TCS New York City Marathon: Dates, Tickets & Venue (New York)

Fifty years ago this race was a few laps of Central Park with a couple hundred runners. In 2026 it becomes the biggest version of itself yet: a 50th-anniversary edition of the TCS New York City Marathon, run on November 1, 2026, through all five boroughs of New York City in a single unbroken line from Staten Island to Central Park.

What the course actually does

The race starts on Staten Island, at the foot of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, with waves of runners sent off in stages through the morning. From there the route heads into Brooklyn along Fourth Avenue, the longest and loudest stretch of the whole day, before crossing into Queens around the halfway point.

The Queensboro Bridge carries runners into Manhattan in near silence, since the bridge is enclosed and the roar of First Avenue only hits once they’re off it. The course then dips briefly into the Bronx before returning to Manhattan for the long final push down Fifth Avenue and into Central Park, where it finishes near Tavern on the Green.

• Staten Island (start) → Brooklyn → Queens → Bronx → Manhattan (finish)
• Course distance: the standard marathon 26.2 miles / 42.2 km
• Finish: Central Park, West Drive near 67th Street

Getting an entry number

Most international runners get into the field one of three ways: the general lottery, a guaranteed-entry pathway (charity partner fundraising, the nine-plus-races-and-a-volunteer-year New York Road Runners program, or qualifying times), or a place through an official tour operator package that bundles entry with travel. There is no walk-up registration on race weekend.

• Lottery: open application window, non-guaranteed, run by New York Road Runners
• Charity entry: fundraising minimum set by each partner charity
• Time qualifier or 9+1 status: for runners who’ve built history with NYRR races
• Official travel packages: bundled entry, sold through licensed tour operators

Confirm timing and tickets on the official TCS New York City Marathon and New York Road Runners sites, since entry pathways, fundraising minimums, and application windows are the details most likely to shift year to year.

The expo at the Javits Center

Every runner has to pick up their own bib in person, and that happens at the marathon expo, usually held over the three days before the race at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side. It’s less a formality than an event of its own: aisles of gear brands, a wall of past finisher photos, pacing seminars, and the actual bib pickup counters organized by bib number range.

Budget at least an hour if you’re just grabbing your bib and shirt, longer if you want to browse. Bring photo ID and your entry confirmation; NYRR checks both before handing over a bib.

Where spectators actually stand

You don’t need a ticket to watch, and most of New York treats race Sunday as a city-wide block party rather than a ticketed spectacle. The crowds are thickest and loudest along Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and Bay Ridge, where local bands and drum lines set up on the sidewalk for hours.

First Avenue in Manhattan, roughly from the 60s up past 90th Street, is the other classic spot: runners hit it around the halfway-to-two-thirds mark, often with a second wind after the quiet of the Queensboro Bridge. Central Park itself gets dense near the finish, so arrive well before the leaders are due if you want a rail-side spot.

• Best free viewing: Fourth Avenue (Brooklyn), First Avenue (Manhattan, 60s-90s), Central Park finish stretch
• Quietest viewing: early miles in Staten Island and Bay Ridge, before the main wave passes
• Bring: a printed or downloaded runner-tracking bib number, since cell service jams up near the finish

The Verrazzano-Narrows start, and why it’s a quirk of its own

No other major marathon start compares to this one: tens of thousands of runners packed onto a bridge over New York Harbor at dawn, staggered into color-coded waves and corrals so the bridge itself doesn’t buckle under the load. It’s cold, it’s windy off the water, and it’s the only mile of the course most runners describe as genuinely quiet, before Brooklyn’s crowds hit.

Runners are bussed or ferried to the start village in Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth hours before their wave, so plan for a long, layered wait; throwaway clothing is standard practice here, gathered afterward for donation.

Fueling like the course does

New York Road Runners and thousands of local families put out unofficial aid well beyond the official water and Gatorade stations, especially through Brooklyn and Manhattan. Orange slices, pretzels, and hand-drawn signs are as much a part of the route’s identity as the official mile markers.

If you’re spectating rather than running, the same neighborhoods empty into diners and pizza spots afterward; Fourth Avenue’s bars in Brooklyn fill up fast once the last wave has passed.

Practical notes for race weekend

Subway service around the course gets rerouted on race day, and several bridges and roads close to traffic for hours at a stretch. If you’re traveling in New York that weekend for reasons other than the race, check MTA service advisories in advance, since normal routes across the affected boroughs may run on a modified schedule.

Hotel rooms in Manhattan and Brooklyn book up well ahead of the race, particularly anything near the finish in the Upper East Side or Central Park South. Confirm exact road closures, transit changes, and start-wave times on the official race site rather than relying on a previous year’s schedule.