The NYC Marathon in Yorkville: Watching on First Avenue

One Sunday every November, the TCS New York City Marathon comes off the Queensboro Bridge and runs straight up First Avenue, through the middle of Yorkville. For a few hours the avenue belongs to the runners and the crowd. The 2026 race is Sunday, Nov. 1. This page is the standing guide. The daily edition carries the year's closures and timing once the city and the race publish them.

Where the course meets the neighborhood

Runners enter Manhattan at about mile 16, coming off the Queensboro Bridge at 59th Street. They turn north on First Avenue and stay on it to the Willis Avenue Bridge, which takes them into the Bronx at about mile 20. That puts the whole stretch from East 79th to 96th Street, Yorkville's First Avenue frontage, on the course. They come back into Manhattan near the end and finish in Central Park.

NYC Marathon 2026: route, date and best places to watch

Rockefeller Center's 2026 guide: the Queensboro Bridge at mile 16, First Avenue north to the Willis Avenue Bridge at mile 20, and the race date.

Marathon guide (NYC Tourism + Conventions)

The city tourism office's guide to the course and to watching, borough by borough.

Watching from the Upper East Side

First Avenue has some of the loudest crowds on the course, and spectator guides keep naming the Upper East Side stretch as a place to cheer. Viewing along the course is free. A few practical points: once the race starts, the avenue is hard to cross. Pick your side before you go and stay on it. If you are tracking a runner, mile 16 to mile 20 is a long stretch, so agree on a cross street ahead of time. The nearest subways are the Q at 86th Street and Second Avenue and the 4, 5 and 6 at 86th and Lexington. NYRR's 2026 course preview lists pedestrian crossing zones on First Avenue at 69th, 72nd, 83rd and 86th Streets; an older NYRR page lists only 72nd and 86th, so check the course page before race day.

Watch the race (New York Road Runners)

The race organizer's spectator page: viewing areas, rules and race-day tips.

The course (New York Road Runners)

NYRR's course page, including the First Avenue crossing zones.

TCS New York City Marathon guide (CBS New York)

Race information and where to watch.

Things to do in Yorkville

Our year-round guide, for the rest of the weekend.

Closures and parking

First Avenue closes to traffic on race day, and the city posts no-parking rules for the course in the days before. The exact blocks and hours change from year to year. For 2025, the city's list covered First Avenue from 58th to 125th Street. Don't plan around last year's list: check the current city notice the week of the race. Expect crosstown trips by car on the East Side to be slow all day.

2025 marathon street closures and no-parking list (NYC)

Last year's official list, for a sense of scope. The 2026 list replaces it once it is posted.

What's new in 2026

The course has its first change in 15 years, in the Bronx between miles 20 and 21, just after runners leave First Avenue over the Willis Avenue Bridge. Instead of turning at East 138th Street, they now keep straight on Alexander Avenue and loop via East 141st Street and Third Avenue before crossing the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan. NYRR made the change partly to keep a supermarket and a 24-hour laundromat on East 140th Street open to neighbors during the race. The Manhattan stretch through Yorkville is unchanged. The 2026 race also marks 50 years since the marathon first ran through all five boroughs, in 1976.

NYC Marathon route to change in the Bronx in 2026 (NY1)

The Bronx reroute, reported Sept. 22.

NYC Marathon will change its route for first time in 15 years (6sqft)

Why the course changed: access to food and laundry for Bronx residents on race day.

Race weekend in the neighborhood

The daily edition covers race weekend in Yorkville: the year's closures, anything happening along First Avenue, and the rest of the weekend close to home. Carl Schurz Park, a few blocks east of the course on East End Avenue, is the quiet side of the neighborhood that morning.

Carl Schurz Park guide

Our guide to the riverfront park at East End Avenue and 86th Street.

Last reviewed 2026-10-26 · corrections: [email protected]

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