Rewind the tape a year, to the 2025 New York City Marathon. Andreas Almgren was in “the Big Apple” then as a spectator and cheerleader for his close friend and former national team runner Johan Rogestedt.
Before I was there, I hadn’t completely decided to run myself. But then I saw the race and everything around me and felt how fired up the whole city was. I think there are around two million people who usually come out to watch along the course. That atmosphere was part of what made me decide, “Okay, now I want to run here,” says Almgren.
Tough course
The New York City Marathon is not particularly fast, with winning times of around 2:08 over the past two years. The 31-year-old from Sollentuna likes that too.
This is not a flat marathon with pacemakers, where you chase times, but a race where you compete. I think it suits me, says the Swede, who won European Championship gold in the 10,000 meters and World Championship gold in the half marathon earlier this year.
During the warm-up weeks in Flagstaff, Arizona, Almgren has trained on hilly roads, covering many meters of elevation to prepare for his debut. He spent the last week in New York, mostly jogging and “finding the flow”.
In the last week, you can only do more damage than good. It’s just about feeling fresh on race day, says Almgren.
“Never really flat”
Then he takes us along the 42.195-kilometer course. From the start on Staten Island in the south, the route goes through Brooklyn and Queens, then into Manhattan, where runners continue north to the Bronx before turning back towards the finish line in Central Park.
There are three major hills, but then there are lots of small hills all the time, basically. You never run really flat. And what can happen, and what you don’t really notice, is that the course takes quite a toll on the front of your thighs with the downhill runs all the time, says Almgren.
In the end, everything is decided in Central Park.
You get there when there are around five kilometers left, and then there are a lot of “rolling hills” - up, down, up straight, down straight. Many people have tired legs there. So when there are five or six kilometers left, you want to feel like you have quite a lot of strength left.
Almgren starts at 15:05, while the women’s elite field sets off half an hour earlier, Swedish time.
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