A finish time and a guide role mark two different aspects of Samantha Judge’s marathon participation. At the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon, she completed the 26.2-mile race in 3:31:44 while representing KultureCity. At the 2026 Boston Marathon, she accompanied Adrienne Bunn, an endurance athlete with autism, as her guide.
Running has connected her with both an organization and an individual competitor. Her marathon efforts have included awareness and fundraising for KultureCity, whose mission concerns acceptance and inclusion for people with sensory needs and invisible disabilities. Guiding Bunn brought her athletic participation into direct service alongside another runner.
Based in New York, Samantha Judge also serves on KultureCity’s Board of Directors. Her involvement with the nonprofit extends into public venues, including the permanent sensory room she helped establish at Madison Square Garden. Across these activities, inclusion concerns people’s opportunities to participate, whether they are entering a race or attending an event with family.
Samantha Judge’s New York City Marathon Participation
The 2023 race combined a personal endurance effort with support for KultureCity. Samantha Judge’s participation in the New York City Marathon included completing the course in 3:31:44 while representing the nonprofit. She has competed in the New York City event multiple times and has completed multiple marathons.
The charitable connection gives her running a purpose beyond the athletic challenge itself. Awareness and fundraising concern the organization and the people it serves, allowing a runner’s participation to support work that continues outside the race. For Judge, that work includes making public experiences more accessible to individuals and families who may find busy environments overwhelming.
Through Samantha Judge’s marathon support for KultureCity, endurance running becomes one setting for involvement in sensory inclusion. Her board service provides another, connecting her with the organization beyond individual race appearances. The two forms of involvement bring athletic participation and nonprofit service into the same area of community work.
KultureCity’s mission encompasses sporting events, concerts, entertainment venues, and other public experiences. Within those settings, access involves the conditions surrounding an event as well as the activity itself. A person may want to attend a game with family but find the crowds, noise, lighting, and stimulation difficult to manage. Attention to those conditions helps explain why sensory inclusion matters across different kinds of gatherings.
A Guide Role at the 2026 Boston Marathon
At Boston, Samantha Judge’s role as a marathon guide placed her alongside Adrienne Bunn during the race. Bunn participated as an endurance athlete with autism, with Judge providing support as her guide. The relationship between athlete and guide was part of their participation in the event.
Samantha Judge brought her own marathon experience to this role. Serving as a guide connected that experience with another competitor’s participation, extending her involvement beyond representing a nonprofit through her own running. Bunn’s place in the race remained that of an athlete, with Judge taking on the accompanying guide role.
The distinction between New York and Boston concerns how support took place. Representing KultureCity in New York linked Judge’s race with awareness and fundraising for an organization. Guiding Bunn in Boston involved direct support for an individual during an athletic event. Both are forms of participation, with different relationships between the runner, the people involved, and the purpose of the activity.
These roles also place inclusion within the experience of taking part in sport. KultureCity’s work encompasses people attending public events, while the Boston appearance involved an athlete participating on the course. Inclusion can therefore concern both the surroundings that guests encounter and the support available within an activity. Judge’s marathon involvement brings those questions into her own athletic life.
From the Racecourse to a Shared Venue
Samantha Judge’s contribution to the Madison Square Garden sensory room addresses the experience of attendance. Working alongside KultureCity and Madison Square Garden, she and Aaron Judge helped establish and endow the permanent space. The Aaron and Samantha Judge Sensory Room opened in 2024.
The room provides a calming environment for guests with sensory processing needs and invisible disabilities. Adjustable lighting, calming visuals, comfortable seating, tactile elements, a bubble wall, and other sensory tools give it a different atmosphere from the stimulation surrounding a major event. Its purpose includes helping children, adults, and families experience games and concerts together when they may previously have felt unable to attend.
For Sam Judge, this shared project connects support for inclusion with a physical place inside a sports and entertainment venue. A guest can be part of the occasion while having access to a calmer setting within the building. The room makes space for differing sensory needs within the experience of attending an event.
Participation takes different forms for a spectator, a marathon runner, and an athlete accompanied by a guide. What connects these settings is the opportunity to share in an activity while acknowledging individual needs. The sporting experience includes the people on the course and those who come to watch, each encountering the event from their own position.
About Samantha Judge
California native Samantha Judge studied kinesiology at California State University, Fresno. Her graduate project examined throwing mechanics in relation to UCL injury susceptibility in Major League Baseball players and received the Outstanding Master’s Degree Project in Kinesiology recognition in 2017. Samantha Judge’s charitable involvement through ALL RISE includes initiatives with her husband focused on children, education, character development, health and well-being, and leadership. She is based in New York, where her broader activities include KultureCity board service and marathon participation.
