race result.

So that concludes Des Linden's 31 consecutive days of running, and the 15th day of this 16-day Virtual TCS New York City Marathon. What will happen on the final day?

Will Kevin Quinn and Carmen Martinez hold on to the top spot on their respective leaderboards? Will our Day 1 women's leader, Cat Cummings, make it all 16 days in the top 10? We'll find out tomorrow!

Go to Day 16 | Back to top

Friday, October 30 (Day 14)

Finishers to Date: 7,380 (+312 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

No change on either side today, so let's take a look back at another noteworthy performance set during the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon.

While these leaderboards have covered the performances of runners taking on 26.2 miles, professional wheelchair athlete Daniel Romanchuk set the fastest time for a marathon in a pushrim wheelchair through his Virtual Marathon this year, as he finished in a time of one hour, 13 minutes, and 57 seconds.

Romanchuk, who won the TCS New York City Marathon in 2018 and 2019, drew up a nearly straight-line, nearly flat course between Arthur, IL and Seymour, IL (outside of Champaign), and lined up for his virtual race on October 22. He reached the half-way point of the race in just under 38 minutes and picked it up over the second half, notching his fastest mile split at mile 17 with a 2:38 (that's 22.7 miles per hour, for those of you keeping score at home).

His "slowest" mile split? That would be a 3:03 on mile 15, but to his credit, that was the one part of the course that had a turn of any significant angle. (It's still 19.6 miles per hour.)

While Romanchuk's time does not count as the official world record—that mark remains a 1:20:14, which Heinz Frei set in 1999—his performance is still the fastest recorded marathon in a pushrim wheelchair. Check out Romanchuk's Strava activity for a closer look at his run.

We've finished a fortnight of racing, but we've still got two days left in the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon. We'll be covering the leaderboard changes throughout the weekend, so check this page to see who will make it into the final top 10 of this year's race!

Go to Day 15 | Back to top

Thursday, October 29 (Day 13)

Finishers to Date: 7,068 (+358 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

Two additions today, one on each side: Brian O'Connor, of Cambridge (Massachusetts or England? More on that in a moment.), cracked 2:40 to jump to ninth place, and (potentially) fellow Briton Lucy Stephenson made her way into the podium places with a 2:56:55 in Caistor, England.

Update: Looks like it was Cambridge, England, as O'Connor opted for a run along the River Cam over the River Charles.

Farther north, Stephenson managed a steady climb from the half-way point to mile 17, but maintained a strong pace over the final miles to record the third-fastest time for women to date in the 2020 Virtual Marathon.

Go to Day 14 | Back to top

Wednesday, October 28 (Day 12)

Finishers to Date: 6,710 (+285 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

No changes on either side of the leaderboard today, so...what else can we talk about?

Well, a lot of our focus so far has been on where people have been running, or how long they've been running, but one thing we haven't covered yet is about when people are running:

This data is taken from users who recorded their run using the NYRR Racing App, and it displays the start times for each runner taking part in the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon.

From here, we can see that the most popular days to run the virtual 26.2 were on Saturdays and Sundays—and that should be no surprise, since it's a pretty tall task to complete a marathon and then go about your work day. The most popular time for runners to start their virtual race was within a few minutes of 8:00 a.m., and our highest number of runners starting their race at the same took place around 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 25, when 11 runners began their race at about the same time.

(Word to the wise: If you're looking to recreate the feel of the in-person TCS New York City Marathon this weekend, please know that, ordinarily, the first wave of masses would not start until 9:50 a.m., and it's Standard Time on Sunday. Make the most of that extra time for sleep!)

Go to Day 13 | Back to top

Tuesday, October 27 (Day 11)

Finishers to Date: 6,425 (+315 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

We have a new leader on the men's side!

Kevin Quinn appears to have taken on 25 laps and change of Dulwich Park in London to complete his 26.2-miler. Negative splitting over the second half of the race, his 2:23:48 puts him 2 minutes, 40 seconds clear of the next runner. His run also began with what may now be my second-favorite name of a Strava segment: Sorry I am late again, I need the toilet (Sunday Run Special); I say that it's my second-favorite because my favorite would have to be a certain section of the lower loop of Central Park.

Elsewhere on the men's list, Dennis de Knijff jumped ahead of fellow countryman Jop van der Sten, earning the number-6 spot on the leaderboard, as well as the rights to the nickname "The Flying Dutchman" (for now; the race still has five days to go).

In the women's race, we had one new top-10 finisher: A runner listed as Lauren V recorded the race's 10th sub-3:10 performance on record, putting her into 10th place.

Go to Day 12 | Back to top

Monday, October 26 (Day 10)

Finishers to Date: 6,110 (+970 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

We've got two New Yorkers in the runner-up position! Brian Reis and Lara Dorsky moved into second place on their respective leaderboards following this weekend; both runners have competed for the Dashing Whippets Running Team in the past, and it appears both ran in an in-person marathon in Rhode Island on Sunday.

Dorsky became one of three women to break three hours in the 2020 Virtual TCS New York City Marathon (to date), along with Jen Moroz, our current third-placer from Vancouver, British Columbia. Fan Ching Yee, who ran around a roughly one-mile loop course in Hong Kong for her virtual race, also joined the top-10 rankings with a 3:06:08.

As for the men's leaderboard...

You may have heard of the challenge where someone attempts to run seven marathons on seven continents in a span of seven days, but have you ever heard of someone completing seven marathons in seven different cities in a single day? For newly crowned second-placer Brian Reis, he accomplished that feat on Sunday.

Granted, six of those marathons were virtual.

But according to his Strava activity, his in-person result in Rhode Island also counted toward the Virtual TCS New York City Marathon, as well as virtual marathons based in Amsterdam; Dublin; Toronto; Corning, NY (Wineglass); and Grand Rapids, MI. That's a way to get the most out of your 26.2-miler! Reis also appears to have run in an NYRR Team for Kids jersey, a charity team that raises money for NYRR's youth programs, so kudos for adding some meaning to your miles as well!

(As was the case yesterday, the fourth-ranked runner as of 12:00 p.m. on Monday has since had their activity flagged, so we have removed their name pending verification, and have added the next-fastest runner to today's list in 11th position.)

Go to Day 11 | Back to top

Sunday, October 25 (Day 9)

Finishers to Date: 5,140 (+1,640 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

A few new names on both sides of the leaderboard, as the race had its highest single-day finisher total to date.

Five new names on the men's side from four different continents, as runners from New York City, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Canada, and Argentina made their leaderboard debuts. (The third-ranked runner as of 12:00 p.m. on Sunday has since had their activity flagged, so we have removed their name pending verification, and have added the next-fastest runner to today's list in 11th position.)

The addition of these five athletes, however, means that we must bid farewell to our day 1 leader, Kyler Hu, who kept a place on the leaderboard throughout the first eight days of the competition.

On the women's list, three new runners made the list: One from Brazil in fourth, one from Canada who moved into eighth, and one from Vermont—just across Lake Champlain from the New York border—in ninth. Carmen Martinez's lead held throughout the entire week and the weekend, but time will tell if anyone can top her 2:48:42 from Day 2.

We also happened to notice that the first five runners on today's list all have names beginning with C; I don't know if there's any correlation between first initial and marathon PR, but it is A Thing That Happened! (And I'm sure, if we wanted, we could break down the fastest average Virtual Marathon time by first initial and last initial...but that's a blog post for another day.)

Go to Day 10 | Back to top

Saturday, October 24 (Day 8)

Finishers to Date: An even 3,500! (+708 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

Three new names on the men's side, and two joined the leaderboard on the women's side.

For the men, David Sudowé of Viernheim, Germany snuck in just under the 2:40 barrier with a 2:39:59 clocking, good for third place. Looking at his splits, it would seem that he had to grit out the last few miles, but the effort paid off and he can now walk away as a sub-2:40 marathoner. (Walk away, or, as his Strava activity photos show, be pushed away in a stroller.)

He's joined by two other European runners, as Brendan Morris of Reading, England debuted in sixth with a 2:44:21, and Oran Finegan of Geneva, Switzerland placed himself eighth in 2:45:31.

Making the women's leaderboard on Saturday were a runner listed simply as Yoshiko, placing seventh in 3:12:54, and just behind her, Tracy Rogers in 3:14:18 for eighth. Yoshiko's run appears to have taken place during the Katsushika Arakawa Waterside Park Trial Marathon in Tokyo, which called for eight laps of an out-and-back 5K loop, plus an extra 2.195K. Similar to the route used by our early leader on the men's side, Guilherme Neto, it seems that multi-lap courses with long, straight stretches (and sharp turnarounds) seem to produce quick times.

Then again, our men's leader, Maximo Jesus Ramos, used a point-to-point course, and our women's leader, Carmen Martinez, used a shorter loop course with more frequent, wider turns, so who's to say?

In any case, we're only half-way through, so time will tell (literally) who will hold the top spot!

Go to Day 9 | Back to top

Friday, October 23 (Day 7)

Finishers to Date: 2,792 (+220 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

No change on the men's side, one change on the women's: Patricia Navarro Fernandez jumped into 6th with her 3:11:38 along part of the Pacific coastline in Chile.

In Other News

Day 7 also means the race has reached the one-week mark. What have we seen so far?

Among the top-10 finishers, we've had:

• 5 different leaders (3 on the men's side, 2 on the women's)
• 42 different runners appear on the leaderboard (21 on each side)
• 15 countries represented (based on whether a runner listed their hometown in their Strava profile)
• Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Moldova, Norway, Peru, Sweden, United States

And with 2,792 finishers as of 12:00 p.m. ET today, our 2020 Virtual Marathoners have covered a total of 73,202.8 miles collectively. That same distance could also cover:

• 2.93 trips around the Earth
• 26.2 trips across the United States, from New York City to Los Angeles (how fitting a number, right?)
• 12,000.4 laps around Central Park
• 166,370.2 trips on the New York City subway's S train/shuttle from Grand Central Terminal to Times Square
• And about 30% of the way to the moon!

Let's see what we can all accomplish in Week 2.

The Daily Recap will be back on Monday to share all that happened over the weekend—best of luck to all runners taking on their virtual 26.2 this Saturday and Sunday!

Go to Day 8 | Back to top

Thursday, October 22 (Day 6)

Finishers to Date: 2,572 (+137 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

More new finishers today than yesterday, but literally no changes to the leaderboard on either side. None.

However, one note we missed yesterday was that the addition of two new runners on the men's list sadly bumped women's leader Carmen Martinez out of the overall top 10 for the first time since the beginning of the race. (She's now ranked 11th overall.)

In Other News

With not much news on the leaderboard front, why not take this time to answer another question I've had during the race period? Part of the fun of a virtual race is that you can design your own course to run—in fact, we have an entire series of blog posts where runners can add their recommendations for their favorite places to run past during their Virtual Marathon.

But just as you can set your run to pass certain destinations or local landmarks, you can also "draw" out a design using your GPS data. So that led me to wonder: What's the fastest someone has run, while also running on a course that looks like something?

I went back through the Strava leaderboard to investigate.

First, I found this run from Tristan Boutilier, who logged a 2:55:46 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada:

To me, you could say that this resembles the New England Patriots logo, but as a New York City metro area native, I must say in response: Go Giants.

Next!

This route, coming to you from Gilbert, Arizona, courtesy of 2:58:13 runner Paul Soriano, looks to me to be a nearly spot-on recreation of a dachshund. (The "face" is a little flat, and there's no tail to speak of, but you do what you can with the roads around you.)

--Note from looking through this again the following day: On second thought, this could just be the shape of a bed.-- 

Nonetheless, I approve, and this could be our front-runner, except for what I found next...

This is a dog sitting down, no question about it. Whether or not we can agree that the map depicts a poodle (complete with poofy tail) is still up for debate, but we can agree that it is most certainly a dog. (A large-headed dog, but a dog nonetheless.) This one came from Cat Cummings—our day 1 leader—as she ran through England's Norfolk County over a span of 3 hours, 8 minutes, and 54 seconds.

It would be hard to best a map of a dog obeying the "Sit" command, but we'll look for a few more, just to give it a good effort.

The left side of this map, to me, looks a bit like a hippo's head, and credit to Brian Kistner in Florence, South Carolina for this one. I would not place it above the sitting dog we just looked at, and I can't be certain that he intended to run a route in the shape of a hippo's head, but I must give some kudos regardless.

Okay, let's go for one more before calling it a day.

My impression of this route—run by Bobby King in North York, Ontario, Canada en route to a 3:16:40—is that it looks a bit like a character from Among Us. I am making this comment having played the game two or three times and failing spectacularly each time, so please, everyone, accept this interpretation of the route without calling me "pretty sus."

Still, my favorite is the dog sitting down. As a grand prize, we present these emoji-based Virtual Awards for Excellence in GPS Art: 🏆🗺️🥇

Anyway, that's all we have for today, but I can guarantee we will be on the lookout for more creative routes as the race runs on!

Go to Day 7 | Back to top

Wednesday, October 21 (Day 5)

Finishers to Date: 2,435 (+102 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

No changes on the women's side, but a big shake-up in the men's race: We've got a new leader! Maximo Jesus Ramos logged a 2:26:28 to take the lead by more than 8 minutes; his time is also the first sub-2:30 performance of the 2020 Virtual Marathon.

Looking at Ramos' course map, it would seem his quads weren't too beaten up by the long descent over the first half of the race (down ~700 feet from 0 to 13.1 miles), as he split approximately 1:12:59 for the first half and kept his second half within 30 seconds of that time, closing in roughly 1:13:29 for a finish time of 2:26:28.

Also new on today's leaderboard is Andrei Cebotari, who recorded his run just outside of the city of Chişinău, making him the second Moldovan runner to appear on the top-10 leaderboards.

In Other News

As we're now 25 percent of the way through the race period, I had a thought:

Whenever I join a Strava challenge, there's always that one person who completes that challenge's distance, but then does it every single day of the challenge. Ride 100 miles in one month? They'll do a century ride every day for the entire month.

So that led me to wonder: Has anyone completed a 26.2-mile race every day of the race period so far?

I then looked through aallllll 49 pages' worth of the Strava leaderboard (they list 50 runners at a time), scrolling up and down that "Completed" column to see if anyone had a "5" listed in their row. And after a lengthy search process, the results showed that...

No. No one has.

And that's probably for the better, because I like recovery time just as much as I like running time, and running a marathon every day for 16 days is a lot. Kudos to all of you for not attempting that (or at least, not uploading it yet).

I did, however, notice that somewhere in the results, there's a runner listed named Dick Whitman, which, if you also watched Mad Men and are okay with making five-year-old-at-minimum TV references, made me question whether that is his real name, or if Don Draper has re-re-invented himself, back to his original identity.

(I won't reveal that runner's location, just in case. 😉🤫)

Go to Day 6 | Back to top

Tuesday, October 20 (Day 4)

Finishers to Date: 2,333 (+197 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Women's Leaderboard

Only one change across the two of the leaderboard: Now in the "bronze-medal" position on the men's side is Albert Wint of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, with a 2:40:50 clocking. What's notable about Wint's run is that it was done at 4,200-4,300 feet of altitude, putting him about 1,100 feet higher than any other top-10 competitor to date. (Alas, we do not do altitude conversions for this race.)

And although we sent our best wishes to women's competitor Lauren Reid yesterday—that she did not have a headwind on her point-to-point course—it would seem Wint was not as fortunate. According to his uploaded activity, he faced a "stupid head wind in both directions" on his out-and-back course. Kudos, regardless, for a strong run in unfavorable conditions!

Wint's run also bumped Sebastian Ordenes' 2:53:27 out of the top 10. Attila Kovacs' 2:53:26, however, remains on the board (now in 10th), proving how even in a virtual marathon, every second counts, so channel your inner sprinter and lean at the line as you break your virtual finish tape!

Go to Day 5 | Back to top

Monday, October 19 (Day 3)

Finishers to Date: 2,136 (+608 today)

Men's Leaderboard

Two additions on the men's side: One from "North of the Border," and one from Nor...way.

Truls Nesslin of Bergen, Norway finished just outside of the 2:40 barrier with a 2:40:04, but his performance was good enough to rank him second overall. Attila Kovacs, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada slipped into ninth position with a 2:53:26, one second ahead of now-10th placer Sebastian Ordenes of Santiago, Chile.

Women's Leaderboard

Two new names in the women's race: Cindy Wu's 3:01:59 put her into the podium positions in third, and Ina Ehlers made the final spot on the leaderboard for today with a 3:18:58.

A question, as we look at the routes people chose for their Virtual Marathons: Was a lap course the way to go?

As mentioned yesterday, current ninth-placer Mary Ma ran her virtual race on a 400-meter track (105 1/2 laps), but looking elsewhere along the leaderboard, the first-, third-, sixth-, and eighth-ranked runners all ran a series of short loops for their 26.2.

• Carmen Martinez, the current leader, opted for a roughly two-kilometer course (only 21 laps, in comparison to Ma's 115)
• Cindy Wu (third) ran a slightly shorter 1.1-mile loop for her course
• Christine Selman and Justine Thirion both ran on the same 4.5-mile course in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris.
• Note to Paris-based runners: This might be a fast course to run on.

Before I get to discussing what types of routes the men's leaders ran, I should note that I wrote the paragraph about the women's race first. As I started looking through the men's leaders routes, I began with our current leader's map, and...

wow.

Credit for running 26+ laps of out-and-back with a hairpin turn at either end! But it was seemingly all worth it, because Guilherme Neto is solidly in the lead with a 5-1/2 minute difference ahead of the next runner.

Down the list, we can see that the second-, ninth-, and tenth-ranked runners also made use of shorter lap courses:

• New runner-up Truls Nesslin ran repeats of a roughly 3.7-mile / 6-kilometer loop.
• Attila Kovacs (9th) put a few right-angle turns together for a just-short-of-1.5-miles loop that, to me, looked like it was in shape of a boxy lowercase q.
• Sebastian Ordenes (10th) warmed up with 1.8 miles (or 3 kilometers, if you prefer) before starting his series of 3-mile loops.

As we wind down this (over-)analysis of Virtual Marathon routes, I'd like to give one last special shout-out to two other runners on today's leaderboard:

• Lauren Reid, currently 7th in the women's rankings, for running a point-to-point course: I really hope you didn't have a headwind on that one.
• Matt Hall, currently 5th in the men's rankings, for running much of the middle third of his race on the Isle of Dogs: Now that's just a great name for a place, isn't it?

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Sunday, October 18 (Day 2)

Finishers to Date: 1,528 (+1,143 today)

New! We've added a column at the end of the table to display each runner's ranking from the previous day (where applicable).

Men's Leaderboard

More than half of the leaderboard has changed from yesterday, with the new leader, Guilherme Neto of Uberlândia, Brazil, taking the lead with a gap of more than 10 minutes on yesterday's leader. Local runner William Carey moved down from 4th to 7th place, and he remains the only runner on the men's list to have recorded their run in New York City.

Women's Leaderboard

A lot of new names on the leaderboard today! Carmen Martinez, who recorded her run near Campinas, Brazil, posted the first sub-3:00 time for women of the 2020 Virtual Marathon, taking a 13-minute lead over runner-up and fellow new leaderboard runner, Cintia Demoustier. Cat Cummings, the leader after day 1, moved down to third, as only two other runners from the initial top 10 remained. New runners from Moldova and France earned their places on the board today, as did runners who recorded their Virtual Marathon in Vancouver, Argentina, and New Jersey.

Interesting Note: Current seventh-placer Mary Ma appears to have run her Virtual Marathon entirely on an outdoor track—that's 105.5 laps for those of you who were attempting to count at home!

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Saturday, October 17 (Day 1)

Finishers to Date: 385

Men's Leaderboard

So how appropriate is it that the Virtual TCS New York City Marathon runner-up on day 1 is from an area of their city known as "Mainhattan"? (For those less familiar with Frankfurt, the Main is the name of the river that runs through the city, and it would seem that Frankfurters, much like myself, enjoy a good pun/portmanteau.)

But as runners in the Eastern Time Zone were still just 12 hours in to the race at that point, the leaderboard was well represented by international finishers, with seven different countries (and four continents) represented in the top 10.

Women's Leaderboard

At the top of the women's leaderboard on day 1 is Cat Cummings, whose time of 3:08:54 also placed her 7th overall for the day. Cummings was one of three runners from Great Britain to crack the top 10.

The top American finisher, Alyssa Donahue, hailed from Jersey City, NJ—just across the river from NYC—and appears to have made a trip across the Hudson to complete 26.2 miles of Central Park. (Although, as a former Jersey City resident myself, I must note that Liberty State Park would make for a flatter—albeit much windier—marathon course. To each their own!)

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