A shakeout run in the days before the New York City Marathon has one job: loosen your legs without spending energy you'll want on Sunday. Central Park is the natural place to do it, since most runners are already staying nearby for the finish, but the park's full running loop is hillier than a shakeout run calls for — the trick is knowing which short, flat piece of it to actually use.

Keep it short and flat

Central Park's full running loop covers the whole perimeter and includes real hills in its northern section — exactly what you don't want two or three days before a marathon. For a shakeout, stick to the park's shorter, flatter options instead: the Reservoir loop, a soft, crushed-gravel path around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir accessible from the Engineer's Gate entrance near 90th Street, or the Lower Loop, a flat stretch through the park's southern end that passes the Mall and Bethesda Terrace. Both let you get in an easy mile or two without ever touching the hillier northern stretch.

Official shakeout run events

Marathon weekend brings a handful of organized shakeout runs to Central Park, hosted by NYRR and its partners in the days leading up to the race — typically short, easy-paced group runs aimed squarely at charity runners and marathon-weekend visitors rather than serious training. These are worth checking for if you like running with company and want a low-key way to see the finish-line area before you actually cross it on race day.

What to actually do on a shakeout

The point of this run isn't fitness — it's circulation, nerves, and a mental checkpoint that your legs still work. Keep the pace conversational, keep the distance short, and resist any urge to test your marathon shoes on a hill or push the pace because you're excited to finally be in New York. If anything feels off, this is also your last real chance to notice it while there's still time to adjust, rather than discovering it at mile 10 on Sunday.

Pair a short shakeout with real rest — extra sleep, hydration, and staying off your feet otherwise — and you'll get more benefit from the two or three days before the race than from any amount of extra mileage squeezed in at the last minute.

Park etiquette worth knowing first

Central Park's drives are shared with cyclists and pedestrians, and the unofficial rules matter more than they might elsewhere: stay to the inside lanes as a runner, run counter-clockwise on the main loop and its shorter variants, and expect the park to be genuinely crowded at popular times, especially on a marathon-weekend morning when plenty of other runners have exactly the same shakeout idea you do.

If Central Park feels too crowded on a given morning, the Hudson River Greenway on Manhattan's west side is a flatter, less congested alternative for the same purpose — long, straight, and easy to control your effort on, even if it trades away the park's scenery.

Timing matters too: Central Park is at its most crowded on weekend mornings, so an early start or a weekday shakeout, if your schedule allows it, will generally mean a clearer path and less weaving around walkers, cyclists, and tourists than a midday weekend jog would.

If you're short on time before the race, a single easy lap of the Reservoir is enough to accomplish everything a shakeout run is meant to do — there's no need to overthink the distance or the route when the actual goal is simply reminding your legs what running feels like.