If you were up early on Tuesday morning logging laps in Central Park, you might have been in the presence of royalty. Prince William, the Prince of Wales, revealed on Tuesday that he went for a run in the famous Manhattan park around 7 a.m.
“I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine,” he said on-stage at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit later in the day. “It was wonderful waking up in New York on a sunny morning rather than the rain we had yesterday. It was beautiful getting some fresh air this morning.”
It was ideal weather for a jog, with temperatures in the low 60s in the morning and a slight breeze. William was in town for the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, where the finalists of this year’s Earthshot Prize were announced at the Plaza Hotel on Central Park South. He founded the award in 2020 to encourage efforts to solve global climate change and environmental issues.
Tuesday marked William’s first time in New York City in nearly a decade. “It’s been wonderful to be back,” he said at the event. “I think 2014 was the last time I was here. I’ve been trying to come back for a couple of years, but with COVID and my grandmother passing last year, it hasn’t been easy.”
The royal family is no stranger to running, whether it’s cheering on the masses at the London Marathon or the Queen herself signaling the start of the race in 2018. In 2021, William said he wanted to run a marathon in Kenya, but his wife, Kate Middleton, called his bluff. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said to Good Morning Britain’s Sean Fletcher. So far, she was right—William still hasn’t debuted at 26.2 yet.
And of course, William’s mother, Princess Diana, was a fitness enthusiast. She participated in a mother’s day race at her son Harry’s school in 1991 and was often seen sporting some of her iconic outfits while pounding the pavement (biker shorts are back!).
There’s no word on how long William’s run was or which parts of the park he explored, which begs the age-old saying: Strava or it didn’t happen.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
