Man's 98-Mile Run Around Central Park Loop Sets Record

CENTRAL PARK, NY — The runners and cyclists who moseyed along the Central Park Loop on a balmy Friday in March may not have realized that the slim man clad in black who jogged alongside them was on the cusp of something that had never been done before.

That man, Robbie Balenger, was in the midst of setting a new record for the number of laps run around the iconic 6.1-mile road. Running 16 laps, or about 98.5 miles, Balenger eclipsed the previous record of 11 laps.

It took Balenger just over 18 hours to complete the task, finishing his run at 12:12 a.m. on March 21, according to a verification he filed on the Fastest Known Time website.

Balenger's run was also documented in a short film by the fitness company Ten Thousand, released on April 22.

"It’s pretty cold, but I’ve got about 19 hours of running ahead of me," Balenger tells the camera just after 6 a.m. on March 20, at his starting point near Tavern on the Green.

The video shows Balenger cresting hills along the loop with the sky still dark overhead, continuing to trot as the sun rises and then sets again.

The terms of the so-called Central Park Loop Challenge state that runners have between the park's opening at 6 a.m. to when it closes the next day at 1 a.m. to complete as many loops as they can, Balenger wrote on Instagram.

"Let’s just say the one thing I anticipated but was still surprised by was the 4,800 feet of elevation gain over the course of the day," he said.

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Balenger flew to New York from Denver to complete the run. The Central Park challenge was not his first Herculean running endeavor: in 2019, he completed a 3,275-mile run across the U.S. to promote the benefits of a plant-based diet. (His meal plan for the run included coconut milk, cold pasta and smoothies.)