Five Boroughs
Status
Ballot
Date
Nov
2027
Finishers 2025
59,226
Flight
£386 to £639
Starting on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and finishing in Central Park. New York isn't booked yet. Denny is going for the 2027 ballot, expected to open in February 2027 (New York Road Runners haven't set the dates yet). With three stars he can also enter the AbbottWMM Race Draws, a second chance at a place.
Flight: return from London, a Kayak UK snapshot from 25 September 2026, an estimate, not a quote. Dates, entries and plans can change. Ballots, bookings, injuries, illness, cancellations and new races all play a part. Denny sends a voice note every week and this site follows it.
Sponsor This RaceWhat Denny's up against
How hard is the New York Marathon?
Bridges
5
Climbing
Around 270 m
Start temp (avg)
11°C
Finishers 2025
59,226
New York starts on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the highest point of the course, with a climb of nearly three quarters of a mile before anyone has warmed up. From Staten Island it runs through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, over five bridges in all, to the finish in Central Park. 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course.
The hard part is the middle. The Queensboro Bridge, around miles 15 and 16, is a long climb with no crowds, and runners call it the quietest, most testing stretch of the day before the noise of First Avenue. Then Fifth Avenue rises for most of a mile at mile 22, just as the legs go, and Central Park rolls all the way to the line.
Race mornings average about 11°C at the start, after a long, cold wait in the Staten Island start village. Nearly 60,000 people take it on: 59,226 finished in 2025, the most of any marathon ever.
Sources, checked September 2026: NYRR course · NYRR, 50 years of the five-borough course · Marathon Handbook · Running USA · FindMyMarathon weather
Next Major
Tokyo
Year to be set · Target