NYRR Marathon

When and Where

When: November 01, 2026
Timeline: 6:30 am — 2:00 pm

Location: Fluid Station Mile 3A — 4th Avenue at 82nd Street

On the first Sunday in November, roughly fifty thousand runners come up 4th Avenue through Bay Ridge — and almost all of them come through before nine in the morning, because mile 3 is early. Troop 23 works the Mile 3A fluid station at 82nd Street, filling cups and handing out water and Gatorade as the field goes past.

It is the loudest, fastest, wettest service the troop does all year. Cups get grabbed at speed, half of them get spilled, and everyone goes home soaked. Our historian's account of the 2025 race put it plainly: "we got splashed constantly, and by the end, most of us were soaked. Some more than others."

This one is not scouts-only. Parents, siblings and friends are all welcome and genuinely needed — the station takes more hands than the troop has. It is also one of the easiest ways in the year for a family to log real service hours together.

How to Sign Up

Registration is open now. It goes through NYRR rather than through the troop, places are first-come first-served, and the station closes the moment it fills — so this is a thing to do this week, not in October.

👉 Register for Mile 3A with NYRR

There is one genuine trap in it, and it catches somebody every year. Mile 3 has two fluid stations, 3A and 3B. Ours is 3A — 4th Avenue at 82nd Street. Station 3B is a different corner with different people, and on race morning there is no swapping: whichever one your confirmation says is where you spend the day. Start from the link above rather than from a search or the general NYRR volunteer page.

What you will click

1. Open the link above. Not a bookmark from last year — NYRR issues a fresh link for each race and old ones stop working.
2. Sign in, or create a profile. If you volunteered with us before, sign in to the profile you already have; it keeps your volunteer history. If you are new, create one.
3. If the volunteer is under 18, the parent registers them. A scout cannot sign himself up. Register on your own parent profile and add your child to it — the same profile handles the whole family.
4. Choose the volunteer role and shift as prompted, and work through to the confirmation screen.
5. Before you finish, read the station name back. The screen must say Fluid Station Mile 3A. If it does not — if 3B is the only thing on offer — do not accept it. Two different things cause that and they need different answers: either you arrived from somewhere other than the link above, in which case start again from the link; or Mile 3A has filled, in which case tell a leader before you sign up for anything. 3B is not a near-enough substitute. It is a different corner, and we will not be there.

That last step is the whole point of this section. Everything else can be sorted out later; the station cannot.

Once you are done you will get a confirmation email from NYRR. Keep it — it is what you show if there is any question at check-in.

Prepare For Race Day

• Dress for the weather. 
• Wear comfortable shoes as you will be standing throughout the event.
• Have fun and take breaks as needed.
• To ensure a safe and fun event, please review NYRR Volunteer Guidelines.
• Please do not bring a bag with you. Waist packs and fanny packs are ok, but all other bags are required to be checked.
• Please do not bring your children with you unless they are registered as volunteers.
• Pets are not permitted.

Race Morning

Check-in is 6:30 am and check-out is 2:00 pm. Most volunteers do not stay the full stretch — the elite field and the main packs are through Bay Ridge well before ten — but the station stays staffed until the last runners pass.

The work is simple and relentless: set up tables, pour water and Gatorade into cups, line the cups up, hand them out, sweep up, repeat. Nobody needs experience.

What to wear

NYRR provides their customary ponchos. No Class A or Class B uniform is needed — this is one of the few troop events where uniform is not the answer. Wear your Troop 23 cap or other troop gear instead so we are recognisable in the crowd, and dress for standing outdoors in early November for several hours.

Practical notes from NYRR

• Comfortable shoes — you are standing the whole time, on wet pavement.
• Do not bring a bag. Waist packs are fine; everything else has to be checked.
• Do not bring children who are not registered volunteers. This is enforced.
• No pets.
• Take breaks when you need them — and yes, you may drink as much Gatorade as you like.

NYRR's full volunteer guidelines are worth a skim before race day.

Fluid Station Mile 3A

About the Course

The TCS New York City Marathon runs 26.2 miles through all five boroughs, starting on Staten Island, crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and coming down into Brooklyn — which is why our station is so early in the race. At mile 3 the field is still dense and still fast; the runners we serve are barely twenty minutes in.

Along the official course, water and Gatorade are set out at every mile from 3 to 25 except at miles 5, 7 and 9 — meaning ours is the first fluid station of the entire race. For a lot of the field, the first cup they take all day comes from a scout's hand.

Troop 23 at the Marathon

• 2025 — tables set up in the dark, cups filled, and by the end of the morning almost everyone soaked through.
• 2024
• 2023

The marathon sits in a run of neighborhood service the troop does every year without much fuss — the September 11 vigil, the Memorial Day parade, the clothing drives at OLA. Together they are most of what Bay Ridge actually sees the troop do.