NYC Marathon 2026 Race Day: Start Times, Defending Champions Obiri and Kipruto, and How to Watch
Around 60,000 runners take over all five boroughs on Sunday for the 50th anniversary of the marathon's first all-city running — the wheelchair races go first at 8 a.m., the pro women at 8:35 and the pro men at 9:05, with defending champions Hellen Obiri and Benson Kipruto back to defend their titles.
Race day is here. The TCS New York City Marathon runs Sunday across all five boroughs, from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island to the finish in Central Park, with around 60,000 participants expected in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of the race's first running as a true all-city event, according to race previews read by this desk.
The morning starts with the professional wheelchair divisions — the men at 8:00 a.m. and the women at 8:02 a.m., with handcycles and select athletes with disabilities at 8:22 a.m. The professional women start at 8:35 a.m. and the professional men at 9:05 a.m., followed by the five amateur waves between 9:10 and 11:30 a.m. Marcel Hug and Susannah Scaroni return as the wheelchair champions to beat, with Scaroni seeking her third straight New York win.
The open races are built around the defending champions. Hellen Obiri, who won last year in a course-record 2:19:51, chases her third New York title in the women's race against a field that includes Sheila Chepkirui, Viola Cheptoo and Edna Kiplagat; Olympic champion Sifan Hassan has withdrawn following illness. Benson Kipruto defends the men's title against Deresa Geleta, Geoffrey Kamworor, CyBrian Kotut, Abdi Nageeye and the leading American, Conner Mantz.
For spectators, the race is live in New York on WABC-TV, Channel 7, from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and nationally on ESPN2, and the official New York Road Runners app carries live runner tracking and leaderboards for every starter. Street closures run with the course all day — the station's marathon-morning transit file has the bridge, ferry and train plan.
