We’re getting to the end of the qualifying period for the 2026 Boston Marathon, and all signs are pointing towards a cutoff time in excess of five minutes. But there’s one big unanswered question that could influence where things actually land: how much do the results of the Sydney Marathon matter? On the one hand, … Read more
The Richmond Marathon just sold out, and it’s not alone. It’s part of a broader trend that’s been developing the last few years along with the recent boom in marathon participation. I first noticed this over the summer, when Philly sold out months earlier than usual. Just a couple of weeks later, Twin Cities followed … Read more
The Abbott World Marathon Majors are a series of seven races, including the Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City Marathon and – as of 2025 – Sydney Marathons. The Six Star Finishers are people who have finished the original six races (not including Sydney). The host, Abbott, maintains a Hall of Fame with … Read more
For the past nine months, I’ve tracked data about the number of finishers and qualifiers at marathons around the world to project the likely cutoff time for the 2026 Boston Marathon. With the qualifying period winding down, that projection has stabilized around 5:30. A common – and fair – critique of the methodology behind this … Read more
Last month, I noticed that the Philly Marathon and Twin Cities Marathon had both sold out earlier than usual. That got me wondering how widespread of a phenomena this was, and last week I gathered the data on four more marathons: Colorado, Denver, Detroit, and Miami. As if to illustrate the point that races are … Read more
Feature image by Nils Huenerfuerst on Wikimedia Commons – CC BY 4.0. This summer, two popular marathons sold out far earlier than is typical: Philly and Twin Cities. In both cases, I saw someone ask – perplexed – if these races were really on pace to sell out. And days later, they were both full. … Read more
Feature photo by Ania Mendrek on Flickr – CC BY-ND 2.0. When I first attempted to predict the cutoff time for the 2025 Boston Marathon, I focused on calculating the difference in the number of qualifiers year-over-year. Although not all qualifiers will end up applying to Boston, I started with the assumption that there is … Read more
This week, the Boston Athletic Association dropped a bombshell of an announcement – that qualifying times from downhill marathons will be subject to an adjustment starting with the 2027 Boston Marathon. As the competition to get into Boston has become more intense, runners’ feelings about downhill marathons have become equally intense. Steep downhill races – … Read more
The dashboard below contains summaries of race reports from Reddit – specifically r/AdvancedRunning and r/Marathon_Training. It includes over 1,200 marathon race reports published since 2016. You can use the filters at the top to narrow down the list of race reports in the table on the left. Click on a specific race report in the … Read more
Feature Photo: By Whoisjohngalt – Own work, CC0, Link Last week, USATF announced the entry standard for the 2028 US Olympic Trials Marathon: 2:16 for men and 2:37 for women. The new men’s standard is two minutes lower than it was in 2024 (2:18). That was a minute faster than it was in 2016 and … Read more