New York City Marathon Pace Calculator

The New York City Marathon course

8 m net uphill (16 m → 24 m).

New York rewards effort-based pacing across bridges, boroughs, and rolling late miles. The calculator keeps the official marathon distance intact and adjusts the pacing conversation around the course profile, typical race conditions, and the places where runners usually spend too much energy. Read the output as a pacing map, then adjust for fitness, weather, crowds, and how your legs feel on race morning. Keep the fixed reference values in view: 15–16, 23.

Course segments

• Verrazzano Bridge climb (Start–1.2K) +2.8% · +33 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later. Key markers: ~3.7%.

• Verrazzano descent into Brooklyn (1.2–3.3K) -2.0% · −41 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later. Key markers: ~4%, 39 km.

• Brooklyn — Fourth Avenue (3.3–19K) flat · −8 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later.

• Pulaski Bridge into Queens (19–22K) +0.3% · +8 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later.

• Queensboro Bridge to First Avenue (22–27K) +0.1% · +6 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later. Key markers: ~3.3%, 15–16.

• First Avenue, Willis & the Bronx (27–35K) flat

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later. Key markers: 20.

• Fifth Avenue climb & Central Park (35–42.2K) +0.1% · +8 m

  Run this section by effort, not ego. Let the terrain shape the split, keep your form relaxed, and avoid spending energy you will need later.

Race-day weather

The New York City Marathon is run in November. A typical race morning is around 53 °F with a dew point near 40 °F (a temperature-plus-dew-point sum of 93), so no heat penalty in a typical year. If the forecast is warmer than usual, slow your goal with the heat-adjusted pace calculator before race day — heat is the most common reason a goal pace falls apart.

How this plan is built

Splits come from an even-effort, grade-adjusted model: your goal time is spread across the course by each segment's energy cost, so you hold the same effort up the hills and down them instead of chasing one flat clock pace. See the generic marathon pace calculator for a course-blind even pace, or browse marathon pace calculators by course for other majors.

Sources

• NYC Marathon course & elevation profile TCS New York City Marathon course guide (Marathon Handbook) — five-borough route, bridge grades and ~288 m total ascent.
• Metric elevation profile & bridge grades Run Ready — TCS NYC Marathon metric elevation analysis (Verrazzano ~3.7%, Queensboro ~3.3%, Willis Avenue ~6.5%).
• New York November climate (temperature & humidity) Weather Spark / NWS Central Park — average early-November weather for New York City (used to estimate race-morning temperature and dew point).
• Even-effort pacing (grade-adjusted cost) Minetti, Moia, Roi, Susta & Ferretti (2002), “Energy cost of walking and running at extreme uphill and downhill slopes”, J. Appl. Physiol. 93(3): 1039–1046.
• Race-day heat & humidity adjustment Mark Hadley / Maximum Performance Running — temperature + dew-point pace-slowdown method (air temp °F + dew point °F → % slowdown band).

Course split estimates use public profile information and the target you enter. Real race execution still depends on training, fueling, weather, crowding, and pacing discipline; this is planning help, not medical or coaching advice.