Ale Iaccarino
Men’s Journal is partnering with Take the Bridge to support its 9th anniversary race in New York City on July 18th, 2024. We love celebrating disrupters. With this collab, we hope to encourage people to run for the fun of it—whether you're tired of the rigmarole of marathon training or just want to rip through the streets of NYC at night.
It’s part of a broader summer activation—Summer of No Fomo, powered by 5 Hour Energy—we’re headlining to inspire men and women to be active participants in their lives, not spectators.
Take the Bridge is an unsanctioned nighttime road race founded by Darcy Budworth. Much like how boutique brands offer something bespoke for communities, TTB flips the script on sanctioned racing. There's no set course or barricades shutting down streets; needless to say, runners must have experience running alongside traffic and pedestrians on open roads, foot paths, and intersections.
TTB started in New York City, which has served as a springboard for races in Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago and, most recently, Paris.
Budworth partners with a local run club (in this case, Boogie Down Bronx Runners) to help triangulate the course's checkpoints and bridges (minimum of one). All race participants start together and must hit the set checkpoints in order. Other than that, the route is entirely up to participants to get to the finish line first. The beauty of this format is it levels the playing field. It’s not the fastest runners coming in first, per se, but rather the savviest runners who really know their city streets.
The race's start point and time is emailed to runners the night before the race, and checkpoints are revealed at race check-in the night of the race.
To celebrate its ninth anniversary, TTB is tackling the George Washington Bridge for the first time. The roughly 10K race will start and end in the Bronx, with an after-party to follow.
This year, winners in the men, women, and non-binary categories will take home the following cash prizes, respectively:
Men's Journal is also sweetening the deal with a UGC video contest for TTB participants to vie for a chance to win $1,000. Circle back Thursday, July 11, for more details!
Registration for TTB opens Thursday, July 11, at 12p.m. ET via Takethebridge.us/race/nyc.
