Enter your goal time. Get hill-adjusted, mile-by-mile splits built from actual GPX course data — including the Verrazzano Bridge descent, the silent Queensboro Bridge climb at mile 15, and the soul-testing Cat Hill and Harlem Hill through Central Park at miles 23–24.
The TCS New York City Marathon is the world's largest marathon — 55,000 runners, 2 million spectators, five boroughs, and a course that's harder than its reputation suggests. The elevation profile looks modest on paper: 166 feet of total climbing, a net drop of 88 feet. But the five bridge crossings sap your legs in ways that elevation numbers alone can't capture, and the Central Park hills at miles 23–24 arrive when your glycogen is gone and your quads are shredded from bridge descents. The defining pacing mistake in New York is getting swept up in the First Avenue roar after the silent Queensboro Bridge and running 30 seconds per mile too fast when you should be saving everything for Central Park.
This calculator solves that problem by giving you an exact, step-by-step plan built on research, experience, and data. Enter your goal time, set how aggressively you want to handle uphills, and you'll get a target pace for every mile that closes exactly to your goal — accounting for every bridge climb, every borough descent, and every foot of the Central Park hills from the Verrazzano start to the Tavern on the Green finish.
Enter your goal time and effort level. Your personalized mile-by-mile splits appear instantly.
Results appear below. No email required.
| Mile | Elev | Effort | vs Goal Pace | Target Pace (min/mi) |
Pace Bank | Elapsed |
|---|
Elevation data from official NYC Marathon GPX course file, 15-point smoothed. Uphill penalty applied above +0.4% grade; downhill benefit applied below −0.75% grade. Math closes exactly to goal time.
Staten Island to Central Park — where the Verrazzano descent damages your quads early, where the Queensboro Bridge tests your patience, and why the Central Park hills at miles 23–24 decide who finishes strong.
The race begins on the upper deck of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, 164 feet above the Narrows, with 55,000 runners streaming out in color-coded waves. Mile 1 drops −9 ft as you cross the bridge's upper span, and then mile 2 delivers the biggest single-mile drop on the entire course: −78 ft as you descend into Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The temptation to fly down the Verrazzano is overwhelming — the views are stunning, the adrenaline is electric, and gravity is doing the work. Resist it. Every second you bank on this descent comes at the cost of quad damage that shows up mercilessly at miles 23–24 in Central Park.
Miles 3 through 7 are the 4th Avenue straightaway — one of the longest, flattest stretches in marathon running. The elevation changes are minimal (−4, −5, −18, −11, −3 ft) as you run through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, South Slope, and Park Slope. The Brooklyn crowds line both sides of 4th Avenue, but save your energy — this is not where the race is won. Mile 8 brings the section's only real climb: +21 ft through Clinton Hill on Bedford Avenue. It's nothing dramatic, but it's a preview of what's coming in Central Park.
Section 2 takes you through the heart of the five-borough experience. Miles 9–10 run through Williamsburg on Bedford Avenue — hipster Brooklyn with roaring crowds, live bands, and the energy of a neighborhood that treats this day like a holiday. Mile 10 drops −17 ft as you approach the Pulaski Bridge, and mile 11 crosses into Queens with just +1 ft of elevation change. The halfway point falls here, and most runners feel strong.
Miles 12–13 are flat through Long Island City before the section's defining moment: the Queensboro Bridge. Mile 14 begins the approach (+2 ft), and mile 15 delivers the steepest bridge climb on the course at +20 ft. The Queensboro is unlike any other part of the NYC Marathon — it's enclosed, there are no spectators, and the only sounds are footsteps and breathing. After 14 miles of screaming Brooklyn crowds, the silence is jarring. Then you exit onto First Avenue and the wall of sound hits you. Mile 16 gains +10 ft as you enter Manhattan, and 2 million voices tell you to run faster. This is the second-biggest pacing trap in New York. The First Avenue roar after the Queensboro silence creates an adrenaline spike that makes runners surge 20–30 seconds per mile faster than their plan. Don't do it.
After the First Avenue adrenaline, Section 3 brings two more bridge crossings and a trip into the Bronx. Mile 17 drops −9 ft as you continue up First Avenue through the Upper East Side, and mile 18 descends −22 ft across the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx. The Bronx section is short — about 1.5 miles on the Grand Concourse — but it's one of the loudest stretches of the course. The neighborhood turns out in force, and mile 19 gains +4 ft through the Grand Concourse before you cross back into Manhattan via the Madison Avenue Bridge at mile 20 (+8 ft).
Mile 21 drops −12 ft as you descend into Harlem on Fifth Avenue. This is where the race enters its critical phase. You have 5.2 miles to go, your legs have absorbed five bridge crossings, and Central Park's hills are minutes away. The net −31 ft of this section is deceptive — it feels harder than it looks because fatigue is compounding and the small bridge undulations keep your legs guessing. Use these miles to settle into a rhythm. Don't push — you need everything you have left for what's coming.
This is where the NYC Marathon shows its teeth. Mile 22 gains +9 ft as you enter Central Park from the south, and then the course delivers back-to-back climbing that has broken millions of marathoners. Mile 23 climbs +42 ft through the Cat Hill area — the hardest single climbing mile on the entire course. Mile 24 adds +35 ft over Harlem Hill. Combined, that's +77 feet of climbing in 2 miles when you're 22+ miles into the race, your glycogen is depleted, and your quads are shredded from five bridge descents. This is not where fitness wins — this is where pacing discipline pays off.
If you've saved energy through the bridges and resisted the First Avenue surge, mile 25 is your reward: −39 ft of downhill through the park, the biggest descent since the Verrazzano. Mile 26 gains +11 ft on the final approach, and the last 0.2 miles add +3 ft as you cross the finish line near Tavern on the Green. The Central Park crowds are deep and loud, and finishing the NYC Marathon in daylight with the trees overhead and 2 million people cheering is an experience that justifies every disciplined mile that came before it.
First Sunday in November in New York City — conditions range from ideal fall racing weather to unseasonably warm. Here's what runners have faced in recent years.
| Year | Start Temp | Finish Temp | Humidity | Wind | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 45°F / 7°C | 55°F / 13°C | 35% | 8 mph NW | Ideal |
| 2023 | 52°F / 11°C | 63°F / 17°C | 55% | 10 mph S | Warm |
| 2022 | 66°F / 19°C | 75°F / 24°C | 65% | 12 mph S | Warm |
| 2021 | 44°F / 7°C | 52°F / 11°C | 40% | 6 mph W | Ideal |
| 2019 | 48°F / 9°C | 56°F / 13°C | 50% | 10 mph NW | Ideal |
Temperatures at start (~9:40 AM wave starts) and finish (~1:00–3:00 PM for back-of-pack). November mornings in New York are typically cool and dry — plan for a 10–15°F rise over your race. The 2022 race was a notable outlier with unseasonably warm conditions.
The world's largest marathon is an official Boston Qualifier — but the course, the bridges, and the crowd energy make it harder than the elevation profile suggests.
The NYC Marathon is an official Boston Qualifier with times accepted by the BAA, and the BQ rate was 8.7% in 2024 — respectable for a World Major. But no experienced coach would call New York a "fast" BQ course. The Course Score of 98.35 tells the story: the five bridge crossings, the Central Park hills at miles 23–24 (+77 feet combined), and the sheer emotional intensity of 2 million spectators all work against fast, controlled pacing. The bridges don't just add elevation — they add eccentric muscle damage from repeated descents that compounds through the race.
That said, the net 88-foot drop and the −39 ft downhill at mile 25 give well-paced runners a genuine closing advantage. The key is treating New York as a patience race, not a speed race. The runners who BQ here are the ones who run the Verrazzano descent controlled, ignore the First Avenue crowd, survive Cat Hill and Harlem Hill at miles 23–24 by effort rather than pace, and close hard through the Central Park downhill. It's not the easiest course for a BQ — but it might be the most satisfying.
Use the calculator with your buffer-adjusted BQ target. Set the pacing strategy to Conservative or Ideal. Run the first 16 miles patient and disciplined. Then race the last 10.
| Age Group | Men | Women | Non-binary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18–34 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 | 3:30:00 |
| 35–39 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 40–44 | 3:10:00 | 3:40:00 | 3:40:00 |
| 45–49 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 50–54 | 3:25:00 | 3:55:00 | 3:55:00 |
| 55–59 | 3:35:00 | 4:05:00 | 4:05:00 |
| 60–64 | 3:50:00 | 4:20:00 | 4:20:00 |
| 65–69 | 4:05:00 | 4:35:00 | 4:35:00 |
| 70–74 | 4:20:00 | 4:50:00 | 4:50:00 |
| 75–79 | 4:35:00 | 5:05:00 | 5:05:00 |
| 80+ | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 | 5:20:00 |
Boston Qualifying standards are minimum requirements, not guarantees of entry. Because more runners qualify than there are spots, the BAA cuts at a time buffer — historically between 30 seconds and 6 minutes below the standard. In recent years, the buffer has been around 2–3 minutes. If you're targeting 3:00:00 for men 18–34, you likely need to run 2:57–2:58 to actually get in. Use the calculator with your actual buffer-adjusted target time, not just the BQ standard.
Everything you need to know about race weekend in New York City — from the Javits Center expo to the Central Park finish.
The TCS New York City Marathon expo runs Thursday through Saturday at the Javits Center on the west side of Midtown Manhattan. The marathon is Sunday, with wave starts beginning around 9:40 AM from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. There are three separate start villages (blue, orange, green) that merge into a single course by mile 8. Arrive at your assigned bus pickup location by 5:30–6:00 AM — the buses to Staten Island leave early and you cannot be late.
Runners take official buses from Midtown Manhattan (New York Public Library, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street) to Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. Bus pickup begins around 5:00 AM. A ferry option from Lower Manhattan is also available for some waves. You'll spend 1–3 hours in the start village before your wave, so bring throwaway warm clothes, a plastic bag to sit on, and snacks. The village has portable toilets, coffee, and bagels. Dress for the wait, not the run — morning temperatures on Staten Island in November can be in the low 40s.
Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island serves as the staging area. Runners are divided into three color-coded start villages — blue, orange, and green — each with its own corrals and start times. Your start color and corral are printed on your bib and determined by your qualifying time or lottery assignment. Each village has its own entrance to the Verrazzano Bridge (upper and lower decks). Throw-away clothes should go into the donation bins before you enter your corral — anything left on the ground after the start is collected by charity.
The NYC Marathon has 20+ fluid stations across the course offering water and Gatorade. Gels are available at approximately miles 17 and 21. Medical tents are positioned at regular intervals, with major stations near the bridges and in Central Park. The spectator support is the course's greatest asset — 2 million people line the route, and neighborhoods like Williamsburg, First Avenue, and the Bronx bring some of the loudest crowds in world marathon running. Expect wall-to-wall crowd support for virtually the entire 26.2 miles.
The finish line is in Central Park near Tavern on the Green. After crossing, you'll receive a heat sheet (mylar blanket), finisher medal, and refreshments as you walk through the finish chute. The chute is long — about 0.5 miles of walking to the bag pickup area. Checked bags are loaded onto UPS trucks organized by bib number, and pickup is at a designated area in the park. The walk from finish to bag pickup to the park exit can take 30–45 minutes, so plan for cold legs and bring your phone for coordinating with spectators.
Midtown Manhattan is the best base — close to the bus pickup at the New York Public Library, the Javits Center expo, and post-race celebrations. Book 6+ months in advance. NYC Marathon weekend is one of the busiest hotel weekends of the year. Hotels near Times Square, Penn Station, and Grand Central offer easy subway access to everything you need. The subway runs 24/7 and is the best way to move around the city on race weekend — avoid taxis and rideshare on Sunday morning due to road closures.
Post-race, most restaurants in Midtown and the Upper West Side are accustomed to hosting marathon runners. Many offer carb-loading menus on Saturday night.
