Marathon average time for women and men

You want to know what marathon time is run on average?

Of course, that depends on what data is used for this analysis. For example, Germany runs much faster marathon times on average than the United States of America.

What marathon time do you have to run to be average?

We already analyzed you average time at the biggest marathon events a few years ago. We came to the following result:

Men: 3:50 hours
Women: 4:13 hours

The average age was 42.3 years (men) and 41.4 years (women). The results of almost 10,000 runners were analyzed and the differences in age groups were also evaluated.

A worldwide marathon study by World Athletics, on the other hand, determined an average marathon time of 4:29:53 hours (men: 4:21:03 hours, women: 4:48:45 hours). However, the average times at marathon events in countries like Austria, Germany and Switzerland are significantly faster, at least if you exclude mountain marathons. Just consider that in some marathon events the time limit is 5 or 5:30 hours, just above the global average for women. Accordingly, there would then be many DNF (Did not finish) in Austria or Germany. For runners from Germany or Austria, the first mentioned average times are therefore more relevant.

The fastest marathon nations

However, in the worldwide study, the results in the individual countries were mentioned anyway. With the following result:

Switzerland is No. 1 with an average time of 3:50 hours
Austria with 4:10 hours and Germany with 4:11 hours are also among the top 15 nations
The USA is slower than average with 4:41 hours
The slowest marathon nations are Mexico (4:53), India (5:05) and the Philippines (5:25)

Given that countries like the U.S., Mexico and India made up a not insignificant portion of the global analysis, the overall average times are therefore unsurprisingly high.

How many participants run the marathon in under 3 hours?

The www.marathon-ergebnis.de/LaufzeitCluster.html site collects and analyzes results for the majority of German marathon events. The division into clusters is interesting. We took a closer look at the data from 2019:

3.78% of men run the marathon in under 3 hours
0.64% of women run the marathon in under 3 hours.

How many participants run the marathon in under 4 hours?

50.32 % of men run the marathon in under 4 hours
27.19% of women run the marathon in under 4 hours

The 50 percent mark for women is approximately 4:25 hours

How many participants run the marathon in under 5 hours?

89.83% of men run the marathon in under 5 hours
79.51% of women run the marathon in under 5 hours

More interesting analysis is possible on this page also in terms of age groups.

Marathon average time for women

The marathon average time for women is 4:13 hours (source: HDsports).

Marathon average time men

The marathon average time for men is 3:50 hours (source: HDsports).

Marathon average time in the age groups

The Running Level page was used as a source. It should be noted that the average times (3:49:37 | men: 3:36:17 | women: 4:10:19 hours) are slightly above the average values for Austria and Germany or on the level of the leader Switzerland (source World Athletics). Therefore, these values are possibly a bit too high.

Marathon average times men in the age groups:

up to 30 years: 3:36:17 hours
35 years: 3:37:29
40 years: 3:34:04
45 years: 3:52:18
50 years: 4:02:25
55 years: 4:13:29
60 years: 4:25:35
65 years: 4:38:54
70 years: 4:53:38
75 years: 5:13:47
80 years: 5:46:21

Marathon average times ladies in age groups:

up to 30 years: 4:10:19 hours
35 years: 4:11:18
40 years: 4:16:25
45 years: 4:26:26
50 years: 4:42:08
55 years: 5:00:54
60 years: 5:22:19
65 years: 5:47:02
70 years: 6:15:51
75 years: 6:50:09
80 years: 7:42:41

Half marathon average time

The aforementioned global study by World Athletics analyzed data not only from marathon events, but also from half marathons. According to this, an average time of 2:00:55 hours was determined for the half marathon.

So anyone who runs the 21.1 kilometers in under two hours is an above-average runner.