USA Marathons & Marathoners 2005

USA Marathoning: 2005 Overview
By MarathonGuide.com Staff

Each year, MarathonGuide.com has put out a report detailing the statistics of the year in USA marathoning. This year we went overboard by slicing and dicing the results in more and exciting ways. We love statistics and on this page you will find every bit of information that you might want to get a clear picture of the state of marathoning in the USA. You will find no other report this comprehensive or this accurate and we're proud to bring this to you exclusively on MarathonGuide.com.

Sections below: Total Finishers Largest Marathons Inaugural Marathons Finishing Times Marathon Seasonality

2005 Total USA Marathon Finishers 2005 saw a record number of marathon finishes in the USA, with a 5.9% growth in the number of marathon finishers from 2004 to 2005. More than 382,000 marathon finishing times were recorded in the USA in 2005 - an increase from more than 361,000 finishes in 2004. The number of male finishers increased by 5.1%, while the number of female finishers grew by 7.6%, narrowing the gender gap to 60% men and 40% women. In total, we know of 314 marathons that took place in the USA in 2005, up from an estimated 302 in 2004.

2005 Overall Demographics   Percent Avg. Age Avg. Time Men 60.0% 40.5 4:32:08 Women 40.0% 36.1 5:06:08 All Runners 100.0% 38.7 4:45:47

Historical Total USA Marathon Finishers
Marathoning in the USA continued its consistent upward growth in 2005 - furthering a trend that has been in place over recent years with the exception of a dip in 2001 due to the terrorist activities of 9/11. The past two years have seen the largest growth, both in percentage terms and total numbers with more than 20,000 additional marathon finishes added in each of the last two years. Of additional note is the continuing march toward equality in the number of male versus female marathon finishers.

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Total Finishers	299,000	295,000	324,000	334,000	362,000	382,000
Percent Male	62.5%	62.1%	61.5%	60.9%	60.5%	60.0%
Percent Female	37.5%	37.9%	38.5%	39.1%	39.5%	40.0%

2005 Largest USA Marathons
Both New York and Chicago did not increase their registration limits in 2005 and so continued with their respective ranking as number one and two marathons in the USA. The LA Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon each added more than 2,500 finishers - and the Nike 26.2 (which can't quite decide if it's a women's race or not) nearly doubled in size. Shaking up the top 25 rankings was the New Las Vegas Marathon, which as an inaugural event, debuted at number 8 and just missed the record for an inaugural event which was set by the Rock N Roll Arizona Marathon in 2004. In total, the country's 25 largest marathons, accounted for more than 70% of total marathon finishes in the USA in 2005.

Marathon Name	2005 Finishers	2005 Rank	2004 Rank	Growth 2004 to 2005
ING New York City Marathon	36,872	1	1	1.0%
Chicago Marathon	32,995	2	2	-0.1%
Honolulu Marathon	24,219	3	3	8.5%
City of Los Angeles Marathon	19,985	4	4	15.5%
Marine Corps Marathon	19,110	5	6	16.7%
Boston Marathon	17,549	6	5	4.8%
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon	15,934	7	7	-2.7%
New Las Vegas Marathon	8,186	8	N/A Inaugural Year
Twin Cities Marathon	7,753	9	10	6.1%
Disney World Marathon	7,726	10	9	-17.6%
Portland Marathon	7,201	11	13	23.3%
P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon	7,166	12	8	-24.4%
Grandma's Marathon	6,885	13	11	2.0%
Philadelphia Marathon	5,887	14	12	-4.9%
Houston Marathon	5,727	15	14	6.4%
Freescale Austin Marathon	4,967	16	15	-5.2%
San Francisco Marathon	4,873	17	25	82.9%
Nike Marathon	4,688	18	27	97.6%
St. George Marathon	4,610	19	16	0.5%
Columbus Marathon	3,786	20	18	-12.2%
Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon	3,741	21	17	-14.0%
Country Music Marathon	3,689	22	19	-8.5%
Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon	3,553	23	20	1.1%
SunTrust Richmond Marathon	3,532	24	21	10.0%
California International Marathon	3,249	25	23	9.7%

2005 USA Inaugural Marathons
There were approximately 28 inaugural marathons in 2005, most relatively small, with the exception of the New Las Vegas Marathon which opened with nearly 8,200 finishers. No other inaugural marathon saw over 1,000 finishers, but notable debuts included the Knoxville Marathon, Fargo Marathon, Rochester Marathon, Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon and the SeaFair Marathon.

2005 Age Group Breakdown AgeGroup Avg. Time Percent M0-19 5:04:39 1.17% M20-24 4:22:21 3.10% M25-29 4:24:42 6.03% M30-34 4:25:28 8.14% M35-39 4:22:45 9.72% M40-44 4:21:46 9.83% M45-49 4:26:23 8.37% M50-54 4:37:25 6.22% M55-59 4:49:04 3.82% M60+ 5:13:32 2.96% F0-19 5:46:58 0.86% F20-24 4:52:38 4.12% F25-29 4:54:45 7.49% F30-34 4:58:18 6.82% F35-39 4:55:37 6.59% F40-44 4:59:01 6.13% F45-49 5:11:46 4.20% F50-54 5:31:03 2.58% F55-59 5:48:39 1.17% F60+ 6:08:12 0.68%

Age Demographics Between 2004 and 2005, the average age of marathon finishers remained the same at 38.8 years-old overall - 40.5 years-old for men and 36.1 years-old for women. In 2005, the average finishing time was slower than 2004 by just over 20 seconds. Fastest Age Groups In keeping with historic trends, the fastest average age-group were men aged 40-44, with a mean finishing time of 4:21:46. Average times were negligibly slower (less than one minute) in the M20-34 age group (4:22:21) and the M35-39 age group (4:22:45). The women's fastest times were posted by 20-24-year olds, who averaged a time of 4:52:38 for their finishes. Largest Age Groups In addition to being the fastest age group, men aged 40-44 also represented the largest single age group for marathon runners in 2005, accounting for nearly 10% of all marathoners and more than 16% of male marathoners. For women, the largest group was females between ages 25-29 representing approximately 7.5% of all marathon finishers, and nearly 19% of all female finishers.

2005 Marathon Finishing Times Posted marathon times in the USA in 2005 ranged from 2:07:02 (Felix Limo at Chicago) to over 12 hours in a number of marathons. The chart at the right shows the breakdown of times from the fastest to the slowest. Fastest Marathoners Just 1.6% of all marathoners - about 6,300 - broke the 3 hour mark - a goal for the faster marathoners. Due to the sheer number of runners, the largest marathons accounted for the largest number of sub 3-hour finishes. Some races, however, had a disproportionate number of sub-3 hour performances. These marathons with more than 300 finishers had more than 4% of their finishers arrive in under 3 hours: Clarence Demar Marathon, Lincoln Marathon, Cape Cod Marathon, Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon, Rocket City Marathon, Glass City Marathon, California Marathon, Steamtown Marathon and Tucson Marathon. Not an easy course, the Yonkers Marathon with 121 finishers had 13 under 3 hours. Marathoners in the Middle The average time to complete the marathon distance - using net time where available and gun time where not - was 4:41:32 for all runners with a standard deviation of 1:05:28. For men, the average was 4:28:29 with a standard deviation of 1:01:03 and for women it was 5:01:06 with a standard deviation of 1:06:59. Standard deviation is a measure of how tightly grouped the data is and statistically, 68% of results will be between 1 standard deviation of the mean and 95% of results will be within 2 standard deviations of the mean.

2005 Finishing Times Finish Time* Finishers Percent 2:07:02-2:29:58 497 0.1% 2:30:00-2:59:59 5,741 1.5% 3:00:00-3:29:59 30,910 8.1% 3:30:00-3:59:59 72,942 19.0% 4:00:00-4:29:59 80,285 21.0% 4:30:00-5:59:59 73,307 19.1% 5:00:00-5:29:59 46,245 12.1% 5:30:00-5:59:59 29,751 7.8% 6:00:00-6:29:59 16,699 4.4% 6:30:00-6:59:59 12,001 3.1% 7:00:00-7:29:59 6,267 1.6% 7:30:00-7:59:59 3,996 1.0% 8:00:00-8:29:59 1,973 0.5% 8:30:00-8:59:59 1,185 0.3% 9:00:00+ 1,212 0.3% *based on chip time, when available

Marathoners over 7 hours
Many marathons enforce a course closing time of six or seven hours, forcing a limit to the maximum time that can be achieved. Some marathons have a more liberal course closing policy, and indeed some of the "slowing" of the average marathon times over the years can be directly attributed to the number of slow marathoners that are participating in just a few marathons. In 2005, 14,633 marathoners crossed the finish line in over 7:00. That should be expected in marathons like the Pikes Peak Marathon (509 over 7:00) and the Bataan Memorial Death March (997 over 7:00) which includes a category where participants carry a 40 pound pack on their back. More than half of the total marathoners over seven hours, however, can be attributed directly to the Honolulu Marathon (4,807 over 7:00) and the LA Marathon (2,777 over 7:00).

Marathon Seasonality
More than 50% of all marathon finishes took place during the 4th quarter of the year (October, November, December) with October being the busiest month accounting for more than one-quarter of all marathon finishes. September accounted for the second largest number of marathons but the third fewest number of participants - an anomaly underlining the large number of smaller races that take place during that month.