This is where runners admit defeat.
For unprepared competitors, the New York City Marathon can take on the feel of a Greek tragedy at an unassuming half-mile stretch on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. That is where runners who decide to quit are particularly likely to tear off their race bibs, according to data obtained by The Post.
The race’s most common drop-off point comes at Mile 18, a notorious benchmark organizers have aptly nicknamed “The Wall.”
In last year’s New York City Marathon, 203 runners disappeared from the course between Mile 18 and the 30-kilometer mark—the largest drop between any two timing checkpoints, according to Road Runners data.
The 0.64-mile section runs along First Avenue between East 96th and East 103rd streets. Unlike much of the route, it is lined mostly by parking lots, athletic fields and municipal facilities rather than residential buildings.
It is also the point where the packed sidewalks begin to empty and the noise fades, leaving runners to confront an eerie quiet after the thunderous welcome they received just two miles earlier while exiting the Queensboro Bridge.
The stretch comes shortly before the course’s steepest climb, the approach to the Willis Avenue Bridge just before Mile 20, when the marathon briefly crosses into the Bronx.
Some runners identify Mile 18 itself as “The Wall,” while others describe the true challenge as the several-mile ordeal that begins there.
Across recent decades, Mile 18 has consistently emerged as the most frequent quitting point on the five-borough course—even though runners have already covered nearly 70% of the marathon.
“It’s likely that runners who are having tough days decide to cut their marathon short and wait until they’re back in a convenient location in Manhattan to drop out,” Road Runners told The Post.
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Annie Reeves, who completed her first marathon in 2023, remembers the crowds thinning near Mile 18 and the race becoming primarily a “mental game.”
“You go through Brooklyn—which is an insane adrenaline rush and amazing experience—you go through Queens, which is great, then when you come off of the 59th Street Bridge, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before,” said Reeves, who lives in Bayside.
“You go to all of these phases of amazing, unmatched energy where people are pulling you through. And Mile 18 is a low point.”
Omar Medjid, founder of the World’s Fair Run Crew, believes the struggle of Mile 18 may be universal, regardless of the marathon course.
“That’s when you start looking at your watch, you’re kind of panicking and you’re just saying, ‘Okay, am I going to hit my goal time? Is my pace dropping?’ You start to feel it in your body versus the actual data,” said Medjid, 33, of College Point, who ran the NYC Marathon in 2024.
“You’re already tired from hitting the bridge and everything, then you know you still got that long stretch of Fifth Avenue to go. A lot of mental was really what it would be, but I do think it’s mainly based on the actual mile rather than exactly where it is.”
Medjid managed to keep going after spotting friends and members of his running community along the course. Their presence reminded him of the reason he had entered the race in the first place.
“Remember your why” is also central to the guidance Road Runners coach Steve Mura gives athletes battling through “The Wall” on the way to the finish.
“Before the race, write it on your hand. Why did you sign up? When those moments get hard, and it will get hard, look down at your hand,” said Mura, the organization’s director of Runner Training and Education.
“Think about the next mile, not the remaining eight.”
Pack plenty of fuel, keep your eyes peeled for water stations and use the cheering crowds to your advantage, he continued.