Second Lap, Jennifer Connelly Runs the New York City Marathon Again

Jennifer Connelly, the Oscar winner who grew up in Brooklyn Heights, runs the TCS New York City Marathon today, Sunday, November 1, for Fred's Team, two years after she finished the 2024 race in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

The course goes through her old borough. About 60,000 runners go with her.

Time Out New York lists her among this year's celebrity runners and names Fred's Team as her charity. New York Road Runners put her on its list of notable entrants in October, ABC7 New York reported, billing her simply as an Academy Award-winning actor.

What Is Fred's Team?

It is Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's official running program. It is named for Fred Lebow, a co-founder of the New York City Marathon who was treated at MSK, and it has raised money for cancer research and clinical trials at the hospital since 1995, according to Fred's Team. The team says every dollar goes to MSK.

That makes it a very New York charity for a very New York runner. Connelly was born in Cairo, New York, in the Catskills, and moved to Brooklyn Heights before she was two. She went to Saint Ann's School there. Her film career runs back to Labyrinth in 1986. She won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for A Beautiful Mind and these days plays Daniela Dessen in the series Dark Matter, which she also executive produces. She and her husband, Paul Bettany, married in 2003, lived in Tribeca and later moved to Brooklyn Heights, according to her Wikipedia biography.

Running is not new to her either. In May 2009 she took part in Revlon's annual 5K Run/Walk for Women, the same biography notes. The marathon is the longer conversation.

The course goes through her old borough.

How Fast Was She Last Time?

Fast. Time Out New York's tally of the 2024 race clocked her at 3 hours, 45 minutes. That works out to about 8 minutes 35 seconds a mile over 26.2 miles, by our arithmetic.

Several of the famous faces on this year's start list ran in 2024 too. Suite 646 matched Time Out's 2024 finish times against its 2026 list. The ranking is ours.

Oz Pearlman, 2:41. Casey Neistat, 2:57. Matt James, 3:00. Zac Clark, 3:16. Karen Sarahi Gonzalez, 3:37. Jennifer Connelly, 3:45. Vinny Guadagnino, 4:19. Tayshia Adams, 4:39. T.J. Holmes, 4:41.

That puts Connelly sixth of the nine returners. Pearlman and Neistat are still the ones to catch.

Why Does This Year's Race Matter?

It is the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, which puts the first one in 1976 by simple subtraction. New York Road Runners is aiming to raise $100 million for its official charity partners, according to ABC7 and Time Out.

She has company in the celebrity corral. Antoni Porowski of Queer Eye is running for City Harvest, Time Out reports, and Dylan Efron, Tiki Barber and James Milner are on the lists. Broadway sends its own squad, which we covered in Five Boroughs in Greasepaint.

Most of the famous runners are raising money, and the causes are mostly local. The Road Runners list published by ABC7 puts WABC's Liz Cho and Mike Marza on the Alzheimer's Association team, Joshua Bassett with NAMI, Sam Judge with KultureCity, Chloe Lukasiak with TheaterWorksUSA and Casey Neistat with NYRR Team for Kids. Mychal Threets runs for the CMAK Sandy Hook Memorial Foundation.

How to Watch

WABC-TV and ESPN2 carry the race, as they have since 2013, according to ABC7. New York Road Runners posts official finish times once runners cross the line in Central Park.

In 2024 she covered the five boroughs in under four hours. Today Brooklyn gets to cheer one of its own on the way through.