About 250 runners ran through knee- and waist-deep water in Paramus on Sunday as flash-flood warnings widened. Bergen County says the organizer was responsible; runners say they never knew of an alternate route. The county is reviewing the organizer and whether participants could face charges.
About 250 runners started the Racefaster Half Marathon at 10:00 AM on Sunday, September 13, at Bergen County's Saddle River County Park in Paramus, on a course already under water in places. Flash-flood warnings had been posted for the county since 6:35 AM, and the Saddle River had topped its banks within about half an hour of the start.
The warnings kept widening through the morning, according to National Weather Service records. At 7:42 AM the warning reported "FLASH FLOODING IS ALREADY OCCURRING" and called the flooding life-threatening, listing Paramus and Fair Lawn among the towns expected to flood. The service issued another warning at 8:21 and extended the original at 8:53, the latter covering South Central Bergen, including Paramus, until 11:30.
At 9:57 the service posted a flood warning for the Saddle River at Lodi, reporting "the stage was 5.2 feet" at 9:45, above its 5.0-foot bankfull stage, with minor flooding forecast. At 11:03 the service extended the warnings across Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties, reporting three to five inches of rain and warning of life-threatening flash flooding.
Racefaster, the Paramus-based company that organized the race, told participants Saturday night the start would move from the advertised 8:00 AM to 10:00, according to runner accounts and the event listing. The heaviest rain fell in the hours before the start: 4.03 inches in North Haledon between 7:00 and 10:00 AM, according to Rutgers' NJ Weather and Climate Network.
At the line, the race director told the field over a megaphone that "at about the mile and a half mark, there's going to be some water that is up to about your calf and that the rest of the course should be perfectly fine," runner Zac Clark recounted in a video posted after the race. His in-race footage had drawn about 2.5 million views, he said.
By mile 5, Clark said, runners were wading three or four stretches of water, some knee-deep and some waist-deep. At mile 9 the course detoured up a hill and onto a major highway; one race staffer directed traffic as runners passed. A tree fell about 20 yards off the course during the race. Runners walked the deep stretches and sprinted the dry ones in between, Clark said, the cold water almost a relief. "The people around me stayed safe," he said. "The people around me kind of helped each other."
Clark's chip time was 1:40:42, 18th of the 250 finishers. The results board lists finishers from at least 11 states. At the finish line, some runners jumped into a flooded pond beside it. No major injuries had been reported as of Tuesday.
The last finishers crossed around 1:40 PM with times over three hours. The Lodi gauge, downstream of the course, had read 5.38 feet at the 10:00 start and passed the river's 5.5-foot flood stage within about 15 minutes. It topped out at 6.8 feet at 2:15 PM, more than a foot above the forecast crest of 5.7, according to the weather service and U.S. Geological Survey gauge data. At 3:43 PM the weather service put the river at 6.6 feet.
By 12:30 PM the Rutgers network's North Haledon station had recorded 4.95 inches for the day, and Bob Ziff's North Jersey Weather Observers network reported 4.52 inches in Paramus. New Jersey State Climatologist John Krasting called the storm "at least a once-in-a-generation event" in towns including North Haledon, Haworth and Little Falls.
Bergen County's parks rules give the county authority to stop a permitted race. Under the Bergen County Parks Department rules adopted March 19, 2025, a special-event permit "can be terminated at any time by the Parks Department... in the interests of public safety," and the county may "postpone, cancel, or move the event" for flood conditions. The rules also make the permittee solely responsible for supervising the event.
County Ordinance 25-45 classifies races as special events and requires organizers to indemnify the county and carry insurance naming the county and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as additional insureds. It designates the Bergen County Sheriff's Office as the enforcing agency.
The county describes its role Sunday as advisory. "The event was not sponsored, organized, or operated by Bergen County," Derek Sands, deputy chief of staff to County Executive James Tedesco, said in a statement carried by News 12, Daily Voice, Patch and NorthJersey. The county issued a permit, and "responsibility for the planning, management, and operation of the race rested with the private organizer," Sands said.
County parks staff and the Sheriff's Office advised Racefaster to use "an alternate route specifically intended to avoid areas of the park at highest risk of flooding," and "a number of race participants chose to disregard the alternate route and proceed at their own risk," Sands said. As of Tuesday, the county had not said whether sheriff's or parks personnel were in the park while the race was run. Some runners told News 12 they "didn't know that there was an alternative route."
Garrett Nathan told NBC New York he got "no notifications about a canceling." He told ABC7 it ended up being a "biathlon." Marijana Dinic told News 12, "It should have been cancelled."
The county is investigating whether Racefaster honored its permit conditions. Racefaster did not return NBC New York's requests for comment. Sands said the company faces probation in the county parks permitting system and a ban of at least one year on staging races in any county park.
The Sheriff's Office is separately reviewing participant conduct, Sands said, including whether entrants went into "County park ponds and other restricted areas." Asked whether a runner could be charged, Sands said, "That is certainly a possibility." The review was ongoing as of Tuesday.
Clark said he keeps asking who was supposed to stop the race. "The fact that they weren't just pulling people off the course is beyond me," he said. "I was going to run that race unless someone pulled me off that course," he said. "I am not a race director... if the gun goes off, I'm going to do the race. That's as far as I'm willing to take that situation."
"Was it fun? Was it crazy? Was it stupid? It was a life experience," Clark said.
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Sources
Bergen County Board of County Commissioners, Ordinance No. 25-45, special events regulations
Bergen County Parks Department, Rules and Regulations (adopted March 19, 2025)
National Weather Service, flash-flood and flood warnings and flood statements, Bergen County and Saddle River at Lodi (September 13, 2026)
RunSignUp, Racefaster Half Marathon results (September 13, 2026)
Rutgers NJ Weather and Climate Network, rainfall station observations (September 13, 2026)
U.S. Geological Survey, Saddle River at Lodi monitoring location 01391500 (September 13, 2026)
ABC7 New York (WABC), "Former 'Bachelorette' contestant Zac Clark caught in flood during half marathon" (September 14, 2026), Garrett Nathan interview
Marathon Journal, "Racefaster Half Marathon Flooding: High Water and Hot Tempers in NJ" (September 15, 2026)
NBC New York, "NJ flooding video poses Paramus half-marathon questions" (September 14, 2026; updated September 15, 2026)
News 12 New Jersey, "'I had to hold myself to a rail.' Runners wade through waist-high floodwaters during Paramus half marathon" (September 14, 2026) and "Bergen County investigating Paramus half marathon that went through flooding" (September 15, 2026)
NorthJersey, "Flash flood warnings swamp North Jersey. Rain totals near 5 inches" (September 13, 2026)
Patch, "Organizers Of Flooded NJ Marathon Banned From Bergen County Parks For A Year" (September 15, 2026)
Derek Sands, deputy chief of staff to County Executive James Tedesco, statement carried by News 12, Daily Voice, Patch and NorthJersey (September 2026)
iAlert, National Weather Service alert archive, alerts 11850381, 11850394, 11850415, 11850427, 11850444 and 11850461 (September 13, 2026)
North Jersey Weather Observers, rainfall observations reported by Bob Ziff (September 13, 2026)
Racefaster, 5K & Half Marathon event listing, racefaster.net (accessed September 2026)
Zac Clark, YouTube video, first-person account of the Racefaster Half Marathon (September 2026)