Central Park, Oct 19–25: seven sunny days and open drives — the last clear week before the marathon

Friday’s email ran through the 23rd, so the midweek will be familiar — the weekend is new.

Seven sunny days, 59–66°, open drives every one of them. This is the last fully clear week before the marathon, and it is a good one. Use it: in a fortnight the loop is gone for two days and the week between now and then fills with build-out.

Weather this week

Sunny or mostly sunny all seven days: 65°, 66°, 62°, 66°, 61°, 59°. Rain 0–12%. Nights 44–51° — cold starts, brilliant light, no wind to speak of. Properly good riding and running weather.

The marathon build has started — read this before you panic

The city’s marathon permit went live this week and covers Oct 18 to Nov 10 across twenty-one locations, West, East and Center Drive included. If you look at the raw permit you would think the loop is shut for three weeks.

It is not. That is a build-and-strike envelope: scaffolding, fencing and trailers appearing across the west side and Tavern on the Green and thickening as race day approaches. The drives are open all of this week. What you will meet is equipment, not closures.

The real closures are Sat Oct 31, 8:45–11 AM (Dash to the Finish Line 5K) and Sun Nov 1, 8 AM–5 PM (the marathon, 55,000 runners finishing in the park).

Mon Oct 19 – Thu Oct 22 — the week, and nothing in your way

Nothing on a drive. Weekdays carry soccer training and school programmes on the lawns, and that is all.

Tuesday and Thursday are both 66° and sunny. Those are the two to take. Wednesday is 62° and sunny, which is nearly as good.

Bird Watching with Birding Bob is rotating meeting points — Strawberry Fields Monday, Loeb Boathouse Thursday, the Conservatory Garden Friday. Check which before you set out.

Fri Oct 23 — the North Woods, in peak colour

Woodland Walk: The North Woods, 10 AM from the Dana Discovery Center. 61° and sunny, the park’s wildest end, with a guide who knows it. Late October is exactly when to do this one.

Iconic Views tour at 2 PM.

Sat Oct 24 — two foliage photo walks, and the Mall is busy

Two Fall Foliage Photo Walks — from The Pool, 9:30–11:30 AM, and from Boys’ Gate at 10 AM. Both in the north end, both timed for peak colour. If you walk the Ravine and the Loch, this is the weekend.

The Ronald McDonald House Fun Run stages at Bandshell Plaza and Dead Road North 8 AM–2 PM. Six hours of it, so the Mall and the Dead Road approaches are busy — but the drives stay open. Ride the outer loop and you will barely notice.

59° and sunny. East Meadow closed; Free Yoga and CPC Yoga both on East Meadow at 11 AM if you want something slower.

Sun Oct 25 — the North Woods again, and clear roads

Woodland Walk: The North Woods repeats at 10 AM. The Seneca Village Tour and the Iconic Views tour both go at 2 PM.

Nothing on the drives. Folkdancers at King Jagiello 11–6, Skate Circle at Dead Road 2–7 — both worth walking past, neither in your way. East Meadow closed.

Steady all week

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain is closed all day, every day, and the permits have extended an eighth time — now November 18. Eleven weeks elapsed.

No league play on the Great Lawn for an eleventh week; North Meadow is carrying the entire field calendar. Nothing there affects a route, but it is the longest-running oddity in the park’s data right now.

Quick recap

• Seven sunny days, open drives on all of them. The last clear week before the marathon.
• Tuesday and Thursday at 66° are the pick.
• The marathon permit is a build envelope, not a closure — drives open all week.
• Two foliage photo walks Saturday, north end, peak colour.
• Fri and Sun 10 AM: the North Woods walk.
• Oct 31 and Nov 1 are the real closures. Long effort before then.

Take the whole week, Central Park Guide