For Berlin we wrote a guide to the negative split: run the second half a minute or two faster than the first. It’s the right plan for a flat course, and New York is not a flat course.
The TCS New York City Marathon has a bridge at the start, a bridge at halfway, the Queensboro at mile 15, two more bridges around mile 20 and a long climb up Fifth Avenue at mile 23. Its second half is slower than its first for almost everyone, including the professionals. If you try to force a negative split on this course, you’ll either start too slowly or blow up trying to speed up on the hills.
So the plan for New York is different: even effort, not even pace. Here’s what that means mile by mile, with split tables that already have the hills built in.
The shape of the course
Our course guide walks through the whole route. For pacing, it boils down to five places where the terrain changes your pace, whether you like it or not:
| Where | Mile | What happens to your pace |
|---|---|---|
| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge | 1–2 | Mile 1 is uphill, about 45 m. Expect 30–45 s slower. Mile 2 is downhill and gives it back |
| Pulaski Bridge | 13 | A short, gentle climb at halfway. Costs a few seconds |
| Queensboro Bridge | 15–16 | A kilometre of climbing, enclosed, no crowd. 30–60 s slower, then a steep ramp down onto First Avenue |
| Willis and Madison Avenue Bridges | 20–21 | Two short climbs in a row, at the point where legs are tired. 10–20 s each |
| Fifth Avenue and Central Park | 23–25 | A mile and a half of steady climbing, then rolling hills. Mile 23 is the slowest mile of the day for most runners |
Everything else is flat or slightly downhill, including the long avenues in Brooklyn and First Avenue, which is the dangerous part.
Why “even effort” and not “even pace”
On a flat course, an even pace is an even effort. On a hilly one, holding the same pace up a bridge means running harder, and running harder at mile 15 of a marathon has a price you pay at mile 22.
The physics is simple. Running uphill costs more energy per metre, and running downhill saves less than the uphill cost, so a hill is never free. If you try to hold goal pace up the Queensboro, you’ll spend fuel and heart-rate headroom you need later. If you let the pace drop and keep the breathing the same, you reach the top a little behind schedule and almost untouched. Over the whole race, the runner who gave away 40 seconds on the Queensboro usually finishes minutes ahead of the one who didn’t.
So the rule for New York: on every climb, keep the effort and let the pace go. On every descent, let the pace come back without pushing. Everywhere else, run flat and bored.
The three mistakes, in order
New York marathons go wrong in three specific places, and they’re all on the flat.
1. Mile 2 to 8: Fourth Avenue. You’ve just come down the Verrazzano, the road is wide and slightly downhill, and the whole of Brooklyn is screaming. Your goal pace feels like a jog. This is where runners “bank” a minute or two without noticing. Check your watch at mile 3: if you’re more than 10 seconds per mile ahead of plan, slow down now. The time you bank here is paid back with interest after mile 20.
2. Mile 16 to 19: First Avenue. The Queensboro is silent, and then you turn onto First Avenue and the noise hits you like weather. Your heart rate jumps before your legs do anything. The avenue is wide, straight and slightly downhill at first, and you’ve just lost a minute on the bridge that your brain wants back. This is the single most common place to lose a New York marathon. Don’t try to recover the Queensboro time here. Run the pace you ran in Brooklyn, no faster. If you’re still fresh at mile 20, you’ll have your chance.
3. Mile 20 to 22: the Bronx and Harlem. The crowd thins, the bridges come, and this is where the first two mistakes present their bill. If you’ve paced it right, this stretch feels hard but steady. If you haven’t, it’s where you start walking. There’s no pacing fix at mile 21; the fix was at mile 5.
Where to spend what you have left
If you reach the Madison Avenue Bridge at mile 21 feeling in control, you have about 5 miles to race, and they’re not equal:
- Mile 22 (Harlem): flat. Hold your pace. Take your last gel.
- Mile 23–24 (Fifth Avenue): uphill. Effort up, pace down. This is the hardest mile for everyone around you too.
- Mile 25 (Central Park): a drop, then Cat Hill, then down again. Let the descents carry you; don’t attack Cat Hill.
- Mile 26 (Central Park South and the finish): flat along the park, then a short rise to the line. Whatever’s left goes here.
A good New York race has a second half that’s one to three minutes slower than the first. That isn’t a failed negative split. That’s the course.
Split tables: 3:30 to 5:00
These tables already include the hills: slower miles on the Verrazzano, the Queensboro and Fifth Avenue, slightly faster miles on the descents, and a flat pace everywhere else. The two halves come out almost equal in time, because the first half has the Verrazzano and the second has everything else. Times are cumulative at the 5 km timing mats; the “flat pace” is what you run on the avenues.
| Goal | Flat pace | 5 km | 10 km | 15 km | 20 km | Half |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:30 | 8:01 /mi · 4:59 /km | 25:12 | 50:03 | 1:14:51 | 1:39:34 | 1:45:01 |
| 4:00 | 9:10 /mi · 5:42 /km | 28:45 | 57:10 | 1:25:31 | 1:53:48 | 2:00:02 |
| 4:30 | 10:18 /mi · 6:24 /km | 32:18 | 1:04:17 | 1:36:12 | 2:08:02 | 2:15:02 |
| 5:00 | 11:27 /mi · 7:07 /km | 35:52 | 1:11:24 | 1:46:52 | 2:22:16 | 2:30:03 |
| Goal | 25 km | 30 km | 35 km | 40 km | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:30 | 2:04:45 | 2:29:14 | 2:54:07 | 3:19:14 | 3:30:00 |
| 4:00 | 2:22:33 | 2:50:34 | 3:19:01 | 3:47:42 | 4:00:00 |
| 4:30 | 2:40:20 | 3:11:55 | 3:43:55 | 4:16:09 | 4:30:00 |
| 5:00 | 2:58:07 | 3:33:16 | 4:08:49 | 4:44:37 | 5:00:00 |
And the miles that matter most, for a 4:00 runner: mile 1 in about 9:43, mile 15 (the Queensboro) in about 9:43, mile 17 (First Avenue, slightly downhill) in 9:03 and no faster, mile 23 (Fifth Avenue) in about 9:28. If you run those four miles like that, the rest of the race mostly takes care of itself.
One honest caveat: your watch will measure long in Manhattan. The avenues are canyons and the bridges have steel all around you, so GPS adds distance and the pace it shows on the Queensboro can be wrong by a minute. Use the mile markers and the course clocks, which are at every mile, and treat the tables above as mat times, not watch times.
Pacing New York with iRunning
The official pace teams run in every wave, with flags for finish times from 3:00 upwards. They’re a good anchor on First Avenue, when your judgement is least reliable, and they spread out on the bridges. For the rest, your own cues:
- Pace by effort, with a heart-rate target. A custom workout can have distance steps with a heart-rate target instead of a pace band, and on this course that’s the better tool. Set the whole race to the zone you ran your long runs in, usually the top of zone 2 or the bottom of zone 3. On the Queensboro you’ll hear “Heart rate too high” if you push, and nothing at all if you let the pace drop and keep the effort. On First Avenue, the same alert catches the adrenaline before it costs you.
- Or pace by distance, with wider bands on the hills. If you’d rather run by pace, build the race as distance steps with a pace band for each: a wide band for miles 1, 15 and 23–24, a narrow one for the avenues. You’ll hear “Slow down” in Brooklyn and on First Avenue, which is the alert most New York runners need.
- Hear your splits every mile. In Settings › Customise › Run screen › What to announce, set By distance to every mile and pick Avg pace, Distance and Total time. You’ll get the number without looking down on a crowded road.
- Run it from the wrist. Send the workout to Apple’s Workout app with Add to Apple Watch or run it in the iRunning Watch app, with haptics for each alert. Keep the phone for the finish-line photo.
After the race: read your splits
Your run summary shows your pace per mile and your heart rate for the whole race. Check two things. Was mile 17 faster than mile 10? If so, First Avenue got you, and it’ll be the first thing to fix next time. And how much did miles 23 and 24 drop compared with mile 22? On this course, 20–30 seconds per mile is the hill. More than a minute is the pacing.
Then take two easy weeks. You’ve earned them twice over: once for the distance, and once for the bridges.
Training advice, not medical advice. The split tables are planning guides built on the course profile; your own race will differ.