MAYOR MAMDANI HANDED OUT WATER TO NYC MARATHON RUNNERS

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent part of Sunday handing out cups of water to runners at the 13-mile mark of the NYC Marathon in Long Island City, Queens, according to The Times of India. He is a two-time finisher of the race himself, so he knows exactly how much a cup of water means at that point in 26.2 miles.

Mamdani swapped the politician’s suit for a volunteer T-shirt on November 1, 2026, and joined the crew at the water station. Videos on social media showed him squeezed in with other volunteers, holding out paper cups and smiling at tired runners as they shuffled past.

The internet approved. “Bro we really have the best mayor in the world,” one commenter wrote. Another said, “I love how happy people always are to see him.”

One clip appeared to show a runner doing a double take. A commenter described it this way: “That guy was running backward for a minute, like ‘wait what, are my eyes deceiving me?!'”

Mamdani has been on the other side of that table. He finished the marathon in 2022 in just over six hours, then came back in 2024 and shaved more than 26 minutes off that time. For the 2024 race, he wore a T-shirt that took aim at then-Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s rent crisis.

This year’s race was a big one. New York Road Runners said nearly 60,000 athletes took part, and the day marked 50 years since the marathon first ran through all five boroughs. That first five-borough race was held in 1976, in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial and to lift the city’s spirits.

Out front, Sweden’s Andreas Almgren won the men’s open race in 2:06:01 in his marathon debut. Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui won the women’s open race in 2:24:36, her second NYC Marathon title.

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug took the men’s wheelchair race in 1:28:14 for his eighth win in that division, and his countrywoman Catherine Debrunner won the women’s wheelchair race in 1:40:02.

Another commenter put the mayor’s cameo this way: “It’s like everyone in NYC is his child! It’s so damn touching!”