The New York City Marathon is a big race for more than 50,000 runners each year, but it is also a community celebration for the New Yorkers who line up along the five-borough course to cheer for the participants.

Chris Tempro, a retired New York firefighter, had prepared for the crowds before he ran the marathon in 2021, including writing his name on his shirt so everybody could see it. But the energy and the excitement along the course was beyond anything he had imagined.

“As I came down off of the Verrazano Bridge, and into Brooklyn,” Tempro said, he encountered an “incredible party atmosphere, with like thousands and thousands of people cheering and chanting and then calling my name, like for the whole eight miles, nine miles, through Brooklyn.”

When the weather, like 2022’s unseasonable warmth, is less than ideal for runners, the crowd support can be even more important. The YouTuber Casey Neistat’s recap of his race last year touched on the importance of a vibrant crowd.