TCS New York City Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

From the start villages at Fort Wadsworth the course goes straight onto the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge: 33 metres of climbing in one piece at 3.4 percent between kilometre 0.6 and 1.6, into the wind above the Narrows and - because no spectators are allowed on the bridge - in a silence you get nowhere else here. Two kilometres of descent drop you into Bay Ridge, and then comes the longest straight of the race, roughly 13 kilometres of Fourth Avenue. From kilometre 12.9 Lafayette Avenue and Bedford Avenue run through Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and halfway falls on top of the Pulaski Bridge into Queens.

The second half opens with a zigzag through Long Island City and then with the section that decides the race: 30 metres at 3.4 percent from kilometre 24.7 to 25.6 on the covered lower deck of the Queensboro Bridge, no crowd, your own footfall for company. Coming off it into Manhattan the switch flips - First Avenue runs 5.4 kilometres dead straight north and is the loudest stretch of the marathon. At kilometre 32.2 the Willis Avenue Bridge takes you into the Bronx, 1.6 kilometres later the Madison Avenue Bridge brings you back into Harlem, and there Fifth Avenue rises 20 metres between kilometre 37.8 and 38.9.

Only at East 90th Street does Central Park open up: a rolling East Drive, out onto Central Park South, around Columbus Circle and back in on the West Drive to the finish at Tavern on the Green. 2026 is the 50th running of the five-borough course, first taken through the whole city in 1976 for the Bicentennial; in 2025 some 59,200 runners finished, more than at any other marathon in the world, in front of over two million spectators.

Pacing Strategy

The first kilometre is the only one you should deliberately run slower than it feels: the Verrazzano climb starts from a standstill, in a crowd and in the wind. The two kilometres of descent after it are free - but only if you do not convert them into a buffer. On Fourth Avenue your goal pace should already be settled rather than still being searched for; 13 dead straight kilometres with a dense crowd are the easiest place in the race to give away ten seconds per kilometre.

The race is decided between kilometre 24.7 and 31. At 3.4 percent the Queensboro Bridge is not steep, but it arrives exactly when the legs first speak up, and it is sensory-flat: no spectators, a covered roadway, nothing to measure yourself against. Run it on breathing, not on the watch. The real trap comes straight after - First Avenue is loud, wide and slightly downhill, and the bill for it arrives on Fifth Avenue from kilometre 37.8.

Price in the conditions. Early November at Fort Wadsworth is cold and windy, depending on your wave hours pass between getting up and starting, and the late waves run the closing kilometres in the early afternoon. On both big bridges you are fully exposed. In the street canyons of First and Fifth Avenue GPS drifts noticeably: pace off the mile and kilometre markers, not off auto-lap.

Training plan for TCS New York City Marathon: 12-week build

For a typical age-group runner this marathon takes somewhere between 3:15 and 5:15; the recent average finish was 4:32. The demand is fundamentally aerobic and steady - 58 percent of the course is flat and the climbs are short and moderate. That does not make it a course that runs itself: it asks for one pace across long, entirely level stretches and then inserts five bridge ramps at irregular intervals, each of which breaks the rhythm.

The bridges and Fifth Avenue decide the day: a controlled climb on cold legs on the Verrazzano, 30 metres just short of 25 kilometres on the Queensboro, 20 metres past 37 kilometres in Harlem. So train climbs under fatigue - moderate three- to five-minute rises at the end of long runs, at marathon effort rather than as hill sprints. Downhill running matters just as much: the Verrazzano descent gives back 45 metres in two kilometres, and it does so while your legs are still fresh.

Conditions are a training topic in their own right. Early November in New York means a long cold wait at Fort Wadsworth, a start as late as 11:30, and cool, often windy air after that. Practise warming up after a long spell of sitting, plan for throwaway clothing, and rehearse your fuelling against what is actually on course: water and Gatorade Endurance from mile 3, Maurten gels at miles 12 and 18.

That leaves long runs of 30 to 35 kilometres on asphalt with the last 8 to 10 at marathon pace, pace durability on flat ground for the 13 kilometres of Fourth Avenue and the 5.4 kilometres of First Avenue, and quad strength for the bridge descents. You do not need hilly terrain to prepare for this one - you do need evenness and controlled downhill running.