As New York Road Runners approaches the start of the 51st TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 6 — its first with full participation in three years — it does so with a new slew of diversity initiatives in tow.
NYRR last year introduced a new category for non-binary runners, the first Abbott World Marathon Major to do so, and this year the organization has broken more new ground by introducing prize money for the gender category, which will be awarded to the top five finishers. NYRR has 60 registrants in the non-binary category for this year’s race, up from 16 finishers a year ago.
This year NYRR has also partnered with nonprofit &Mother, co-founded by decorated American runner Alysia Montaño, to expand its lactation services for nursing mothers. NYRR will provide a dedicated private tent at the starting area and transport nursing pumps to the race finish.
And the organization has provided further support to runners with disabilities, as the NYC Marathon’s professional wheelchair division will this year have a course-record bonus of $50,000, equivalent to the bonus for the open division for the first time.
Erica Edwards-O’Neal, NYRR’s senior vice president of culture, diversity, equity and social responsibility, said those initiatives stem from an effort to center all of the organization’s activities on a sense of equity. She added that while there is sometimes concern around potential missteps on such sensitive issues, the organization’s desire to be a leader on DEI initiatives means acknowledging that not everything will be perfect the first time around. “Pun intended, it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” said Edwards-O’Neal. “We are going to make some progress, pause, review, evaluate, figure out what we’re doing well and where we need to regroup.”
Edwards-O’Neal said NYRR is now hiring a director of accessibility, who will be tasked with overseeing both internal accessibility initiatives for NYRR staffers as well as race-related efforts to further engage with runners with disabilities.
Incoming NYRR CEO Rob Simmelkjaer added that DEI initiatives offer a critical strategic opportunity for the organization as it aims to expand its base of participants.
“We can’t be successful if we are not serving all the different types of communities and all the different types of runners or potential runners who are out there,” said Simmelkjaer. “I certainly expect that we’ll be measuring where new runners are coming from. Are they coming from the same places that runners have always come from, or are we starting to see them coming from areas we haven’t traditionally seen? That’s going to be a big part of how we measure our success.”
