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More than 9,000 runners flocked to the CambridgeSide Mall for the 8th Annual Cambridge Half Marathon Sunday morning.
The 13.1-mile course took runners along the Charles River, passing by MIT and Harvard’s campuses as thousands of supporters lined the streets.
Aaron Gruen, a runner from Providence, R.I., took home the overall first place win with a time of 1:03:11. For the third year in a row, Jacqueline Gaughan placed first among female runners and beat her own record time from last year’s race.
The course passes by Harvard’s undergraduate houses along the river and through a loop of Harvard’s athletic complex. In interviews with The Crimson, almost 20 students who ran said that the support of their classmates was especially motivating.
Zion J. Dixon ’26, who ran the race for the third time Sunday morning, described the stretch of the course near Harvard as one of the best moments of the race.
“I think my favorite parts of it are always when we went by Harvard, because it’s full of students, the crowd is huge, lined up on both sides of the street, and you can see your friends — people from the Houses,” Dixon said. “So mile three to four and nine to ten, which is around Harvard, are always highlights for me.”
Lise Van den Eynde, a Harvard Law student who ran the half marathon, also praised the warmth of the crowd, even on the chilly November morning.
“I was just really amazed by how many people were here already at 6 a.m. when we got here. They were there already. They were in the freezing cold, but they were smiling, cheering everyone on,” Van den Eynde said.
Many participants also ran with a cause in mind. While registration for the race is around $100, many used the half-marathon to raise both funds and awareness for a range of issues.
Alex S. Jun ’28 started a GoFundMe for the month of October to raise funds for a breast cancer awareness organization, after his mother was diagnosed earlier this year. He pledged to run a half-marathon if he raised $1,000, and found himself at the starting line after raising more than $10,000 in the last month.
“In May, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and so that was a big thing in my life and in my family,” Jun said. “I was running with this backstory, and all these people who donated, and my mother.”
Some runners also wore keffiyehs and Palestinian flags, cheered on by spectators with signs reading, “You’re running better than the government runs this country.”
The end of course circles back to the CambridgeSide Mall — a final stretch that many runners found to be the hardest part of the race.
“It’s you against yourself,” Audrey Zhang ’26 said.
“In those last few miles, when you’re digging deep and it feels like it’s never going to end and you’re ready to stop,” Zhang said, “it’s so important to have your mental game on and just keep pushing yourself: ‘You can do this, you will finish, you will get to the end because your body can make it.’”
