New York City Marathon to prompt street closures in all 5 boroughs

Crowds cheering on 50,000 runners will converge Sunday on New York City, closing streets in all five boroughs.

The 26.2-mile race, which is expected to attract double the number of 25,000 runners who ran the race last year, will start at 8 a.m. Sunday at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island.

The course will run over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, through Brooklyn and Queens to the Queensboro Bridge up First Avenue on the Upper East Side to 138th Street in the Bronx and back down Fifth Avenue on the Upper West Side to the finish line at Runners Grove in Central Park.

The NYPD has announced a series of road closures starting at 7 a.m. and running until 6 p.m. Runners will be screened by security and were given clear bags before the race. Spectators will also be subject to metal detector screenings and bag checks at the finish line.

The men’s wheelchair group will kick off the race at 8 a.m., leading up to professional women at 8:40 a.m., professional men at 9 a.m. and waves of runners at the starting line until 11:30 a.m.

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge will be closed to all traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and the upper level of the bridge will close in both directions starting at 11 p.m. Saturday.

Subway outages are also planned throughout the day to support runners and spectators in getting to the race.

Long Island Rail Road trains will be running through the weekend, but buses will replace trains between Port Washington and Bayside.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.