From Five Boroughs to One Finish Line: Mapping the New York City Marathon in Wood

From Five Boroughs to One Finish Line

Mapping the New York City Marathon in Wood

I’ve spent the last few weekends working on a new wooden map inspired by the New York City Marathon route. I wanted to share how a few small design details have started to shape the way I make these pieces.

Tools & Materials Used

xTool S1 (20W Laser Cutter)
Reliable, quiet, and large enough for A2 work. It arrived extremely well packaged and has become a core part of my workshop setup.
View on Amazon

xTool SafetyPro AP2 with Super Cyclone
I use the S1 indoors, so this 6-layer filtration system handles fumes effectively. Tip: be proactive with cleaning rather than waiting for reduced airflow or performance.
View on Amazon

Precision Pin Vise Hand Drill Set (0.6 mm–2 mm)
Bought partly because it was purple — but it turned out to be genuinely excellent. It gives precise control when drilling small holes for start and finish pins, and comes with a great range of bits.
View on Amazon

Stainless Steel Locking Utility Knife (9 mm Snap-Off Blade)
Cheap and cheerful, and gets the job done. Useful for everything from opening packages to trimming wood layers cleanly.
View on Amazon

All tools listed are used regularly in my own workshop.

A route that tells a story

The New York City Marathon is often described as more than a race. First run in 1970, it has grown from a small local event into one of the most recognisable marathons in the world. What makes it especially distinctive is the route itself.

Unlike many city marathons that loop within a single area, the New York City Marathon passes through all five boroughs of the city:

• Staten Island
• Brooklyn
• Queens
• The Bronx
• Manhattan

For runners, that progression matters. Each borough has its own character, its own crowds, and its own moment in the race. Over time, moving through all five boroughs has become part of the marathon’s identity, not just the setting for it.

Turning a marathon route into a wooden map

New York is visually dense, especially around Manhattan. Too much detail quickly overwhelms the route itself. For this map, the focus stayed on the overall flow of the course — the long stretches, the bridges that define key moments, and the gradual movement north toward Central Park.

Rather than trying to show everything, the aim was to let the route read clearly and calmly, even at a glance.

Adding the borough names

Photo: Pin vise hand drill and craft knife — simple, effective, and essential for fine detail work and trimming layers.

One detail I wanted to include on this map was the borough names themselves. Seeing them engraved into the wood — Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Manhattan — helps anchor the route geographically without cluttering the design.

I took some close-up photos specifically of these labels. They’re easy to overlook at first, but once noticed they add a lot. They quietly reinforce the idea that this is a journey across a city, not just a line on a map.

A small start and finish detail

Photo: A small engraved wooden pin marks the start and finish of the route.

Something I’ve recently started adding to my maps is a small wooden start-and-finish pin. It’s a simple detail, but one that feels important.

The pin is made from wood and measures about 8 mm across at the top. A small flag is engraved into the flat surface, marking the start and the finish of the route. On the New York map, that means Staten Island and Central Park are given a clear physical point you can actually touch.

These races are months of preparation condensed into a single day, and the route itself becomes part of the memory. Turning that route into something physical feels like a natural way to reflect on it.

What’s next

I’ll be adding some short video clips from the workshop to this post later, showing how the layers are cut and how small details like the start-and-finish pin are made.

For now, this post is simply a snapshot of the design process — how an iconic marathon route moves from a digital line to a quiet, tactile object in wood.