NeW YoRK CiTY MaRaThoNiT's GoiNG To Be FiNe.
Fifty years ago, 55 people finished a marathon in Central Park and nobody got a medal. Last year, 59,226 people crossed five bridges to finish in the same park. This year there's one more. It's you.
ThE CouRSe, HoNeSTLy
Nobody tells you the marathon is mostly feelings. Five boroughs, five bridges, a little over 800 feet of up, and here is how each bit of it feels, in roughly the right order.
The night before, you'll lay your kit out on the floor like a crime scene. You'll check the alarm three times. You won't sleep much. Everyone says the night before the night before is the one that counts, and for once everyone is right. Then it's 5am, and a ferry, and a bus, and a very long wait on Staten Island with 55,000 new friends.
Staten Island
A long, chilly wait in the start village. Bring an old sweatshirt you're happy to say goodbye to. You'll leave it behind and it goes to a good home.
Feelingnervous, needs the port-a-potty again
The Verrazzano
The quietest mile in New York. Just footsteps, wind, and thousands of people saying "wow" at the same time.
Feelingtiny, in a good way
Brooklyn
Loud, long and lovely. Everyone goes out too fast here. You will too, a bit. That's fine. Smile, then slow down.
Feelingfamous
The Queensboro
No crowds, all uphill, a little lonely. Then you come off the bridge onto First Avenue and the noise hits you like a warm bath.
Feelingquiet, then very much not
The Bronx
Short, twisty and a bit real. Good news: it has two fewer turns this year. Somebody will be playing music. Let it carry you. Mile 21, at East 135th and Fifth, is Percy Sutton Way, after one of the five people who dreamed up this route in 1976. Say thanks as you pass.
Feelinghonest
Fifth Avenue
A long, gentle drag uphill that nobody warns you about. We're warning you. Shorter steps, look up, think of soup.
Feelingnegotiating with yourself
The finish
You'll cry, or laugh, or both. Someone will wrap you in foil like a baked potato. It's the best feeling in the world and it's yours.
Feelingeverything
ThiNGs ThaT aRe CoMPLeTeLy NoRMaL
- Needing the port-a-potty twice in the start village
- Forgetting your pace plan by mile 2
- Wanting to quit around mile 18
- Crying at a stranger's sign
- High-fiving every child in Brooklyn
- Walking a bit. Lots of people do
- Not recognising your own name being shouted
- Signing up for next year by Tuesday
ThE WeeKeND, PaCeD
There is a lot going on. You don't have to do all of it. Pick one thing a day. The rest of the time: keep your feet up, rest, eat, drink water.
Every event, with times and links, on the amateur calendar →
Rec Room Marathon Boutique with Pruzan and Raide Research, 301 Grand St, 10am to 7pm all week.
Chasing Cloud 9 with On, 6:30pm.
New Balance runs the official expo all week. Go early, then go home.
HOKA Fly Station NYC opens, with World's Fair Run Crew shakeouts through Sunday.
District Vision x New Balance pop-up and meditation shakeout, 9 to 11am.
Stamford Run Club shakeout, with amateur. Winfield Street Coffee, 96 Broad St, Stamford. Arrive at 9, run at 9:30, back by 10. Free. Register
Runners, you know what to do. Everyone else, come and watch with us.
Amateur watch party. Run from the shop at 8:30, then coffee, pastries and the pro finishes on the screen. Register. Monday: recovery, coffee, war stories.
WhaT To WeaR (aND WhaT NoT To TRy)
The one rule everybody agrees on: nothing new on race day. Not the shoes, not the gels, not the shorts your friend swears by.
iN ThE BaG, ThE NiGhT BeFoRe
- The shoes you've already done a long run in
- Socks you trust (this is personal)
- Gels you've tested, plus one spare
- An old sweatshirt and trash bag for the start village, both disposable
- Something warm and dry for after
- Your name on your top, for the Brooklyn effect
ThiNGs We'D LeaVe aT HoMe
- Brand new shoes, however nice they look
- A pace plan you've never run
- Anything that hasn't been washed at least once
- The idea that walking is failing
Not sure about any of it? Come in, or book a visit. We'll talk you down.
ThRee DaYS, ThRee PaiRS
Fifty years on, there's a shoe for every part of the weekend. The miles that got you here, the 26.2 on Sunday, and the shuffle to coffee on Monday. These are the three we'd point you to, in that order.
Race dayHOKA Cielo X1 3.0
Carbon plate, a lot of foam, built for Sunday. Only if you've already done a long run in them.
See the shoe
TrainingASICS Novablast 6
The everyday shoe. Soft, bouncy, forgiving. Most of the miles that got you here happen in something like this.
See the shoe
RecoveryNorda 008
A slide for Monday. Your feet will thank you, loudly, from the sofa.
See the slideMeaNWhiLe, aT ThE FRoNT
The fastest people will finish before most of us reach Queens. Wave if you see them on TV later.
Tamirat Tola, 2023.
Hellen Obiri, 2025, nearly three minutes off the old one.
Marcel Hug, 2022. He's won here seven times.
Catherine Debrunner, 2023.
The most reassuring stat in this story. In 2023, only 1 of the top 25 men ran the second half faster than the first. That was the winner. Everyone else, the best in the world in the best shoes ever made, slowed down too. The bridges get everyone. So start easy, slow down a bit, and know you're in very good company.
Also: in 2025 the men's race was won by less than a second, Benson Kipruto beating Alexander Mutiso in a photo finish. Every second counts at the front. For the rest of us, every second is just part of the day out.
ThiNGs PeoPLe KeeP
The medal goes on a hook. The rest goes in a drawer, a frame or a box under the bed, forever.
FiFTY YeaRS oF MeDaLS
One a year, from the first ones in the 70s to last year's. In 1970 there wasn't one at all: the prizes were ten cheap wristwatches and some beer mugs. This year it's a gold sunburst with all five bridges on it.
Pinned, crumpled, sweated through, kept. Bonus points for getting your finish time stamped on a poster on Sunday.
On Monday people queue for the New York Times, which prints the name of every finisher under the cutoff. Last year it was 4:39:03.
HoW iT STaRTeD
And now the history, in reverse, from this year all the way back to a dollar and a park.
The 50th five-borough race
November 1. The biggest marathon in the world turns 50, with its first course change in 15 years.
59,226 finishers
A world record for the most people ever to finish a marathon. Also a photo finish at the front.
One million
The race welcomes its one-millionth finisher.
Carrying the city
Less than two months after September 11, the race goes ahead and helps a grieving city put one foot in front of the other.
Fred's lap
Co-founder Fred Lebow, in remission from brain cancer, runs his own race in 5:32:34. Grete Waitz runs beside him the whole way.
Grete arrives, and 10,000 runners
Grete Waitz wins her first ever marathon here, in a world record. She goes on to win New York nine times. For the first time, over 10,000 runners are on the streets of New York.
Five boroughs
For the Bicentennial, five people take the race out of the park and across the whole city. 2,090 start. Dick Traum becomes the first person to finish a marathon on a prosthetic leg.
Six women sit down
October 1, 1972. The AAU rules that women must start ten minutes before the men. When the women's gun goes, the six of them, led by that year's Boston winner Nina Kuscsik, sit down on the line instead and hold up signs: "Hey AAU, this is 1972. Wake up." Ten minutes later the men's gun goes, and they run. It cost them a ten-minute penalty and won women the right to run the same race as men. We love Lynn Blackstone, Jane Muhrcke, Liz Franceschini, Pat Barrett, Cathy Miller and Nina Kuscsik.
A dollar and a park
September 13. Entry costs $1. 127 men start, running four loops of Central Park. 55 finish. The winner, firefighter Gary Muhrcke in bib #2, had worked the night shift. There were no medals. He got a recycled trophy and poured a cup of water over his head.
Stay Amateur.
