The New York City Marathon reaches the Bronx on Sunday, November 1, and for the first time in 15 years the runners will take a different set of streets through Mott Haven. New York Road Runners, which organizes the race, changed the Bronx section of the course this year, the same year the five-borough route turns 50. The first five-borough marathon was run on October 24, 1976.

The change is short, a few blocks, but it moves the race onto streets that have not seen it before and off others that have carried it for more than a decade.

The new Bronx route, turn by turn

Runners still enter the borough over the Willis Avenue Bridge from Manhattan. From there, according to the course published by New York Road Runners:

  • A left onto East 135th Street.
  • A right onto Alexander Avenue, staying on Alexander as it heads north.
  • A left onto East 141st Street. In past years runners turned left earlier, at East 138th Street.
  • A left onto Third Avenue.
  • A right onto East 138th Street, then over the Madison Avenue Bridge and back into Manhattan for the last stretch toward Central Park.

New York Road Runners says it made the change to reduce the race's impact on the Bronx as the neighborhood around the course has changed. Mott Haven has added a great deal of new housing and retail along Alexander Avenue and the streets near the bridges in recent years.

When the runners come through

The race starts in Staten Island in stages, and New York Road Runners notes that start times can change. The published schedule:

  • 8:00 a.m.: men's professional wheelchair division, with the women's at 8:02.
  • 8:22 a.m.: handcycles and select athletes with disabilities.
  • 8:35 a.m.: professional women.
  • 9:05 a.m.: professional men.
  • 9:10, 9:45, 10:20, 10:55 and 11:30 a.m.: the five waves of the general field.

The Bronx comes late in the race, after Brooklyn, Queens and First Avenue in Manhattan, so the wheelchair leaders arrive first in the morning and the general field keeps passing through Mott Haven well into the afternoon. New York Road Runners does not publish arrival times for individual stretches of the course.

Watching from Mott Haven

Watching is free, and most of the course is open to spectators from mile 3 to mile 26. The official rules for spectators:

  • No one may watch from a bridge, so the Willis Avenue and Madison Avenue bridges are off limits. The streets around them are not.
  • Stay behind the tape and barricades along the course.
  • No amplified speakers, and no drones.

The nearest subway stations to the Bronx stretch, as marked on the official course map, are 3rd Avenue-138th Street and Brook Avenue on the 6 train, and 138th Street-Grand Concourse on the 4 and 5. New York Road Runners recommends checking service on the MTA's site before heading out, since the race weekend brings detours.

The Bronx has no official cheer zone on the race's viewing list. The closest is the Charity Cheer Zone at First Avenue and 120th Street in East Harlem, just across the Willis Avenue Bridge.

If you are watching from home

The race airs on WABC-TV Channel 7 locally and on ESPN2 nationally from 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. Runners who cross the finish line by 10 p.m. are counted as official finishers.

Sources