New York Marathon 2027

The TCS New York City Marathon, or simply the New York Marathon 🇺🇸, is an appointment to mark in your calendar of races in the United States 📅. Every first Sunday of November, the five boroughs of the world's most famous city become one of the biggest theaters of popular sport on the planet 🗺️. And when we say "big", we mean it: with more than 50,000 finishers every year, the New York Marathon is quite simply the most marathon run in the world 🌎. Not the fastest, not the flattest, not the easiest, but the one that brings people together, unites, electrifies, and leaves a lifelong mark on those lucky enough to take part.

To understand what this race represents, we need to go back a little. It all began in 1970 amid near-total indifference: 127 runners set off to complete several laps in Central Park, in front of a handful of spectators. The winner, Gary Muhrcke, completed the 42.195 km in 2:31:38 ⏱️. A feat for the time, in total anonymity 🧍. Back then, the New York marathon was a small local race, far from the gigantic image we know today. It was in 1976, under the impetus of race director Fred Lebow and runner George Spitz, that everything changed: the course left the paths of Central Park to cross the city's five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. This turn would prove foundational. The marathon exploded, registrations along with it, and the race became legend 📖.

Fred Lebow, by the way, deserves a closer look. This Romanian immigrant, founder of the New York Road Runners and the true soul of the race, gave everything to make the Marathon of New York what it has become. He ran the event himself in 1992, at 60, suffering from brain cancer, accompanied by the great Grete Waitz (nine-time winner in New York), who slowed her pace so as not to leave him. He crossed the line in 5:32. Fred passed away two years later, in 1994. His statue now stands at the entrance of Central Park, at the finish 🗿.

The current course is a true urban epic that begins in Staten Island, on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge 🌉, one of the largest suspension bridges in the world, and only ends in Central Park. Runners then cross Brooklyn (from roughly km 3 to km 21, the most festive part of the race 🎉), head up to Queens, cross the Queensboro Bridge in silence: a grueling and almost mystical climb, with no spectators on the bridge itself, before dropping into Manhattan at kilometer 26 🏙️. This moment is known as one of the most intense in world marathoning: the crowd massed on First Avenue roars as the runners arrive as if each of them were winning the race. Many say this is where their legs start moving again on their own, carried by the wall of sound 📣. You then pass into the Bronx for a short but symbolic detour, on a route now simplified around Mott Haven (five turns instead of seven), before coming back into Manhattan, heading down Fifth Avenue and plunging into the paths of Central Park for the finale 🌳. The finish, still in the park, is one of the most iconic finishes in the running world 🏁.

The total elevation gain is around 250 m, which makes it a technically demanding course for an urban marathon. The bridges: Verrazzano, Pulaski, Queensboro, Willis Avenue, Madison Avenue: are the real difficulties of the route. So many climbs that break your rhythm just when your legs are already starting to negotiate with your brain 🧠. November weather in New York can also play spoilsport: from sunny mildness to biting cold and gusting winds, anything is possible 🌬️. The 2012 (Hurricane Sandy, a few days before the start) and 2020 (Covid-19 pandemic) editions were even canceled, an extremely rare occurrence.

The TCS New York City Marathon is part of the very exclusive club of the World Marathon Majors 🏅, alongside Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, London and Sydney. These seven races, soon eight with Cape Town, make up the Holy Grail for road runners, and New York is its most festive, most outsized, most New York edition, that is: excessive in the best sense of the word 😁. The elite winners run for substantial prize money, but what makes New York unique is that the 50,000 participants of every level experience exactly the same race, on the same asphalt, under the same cheers. There is no VIP pen for legs 🫣.

On the records front, Ethiopian Tamirat Tola holds the men's course record with 2:04:58, set in 2023. Among the women, Kenyan Hellen Obiri holds the record with 2:19:51, set in 2025. Marks that prove the New York course is not a speed track and that the metropolis keeps its secrets well guarded 💎.

To take part, you must first understand one fundamental thing: spots are scarce and the road to getting one can take years ⏳. The New York Marathon works with a drawing system, the lottery, which opens every year in the heart of winter 🎟️. Hundreds of thousands of applications are submitted for a limited number of spots intended for general public runners. The chances of being selected on the first try are relatively low. The system does reward loyalty, however: each year you are not drawn, you accumulate an extra chance for the following edition. In other words, the longer you wait, the more your odds increase 📈.

If patience is not your cardinal virtue, there are other routes. The New York Road Runners (NYRR), the organization that runs the race, offers a program for runners who take part in 9 official NYRR races in the year and complete a day of volunteering: qualification is then guaranteed for the following edition 🏃. A deal that requires you to invest in the local ecosystem, but has the merit of being fair ⚖️. It is also possible to go through an official travel operator ✈️, which has a bib allocation: in exchange for a package including accommodation and organization, of course 💁. The race's partner charities also offer bibs in exchange for a minimum fundraising commitment. And finally, runners who have achieved sufficiently fast qualifying times can access a quota of spots reserved for elites... but the standards are high.

Runners are grouped into three distinct villages according to their bib colors, and the wait can last several hours before the start 🫡. It is an experience in itself: thousands of people sitting on golden space blankets, chatting in fifteen languages, nibbling on cereal bars and watching the sun rise over New York bay ☀️. The cannon fires, and a few seconds later, "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra floods the loudspeakers 🔊. No runner ever forgets that moment.

Throughout the race, the atmosphere is simply incredible 🎊. Residents of the five boroughs turn out en masse, some in costume, others with handwritten signs bearing runners' names (remember to put your first name on your t-shirt, really: you'll understand why at kilometer 30 when you need it). In Brooklyn, the speakers blast hip-hop and gospel 🎼, gospel groups sing on church steps, and family barbecues are lit from the morning 🎷. It's bewildering, joyful, improbable. You'll long remember the wall of crowd as you enter Manhattan just after the Queensboro 🌁 Bridge. You'll remember the descent of Fifth Avenue, the biting cold, the last kilometers where every turn seems to be the last and never quite is... 😩

If you cross the finish line of the New York Marathon 🏆, don't forget to buy the New York Times 🗞️ the next morning. You'll have the pride of seeing your name and finish time printed in black and white in the special insert devoted to the race. In the city that never sleeps, you will have left a mark. A superb memory ❤️.