It’s July, and the Philadelphia Marathon is still months away. But if you’ve been on the fence about registering for the race, it’s too late. Philly is officially sold out.
A couple weeks ago, I saw someone post online that the race was at 95% capacity. They had been thinking about registering, and didn’t realize it was so full. They asked if it had filled up this quick previously.
Then, this week, came the official announcement that the race was at capacity. Was this earlier than previous years? I was curious, so I dug back through the history to find out.
When Does the Philly Marathon Usually Sell Out?
This year, the Philadelphia Marathon announced that it was sold out on July 4, 2025. That’s more than four months out from the late November race date. That’s definitely earlier than last year.
I used the Wayback Machine to look at changes to the Philly Marathon homepage in 2024, and the marathon wasn’t listed as sold out until September. When I scrolled through their Facebook feed, there was an announcement from September 5, 2024 that the race was at capacity.
What about 2023? That year, registration for the race remained open until early November. It wasn’t until November 8, 2023 that they posted on Facebook that the race was at capacity.
I ran the Philly Marathon back in 2022. It was only my second race, and I remember thinking about when and whether I should actually register. I ended up pulling the trigger over the summer and making the commitment, but I wasn’t that worried it would sell out.
And it didn’t. Registration was set to close on November 7, just under two weeks before race day. They announced on Facebook that due to overwhelming demand, they would extend the registration deadline until November 9. So although the race was on the upswing at that point, it wasn’t at the point of selling out.
The Popularity of the Philly Marathon Over the Years
So the Philly Marathon sold out much more quickly this year than it has in the past. This got me thinking about the history of the race. I forget what I was working on, but I remember looking at the data and the race used to be much more popular ten or fifteen years ago, but it’s size tapered off in the years leading up to COVID.
Here’s the number of finishers over the years, starting in 2000. The modern race started in 1994, but that’s the earliest year that I have data for.
The race grew steadily until it peaked in 2012 at over 11,000 finishers. And the next few years, it dropped just as steadily.
The number of finishers declined year over year until 2017, when there were just 7,716 finishers. At that point, the race likely wasn’t even in the top ten anymore.
There was a rebound in 2018 and 2019, but COVID put a damper on that in 2021 and 2022.
Then came 2023. The race sold out, and there were again over 11,000 finishers. The next year, it sold out again – and quicker – and there were over 12,000 finishers.
If it’s sold out again, they likely capped the capacity at a similar level. So I wouldn’t expect the field to continue to get much bigger. But if it sells out earlier, that’s a sign that demand is rising and popularity is continuing to increase.
Just another data point in the story of how marathons are more popular today than they’ve been in a long time.