Course Info

Start on Central Park’s West Drive near 67th Street and head south. You'll loop counter-clockwise along the southern edge of the park and head up the East Side, including a climb up Cat Hill (between 72nd and 78th streets) with its inspiration, the Still Hunt statue of a crouching panther, looking down on you from a rock wall to your left. You'll continue north on East Drive along the park loop's only straight, flat section, passing the Metropolitan Museum of Art on your right between 80th and 84th streets. A friendlier statue will greet you near 90th Street: Fred Lebow, legendary founder of the New York City Marathon, is memorialized in bronze, checking his stopwatch, on your left. 

After a welcome half-mile of downhill, you'll turn left onto the 102nd Street Transverse and continue downhill to West Drive, where you’ll turn left again and hit a challenging series of three rolling hills between the Transverse and the southwestern edge of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir near West 86th Street. You'll then enjoy a long, fast downhill for nearly a half-mile, then a few hundred yards of flat road leading into the 72nd Street Transverse. You can start shifting into your top gears as you approach the Transverse, because you'll have less than two-tenths of a mile left in the race when you get there--although it is up a small hill. Pass the Daniel Webster statue on your left and crank it up on the final small rise to the finish near West 69th Street.