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Course pacing
How to pace the New York Marathon
The TCS New York City Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 247 m of climbing and 251 m of descent (a near-level net change). Pace it by even effort, not even splits. Ease the climbs and protect your quads on the descents, or the hills will take far more than they give back.
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Abbott World Marathon MajorCommunity route dataGuide reviewed August 2026
Next New York Marathon
Plan your race with JasonSunday 1 November 2026
About 4 weeks away · 28 days · projected from the usual race weekend
Elevation gain
247m
Elevation loss
251m
Net change
-4m
Terrain
Hilly
Typical race-day conditions
November
At the gun
8°C
~9:30am start
By the finish
11°C
warms through the morning
Humidity
60%
morning average
Conditions
Ideal
cool, fast racing weather
A thirty-year average for November, not a prediction. The real forecast appears here inside the last nine days.
Your race plan
3:30:09
Target pace
4:59/km
3:30:00 New York +0:09 typical November = 3:30:09
▸Where that comes from
- Your goal for New York
- 3:30:00
- New York’s terrainshapes the splits, not the total
- —
- Typical November
- +0:09
- On the day
- 3:30:09
↑ climbs +4:41 (247 m)↓ descents -4:37 (251 m)
The climbs and descents very nearly cancel out.
8°C at the gun, 11°C by the finish. +0.1% adapted.
TCS New York City Marathon
New York City, New York
Hover the map or the profile, the other follows.
Interactive route map loads as you approach it.
New York is a 42.2 kilometre course described as rolling: five boroughs, five bridges. It has about 247 metres of climbing. It has about 251 metres of descent.The elevation chart and split table below provide the same route information without requiring the map.
This one is won on the back half.
km 37–38 climbs 27 m, right where most runners fade.
plan slows (give time) plan runs (take it back)each block ≈ 500 m of the course
Your race-day splits
Every
Units
| Marker | Target pace | Clock | Terrain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 km | 5:27/km | 5:27 | +17 m |
| 2 km | 5:05/km | 10:32 | flat |
| 3 km | 4:14/km | 14:46 | -34 m |
| 4 km | 4:55/km | 19:41 | flat |
| 5 km | 4:57/km | 24:39 | flat |
| 6 km | 5:02/km | 29:41 | flat |
| 7 km | 5:01/km | 34:42 | flat |
| 8 km | 4:48/km | 39:30 | -7 m |
| 9 km | 4:41/km | 44:11 | -11 m |
| 10 km | 5:12/km | 49:22 | +8 m |
| 11 km | 4:49/km | 54:12 | flat |
| 12 km | 4:59/km | 59:11 | flat |
| 13 km | 5:09/km | 1:04:20 | +6 m |
| 14 km | 5:15/km | 1:09:35 | +9 m |
| 15 km | 4:45/km | 1:14:20 | -9 m |
| 16 km | 4:45/km | 1:19:05 | -9 m |
| 17 km | 5:13/km | 1:24:18 | +8 m |
| 18 km | 4:54/km | 1:29:12 | flat |
| 19 km | 4:46/km | 1:33:58 | -8 m |
| 20 km | 5:05/km | 1:39:03 | flat |
| 21 km | 4:51/km | 1:43:54 | flat |
| 22 km | 5:01/km | 1:48:55 | flat |
| 23 km | 4:59/km | 1:53:54 | flat |
| 24 km | 5:24/km | 1:59:18 | +15 m |
| 25 km | 5:21/km | 2:04:39 | +13 m |
| 26 km | 4:32/km | 2:09:12 | -17 m |
| 27 km | 4:55/km | 2:14:06 | flat |
| 28 km | 5:05/km | 2:19:11 | flat |
| 29 km | 4:41/km | 2:23:52 | -11 m |
| 30 km | 4:59/km | 2:28:52 | flat |
| 31 km | 5:00/km | 2:33:51 | flat |
| 32 km | 5:06/km | 2:38:58 | flat |
| 33 km | 4:50/km | 2:43:47 | flat |
| 34 km | 5:00/km | 2:48:48 | flat |
| 35 km | 5:01/km | 2:53:49 | flat |
| 36 km | 4:59/km | 2:58:48 | flat |
| 37 km | 5:09/km | 3:03:56 | flat |
| 38 km | 5:31/km | 3:09:28 | +19 m |
| 39 km | 4:56/km | 3:14:24 | flat |
| 40 km | 4:49/km | 3:19:13 | -6 m |
| 41 km | 4:48/km | 3:24:01 | -7 m |
| 42 km | 5:09/km | 3:29:11 | +6 m |
| Finish | 5:00/km | 3:30:09 | flat |
These are modelled splits, not a validated prediction. The route and elevation data, weather, surface, congestion and your own uphill and downhill ability can all change the pace you can hold. Use the numbers as a planning guide, run the climbs by feel and stay relaxed on the descents. Heat builds as you go, so treat the closing 10 km as a feel check rather than a pace target.
Take it to your watch
These exact splits as a structured workout: one step per kilometre, each with its target pace band (±10 s/km). Your watch prompts every step, so on race day you run the terrain, not the arithmetic.
Garmin needs a cable and a computer. In this file: 43 steps · every km · 3:30:00 goal · even effort · typical November conditions · per-km paces. Change anything above and download again.
Getting it onto your watch
You will need a USB cable and a computer. There is no way around that: Garmin has never built a way to send a workout to a watch from a phone, from Garmin Connect, or from any file you can email yourself. Everyone who makes these files, us included, has the same constraint.
- Download the file above on a computer.
- Plug the watch in by USB and wait for it to appear.
- Copy the file into GARMIN/NewFiles. If your watch has no NewFiles folder, use GARMIN/Workouts instead.
- Eject the watch and unplug it.
- On the watch, go to Training, then Workouts. It will be there under the name of this race.
On a Mac the watch mounts as a media device rather than a drive, so you will need a transfer app such as Android File Transfer to see those folders. Windows shows them in Explorer.
Dragging it into Garmin Connect or TrainingPeaks will not work, and it is worth knowing why. .fit is a container that holds several different kinds of file. A recorded run uploads to both of them happily, which is what those drop zones are built for. A workout is a different file type inside the same extension, and neither platform will import one.
You have the splits. The question is whether they are the right ones for you.
In a Race Strategy Session, Jason reads your last twelve weeks and spends 60 minutes going through the New York Marathon with you: what you are fit for, how to pace it, fuelling and the conditions. A$180.
Where New York is decided
Hardest km
38 km at 5:31/km
Fastest km
3 km at 4:14/km
The coach's read
Not a course for even splits. It opens with the steep Verrazzano Bridge climb, rolls over bridges all day, hits the long Queensboro drag at ~25 km, then climbs through the Bronx and up Fifth Avenue into a deceptively hilly Central Park finish. Run the bridges by effort and save your legs for the park.
WHY Allowing for a typical November day, that's about 4:59/km of effort the whole way, the splits below shift with the gradient, not your pace.
Ease the climbs, let the descents run, and stay relaxed through the second half.
JHJason HuntFounder & Head Coach
·Race-day guide
Pacing the New York Marathon
A coach's read on how the TCS New York City Marathon runs, and how to spend your effort across it.
01The course
Kilometre by kilometre
- The climbing that matters: 23.2–24.6 km (+30 m at 2.2%), 36.5–38.1 km (+27 m at 1.7%), 0.0–1.5 km (+26 m at 1.7%). Run these by effort; your pace will and should slow.
- Where you get it back: 1.7–3.4 km (-46 m down), 24.8–26.1 km (-20 m down). Let these run without braking or hammering: relaxed, quick feet.
The one thing
This is not a course for even splits. Hold even effort, let the pace flex with the ground, and the time will look after itself.
02The plan
How to pace the New York Marathon
- Read the course before race day. Rolling: five boroughs, five bridges. Not a course for even splits.
- Pace by effort, not just the watch. Set the effort you can hold for the whole marathon, then let the pace flex with the ground: a little slower up, a little faster down, the same effort throughout.
- Give the climbs effort, not pace. Let your pace slow on the climbs while holding effort steady; chasing your flat pace uphill is the classic way to blow up. The biggest is around 23–25 km (+30 m).
- Protect your quads on the descents. Stay relaxed and let the descents come to you. Hammering downhill banks a few seconds now and wrecks your legs for the closing kilometres; the model deliberately caps the downhill benefit for this reason.
- Plan your finish. Run the bridges by effort and save your legs for the park.
03Questions
New York Marathon, answered
- Is the New York Marathon hilly?
- Yes, it's a genuinely hilly course, with about 247 m of total climbing over the 42.2 km and a biggest single climb of roughly 30 m. Pace it by effort, not by pace.
- How should I pace the New York Marathon?
- The TCS New York City Marathon is a genuinely hilly marathon, with about 247 m of climbing and 251 m of descent (a near-level net change). Pace it by even effort, not even splits. Ease the climbs and protect your quads on the descents, or the hills will take far more than they give back.
- What is the hardest part of the New York Marathon?
- The toughest climb runs roughly 23–25 km, gaining about 30 m at an average 2.2%. Not a course for even splits.
- Is the New York Marathon a good course for a PB?
- It's a hard course to set an outright personal best on because of the climbing, but pacing it by effort gives you the best possible time for your fitness on the day.
- How much elevation gain does the New York Marathon have?
- About 247 m of total gain and 251 m of loss over the 42.2 km, in line with the organiser's published figures.
Race Strategy Session
The pacing above is free. The judgement is the part worth paying for.
This page knows the TCS New York City Marathon. It does not know you. Two or three weeks out, Jason reads your last twelve weeks and spends 60 minutes going through the day with you, then writes it down so you are not running on memory.
- An honest read on what your training says you can hold
- How to spend your effort across this course, and where it is won
- Fuelling and conditions, decided before you are standing on the line
More marathons
Train for New York. Not just the distance.
A coach builds this course's climbs, descents and race-day pacing into a plan made for you.