The New York City Marathon Is Putting Water Refill Stations on Its Course

New York Road Runners said Wednesday it will put five self-serve water refill stations on the New York City Marathon course on Nov. 1, one in each borough, and anyone who would rather grab a cup and keep running can ignore all five of them. None of the race’s 25 fluid stations are going away.

The refill points go in at miles 8, 14, 17, 20 and 23, and NYRR has more of them planned at other locations on race day. Each one is set up to be entered and left at pace. Runners fill their own containers, a handheld bottle, a soft flask, a vest bladder, and NYRR’s safety and security guidelines still govern what can be carried on course. The idea was trialled at the RBC Brooklyn Half in May, before being taken to a course that runs through all five boroughs.

Culligan International is supplying the water, run through activated carbon filtration that the company says cuts microplastics and off tastes and odors while still moving fast enough to be useful mid-race. Culligan is also why marathon finishers get aluminum bottles instead of plastic ones, displacing more than 200,000 single-use plastic bottles across race week.

“By working alongside Culligan International, HydraPak, and our other partners, we can introduce practical solutions that make a difference on race day while encouraging more sustainable habits that extend well beyond the finish line,” said Rob Simmelkjaer, the chief executive of New York Road Runners.

Chicago gets there three weeks ahead of New York. Organizers there announced four Culligan refill stations on Sept. 1, at miles 5.7, 10.1, 15.7 and 20.3, for a race that goes off on Oct. 11, and they claim it as a first among the majors. HydraPak, which is working on that one too, repeats the claim.

Paris took every disposable cup and bottle off its course in April and told more than 55,000 runners to bring something to drink out of, with HydraPak announcing that every one of them would get a SpeedCup, its collapsible race cup. Marathon Handbook argued afterwards that the cost to runners bought a carbon saving too small to count. HydraPak has now signed as an official New York City Marathon licensee, its first licensing deal with the race, and will offer bottles carrying the race’s branding. It is supplying both the race that made carrying your own water compulsory and the race that leaves it entirely up to you.

Two hundred runners are on NYRR Team for Climate this year, the climate-linked way into the race that NYRR created in 2024, in its third year and the first in which runners had to apply for a place. Of the $1.9 million the team has brought in since then, just under $650,000 came during the 2025 race weekend alone, and this year’s total goes toward carbon insetting and offsetting. Their singlets are reusable and carry the climate stripes graphic, and on race morning they ride the Staten Island Ferry down to the start and wait in a tent running on solar and electric power.

The next thing on the calendar is a Climate Week panel on Sept. 22 at NYRR’s renovated RUNCENTER on West 57th Street. Tina Muir, the former elite marathoner who founded Racing for Sustainability, moderates, and the panel includes the soccer player Jasmyne Spencer, Culligan’s head of science Eric Roy and the CBS News anchor Errol Barnett. The speakers stick around afterwards for a group plog, which is a jog with a trash bag.

Last year the marathon composted 107.99 tons of material at a farm upstate, cups from the Gatorade and water stations included, and recycled another 152.81 tons on top of that. Every one of those cup stations is still on the course this November, and five refill points standing next to 25 of them will not change the numbers much in year one. NYRR has pitched them as an extra option rather than a replacement, part of a strategy that aims at net zero emissions by 2040.