Tuckahoe Challenge Road Race 50th Weekend Events: Your Local Guide

"I hope everybody dusts off their tube socks and their short shorts and their retro gear and comes out and runs and has a great time." That was Mayor Cara Kronen on Westchester County's This Week in Westchester podcast in July. She was talking about the Tuckahoe Challenge Road Race, which reaches its 50th anniversary this Sunday, October 4, with a 1970s theme to match the decade it started in.

In the same appearance she called Tuckahoe "a .65 mile village." That small footprint is why this weekend is so easy to get around. The village isn't adding any new space for its biggest fall weekend. Everything happens at a few places residents already know: one address on Columbus Avenue hosts events on both days, a bank building on Main Street that sat empty for years now sells the books, and the square where the Sunday market sets up is the next big project on the village's list.

One Address, Two Days

The weekend runs out of 71 Columbus Avenue. The Tuckahoe Public Library gives that address for Saturday's Fall Author Fest, and the race registration page lists the Tuckahoe Community Center at the same address as Sunday's venue.

The Author Fest was originally set for September 26. Patch's updated listing on September 29 shows it moved to this Saturday, so it now overlaps with race pickup. Admission is free. The afternoon includes author Q&As and book signings, and Gather Paper & Clay is selling the books. The library's event page labels the program "In-Person" but also contains boilerplate text calling it an online event. A quick call to the library before you go will settle it.

The race itself pulls these places together. Gather sells the books on Saturday, and the market is the only thing running alongside the race on Sunday morning. If you're picking up a bib Saturday afternoon, you can also stop by the Author Fest, and Sunday's 5K starts early enough to leave time for the market before it closes at 1.

Fifty Runnings Since 1976

Mayor Kronen said the race "began in 1976" and described it as "our 5K plus one mile race." The count holds up. Patch covered the 35th Challenge in 2011, and the 2023 registration page called that year the 47th. At one race a year, both numbers line up with 2026 as the 50th.

EliteFeats, which handles registration, lists both races for this Sunday, rain or shine. Some details that matter if you're signing up:

• You can register for the 5K, the 1-mile, or both. Both are possible because the mile starts half an hour before the 5K.
• The 1-mile has an adult-child team award category for a child 12 or under running with an adult 18 or older.
• No separate kids' dash is listed, so the team category in the mile is where families compete together.

The mayor also called it "a great race if you've never run before," which fits a course whose shorter option is just one mile.

A few things are still unconfirmed for 2026. The registration page links to 5K and 1-mile route maps, but the maps were made on MapMyRun in 2018 and 2020. We found no 2026 notice about street closures or race-day parking. If you drive through the village on Sunday mornings, check with the Village of Tuckahoe before assuming your usual route will be open. The 2026 page also doesn't name a race director or a beneficiary, and details from past years shouldn't be assumed to carry over.

A Bank Building That Sat Empty Now Sells the Books

The bookseller at Saturday's Author Fest is new to the village, but its building isn't. Gather Paper & Clay is at 50 Main Street. On May 13, 2026, the Village of Tuckahoe Zoning Board of Appeals granted a special permit for "a pottery studio, bookstore, and accessory coffee station" there. The board found the property "was previously utilized as a bank and has remained vacant for several years."

The board's findings explain how a business fits into a busy stretch of Main Street. The building sits next to a municipal parking facility, and the property owner promised two off-street spaces for employees. One condition of approval is that the business ask parents and students not to use Main Street directly in front of the building for pick-up and drop-off. Founder Jessica Potenza told the board the space has a 49-person limit. She described hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with shorter hours on Sunday.

Westchester Magazine included Gather in its September 16 fall roundup, calling it "a brand-new spot in Tuckahoe" that is "part pottery studio, part bookstore, and a welcoming community space," with classes for kids and adults. Here's where it stands this week:

1. Coffee is still coming. The website says the full coffee bar is "coming soon." For now it offers house tea and pottery painting.
2. A beginner class starts October 13. Bronxville Adult School lists a five-session beginner handbuilding course at Gather on Tuesdays, October 13 through November 10, for $350.
3. Saturday is its biggest public showing so far. It's the bookseller for the library's Author Fest.

The Square Under the Market

The Tuckahoe Farm & Maker Market sets up Sunday at Depot Square from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's open this Sunday and every Sunday through November 22, eight dates in all. The Village posted the 2026 season as running from May 31 to November 22. In July, Mayor Kronen called it the "newly expanded" market, with more than 20 local farmers, food vendors, artisans, and makers each week drawing hundreds of visitors to Depot Square. The Village calendar marked the September 27 market as canceled, so check the calendar before you walk over on any Sunday.

The square itself is due for a renovation. The mayor said two federal grants, secured by Congressman George Latimer and former Congressman Jamaal Bowman, will fund "reimagining" Depot Square. The plan calls for better landscaping, lighting, seating, and accessibility for residents, businesses, commuters, and visitors. She said the work will "soon begin" and tied it to Reimagine Tuckahoe, the village's first comprehensive plan in decades. Latimer's June 2025 list of funding priorities included the Tuckahoe Depot Square and Main Street streetscape work, and his office described that as an early step in getting the money, not a finished project. No construction date has been announced. This year's market Sundays are happening in a square the village has already decided to remake.

Bigger Inside the Same Walls

The same pattern shows up at Broken Bow Brewery, 173 Marbledale Road. The renovated space now has The ForkLift, a full-service kitchen, plus more bar and event space and an all-weather beer garden. The brewery's site says it no longer brings in food trucks during normal service. The Journal News included it in a September roundup of Westchester eateries that opened in summer 2026 and named the family behind it: Kathy and Lyle LaMothe and their daughters, Kristen Stone and Kasey Schwartz. A kitchen inside the brewery means a post-race lunch no longer depends on which food truck shows up.

The biggest reuse project is still ahead. Mayor Kronen said Tuckahoe will be the future home of the Lenape Center at the historic Ward House, "one of Westchester's oldest historic homes," which will be used for education, culture, and community programs. Like the race at 71 Columbus Avenue, the bank at 50 Main Street, and the market at Depot Square, it gives an existing village property a new use.

The race that started in 1976 takes off from 71 Columbus Avenue at 9 a.m. Sunday, and the Depot Square market closes at 1 p.m.

I'm Christine Naber, and my office is right here in Tuckahoe, so Sunday's race is a hometown event for me too. If you're in tube socks at the Community Center, or picking up a book from Gather on Saturday, I'd be glad to talk about whatever Tuckahoe question is on your mind. Let's Connect.