New York Road Runners will close out its five-borough Open Run celebration series this Sunday with a free 5K at St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx, the same park where the organization's community running program got its start. The run, which begins and ends at E. 149th Street and Cauldwell Avenue, marks the fifth and final stop in a summer-long tour honoring the 50th anniversary of the New York City Marathon's five-borough course.
NYRR is a nonprofit that stages 60 annual adult and youth races and offers free year-round youth and community programs, according to WABC-TV. The station reports that the Open Run series has already stopped in Morningside Park in Manhattan, Conference House Park on Staten Island, and Astoria Park in Queens, while a planned Brooklyn stop at Marine Park was cancelled due to weather. Sunday's Bronx event brings the series to its conclusion at the park where it all began.
St. Mary's Park holds a special place in NYRR's history as the birthplace of its free Open Run program, which launched there in June 2015, according to the Bronx Times. By June 2025, the program had expanded to 16 neighborhood parks across the five boroughs and Jersey City, drawing nearly 100,000 total participants and volunteers in its first decade, the outlet reported. Open Run today offers free weekly runs and walks across those same 16 parks, per the WABC-TV report.
Honoring the Marathon's Five-Borough Roots
The broader Open Run series was designed to honor the 50th anniversary of the marathon's five-borough course, which was first run on October 24, 1976, as a Bicentennial celebration meant to unite and uplift New York City during its severe mid-1970s financial crisis, according to NYRR's own historical materials cited by marathon historians. That expansion out of Central Park didn't happen by accident — Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton played a critical political role in 1976, securing municipal approvals and convincing real estate developers Jack and Lewis Rudin to provide a $25,000 sponsorship that funded the course's expansion, per the same historical account detailed by Marathon Handbook.
Earlier this year, NYRR introduced a campaign called The Trailblazers, honoring five key founders of the 1976 five-borough course: Ted Corbitt, George Spitz, Percy Sutton, Fred Lebow, and George Hirsch. Historical research cited in the campaign identifies NYRR founding president Ted Corbitt as the first to suggest extending the marathon through all five boroughs, Marathon Handbook reports.
The contrast with the marathon's early days is stark. The original 1970 New York City Marathon was confined to four-plus loops inside Central Park and featured just 127 entrants paying a $1 registration fee, with only 55 runners finishing, according to World Athletics. The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon on November 1 is projected to host nearly 60,000 runners and more than 2 million spectators, with a goal of raising over $100 million for nearly 700 partner charities.
A Park Built on Bronx History
St. Mary's Park spans 35.3 acres in the Mott Haven neighborhood and is one of six original Bronx parks created in 1888, occupying land that was once part of the 17th-century estate of Jonas Bronck, for whom the borough is named, according to NYC Parks. The agency notes the park received $30 million in funding under the city's Anchor Parks initiative launched in 2016, which financed reconstructed athletic fields, upgraded running pathways, a dog run, and the Gil Scott-Heron Amphitheater.
The 5K event itself relies entirely on community volunteer run captains, a structure consistent across all NYRR Open Run events. While volunteers can earn incentive gifts like technical shirts and race entries for completing multiple shifts, Open Run volunteering does not count toward NYRR's 9+1 program for guaranteed NYC Marathon entry.
What Runners Get at the Finish
Participants in the five-borough celebration series can collect a commemorative bib, a limited-edition 50 Years Through the Five Boroughs pin, and a commemorative water bottle, per WABC-TV's report. Those who complete the full circuit can also receive a collectible five-borough passport stamped at each event, giving Sunday's Bronx finale the feel of both a neighborhood run and the capstone of a citywide tribute.
