More than 50,000 people are expected to line up in New York City on Sunday to attend the world’s largest marathon. The vast majority are not professional runners, but rather balance training with their day jobs, and it turns out that some of those day jobs are quite prominent.
Reality TV personalities, actors, influencers and Broadway stars will line up for Sunday’s run through New York City, part of a growing movement of famous faces covering 26.2 miles.
When reality star Joey Graziadei heads out on Sunday, it won’t just be his first marathon, but his first official race.
“I’ll be completely honest, I’m nervous,” Graziadei said.
In addition to leading a season of ABC’s landmark “Bachelor” franchise, Graziadei won season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars.” While it presented a different type of physical challenge, he says the program helped pave the way for his marathon training.
“The most important thing is the time commitment, just knowing that if you put enough energy and effort into something, you will see results,” he said. “I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t the best dancer. I got good at it because I put a lot of time and energy into it and fully committed myself.”
He says he hopes the time he’s spent running will bear similar fruit.
Graziadei is among a growing group of celebrities for whom the marathon medal is something worth making time for in a packed schedule that would normally have nothing to do with running.
Phil Keoghan, the host of the adventure series “The Amazing Race,” put off a marathon race for years because of his hectic filming schedule. He says a former contestant finally convinced him to accept it this year.
“Sometimes I think people live life too safely,” Keoghan said. “They don’t push themselves, they don’t test themselves to extremes, and certainly running a marathon is a great way for anyone to test themselves.”
The challenge of the marathon has always attracted celebrities and interest in running has never been greater.
The New York Road Runner lottery for this year’s TCS New York City Marathon received more than 200,000 applications, a 22% increase compared to 2024, according to the organization.
This year, celebrities signed up for the New York City Marathon range from “Love Island’s” Nic Vansteenberghe to Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard and “Dance Mom” star Chloe Lukasiak. They follow in the footsteps of arguably the most notable recent celebrity to run 26.2 miles: singer-songwriter Harry Styles. Instead of abandoning his long-awaited follow-up to 2022’s “Harry’s House” this fall, Styles dropped a sub-three-hour time at the 2025 Berlin Marathon in September, reportedly running under the pseudonym Sted Sarandos and recording a 2:59:13 finish.
The elusive finish in less than three hours is something Broadway star Jordan Litz hopes to achieve in New York on Sunday.
But your day won’t end once you cross the finish line. After receiving his medal and rehydrating, the actor plans to hop on his bike and head about 20 blocks south to the Gershwin Theater stage door. That’s so he can arrive in time for the 2 p.m. performance of “Wicked,” where he plays Fiyero. Then, he’ll do the whole show again at 7 pm.
“I wanted to do it while I was still on ‘Wicked’ and still part of the Broadway community, and in the heart of New York City,” Litz said of his busy Sunday schedule. “Because for the most part, I show up at Gershwin, do my job and go out, but over the course of this year, doing all these extra runs in preparation and running all over the city, I’ve run every inch of this district, of these five districts.”
In Litz’s case, doing her job involves eight weekly performances of one of the most physically demanding shows on Broadway. Now add to that an extensive training block for New York, notoriously one of the most grueling marathons for both professional and amateur runners.
So what made the siren call of the marathon too hard to resist?
“Well, first of all, I’m crazy,” Litz said. “I’ve always been that kind of person, even when you asked my college classmates when I was a swimmer, I just loved doing routines and I loved pushing my body and pushing it to the limit. So a marathon seemed like the logical next step for that kind of thing.”
There have been a few ways in which the physical demands of Litz’s day job have alleviated her training block needs: After starting with five days of running and two days of lifting a week, she scaled back the running based on some creative math: Eight shows a week added up to about a six- or seven-mile run, meaning she could cut back on one of her shorter runs and free up some valuable hours.
Litz joked that marathon training “has been detrimental” to his ability on stage.
“It hasn’t helped. Most days I come in and my legs are gelatinous,” she said, laughing. “But I’ve done the show in every possible condition, with my knee hurting, my ankle hurting, my voice hurting… It’s made the show not scary, in that, oh my God, I only ran 22 miles. All I have to do now is play Fiyero on Broadway. That seems so easy compared to what I just did. So from a mental standpoint, I feel like I can conquer the world because of all this training.”
And it’s not just about the performers. People busy in other worlds (including high-profile athletes) are drawn to the lure of a marathon medal.
Ali Truwit won two Paralympic swimming medals in Paris last summer. The competitive college swimmer enjoyed running before losing part of her left leg after a shark attack. She says her return to running marathons has been transformative.
“I’m really proud,” Truwit said. “Each type of long training has been a new achievement for me that I never thought I could achieve with a prosthesis.”
Tayshia Adams, another member of Bachelor Nation, will have experience on her side when she lines up for her third New York City Marathon on Sunday. In the lead-up to his first two marathons, he did training runs in Kenya and Paris while traveling for work. This time he had planned to dedicate his schedule to running and avoid any travel. However, in August she began filming a new show that required her to move to Los Angeles for six weeks.
“I just realized there’s no perfect plan,” Adams said. “So I tried to combine my training with filming and traveling.”
Cutting back on miles and taking advantage of Santa Monica and Newport Beach as replacement settings for running in Central Park has Adams not only ready for Sunday, but also planning a fourth marathon in 2026.
“Every year I have my doubts,” Adams said. “Every year I feel like I can’t do it. Every year [I think] “My schedule is too busy… But if you show up and find yourself and keep trying, keep moving, people will be with you through the whole process.”
