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 table on the left to bring up the details on the right. Those details include a link to read the full race report on Reddit.
Keep reading below the dashboard for more information on the data and how it was prepared.
How Was the Data Prepared?
The raw data came from Reddit. Historical data was obtained from Academic Torrents and additional data will continue to be scraped directly form Reddit via PRAW on a daily basis.
First, all posts were collected from r/AdvancedRunning and r/Marathon_Training. Then, these posts were narrowed down to posts containing the phrase “Race Report” in either the title or the body. Finally, posts before January 1, 2016 were excluded.
An LLM (Google’s Gemma 3) was used to convert this unstructured data into structured data. The prompt instructed the model to act as a research assistant, read the race report, answer a series of questions, and reduce the data to a specific JSON format.
The questions included:
- Name and distance of the race
- Age and gender of the runner
- Training plan and peak weekly mileage
- Weather conditions on race day
- Finish time
- Primary and secondary goals — and achievement of those goals
- Details about tune up races
- Number of marathons previously run
- Summary of injuries or problems arising throughout training
As a result of the use of AI, there will be some inconsistencies in the data. On a large scale, it is very useful for summarizing unstructured data, but it does make mistakes. If you are interested in a specific report, it’s always important to refer back to the original source.
In the future, I plan to add a feature to report a report that has been improperly summarized, so I can update the data.
Why Would You Use This Dashboard?
I can think of a few reasons to explore these race reports:
- To scout out a specific race
- To understand people’s experiences with a specific training plan
- To understand how other runners train (and inform your own training)
Before I ran the Philadelphia Marathon back in 2022, I read through several race reports on Reddit. It was a great way to better understand the course and the logistics of the race. At the time, I relied on Google to find reports – but with this dashboard, it’s much easier to filter down to a specific race.
When people write race reports, they often describe their training. If they used a specific training plan, like Pfitz or Jack Daniels, they’ll discuss that and their experience with the plan. Often, people want to know how other runners experienced a plan. This is a great way to understand that in context.
Finally, you may be part of a small group of runners – say fast women, or very fast men – and want to read reports from other runners like you. This dashboard enables you to filter by age, gender, and finish time to find similar runners – and read their reports. Otherwise, these reports can be drowned out by the average experience of runners in these subreddits.
How Can You Dig Deeper Into the Data?
I’ve done the work to collect and analyze this data, but I would encourage you to dig deeper and analyze it on your own. I’m also no expert in AI – this was more of an experiment than anything – so I invite you to improve on my summarization technique.
The raw data – divided into two files (the original Reddit posts and the AI summaries) – as well as the code is available in this public repo on Github. I’ll add more documentation when I get a chance, but feel free to fork the repo and use it or improve on it.
I also plan to improve on this dashboard over time. If there are specific questions or suggestions that you have, please leave a comment below and let me know.
How Can You Help With This Project?
If you want to contribute to this public base of knowledge – and you’re not technically proficient – then the best thing you can do is write about your experience as a runner.
Run a marathon and write up a race report on r/AdvancedRunning or r/Marathon_Training. I have a script running that checks both subreddits for new race reports, and I’ll incorporate new reports into this dashboard on a regular basis.
You may not think anyone is interested in your experience – but you never know. There may be someone out there interested in the same race or the same training. Or just looking for more runners like them.
In particular, analyzing this data has highlighted the dearth of race reports from female runners – so I would particularly encourage women to write about their experiences.
And it’ll likely benefit you, as well. Personally, I find it very helpful to reflect on a race 24-48 hours after it’s over. I jot down some notes in the immediate aftermath, let it simmer, and then write up a report the next day. It really helps me think about what went right or want went wrong – and make adjustments in training or execution for future races.