At Nightingale-Bamford School, the New York City Marathon is also a way to support its partner school on Pine Ridge. This year, senior Lucy Weld will run for that effort on an unusual date: November 1, 2026, her 18th birthday—the day she becomes old enough to qualify for the race.
The marathon lands on November 1, 2026, the 50th running of the race, and this year's field includes more than 60,000 competing runners, according to the New York Post. New York Road Runners confirms the race starts at 8 a.m. and that runners will zip through the streets of Midtown Manhattan and finish at the famed marathon finish line in Central Park. New York Road Runners set the minimum marathon age at 18 back in 1988, per the Post's reporting, which is the rule that makes Weld's birthday timing so unusual.
The New York Post reported that Weld is a Manhattan senior and captain of Nightingale-Bamford’s soccer team, where she plays winger. She led the team to its first league championship in 13 years on October 28, the paper reported. Weld told the Post she felt obliged to run the marathon on her birthday and enjoys challenging herself physically.
Race-Day Plans
Weld told the Post she was excited and somewhat nervous about race day, and was especially looking forward to the final miles along Fifth Avenue, a stretch she normally runs. She planned a quiet family dinner at home after the finish, with a larger celebration the following week after she had recuperated.
Weld is the first current Nightingale-Bamford student to run the marathon as part of Team Nightingale. The New York Post reported that the team has typically included alumni and faculty rather than currently enrolled students; the school costs $71,000 a year.
Running for Pine Ridge
Weld is running on behalf of Nightingale-Bamford, raising money for its partner school, Anpo Wicahpi, in Porcupine, South Dakota. Nightingale describes Anpo Wicahpi as the first all-girls, independent school on a reservation in the United States. The New York Post has described it as the only all-girls school on a Native American reservation.
The partnership has a track record of turning miles into dollars. Four Nightingale community members — Class XI dean Gabriel Ulibarri, PE faculty member Ricky Piper, and parents Karl Andersen and Bob Wang — ran the marathon as Team Nightingale and raised over $25,000 for the Pine Ridge Girls School, the school's website notes. That fall, Nightingale's total fundraising for the Pine Ridge Girls School reached $28,870.
Students have pitched in too. Nightingale's Class VIII once held a Central Park fun run that raised just over $4,000 for Pine Ridge through pledges tied to each quarter-mile run or walked. More recently, in mid-May 2025, members of Nightingale's Class X took part in a Central Park run benefiting the Pine Ridge Girls' School in Porcupine, South Dakota, with every student participating as a runner, walker, cheer squad member, or race timer — an effort that raised enough to buy the school a new refrigerator.
Federal oversight context
The fundraising examples do not establish that Anpo Wicahpi has a facilities or funding problem. Separately, the Government Accountability Office said repeated findings about school-facility safety, school-spending oversight and other issues reflected systemic management weaknesses in the Bureau of Indian Education’s support and oversight of schools. That is broader BIE context, not a finding about Anpo Wicahpi, according to the Government Accountability Office.
A Race at Record Scale
Weld's birthday-marathon pairing places her in rare historical company, at least among very young runners who once competed before today's age rules existed. Wesley Paul ran the first New York City Marathon at age 8 in 1977 and holds the record as the youngest competitor in the race's history, per the Post. The marathon has also grown into a global phenomenon: New York Road Runders says this year marks the second consecutive year the TCS New York City Marathon has broken the world record for the largest marathon.
This year's race is officially sold out, though New York Road Runners notes that runners can still gain entry through an Official Charity Partner — the same pathway that has long connected Nightingale's runners to bibs for its Pine Ridge fundraising. Charities seeking that status must be registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and the organization has said its overall goal is to raise more than $100 million for charity this year.
