The New York City Marathon is perennially the largest marathon in the world, with more than 55,000 runners expected for the 2025 race. Two things define the day on its course: the bridges are hills, and they are silent, while the loudest miles are the most dangerous. The route covers 42.2km through all five boroughs, climbing roughly 247m and descending 251m from start to finish, which is why it is not known for super-fast times. This guide breaks down the New York marathon course the way the race unfolds: the route and its numbers, the five bridges in order, and the pacing calls for the stretches where patience pays.
The course at a glance
The start is at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, and the race begins on the upper level of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Runners reach it by the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan, then shuttle buses to the start area. The first wave, the professional wheelchair division, goes at 8 a.m., and the rest of the field starts in five waves sorted by expected finish time.
From Staten Island the course crosses into Brooklyn, over the Pulaski Bridge into Queens, and across the Queensboro into the East Side of Manhattan. From there it runs up over the Madison Avenue Bridge into the Bronx, back over the Willis Avenue Bridge to Manhattan, and finishes inside Central Park near West 67th Street. The route has been stable for decades: the race began in 1970 as a loop of Central Park and expanded to all five boroughs in 1976, and the course typically stays the same from year to year. It is organised by the nonprofit New York Road Runners, and around two million spectators are expected to line the course.
The numbers behind the reputation: 247m of gain and 251m of loss, against 74m of gain on the flatter Chicago course. One elevation-based analysis of the course estimates the profile costs about 0.8% on pace, turning a 3:30:58 flat-course effort into roughly 3:32:39 here. The men's course record is the 2:04:58 Tamirat Tola ran in 2023, and the women's record of 2:22:31 has stood since Margaret Okayo's run in 2003. If you're weighing up the world majors, our Sydney Marathon hill-by-hill pacing guide does for Sydney what this guide does for New York.
The five bridges, in order
Verrazzano-Narrows. The start. The crossing into Brooklyn runs two miles, the first mile climbing the bridge and the second dropping down the far side.
Pulaski. Brooklyn into Queens, and the 13.1-mile halfway mark. It rises about 15m from its base at roughly a 3.5% grade, and the top is the first open, sweeping view of the skyline since the start. The bridge is named for a Polish hero of the American Revolution.
Queensboro. Queens into the East Side of Manhattan, just past halfway. The climb, including the approach leading into it, gains about 37m over just short of a mile. No spectators are allowed on it, and runners cross on a race carpet laid over the bridge's real surface, which is spiky.
Madison Avenue. Manhattan up into the Bronx.
Willis Avenue. The Bronx back down to the west side of Manhattan. The Bronx stretch holding these last two bridges is short and twisty, with the crossings close together.
All five bridges close to traffic on race day. The pacing plans in this guide cover the Verrazzano and the Queensboro; the other three bridges are profiled in the walkthrough above.
Miles 1 to 2: the Verrazzano sets your day
Mile 1 is the longest climb of the day, straight up the bridge. Do not chase goal pace here: let it run 20 to 40 seconds slow. The first 1.3km to the high point of the bridge is about staying relaxed, not pushing, and with runners slowing for bridge selfies on either side, hold the middle of the road. You get the time back on the mile 2 downhill without trying, and that is the trap: control the descent, shorten your stride, and don't pound your quads, because you need them at mile 23. Resist the urge to sprint off the bridge to make up what the climb cost; you have 24-plus miles to get back on track. Drop any throwaway clothing at the foot of the bridge, because it is much less cold and windy once you're off it.
Miles 3 to 13: Brooklyn, where patience banks the second half
Coming off the bridge into Brooklyn, the crowds are enormous and the adrenaline-fuelled surge is exactly the energy the course wants you to waste. Run miles 3 to 8 at goal pace or 5 seconds slower, no faster, even when it feels easy, and expect the runners around you to be going 10 to 15 seconds per mile too fast: let them go. The waves start on slightly different routes through Bay Ridge and all merge by mile 8, about 13km in. Take fuel every 25 to 30 minutes, on schedule rather than on feel. The section's one real hill is Lafayette Avenue, a half-mile climb of about 15m between miles 8 and 8.5. If you reach Brooklyn more than a minute behind goal pace, hold goal pace the rest of the way and adjust the finish time instead; if you're only slightly down, adjusting by 2.5 seconds per mile from here recovers a minute by the finish.
The Pulaski Bridge marks halfway at 21.1km, and it is the right place for an honest check: by here you should feel like you've spent about 40 percent of your effort, not half.
Miles 14 to 19: the Queensboro and First Avenue
Around mile 15, about 24km in, you turn onto the Queensboro Bridge, for many runners the hardest mile of the race: a long, steady climb with no spectators and no music. The on-ramp comes right after the halfway timing mat and is steeper than people expect, so ease through it rather than spending energy there. The climb, approach included, gains about 37m over just short of a mile. Runners who under-fuelled in Brooklyn pay for it here, so take fuel and water at mile 14, before the climb. Run effort, not pace: let the pace drift 15 to 25 seconds slow and hold the effort steady. Cross on the race carpet, because the bridge's real surface is spiky. And when the slope finally changes, resist the urge to fly down the far side.
The silence is the point. No spectators are allowed on any of the bridges, so the hardest mental moments of this race happen in silence. What waits on the other side is the loudest mile of your life: First Avenue runs about 5.6km, slightly downhill to flat, packed with enormous crowds. Enjoy it, but don't spend it, because adrenaline on the loud miles has ended more personal-best attempts than any hill on the course.
Miles 20 to 26.2: the Bronx, Fifth Avenue and Central Park
The Bronx is short and twisty, with the two bridges close together and the crowd support thinning, though the church choirs singing in the streets help. Then comes Fifth Avenue, miles 22 to 24, a steady, gradual incline under a huge crowd. The worst of it is the hill that starts about 400m before mile 23, roughly 37km in, and rises about 24m, cresting just past 23.5: not steep, but at this stage of the race it is generally considered the toughest hill on the course.
The final 10K is going to hurt. Inside Central Park, around mile 24, a couple of rolling hills demand attention to your stride. At mile 25 you exit the park at 59th Street near Columbus Circle, and you still have a full mile to go from there: one last hill, then the turn back into the park and the finish near West 67th Street. Kick it home with everything you have left.
Race morning: an early start and a long day in the light
Plan the morning early, because getting to Fort Wadsworth takes a while: runners are urged to take the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall Terminal, with shuttle buses from the ferry to the start area. The wheelchair division opens the day at 8 a.m., and with the rest of the field running in five waves, most runners start later in the morning and spend hours getting to Central Park. For a sense of race-day conditions, the 2024 forecast was partly cloudy and dry, with lows around 10°C and highs in the mid-teens.
However the sky behaves, you'll be out in it for hours, and the light at the start is not the light at midday. That is the job our photochromic lens is built for: it adapts to the light, made for dawn, dusk and changing skies. It runs near-clear in low light and darkens as the sun climbs, one lens for the whole run. Whichever lens you run in, give it a hard, sweaty session before you fly it to New York.
How Re. helps with race-morning light, and what comes with every pair
We build running sunglasses designed for running rather than adapted for it. For a New York start, where the morning begins at 8 a.m. and the day runs long, the lens we make for changing light is our photochromic family, built for dawn, dusk and changing skies. Adaptor, the standard photochromic, starts near-clear at dawn and darkens through midday, so there is no lens swapping, for $180. Infinity is the upgrade at $220, adding polarisation, permanent anti-fog and night contrast that cuts headlight glare on top of the photochromic base. Every Re. lens blocks 100% of UVA and UVB, and grip-tip temple arms keep every frame locked in from km 1 to the finish; Re.glide, Re.flex and Re.silience add adjustable nose pieces, and frame weights run from 20g to 27g across the four performance frames. Every pair comes with the 30-day First-Run Promise, so you can run in them in real morning light and send them back within 30 days even worn, as long as they're undamaged, plus a 1-year warranty on manufacturing defects and free shipping over $150.
If you'd rather match the lens to the light you run in before race day, our lens guide walks through the whole range.
Tim Golubev
Founder, Re. (Re Your Run)
Tim built Re. after years of running in sunglasses that bounced, fogged, and ended up on his forehead. After discovering the UV damage that builds up without eye protection (even on cloudy days) and hearing the same frustrations from hundreds of other runners, he decided it was a problem worth fixing properly. With a background in Product across multiple industries, he approached it like any product problem: figure out what's broken, then build something that actually fixes it. He runs daily, co-founded Rose Bay Run Club, and Re. is his attempt to make one less thing that gets in the way of a good run.
