2008 USA Men's Olympic Marathon Trials - The Course
by MarathonGuide.com Staff

The Full Course The Olympic Trials Course begins in Rockefeller Center near 5th Avenue and 50th St. - outside NBC Studios where the Today Show is hosted. The idea for the start is to increase visibility for our sport by having the start aired on a live National show. After the start, runners will take a non-direct route to enter Central Park just over one mile into the run. The majority of the run takes place in Central Park where the runners will first run a four mile loop and then run 4 five mile loops to complete the 26.2 miles to end at the Tavern on The Green - the traditional ending point for the New York City Marathon. Click For Larger View

The Loop The majority of the marathon course takes place in a series of clockwise 5-mile loops of Central Park. Central Park covers the area from 59th Street to 110th Street, but to avoid the hilliest section of the Park, the loop skips the section from 102nd to 110th Street and crosses from the West Side to the East at the 102nd Street cutoff. To reach the correct distance, the first loop is shortened as the runners cross the Park at 72nd St. Each of the last four subsequent laps covering the entire five mile loop. Click For Larger View

The Loop Profile The profile chart below - shows in exaggerated detail the hill structure of the five mile loop. Runners will experience a group of hills on the West Side of the Park from 77th St. to 90th St. on the West Side of the Park, and then a more gradual and shorter incline from 102nd St. to 92nd St. on the East side. From there, the runners experience a relatively flat section before reaching a downhill stretch that begins at 84th St. on the East Side and becomes quite steep down from 79th St. to 72nd St. The course is challenging and it is expected that the runners will be affected by the hills on the last laps. Click For Larger View