The TCS New York City Marathon is the biggest marathon in the world, with more than 50,000 finishers, and it is not a fast one. There’s no world record to chase here. The course crosses five bridges, climbs about 50 m in the last 10 km, and turns more often than any other Major. What it has instead is the crowd: about two million people along the route, and a stretch on First Avenue that runners describe as a wall of sound.
The race is on Sunday, 1 November 2026. It’s the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, which first left Central Park in 1976, and this year the route changes for the first time since 2011, in the Bronx. Here’s what the course looks like, where you’ll get water, and how to run a marathon that is really two different races: a flat first half and a hilly second one.
Race weekend at a glance
| What | When and where |
|---|---|
| Expo and bib pick-up | Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 11th Avenue at 35th Street. Thu 29 Oct 10:00–20:00, Fri 30 Oct 10:00–20:00, Sat 31 Oct 09:00–17:00. You pick a time slot in your NYRR account, and you must collect your own bib |
| Start | Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island. Professional wheelchair division from 08:00, professional women 08:35, professional men 09:05, then five waves from about 09:10 to 11:30 |
| Finish | Central Park, on West Drive near 67th Street, just past Tavern on the Green |
| Time limit | You have until the course closes on a rolling basis, at about a 16-minute-per-mile pace counted from the last wave. In practice that’s 8 h 30 min for the final wave |
| Course | 26.2 miles (42.195 km), one way, through Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx |
Your wave and start colour (blue, orange or green) are on your bib. The three colours run slightly different routes for the first few miles, on different levels and sides of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and on different avenues in Brooklyn, and merge around mile 8. The wave times above are from the 2025 schedule and the runner’s guide confirms them a week before the race.
Collect your bib on Thursday or Friday if you can. The Javits is enormous and Saturday is the busiest day.
The course in one line
New York measures itself in miles, so this guide does too. One mile is 1.6 km; the half is at mile 13.1, and mile 20 is km 32.
Mile 1–2: the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The race starts on the bridge itself, with a cannon and Sinatra, and the first mile is almost all uphill: about 45 m of climbing to the top of the span. Then mile 2 gives it all back on the way down into Brooklyn. Two things to know. The wind up there can be strong and cold; keep a throwaway layer on until Brooklyn. And the first mile will be 30–45 seconds slower than your goal pace, which is correct. Don’t try to make it up on the downhill.
Mile 3–8: Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn. Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Park Slope. A long, wide, nearly flat avenue with crowds on both sides from the first block. This is the easiest running of the day and the most dangerous: everyone around you is fresh, the road is slightly downhill, and the noise pulls you along. If your pace here is quicker than planned, slow down now, not at mile 18. The three start colours merge around mile 8 at Lafayette Avenue, which is one of the loudest spots in Brooklyn, with bands on the corners.
Mile 9–13: Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, Greenpoint. Bedford Avenue through Williamsburg is noticeably quieter: the Hasidic neighbourhood doesn’t turn out to cheer, and for a couple of miles you’ll hear your own feet. Use it. Check your breathing, take a gel, settle. Then Greenpoint, the Pulaski Bridge at mile 13 and the halfway mark on the bridge itself. The Pulaski is short and gentle, but it’s the first climb since the Verrazzano, and it’s a reminder that the second half is the hilly one.
Mile 14–15: Long Island City and the Queensboro Bridge. Two quick miles through Queens, then the course turns onto the lower deck of the Queensboro Bridge at about mile 15. This is the mile every New York veteran warns you about. It’s a kilometre of steady climbing, enclosed, with no spectators allowed on the bridge, and it comes at exactly the point where a marathon starts to feel long. Run it by effort, not pace. Expect to lose 30–60 seconds on this mile and don’t chase them.
Mile 16–19: First Avenue. You come off the bridge down a tight ramp and turn onto First Avenue, and the noise hits you physically. Crowds stand ten deep for three miles, and this is where more New York marathons are lost than anywhere else. The avenue is wide, slightly downhill at first, and your body is flooded with adrenaline after the silence of the bridge. Hold your pace. Nearly everyone who runs mile 17 at their 10K pace is walking by mile 22. The Poland Spring hydration zone at mile 17, with sponges and music, and the gel station at mile 18 are both here.
Mile 20–21: the Bronx. The Willis Avenue Bridge at mile 20 takes you into the Bronx, a short climb and descent on a metal-grate surface that’s covered with carpet. The Bronx section is only about a mile, and this year it’s new: after community requests, NYRR straightened the loop so that runners go up Alexander Avenue and East 141st Street instead of round the block at East 138th, which cuts the turns here from seven to five. The crowd is thinner but very loud. The Madison Avenue Bridge brings you back to Manhattan just after mile 21.
Mile 22–24: Harlem and Fifth Avenue. Through Harlem, past Marcus Garvey Park, and then the course turns onto Fifth Avenue for the hardest mile on the route. From about 110th Street down to 90th, Fifth Avenue climbs for a mile and a half, about 25 m in total, which doesn’t sound like much until you’re at mile 23. The crowds are big again, and the museums on your left tell you how far you have to go.
Mile 24–26.2: Central Park. You enter the park at Engineers’ Gate at 90th Street and the road starts rolling. There’s a drop first, then Cat Hill at about mile 25, a short but mean climb past the bronze cat, then down to the south end of the park. You leave the park at 59th Street, run west along Central Park South with grandstands on both sides, turn at Columbus Circle, re-enter the park and climb a small rise to the finish near 67th Street. Save something for it. It’s only a couple of hundred metres, but it’s uphill.
Fluid and fuel stations
New York’s support is dense and simple:
| What’s handed out | Where |
|---|---|
| Water and Gatorade Endurance | Every mile from mile 3 to mile 25, tables on both sides of the road |
| Energy gels | Miles 12 and 18 |
| Hydration zone | Mile 17: water, sponges, music |
| Bananas and snacks | Miles 21 and 23 |
There’s a lot more water here than in Berlin, and the stations are long, so there’s no need to fight for the first table. The two gel stations are a long way apart: if you take a gel every 25–30 minutes, you’ll need to carry most of your own. Train with the brand on the course or bring yours, and don’t try the race-day gel for the first time at mile 12.
Check the official 2026 course guide for the exact products; the pattern has been stable for years, but the brands change.
How hilly is New York?
Moderately, and in the wrong places. The total climbing is around 100 m over the whole race, with a net drop of about 25 m, which looks easy on paper. The problem is where the climbs are:
- Mile 1: the Verrazzano, about 45 m up. You’re fresh; it costs time but nothing else.
- Mile 15: the Queensboro, about 30 m up over a kilometre, after 24 km of running.
- Miles 23–24: Fifth Avenue, about 25 m up, after 37 km.
- Mile 25 and the finish: Cat Hill and the final rise in the park.
The first half is flat except for the bridge at the start. The second half has a climb every five miles. So the course rewards a first half that feels too easy, and punishes a first half that feels “about right”.
The practical version: run the first half 1–2% slower than your goal pace, expect to give back time on the Queensboro and Fifth Avenue, and plan to run even effort, not even splits. We’ll go through the pacing in detail, with numbers, in a separate guide to pacing New York.
The weather
Early November in New York is usually 7–14 °C, which is good marathon weather, but it varies more than Berlin’s late September. Recent editions have had everything from cold wind to a humid 20 °C. Two things specific to this course:
- The start is cold. You’ll be in the start village at Fort Wadsworth for an hour or two before your wave, outside, with wind off the water. Bring old clothes to throw away and a bin bag or poncho; the bridge is exposed.
- The afternoon can be warm. Wave 5 starts at 11:30 and finishes in mid-afternoon sun. If you’re in a later wave, treat the forecast high as your race temperature.
Check the forecast on Thursday and decide then: in the cold, dress for the second half, not the start; above 18 °C, add five to ten seconds per kilometre and drink at every station.
Pacing New York with iRunning
The official pacers run in every wave with flags for finish times from 3:00 upwards, and they’re a good anchor on First Avenue when your own judgement is unreliable. Your own cues help on the bridges, where the pace groups stretch out.
- Hear your pace every mile. In Settings › Customise › Run screen › What to announce, set By distance to every 1 mile (or 1 km) and pick Avg pace, Distance and Total time. A calm voice every mile is easier to follow than a watch face on a crowded avenue.
- Build the race as a workout with an effort band, not a pace band. A custom workout can have distance steps with a heart-rate target, which is the better tool on a hilly course: you’ll hear “Heart rate too high” on the Queensboro if you push, and nothing at all if you let the pace drop and the effort stay. Our heart-rate zones guide explains which zone a marathon lives in.
- Run phone-free. Send the workout to Apple’s Workout app with Add to Apple Watch, or run it in the iRunning Watch app. Both give you haptic alerts.
- Don’t trust GPS in Manhattan. The avenues are canyons and the bridges have steel above and around you. Your watch will measure long, probably 42.5 km or more, and the pace it shows on the Queensboro can be nonsense. Pace by the mile markers and the clocks, which are at every mile.
If you’re not running
New York is the best marathon in the world to watch. The TCS NYC Marathon app tracks runners live, and the course passes close to subway lines for most of its length, so you can see your runner in Brooklyn, on First Avenue and in Central Park with some planning. Good spots: Fourth Avenue in Park Slope (miles 6–8), Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg (mile 11, quieter, easy to spot your runner), First Avenue in the 70s and 80s (miles 17–18, loud, hard to spot anyone), Fifth Avenue along the park (mile 23, where they need you), and Central Park South (mile 26). We’ll publish a full spectator guide with start times and tracking on the Thursday before the race.
After Sunday
Whatever the clock says, the week after is for walking. Our first two weeks after a marathon covers it, and the Berlin finish-sharing guide works just as well for a Central Park finish.
Good luck in New York. See you at Columbus Circle.
Race details are from New York Road Runners’ announcements and the 2025 runner’s guide as of 14 October 2026; the 2026 runner’s guide is published in the last week of October. Check it for the final schedule.