FKT: Sebastian Chiu - New York City to Philadelphia (Bull to Bell) (or Reverse) - 2026-02-15

Athletes
Route variation
Standard route
Multi-sport
No
Para athlete
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Self-supported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
1d 4h 0m 36s
Report

I live in Williamsburg and did a self-supported run to Philadelphia this past weekend. I started in Brooklyn, went to the Charging Bull next to Wall Street, and then made my way to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia for a so-called "Bull to Bell" run. Total time was 28h52m from Brooklyn and 28h5m for "Bull to Bell".

This ended up being a lot harder than I thought. The weather was good, but much of the route was not very pedestrian-friendly. Not only that, but there was still a lot of lingering snow and ice on the ground, so this run definitely required some creativity at times.

Some notes:

  • The trickiest decision I had was deciding how to get from New Brunswick to Trenton. I decided to take the US-1, but timed the run so that I would be on the US-1 overnight (from like 1AM to 7AM)

  • Outside of this stretch, nutrition was pretty straightforward. I brought about 2000 calories with me and supplemented with fast food restaurants and gas stations along the route. I ended up going to:

    • Wendy's (Biggie Bag)

      • Free refills at the Newark location, so got about 3L of Coca-Cola here

    • McDonald's (McChicken, Sausage Burrito)

      • Stocked up on water each time

    • Wawa (Chicken Burrito, Mac and Cheese Bowl)

    • Chick-fil-A (Chicken Sandwich)

Overall, this was a fun and memorable adventure!