The most popular and inclusive marathon in the world, attracting the world’s top professional athletes and a vast range of recreational runners.
It has grown from a local Central Park race with 55 finishers in 1970 to the world’s biggest and most popular Marathon, with 55,000 finishers in 2024.
It is one of the six World Marathon Majors and is IAAF Gold Label certified.
The Marathon course takes you through New York City’s five boroughs, starting on Staten Island at the foot of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and finishing in Central Park.
Participants include Olympians, Paralympians, wheelchair racers, top age-group competitors. The TCS New York City Marathon is the premier event of New York Road Runners, the world’s foremost community running organization, whose mission is to help and inspire people through running.
The race takes place in November. There’s just one month to apply, between January and February.
The NYC Marathon and how it all started
Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon, started the race in 1970 with 127 participants in Central Park. He turned this race into the largest Marathon in the world.
During his life, Lebow completed 69 marathons in 30 countries. He ran his last NYC Marathon in 1992 for his birthday, with his friend and 9 times NYC Marathon winner Grete Waitz.
In 1979, Grete became the first woman in history to run the marathon in under two and a half hours.
And in 1980 she set the only World Record that’s ever been made in the NYC Marathon.
Fred Lebow had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 1990 and died in 1994.
In 1991 he started a charity program called Fred’s Team.
He designated Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) as the New York City Marathon’s first official charity.
A group of marathon runners responded by raising more than $650,000 to support cancer research at MSK.
There’s also a Fred Lebov movie, called Run for your life about his life.
Oldest finisher of the NYC Marathon
Margaret Hagerty started her running career at the age of 64, after she quitted smoking.
Despite her late start, she completed 81 Marathons, and at least 1 on each continent!
Her last race was the NYC Marathon in 2014.
She kept training until she died at the age of 92 of complications of a stroke.
