Ted Metellus leads and oversees all event development and production for New York Road Runners. Ted first joined NYRR in 2001 as an event manager and served in this role until 2003. He then returned in 2018, as the organization’s senior director of events. In 2019, he was promoted to vice president of events and technical director of the TCS New York City Marathon. In February 2021, he was named the race director of the TCS New York City Marathon, the first-ever Black race director of an Abbott World Marathon Majors race. In May 2022, he was promoted to a senior vice president, and in November 2024, he became NYRR’s chief event production officer and race director.
Ted plays a significant role in managing New York Road Runners’ 60 youth and adult races each year, overseeing and enhancing start, course, and finish operations, safety and security, medical teams, staffing and volunteers, youth events, experiential events, and warehouse operations. His event leadership role spans from the TCS New York City Marathon, which has broken the world record for the largest marathon twice under his tenure, and the RBC Brooklyn Half, the nation’s largest half marathon, to weekly 5K and one-mile races across New York City’s five boroughs and New Jersey. He has expanded New York Road Runners’ race calendar and increased the nonprofit’s free offerings, including the NYRR Start Line Series, a collaboration with the New York City Department of Transportation’s Summer Streets.
In addition, he serves as the organization’s key liaison with New York City agencies and partners, a crucial relationship for New York Road Runners throughout the year to hold its events in the city’s parks and streets.
Ted has 28 years of experience in the endurance sports industry overseeing start, course, and finish operations of events domestically and internationally. Prior to returning to New York Road Runners, he worked and consulted with numerous organizations in the industry, including Eventage Event Production, Miami Marathon, Philadelphia Triathlon, Premier Event Management, Tough Mudder, Lifetime Events, IRONMAN and the Rock n Roll Marathon Series. In 2016, he was named the National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security (NCS4) Professional of the Year, an honor given to an individual who demonstrates outstanding leadership in addressing safety and security issues, and in 2022, Ted was recognized as a leader who has made the sport and business of road running the successful and beloved industry it is today. He was entered in Running USA’s Hall of Champions, an honor reserved for those who have given their time, energy, and passion to improving the sport in new directions.
A Bronx native, Ted grew up running in New York City and was a member of his high school track and cross-country teams. He graduated from the State University of New York College at Oswego with a BA in Public Relations and Communications. He currently lives in Manhattan and has run 51 half marathons, as well as the New York City Marathon in 2008 and 2013.