Recently, I’ve been exploring data on marathons.
I published a series of articles on Medium, exploring trends in finish times. The short version: runners at American marathons have been getting faster over the last twenty years, if you compare similar types of runners.
You can find the first article in the series, along with links to the other articles, here: A Deep Dive Into Marathon Data.
In order to perform my analysis and inform my writing, I’ve amassed a large dataset. This data comes from the following sources:
- Boston Marathon Data Project – Boston Marathon Results through 2019
- Boston Athletic Association – More recent Boston Marathon results
- New York Road Runners – NYC Marathon Results (All years)
- Chicago Marathon – Chicago Marathon Results (1996 – Present)
- Marathon Guide – Other marathons, results from 2000 – Present
- Athlinks – Some marathons not available on Marathon Guide
- NOAA / NCEI: Local Climatological Data – Historical weather data
I will edit this page later to add details about how to access the actual data to conduct your own analysis.