NYC Marathon 2026: Start times, how to watch, route and what to know - USA Today
The annual test of distance running returns to the Big Apple Sunday, Nov. 1, with the TCS New York City Marathon – including a course change for the first time in 15 years.
All four of the professional winners from last year will return to defend their titles. Benson Kipruto won the men's professional event last year by the smallest margin ever, beating Alexander Mutiso Munyao by only 0.16 seconds.
Hellen Obiri won the women's event and broke the course record, finishing the race in 2:19:51. Marcel Hug won his seventh NYC Marathon wheelchair title, and Susannah Scaroni, who gave birth to a baby boy in August, is making a surprise return as she goes for her third consecutive NYC Marathon wheelchair crown and fourth in five years.
The race will mark the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, first run on Oct. 24, 1976. That year, 2,090 participants (2,002 men, 88 women) started in Staten Island and 1,549 finished near Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The entry fee was only $5, and Bill Rodgers (2:10:09), in the first of his four consecutive victories, and Miki Gorman (2:39:11) broke the tape to take the top podium finish.
A record 59,226 runners crossed the finish line in 2025, and more than 60,000 runners from 140 countries are expected to participate in this year's race.
The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon starts at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The national broadcast airs on ESPN2 at 8 a.m. ET, and you can stream it on ESPN Unlimited. Pre-race will be streamed live on ESPN Unlimited from 7-8 a.m. ET, with continuing coverage from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.
ABC7's Sam Ryan, ESPN running events commentator John Anderson, Olympians Carrie Tollefson and Clayton Young, and Paralympians Kurt Fearnley and Amanda McGrory will be on the call for the broadcast.
For those who want to watch the race in person, most of the course is open from mile 3 to mile 26, and spectators can buy tickets for the grandstand seating, located at West 62nd Street and Broadway. You can also watch from the sidewalks.
In the New York tri-state area, WABC-TV, Channel 7, will start its pre-race coverage at 7 a.m., with the races starting at 8 a.m. You can livestream on the ABC 7 New York App and ABC7NY.com. ABC’s "Live from the TCS New York City Marathon" will air nationally from 3-5 p.m..
The marathon route starts on Staten Island and winds through the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. After entering Brooklyn, the route goes through Queens and Manhattan. The route then enters the Bronx, returns to Manhattan at mile 22, and finishes in Central Park at 67th Street on West Drive.
Breaking a course record in the open division will get a participant a $50,000 bonus.
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