70 free New York City Marathon trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This New York City Marathon trivia quiz covers the world's largest marathon from its first running in 1970, when 127 runners looped Central Park and only 55 finished, to today's five-borough spectacle that starts on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and ends beside Tavern on the Green. It takes in the founders and pioneers (Fred Lebow, Ted Corbitt, Vince Chiappetta, Nina Kuscsik and the NYC Six, Dick Traum's prosthetic leg), the champions (Bill Rodgers, Grete Waitz's nine wins, Alberto Salazar, Paula Radcliffe, Meb Keflezighi, Shalane Flanagan, Mary Keitany, Geoffrey Mutai and Tamirat Tola), and the stories every runner tells: Rosie Ruiz, Wrong Way Silva, Rod Dixon catching Geoff Smith at the finish, and the closest finish in race history. There are also questions on the course itself, mile by mile through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, on the lottery and the 9+1 program, the wheelchair division, the two cancellations, the sponsors and broadcasters, and the celebrities who have run it. Some questions any spectator on First Avenue could answer; others are for people who know their splits. Every answer has been checked against primary sources, chiefly the Wikipedia articles on the race and its champions, and each explanation adds one further detail. If you want the sport more broadly, try our general marathon quiz too.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the first New York City Marathon held?
1970
George Spitz dreamed it up, Fred Lebow and Vince Chiappetta organized it, and only about 100 people watched.
Q 02How many runners finished the first New York City Marathon in 1970?
55
Gary Muhrcke won in 2:31:38 after several loops of Central Park's Park Drive.
Q 03Who won the first New York City Marathon?
Gary Muhrcke
His time was 2:31:38 on the Central Park course measured by Ted Corbitt.
Q 04Who was the only woman to enter the first New York City Marathon in 1970?
Nina Kuscsik
She fell ill and dropped out at 15 miles, but won the race in 1972.
Q 05The 'NYC Six' protested a 1972 rule requiring women to start how long before the men?
Ten minutes
They sat down at the start holding signs, then ran with the men; the rule was dropped later that year.
Q 06Norbert Sander and Kathrine Switzer, the 1974 winners, share what distinction?
Only New York City residents to win the race
Bill Rodgers, a future four-time champion, was fifth that year among 259 finishers.
Q 07Kathrine Switzer became the first officially registered woman to run which race in 1967?
Boston Marathon
Race manager Jock Semple tried to tear off her bib number mid-race.
Q 08Who proposed that the race traverse all five boroughs to celebrate the US bicentennial in 1976?
Ted Corbitt
What was meant as a one-off became the permanent course, with Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton's support.
Q 09Who won the first five-borough marathon in 1976 in a course-record 2:10:10?
Bill Rodgers
He beat Olympic silver medalist Frank Shorter by more than three minutes and would win four straight.
Q 10Dick Traum made history at the 1976 race by becoming the first person to complete a marathon with what?
A prosthetic leg
He went on to found the Achilles Track Club, now Achilles International, in 1983.
Q 11Which Norwegian broke the women's world record in her 1978 New York debut with 2:32:30?
Grete Waitz
She went on to win the race an unprecedented nine times.
Q 12How many New York City Marathons did the Norwegian champion of 1978 win in total?
Nine
It is the most wins in any single big-city marathon in history; the 10K 'Grete's Great Gallop' honors her.
Q 13In 1979 the reigning women's champion became the first woman to break what barrier in the marathon?
2:30
Her 2:27:33 came on the day the race first topped 10,000 finishers.
Rosie Ruiz's mistaken 1979 New York finish time qualified her for which race, where her fraud was exposed?
Q 21In 1992 the nine-time women's champion ran the whole race beside founder Fred Lebow to mark what?
His 60th birthday
Lebow had brain cancer; they finished together in 5:32:35 and he died in 1994.
Q 22Fred Lebow, founder of the race, was born under what name in Arad, Romania?
Fischel Lebowitz
A Holocaust survivor, he presided over the race's growth from 55 finishers to more than 50,000.
Q 23Which 1994 winner earned the nickname 'Wrong Way' after a detour seven-tenths of a mile from the finish?
Germán Silva
He ran a 5:15 final mile including the detour and beat Paredes by two seconds.
1980 Boston Marathon
It was determined she had not run the full course in either race.
Q 15Alberto Salazar's 2:09:41 win in 1980 was notable as what?
The fastest marathon debut by an American
He defended his title in 1981 and 1982.
Q 16Why was Alberto Salazar's 1981 'world best' of 2:08:13 later rescinded?
The course was measured about 150 metres short
Salazar blamed poor crowd control that forced him to run wide on turns.
Q 17In 1983 Rod Dixon of New Zealand caught which Englishman at the 26-mile mark to win by nine seconds?
Geoff Smith
Dixon, a 1972 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist, had been two and a half minutes behind with 10 km to go.
Q 18Orlando Pizzolato won the hot 1984 race despite stopping how many times with heat cramps?
Six
His 2:14:53 was the slowest winning time since 1976, and he repeated more easily in 1985.
Q 19From 1984 to 1986 the men's winner came from which country three years running?
Italy
Pizzolato won twice and Gianni Poli won in 1986, the first year the race was held in November.
Q 20Who in 1987 became the first African man to win the New York City Marathon?
Ibrahim Hussein
Priscilla Welch of Britain won the women's race that year while Waitz sat out.
Q 24Tegla Loroupe's 1994 victory made her the first woman from where to win the race?
Africa
She repeated in 1995, the coldest race ever, with a 40-degree start and wind chills in the upper 20s.
Q 25An official wheelchair division was first included in the New York City Marathon in what year?
2000
Prize money followed in 2001, and elite women got a 35-minute head start from 2002.
Q 26Tesfaye Jifar's 2001 course record of 2:07:43, set weeks after 9/11, stood until who broke it in 2011?
Geoffrey Mutai
Mutai ran 2:05:06 and became the first man to win Boston and New York in course-record time in the same year.
Q 27Which woman's 2003 course record of 2:22:31 stood for many years?
Margaret Okayo
She had set the previous record of 2:24:21 in 2001.
Q 28Which rapper ran the 2003 race for charity and raised $2 million for New York City schools?
P. Diddy
The race that year drew a record 34,729 participants.
Q 29The closest finish in race history came in 2005 when Paul Tergat beat Hendrick Ramaala by how much?
One second
Ramaala had won the year before, and Paula Radcliffe's 2004 win by four seconds had been the previous closest.
Q 30Marílson Gomes dos Santos, the 2006 and 2008 winner, was the first champion from where?
South America
He beat Stephen Kiogora and defending champion Paul Tergat in 2006.