New York City Marathon 2026 Is Underway: Nearly 60,000 Runners, Defending Champions Kipruto and Obiri, and 50 Years of the Five-Borough Course
The professional wheelchairs went first at 8 a.m. Eastern, the elite women at 8:35 and the elite men at 9:05 — and behind them, five waves of nearly 60,000 runners are crossing the Verrazzano from Staten Island toward a Central Park finish.
The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon is underway on Sunday, November 1, with nearly 60,000 runners taking on the 26.2-mile course through all five boroughs of New York City, from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island to the finish in Central Park. Defending champions Benson Kipruto and Hellen Obiri returned to lead the elite fields.
The day is built in layers. The professional men's wheelchair division started first, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern, followed two minutes later by the professional women; the elite women started at 8:35 a.m. and the elite men at 9:05 a.m., with five mass-participation waves following from 9:10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The national broadcast runs on ESPN2 from 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. Eastern, and the official race app carries live runner tracking.
This year's race carries an anniversary: 2026 marks 50 years since the marathon took its five-borough course in 1976, the route — Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, over five bridges — that made the event the largest marathon in the world. No winner had been confirmed at filing time; the elite champions are expected in Central Park around midday Eastern, and the result file will follow in a later cycle.
