BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - The forecast for Sunday's Buffalo Marathon is mild and muggy. "When the race starts at 6am, temperatures will be around 70," said 7 First Alert Meteorologist Aaron Mentkowski. "But temps will quickly soar into the 80's with high humidity throughout the race."
A field of 2700 runners will take part in the full and half marathon and relay which starts around 6am Sunday near Statler Towers on Delaware Avenue, downtown.
Runners will head north on Delaware to Gates Circle and head left toward the Elmwood Village, through the West side, and around the Buffalo waterfront. Half marathon participants will end near the convention center. But full marathon runners continue back up Delaware to Delaware Park and North Buffalo, over to Richmond Ave and back to Delaware, finishing at the Buffalo Convention Center. Full course map HERE.
"A marathon always turns the city on it's head," said Race Director Greg Weber. "But given the fact that our field size is smaller this year, (previous years have drawn as many as 8K runners) we may be able to clear the course earlier." Weber says they try to minimize the impact as much as they can and ask for patience along the way.
Weber said they are thrilled to be back to normal. "We have made so many changes in the last four months to stay within guidelines and we just got the green light nine days ago to return to normal. We had to basically unravel everything because we want to give everybody the best experience we can."
As far as the heat, Weber says runners have been encouraged to hydrate. He is also suggesting that residents along the course think about putting sprinklers out. There will be 18 aid stations along the way and 90 trained nurses throughout the course.
"Runners had an additional challenge this year. They didn't know what date they were preparing for. Originally we were preparing for Memorial Day weekend and we pushed it forward by four weeks until we got a green light.
They have dealt with a lot of uncertainty over the past several months. They just want to get to the start line," said Weber.
Normally the Buffalo Marathon attracts runners from as many as 45 states and about 10 countries, but due to the pandemic most runners are local this year.
Some have registered from Pennsylvania, Ohio and California. But Weber says no where near the number of out of state runners that they normally see.
Registration has closed. There are no day-of signups.
This is the kick-off race event for Western New York since the pandemic and the first large race in New York State. "This is the journey back to normal," added Weber.
