New York City Marathon

Course & Elevation

The TCS New York City Marathon is New York Road Runners' annual marathon through all five boroughs of New York City, held on the first Sunday of November. The point-to-point course starts at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, crosses the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn, then continues through Queens and up Manhattan's East Side to the Bronx before returning to Manhattan and finishing in Central Park near West 67th Street. Along the way runners cross five bridges, among them the Queensboro, Willis Avenue and Madison Avenue bridges. Start times are staggered in waves through the morning, and the finish line stays open until the evening. The first New York City Marathon was held in Central Park on 13 September 1970, with 127 entrants and 55 finishers. The route first ran through the five boroughs on 24 October 1976, as part of the US bicentennial. In 2025 the race recorded 59,226 finishers, which NYRR reported as the largest marathon ever at the time; London passed that figure in April 2026. The men's course record is 2:04:58, set by Tamirat Tola in 2023, and the women's is 2:19:51, set by Hellen Obiri in 2025. Entry is mainly through an NYRR drawing, alongside guaranteed routes such as time qualifiers and the 9+1 programme for NYRR members. In 2026 the course changed for the first time in 15 years, with a small reroute in the Bronx after the Willis Avenue Bridge.