🗽New York City Marathon

About New York City Marathon

The New York City Marathon runs on the first Sunday of November — November 1 in 2026 — and it is the largest marathon in the world, with over 50,000 finishers crossing all five boroughs. The countdown above ticks toward the cannon on the Verrazzano Bridge.

The course is a tour of the city: Staten Island over the Verrazzano, the roaring crowds of Brooklyn, Queens, the deafening wall of sound on Manhattan's First Avenue, a loop through the Bronx, and the finish among the autumn leaves of Central Park — two million spectators line the route. Entry comes by lottery, qualifying times or charity teams, and demand dwarfs the field every year.

First run in 1970 as a low-key loop inside Central Park, the marathon expanded to all five boroughs in 1976 and has since become one of the six World Marathon Majors. Because it falls on the first Sunday of November, the date shifts each year between November 1 and 7, on crisp autumn mornings ideal for distance running. The countdown above tracks the days until the next start — add it to your own page to follow the build-up to race day.