NYC Marathon 2026 by the Numbers
61,062 runners, the youngest NYC Marathon field since at least 2000. The front, every age, where they came from, the 4:00 wall, Boston qualifiers and the weather.
The median finisher at the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1 was 36 years old. In every one of the 24 races from 2000 to 2025, the median was 38 to 41. This was the youngest field in NYC Marathon history as far back as our results go, and 28% of the 61,062 runners in NYRR's results were under 30.
They also ran slower. At every age, men and women, the 2026 median finish was behind 2025's, and our pace engine priced the weather at under 1% both years.
NYRR counts a record 61,146 finishers, which adds the wheelchair and handcycle divisions, and calls it the largest marathon in the world. Andreas Almgren won the men's race in his marathon debut. Sheila Chepkirui won the women's race by six seconds. Below: the field, the front of the race, every age, the 4:00 wall, Boston qualifiers and the weather.
Every time below is a net time, the lower of gun and chip time, from NYRR's results for the race. We name only the professionals. Everyone else is described by age.
The Field
Every number here covers the 61,062 runners in NYRR's results as of November 2. NYRR's record 61,146 also counts the wheelchair and handcycle divisions and any late corrections. The same file had 59,122 for 2025 (NYRR announced 59,226 that year).
Women were 47% of finishers. That share was 44% in 2023, 44.5% in 2024 and 45.9% in 2025. Non-binary finishers numbered 157, up from 94 in 2023 (119 in 2024 and 138 in 2025). Their median finish was 4:28, the fastest was 2:23:39, ages ran from 20 to 66 and the median age was 33. That is too few runners for the by-age breakdown below, so the age tables cover men and women only.
The median age was 38 for men and 34 for women, 36 overall. It was 38 in 2025 and 40 in 2023. The most common single age was 30 for men (1,257 finishers) and 26 for women (1,525).
The youngest field since at least 2000
A median age of 36 is the lowest in our results, which go back to 2000. In every race from 2000 to 2025 the median was between 38 and 41. The share of finishers under 30 was between 11% and 20% every year from 2000 to 2023, then climbed to 23% in 2024, 24% in 2025 and 28% this year. Runners 40 and older were 41% of finishers, down from 51% in 2023.
The median finish was 4:28:55, up from 4:24:17 in 2025, and 1,747 runners finished under three hours, down from 2,394. A younger field is only part of that. At the same age and sex, 2026 finishers ran slower than 2025's in every ten-year age group, men and women. Our pace engine priced both years' weather at under 1%, so the weather doesn't explain it either. The results don't say why.
Where they came from
More of the field came from New York State this year. By the hometowns in NYRR's results, 26,328 finishers (43%) listed New York, up from 36% in 2023. Another 19,042 (31%) came from every other state, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, led by New Jersey (4,785), California, Massachusetts, Florida and Texas. Finishers from outside the US fell to 15,425, or 25%, from 18,059 in 2025. That share was 30% to 32% in each of the three years before, so this is a drop in the count, not only a bigger field around it. The results don't say why.
Italy sent the most runners from abroad, then France, the UK, Germany and Mexico. We placed each hometown in a country by its region, and about 6% couldn't be placed, so treat the order below as close rather than exact.
The Front of the Race
Andreas Almgren, 31, won his marathon debut in 2:06:01. Yemaneberhan Crippa ran 2:06:14, Kamohelo Mofolo 2:06:26 and Benson Kipruto 2:06:27. Thirteen men broke 2:08. In 2025 none did. The three fastest times in NYC history are 2:04:58 (Tamirat Tola, 2023), 2:05:06 (Geoffrey Mutai, 2011) and 2:05:59 (Lelisa Desisa, 2018). Almgren's 2:06:01 ties Shura Kitata's second place in 2018 for the fourth-fastest.
Sheila Chepkirui, 35, won the women's race in 2:24:36. Jessica McClain was second in 2:24:42, six seconds back, and Hellen Obiri third in 2:24:43, seven seconds back. Fourteen women broke 2:30. Edna Kiplagat ran 2:25:42 at age 46, fourth among the women.
We checked the top 25 men and top 25 women in our file against Watch Athletics' results on November 2, and they matched to within one second.
By Age
The chart below shows the fastest man and the fastest woman at every single age. The fastest 65-year-old man ran 2:54:53 and the fastest 68-year-old woman ran 3:18:31. Among 71-year-olds, the fastest man ran 3:01:10 and the fastest woman ran 3:35:38.
At the far end, 544 finishers were 70 or older and 45 were 80 or older. Two men aged 90 finished, and the faster of them ran 8:26:07. The oldest women were three 84-year-olds.
Age barely shows until 50
The median finish moves slowly through the first half of adult life. The median man ran 4:03 at ages 25–29 and 4:15 at 45–49, a slowdown of 12 minutes over 20 years. The median woman went from 4:34 to 4:48, 13 to 14 minutes. From 45–49 to 65–69 the next 20 years cost far more. The median man ran 5:11 at 65–69, 56 minutes slower than at 45–49, and the median woman ran 5:35, 47 minutes slower.
These are medians of the people who finished, not of everyone that age. Still, it is a flatter curve than most runners expect.
Find your age
Half of the finishers in each row ran faster than the time shown.
| Age | Men, median | Women, median |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 | 4:04 | 4:34 |
| 30s | 4:07 | 4:43 |
| 40s | 4:12 | 4:47 |
| 50s | 4:26 | 4:57 |
| 60s | 4:56 | 5:18 |
| 70 and up | 5:51 | 5:59 |
For masters runners, here are the same medians in five-year groups, with the number of finishers in each.
| Age | Men, median (finishers) | Women, median (finishers) |
|---|---|---|
| 40–44 | 4:10 (3,949) | 4:46 (2,961) |
| 45–49 | 4:15 (3,266) | 4:48 (2,442) |
| 50–54 | 4:21 (2,906) | 4:56 (2,115) |
| 55–59 | 4:33 (2,107) | 4:59 (1,437) |
| 60–64 | 4:51 (1,365) | 5:13 (863) |
| 65–69 | 5:11 (602) | 5:35 (338) |
| 70–74 | 5:37 (259) | 5:40 (127) |
| 75–79 | 6:47 (87) | 7:00 (26) |
| 80+ | 7:19 (33) | 7:55 (12) |
Pacing and the Clock
Finish times pile up just before round numbers. 603 runners finished in 3:59:xx and 445 in 4:00:xx. The same drop shows at every round time we checked.
| Round time | Finished in the minute before | Finished in the minute after |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00 | 156 (2:59:xx) | 88 (3:00:xx) |
| 3:30 | 366 (3:29:xx) | 290 (3:30:xx) |
| 4:00 | 603 (3:59:xx) | 445 (4:00:xx) |
| 4:30 | 433 (4:29:xx) | 388 (4:30:xx) |
| 5:00 | 378 (4:59:xx) | 310 (5:00:xx) |
The mix of the field changes with the clock, too. Women were 10% of the finishers under three hours. After 4:30 they outnumber men in every time band.
| Finish time | Women's share of finishers |
|---|---|
| Under 3:00 | 10% |
| 3:00–3:29 | 24% |
| 3:30–3:59 | 37% |
| 4:00–4:29 | 48% |
| 4:30–4:59 | 54% |
| 5:00–5:29 | 57% |
| 5:30–5:59 | 59% |
| 6:00–6:59 | 64% |
| 7:00 and slower | 66% |
The finish line was busiest at 2:20 PM, when 251 runners a minute crossed it. 9,035 runners finished after 5 PM and 138 after 8 PM. 465 took longer than eight hours.
Boston Qualifiers
About 4,800 finishers ran a Boston qualifying time, roughly 8% of the field. About 3,700 of them beat their standard by more than 5:17, the 2027 cutoff.
The share qualifying mostly rises with age. Among women it passes 20% at 60–64.
| Age group | Men qualifying | Women qualifying |
|---|---|---|
| 18–34 | 4.1% | 4.2% |
| 35–39 | 6.8% | 5.6% |
| 40–44 | 7.7% | 8.4% |
| 45–49 | 10.2% | 11.7% |
| 50–54 | 8.9% | 12.1% |
| 55–59 | 13.0% | 16.5% |
| 60–64 | 14.9% | 23.1% |
| 65–69 | 17.9% | 23.6% |
| 70–74 | 18.8% | 19.8% |
How we counted. NYRR's results have no qualifier flag, so these are estimates and every figure here is "about." We used the B.A.A. standards for 2028 (the same as 2027, per baa.org), by sex and by the age a runner will be on Boston race day, April 17, 2028. We don't have birthdays, so we gave each runner a 54% chance of being one year older than on November 1, 2026, and a 46% chance of being two years older. Non-binary runners are held to the women's standards, as the B.A.A. does. Qualifying does not guarantee entry. For how the cutoff works, see our Boston 2027 cutoff post.
The Weather
It was 50°F (10°C) at the start and 60°F (16°C) by early afternoon, with light wind and no rain. We priced it with our pace engine at under 1%, about a minute on the median finish.
The hills are a bigger line item than the weather. They cost a 4:00 runner about 2.4 minutes at even effort, compared with a flat course. Some readers told us the bridges cost them far more. The 2.4 minutes is the cost of the grade at even effort. Going out hard on the bridges and fading later is real, and what it costs depends on how each runner paced the race. We have no split data to measure it.
25 years of NYC Marathons
We ran the same pricing on 25 NYC Marathons since 2000. For each one we compared the engine's predicted heat cost with how much slower the field ran than in cool years. The two track each other closely, with a correlation of r = 0.85. NYC is one of the races the engine was calibrated on, so this is an in-sample result, a check that the model fits the data it learned from and not a test on races it hasn't seen.
The slowest and hottest edition was 2022, with a median finish of about 4:45 and a WBGT (the heat-stress number that combines temperature, humidity, sun and wind) of 68.6°F (20.3°C). The other hot editions were 2003, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017 and 2023. This year's median was 4:28:55. For the year-by-year record, see NYC Marathon weather history.
What the Results Can't Say
The field was younger, and at every age it ran slower than 2025's, on a day we priced at under 1%. NYRR's results hold finish times, ages and hometowns. They have no splits and no training history, so they can't say why. Next November will show whether the slowdown repeats.
Run It Yourself
The race page lets you put in your goal and your wave and see what the conditions do to your pace. Mile-by-mile weather for your own run is part of the race plan. Our look at what the wave gap is worth in heat prices the wave gap against this year's forecast.
More NYC Marathon Guides
- NYC Marathon Weather History: What the race-day data shows, year by year.
- NYC Marathon Start Waves: What the gap between waves is worth in heat.
- New York City Marathon race page: Put in your goal and wave.