A Day in the Life of the NYC Marathon, Hour by Hour

The NYC Marathon is not one moment. It is a day that starts in the dark on Staten Island and ends after sunset in Central Park. Here is how Sunday, November 1, 2026 unfolds, hour by hour, and where the photographs are.

Before dawn

5:00 a.m. Streets around Fort Wadsworth, School Road and Bay Street on Staten Island begin to close. Runners are already in transit, and clocks go back an hour overnight, so the city gains an extra hour of sleep that most runners will not use.

6:30 a.m. Fourth Avenue (from 94th Street), Lafayette Avenue and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn close until early evening, and the Queensboro Bridge lower level closes to traffic. Sunrise is around 6:26 a.m., so the first light on Brooklyn streets is low and cool.

7:00 a.m. Queens streets in Long Island City, the Bronx route and First Avenue close, and local TV coverage starts. Photographer's note: this is the best time to scout your spot and find your sightlines.

The elite and wheelchair starts

8:00 a.m. The professional wheelchair division starts, followed by handcycle and select athletes with disabilities at 8:22. The professional women start shortly before 9, and the professional men at 9:05. Corrals for the first wave open at 8:10.

The five waves

9:10 a.m.: Wave 1 crosses the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
9:45 a.m.: Wave 2.
10:20 a.m.: Wave 3.
10:55 a.m.: Wave 4.
11:30 a.m.: Wave 5.

Spectators are not allowed on the bridge, so the first public frames are in Bay Ridge on Fourth Avenue. The first-wave runners reach Brooklyn's streets just after 9:30, and the crowd builds through Sunset Park, Park Slope and Williamsburg.

Late morning

The winners finish in Central Park a little after 11 a.m. if the men run near the course record pace of 2:04:58, and the women a little later. While the leaders finish, the middle of the field is crossing Williamsburg and Greenpoint, climbing the Pulaski Bridge at the halfway point and heading into Queens.

Midday

Mid-pack runners climb the Queensboro Bridge, a long, quiet stretch, and drop onto First Avenue into the loudest crowd of the race. The Bronx loop, rerouted in 2026 onto Alexander Avenue and Third Avenue, is where the race gets personal, and Fifth Avenue is the last hard climb before the park.

Afternoon

By early afternoon, waves 3 and 4 fill Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. The light turns flat and then begins to fade. Sunset is a little before 5 p.m., and Fifth Avenue reopens around 7:30 p.m.

After dark

The course has an 8-hour-30-minute limit from the start, and the finish line closes around 10 p.m. The last finishers come into Central Park in the dark, often to the loudest cheers of the day. First Avenue and the streets around the finish stay closed until about 10:30 p.m.

Photographers: share your stretch

No single photographer covers all of this. Each of you has a stretch, a time of day and a kind of light, and together those make the story. If you shoot any part of the course, upload your photos to Surf Snaps and tag them with sport (running), the date and the street or mile. Note the time you shot, because runners search by place and time. Galleries from different photographers appear together on Explore, so your hour of the day becomes part of the full timeline.

Joining and uploading are free, there is no storage bill and the Surf Snaps fee of up to 10% only applies when a photo sells. You can pass it on to the customer. Check NYRR's media policy before you list race photos for sale. For help with positioning, see How to Photograph the NYC Marathon: A Course Guide for Photographers.

NYC Marathon Timeline FAQ

What time does the NYC Marathon start?

The professional wheelchair division starts at 8:00 a.m. and the five general waves start at 9:10, 9:45, 10:20, 10:55 and 11:30 a.m.

When do the winners finish?

The men's leaders start at 9:05, so a finish a little after 11 a.m. is likely at a fast pace. Check live coverage for exact times.

When does the finish line close?

Listings show the finish line closing at about 10 p.m., with an 8-hour-30-minute limit from the start.