This weekend, I published an analysis of the new Boston Marathon qualifying times – and whether they hit certain age groups harder than others. As I concluded that analysis, I noticed that the distribution of runners in the Boston Marathon and across all marathons in the United States were quite different. The 45-49 age group … Read more
Last week was the first in my transition from the Fred Lebow Half to my goal races for the spring: the NYC Half and the Jersey City Marathon. It didn’t go great, and I’m hoping this week goes better. In last week’s long run, I bombed out on the tempo sections. So this week, I’m … Read more
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
This spring, I’ve got two big goal races: the United NYC Half Marathon in March and the Jersey City Marathon in April. I ran the Fred Lebow Half Marathon last month, and from late December through January, that’s what I was “training” for. Although it wasn’t really long enough to be a solid training cycle. … 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
The best time to run a marathon is either in the spring or the fall. The weather is (usually) mild. Because who would want to run a marathon in the freezing cold of January? The only problem with this is that to run a marathon you’ve got to train. And that involves running consistently for … 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
I don’t remember how I came across , but it piqued my interest right away. Despite the fact that women make up an increasingly large share of marathon runners – in some cases making up a clear majority in the younger age groups – the world of marathon training still tends to be male dominated. … 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
Gels (and carbs) are all the rage these days. And for good reason. Taking fuel during a marathon is helpful. There’s plenty of scholarly and anecdotal evidence for that. But sometimes – maybe often – I find that people are hyper focused on fueling strategies and gels, and as a result when they diagnose problems … Read more