Unsanctioned races in New York City
New York, USA
Upcoming
- Thu 10/29/26RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
THE STUKAT
- Sat 10/31/26RunningSign up
OSR Proto Championship
- Mon 11/09/26RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
New York Monopoly board run
- Sat 11/21/26CyclingSign up
Cranksgiving NYC
- Wed 12/02/26RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
THE LONG ISLAND PROJECT
- Sun 12/06/26RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
Come Out To Play
- Sat 04/03/27CyclingOn ALLEYKAT →
The Fuck Victor Race
The scene
New York has courier alleycats going back to the first Cranksgiving in 1999 and Monster Track in 2000, and the NYC Bike Messenger Association now keeps a calendar of them through the year: the winter Borolympics series, a late-summer Rookie Series, Kino Kat at the Bicycle Film Festival and a Messenger Appreciation Day race every October 9. Orchard Street Runners, which became known for its Midnight Half, runs OSR30 around Manhattan each March and an autumn Proto Series of street races, and Take the Bridge has run night checkpoint races since 2015, billing its October 2026 race as one last start line. Newer formats include bridge-lap marathons on the Williamsburg (since 2023) and Queensboro (first held January 2026) bridges, the One Dollar Ultra (since 2025), the Warriors UltraRun and a Warriors bike scavenger hunt from the Bronx to Coney Island, and the self-supported Race the Perimeter relay around Manhattan (third edition 2026). Races are rounded up in the Leg Day newsletter and on the Runners of NYC race calendar, and the crews post dates on their own Instagram accounts.
Notable races
- RunningWebsite ↗
Dad’s Route (OSR Proto Series)
A point-to-point race in Manhattan, the fourth race of Orchard Street Runners’ 2026 Proto Series.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Messenger Appreciation Day Alleycat
An alleycat and card-hunting scavenger hunt held on Messenger Appreciation Day, with riders returning packages to Enoch’s to validate points before the evening’s awards.
- RunningWebsite ↗
OSR Proto Series
Orchard Street Runners’ autumn series of street races, which in 2026 opened with a one-mile race in Midtown and continued with a 5K in Red Hook and a bridge-to-bridge 10K before Dad’s Route and the Championship.
- RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
Race the Perimeter NYC
An unsanctioned, self-supported 31-mile relay around Manhattan’s border for teams of one to six runners, timed on ALLEYKAT.
- RunningWebsite ↗
Take the Bridge
A night race series started in 2015 on the Queensboro Bridge, with checkpoints, bridges among them, revealed at check-in and runners choosing their own route between them on open streets; its organisers billed the 2026 race as one last start line, so it may have been the last.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Kino Kat
The NYC Bike Messenger Association’s alleycat for the Bicycle Film Festival, starting at Cooper Square with photo checkpoints and a $5 entry.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
NYCBMA Rookie Series
A late-summer series of alleycats for newer racers, each set by a different host, with formats that in 2026 included an ordered five-checkpoint course around Stuyvesant Town and a hunt across playground handball courts.
- RunningWebsite ↗
Williamsburg Bridge Marathon
Repeated night crossings of the Williamsburg Bridge to a distance drawn at random between 10 and 100 miles and revealed after the start, with no entry fee and no aid stations.
- RunningOn ALLEYKAT →
The Warriors UltraRun
An overnight run of just over 28 miles from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to the Coney Island boardwalk in which costumed runners chase an elite team given a 10-minute head start, timed on ALLEYKAT in 2026.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Warriors NYC
A dusk-to-dawn bike scavenger hunt for teams of up to nine from Van Cortlandt Park to Coney Island, scored mainly on group photos at set locations, with the top eight teams meeting in a tug-of-war final.
- RunningWebsite ↗
One Dollar Ultra
A backyard-format ultra where runners put $1 in a jar for each 4.167-mile hourly lap they start and the last runner standing takes the jar; the 2026 edition ran each lap to checkpoints from a bar south of Times Square.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Fore the Record Alleycat
A women, trans, femme and non-binary alleycat from Principles GI Coffee House in Brooklyn for the shop’s fourth anniversary, with $100 to the first fixed-gear and first geared finishers.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Monster Track
A yearly New York alleycat open only to riders on brakeless fixed-gear bikes, first held in 2000.
- RunningWebsite ↗
OSR30
A roughly 30-mile race around the edge of Manhattan from Orchard and Broome streets in which runners choose their own routes between checkpoints and each runner needs a bike escort.
- CyclingWebsite ↗
Borolympics
A winter series of six borough-by-borough checkpoint alleycats with a $20 entry and a femme category, ending with a finale across several bridges.
- RunningWebsite ↗
Queensboro Bridge Marathon
Ten laps of the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian path plus extra distance to reach 26.2 miles, run solo or as a relay, free, and described by its organisers as an unofficial event.
Recently run on ALLEYKAT
Running[12]
- 10/03/26 - 10/04/26Race the Perimeter NYCRelay
- 09/05/26Supermarket Tri-Borough Grand PrixPoint-to-Point
- 08/16/26Chipotle RunAlleycat
- 08/15/26Summer Streets SpeedwayPoint-to-Point
- 08/01/26BETWEEN 2 RIVERSPoint-to-Point
- 07/25/26 - 07/26/269 FOR 9Point-to-Point
- 07/19/26The Warriors UltraRunPoint-to-Point
- 06/21/26Star of David 5k 2026Point-to-Point
- 06/05/26NJR FridayPoint-to-Point
- 05/29/26NJR FridayPoint-to-Point
- 05/22/26NJR5KPoint-to-Point
- 04/26/26 - 04/27/26Manhattan PerimeterPoint-to-Point
Cycling[00]
No cycling race in New York City has run on ALLEYKAT yet.
How races get in here
The directory is curated by ALLEYKAT. Races timed on the app appear in their city on their own once they have a date or have been run, and everything else is added by hand after we have checked it against the organiser’s own page. There is no form and no fee.