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Half-marathon in Paramus, New Jersey hit with flash flood waters
The Racefaster Half Marathon in Paramus, New Jersey took place on Sunday, September 13th despite the region getting pummeled by torrential rain. Runners train for months-long blocks leading up to races and race directors want to do everything within their power to ensure the race takes place as planned but in this instance, severe flooding hit the course and some runners found themselves fording waist-deep water which certainly was not part of anyone’s race plan.
Clips from the Racefaster Half Marathon in Paramus, New Jersey hit social media after the flooding. People within the Running community were astonished at the race conditions.
Half-Marathon In Paramus, New Jersey Hit With Extreme Flooding
Certain parts of Paramus, NJ saw between 4.52 and 4.94 inches of rain fall on Sunday. One of the BroBible OGs who lives nearby described it as “basically a downpour from 5am to 1pm.”
And I fully understand why the race director would want to hold the race if it was at all possible. I’m currently training for an Ironman 70.3 that’s taking place three months from now and my training build-up has occupied pretty much all of my free time this entire year as I want to go into the race to do some racing and not simply finish. Runners training for half-marathons can put in hundreds of hours and countless miles training.
To cancel or postpone the race would have impacted everyone involved but then again, opting to move forward with the race in these conditions is wild. Bachelorette star Zac Clark is one of the racers who was caught in the flash flooding and shared this clip of the mayhem:
POV: You’re running a half-marathon and the course floods! 😳 Zac Clark sent us this video from Paramus, NJ today. #flood #running pic.twitter.com/22rqHQAV6g
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) September 13, 2026
Other clips hit Instagram showing how deep the flash flood waters were during the half-marathon in Paramus, New Jersey on Sunday. The rain was already coming down heavy before the race even began. Even still, runners like this one still toed the start line and eventually found themselves wading through flash floods:
The NYPost compiled clips from throughout the region, which for those unfamiliar is located just northeast of New York City on the other side of the Hudson River. Flooding wasn’t localized to just the New Jersey half-marathon course, it was evidently all throughout the region:
Looking at the race results, there were 250 finishers which is remarkable given the conditions. The winner finished with a time of 1:22:45.72 (chip time) and the last finisher in the half marathon crossed the line with a time of 3:40:52.60. I cannot fathom spending nearly four hours out in that weather.