As the sun set over the Williamsburg Bridge on Friday, hundreds of runners of all skill levels gathered to sip beer and don a DIY race bib. One man prepared for takeoff with a laptop strapped to his chest as hordes of e-bikes whizzed past.

The Williamsburg Bridge Marathon isn’t an average running race. It is an unofficial event with no permit and no predetermined distance. Instead, attendees run back and forth on the bridge, a 1.38-mile course, until a computer-generated number between 10 and 40 is posted on the event website . This year, the race was 23.75 miles. The distance was announced at 10:10pm, two hours after the start time, and it attracted about 300 participants.

The race, in its third year, attracted casual runners and ultra-marathon finishers alike, and many found the even

See Full Page