The TCS New York City Marathon is considered to be one of the most popular races of the year. Each Fall, tens of thousands of runners flood the streets of NYC. But next year, things may not be the same, as enforcing strict rules for the race is making it more complicated for the runners to enter.

With over 200,000 applications from around 150 countries for a limited number of non-guaranteed spots, the race’s acceptance rate has sunk to just 2–3% in 2025. And that makes the race statistically harder to get into than top universities like Harvard. And that figure only applies to the open lottery. After all, most of the 55,000+ spots are reserved for time qualifiers, charity runners, and guaranteed NYRR programs. The acceptance rate has been dropping really fast. In 2022, 84,000 people appli

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