A New York City Marathon Runner Is Paying Strangers $120 Each to Cheer Her On

Most of the people lining the New York City Marathon course on Sunday will be there for free, armed with cowbells and a rough idea of when a friend might run past, though a few of them could be on the clock. Molly Markhoff, a 25-year-old New York runner, is offering $120 apiece to as many as 20 strangers who will make her a sign and cheer for her along the route.

Markhoff posted the job on Airtasker, a gig marketplace where the other New York listings posted alongside hers this week ask for help hanging paintings, deep cleaning apartments and organizing closets. Time Out New York first reported the listing on Thursday. If every place is taken, her cheering section will cost her $2,400, with the sign materials included in each fee. Airtasker told Time Out that requests for gym and fitness accountability partners are up 280 percent, averaging $89 a job, and that New York sends more of those requests than any state but one, though it gave no dates to measure the jump against.

Each hired fan gets a spot on the course agreed in advance, a homemade sign with “Molly” on it so she can find them in the crowd, and the job of cheering as she goes by. They are also asked to take photos or video of their setup to share afterward. Markhoff writes that this is her second New York City Marathon and that she wants the squad to “help keep me motivated as I make my way through NYC.” She starts at 10:55 a.m., the fourth of the five mass-start waves, so each person’s arrival time depends on where they stand and how her pace holds up on the day.

One Tasker has already been assigned the first of the jobs, after offering to stand at mile 7 in Brooklyn with a big sign and some friends. That spot is on Fourth Avenue, the long, straight run through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Park Slope where runners meet their first proper crowds after coming off the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (the full course, mile by mile, is here). Whether the other 19 places have been booked is not public.

Whoever signs up will need to keep the artwork compact, because New York Road Runners’ prohibited-items list bans signs larger than 11 by 17 inches, the size of a sheet of tabloid paper, along with flagpoles, folding chairs, coolers and strollers, which still leaves enough room for a good pun. Spectators are also kept off the five bridges and out of the start area on Staten Island.

Around two million people are expected along the course on Sunday, for a race that saw 59,226 finishers last year, and run clubs set up their own cheer zones through the five boroughs, which this year can only show the race’s official sponsors.

For friends and family cheering the old-fashioned way, the race’s free app tracks every runner at each 5K, and our New York City Marathon pace calculator estimates when a runner should reach each mile. Our guide to watching the race has the best viewing spots, with the final wave leaving Staten Island at 11:30 a.m.