In 1979, director Walter Hill released one of the most iconic cult movies of all time — The Warriors, which follows a street gang over a single night as they run over 28 miles through the streets of New York City, fighting for their lives as hordes of rival gangs chase them to their home turf on Coney Island.
As a teenager, I was obsessed with this movie and watched it dozens of times. Later in life, after moving to New York, I came up with an audacious idea for a solo running adventure: I would recreate the Warriors’ escape route from the movie, and run the full distance alone, in the middle of the night.
When I completed the run in 2018, I didn’t think much of it and posted a picture of myself on Facebook, posing in the surf on Coney Island at dawn the next morning, and offering a few celebratory comments.
Within a few hours, my phone started exploding — I was getting messages from ultrarunners all over the world, begging to go with me if I ever ran the route again.
This past July, over 100 ultrarunners from around the world gathered in the South Bronx for the sixth annual running of The Warriors UltraRun, which has emerged as one of the grittiest unsanctioned ultras anywhere in the world. There are no aid stations, no bathrooms, no security or street closures at this fully costumed ultra, which attracts top running clubs from throughout the tri-state area.
The Warriors UltraRun Photo: Armando “OUTthere” Diaz
They came dressed as Baseball Furies, Orphans, Saracens and other gangs featured in the movie, or they created their own running gangs, sporting their own gang colors and unique identities.
An All-Women Warriors Gang
If you ever seen the movie, you know The Warriors are an all-male gang of nine rumblers, who wear matching leather vests and must outrun (and fight!) every other gang in New York City after being framed for a murder at a “Conclave,”a midnight meeting of rival gangs.
To bring the movie to life, we created a unique racing format — an urban chase, where we choose nine top runners to be on our Warriors Elite Team and give them team a 15-minute head start after Conclave before they are chased by the full field of costumed ultrarunners, who hunt them down via GPS.
This past July, we flipped the script and created our first all-women Warriors Elite Team, consisting of former winners of our event, and invited VIP ultrarunners from the northeast.
For the 2024 event, the All-Women Warriors Elite Team selected Tracy Schultz as their “War Chief,” giving her the daunting task of leading this gang of top runners — which must stick together, running at a single pace, till the moment they are passed. A former second-place winner of this event, Schultz ran her gang through the first 9-10 miles of the course before they were passed by a speedy group of Saracens, hailing from The Prospect Park Track Club.
“We bolted out of Conclave and ran strong out of the Bronx — but the Saracens caught us just after Riverside Park, on the upper west side of Manhattan. That’s when The Warriors separated, and Nora Carroll and I ran with Saracens to Coney Island,” said Tracy Schultz, who went on to win first place female. “How lucky am I that I got to fly through those first miles with eight badass athletes? As a woman, you never take nighttime running for granted, and running with a fierce female pack was electric.”
For the men, top finishers included Benjamin Kuykendall (3:57) of The Prospect Park Track Club (Saracens), Robert Wilson (4:03) Alexander ter Weele (4:23).
The Warriors UltraRun Photo: Armando “OUTthere” Diaz
“This run was truly an escape from the ordinary,” said Kuykendall. “Living in the City, I’ve ran most of the course before, but the event showed it in an entirely different light. Running through a still-crowded Times Square at 2 a.m., crossing an empty Brooklyn Bridge, ending up at the beach in Coney Island just as the sun starts to rise… ridiculously cool. But the craziest part is the folks willing to do it with you. My running club has some pretty serious runners, but the ones willing to go 28 miles with you in the middle of the night are something else.”
Top female finishers included Tracy Schultz, who came in first at 4:15, followed by two other runners from The Prospect Park Track Club who also ran on the Elite Team this year, Nora Carroll (4:26) and Sonia Weiser (4:54).
“The Warriors ultra is a beautiful embodiment of New York running,” said Nora Carroll. “From the highs and hilarity of streaming through Times Square in costume to the desolate, pre-dawn quiet of Ocean Parkway, this run is sublime and also grindingly difficult. It is unlike any other road race in the best way. I guess I’m hooked.”
As Lin-Manuel prepares to bring The Warriors to Broadway — much like he did with Hamilton — we expect a growing audience of Boppers will take on this gritty urban ultra.