Last week, I put together an analysis showing the average marathon times of runners throughout the United States in 2024. A question tangential to that analysis was how the average finish times changed from 2023 to 2024. Specifically, as I’ve analyzed data for the Boston Marathon Cutoff Tracker, I’ve noticed that a slightly higher percentage … Read more
Since the fall, I’ve been collecting data to project the cutoff time for the 2026 Boston Marathon. I’ve put together a Tableau dashboard to help you explore the data in real time, which you can play with here. While that tracker is updated on a weekly basis, I take a step back from time to … Read more
Ever wonder what the average marathon time was? Well here’s a meaningless number: 4:25:33. That’s the average time for all marathon finishers in 2024. But marathon performance varies quite a bit along two dimensions: age and gender. If you don’t group runners by age and gender, that average tells you more about who the runners … Read more
Last week, two runners set new American records in the half marathon in Houston – Conner Mantz and Weini Kelati. This was hyped up. When the Houston Marathon Committee announced the professional field for the race, they called out both Kelati and Mantz as contenders. Although Kelati only made a vague reference to “hop[ing] this … Read more
The Houston Marathon is the premier event of the early marathon season in the United States. From January to March, it’s one of the biggest races in the country – and it’s known for having a flat course and a fast field. This year’s race made the news for the half marathon. Conner Mantz set … Read more
The Abbott World Marathon Majors are more popular than ever. The original five races – Boston, New York, Chicago, London, and Berlin – has now been expanded to a total of seven races. Tokyo joined the list in 2013 and, starting in 2025, the Sydney Marathon will also be an official Major. These races attract … Read more
The Tableau dashboard below collects data from marathons, tracks the number of finishers who meet their Boston qualifying time, and projects an estimated cutoff time for the 2026 Boston Marathon. It will be updated regularly throughout the year, through the registration period in September 2025. For more details on the data, the assumptions, and other … Read more
Last week, I published a brief analysis of the Valencia Marathon’s field – comparing it to other large races like Berlin, Chicago, and London. The takeaway – the Valencia Marathon has more sub-3:00 finishers than any other race in the world. Drilling down to young men, it has a very high percentage of runners going … Read more
Finding good stats on the largest marathons in the United States is – for some reason – difficult. A few years ago, I found myself looking for a list of the largest races. What I ended up finding was a bunch of listicles with mixed and match different methodologies of counting. Some races include multiple … Read more
The Valencia Marathon has a reputation for being fast. Still, I was a surprised when I saw a headline that there were over 5,000 runners finishing sub-3:00 at this year’s race. Just how fast was this year’s Valencia Marathon? Most of my data analysis has focused on American marathons, plus the Abbott World Majors. Although … Read more