Here Are The Average Marathon Finishing Times In 2024: We’re Getting Slower

Marathon finish times can stir up a lot of opinions, especially when people start throwing around blanket stats. So let’s start with one: 4:25:33 — that’s the median marathon finish time in the U.S. for 2024.

But does that really tell us anything useful? Not really.

To make sense of that number, you need to dig into who’s running those times: their age, their gender, and whether they’re racing hard or just hoping to finish.

Luckily, running stats nerd Brian Rock did exactly that. He pulled together a massive dataset from over 400,000 finishers across 251 U.S. marathons, breaking down performance by age and gender and looking at how things have changed since last year.

And it turns out, the story behind the numbers is way more interesting than just a single finish time.

Let’s unpack what it all means.

The Data: Where This Info Comes From

Rock’s project is part of a broader effort to track Boston Marathon qualifying times, but in the process, he built a ridiculously robust dataset. He pulled results from marathons with at least 200 finishers and cleaned the data to remove duplicates (people who ran multiple races).

What was left: 403,078 unique finishers.

Instead of leaning on average times (which can get skewed by outliers), Rock used median times — a much more honest look at where most runners actually fall.

So, What’s the “Average” Marathon Finish Time?

If you had to put a number on it:

• Men: 4:14:00
• Women: 4:41:00

But those numbers flatten a lot of nuance. A 28-year-old and a 58-year-old don’t run the same race, and Rock’s age breakdown makes that clear:

• Men 25–44: Roughly 4:05
• Women 25–44: About 4:33

Age Group	Men Median	Women Median
25-29	4:06:41	4:31:43
35-39	4:04:26	4:36:10
55-59	4:29:00	5:03:00
75-79	6:00+	6:45+

Things slow down steadily as age goes up — nothing shocking there. But it’s helpful context when you hear people toss around finish time numbers like everyone should be breaking four hours.

Are We Slowing Down?

Here’s the twist: Compared to 2023, finish times actually got a little faster in 2024.

Yup. Despite the sport welcoming a ton of new runners (many of them younger), average times nudged down. For example:

• Men 35–39: From 4:08:39 in 2023 to 4:04:26 in 2024
• Women 20–24: From 4:32:47 to 4:28:48

Rock points out this could mean either returning runners trained harder… or new runners showing up already better prepared. Either way, it bucks the stereotype that marathons are being overrun by undertrained TikTok runners.

But Zoom Out: We Are Slower Than 15 Years Ago

According to RunRepeat and World Athletics, global marathon finish times have gradually gotten slower since the early 2000s:

• 2001 global average: ~4:21
• 2019 global average: ~4:32

That dip is likely tied to the running boom. As marathons became more mainstream, the average finish time naturally crept up. More people chasing a finish line than a finish time.

“The marathon has become an experience rather than a competition,” says Jens Jakob Andersen from RunRepeat.

And honestly, that’s not a bad thing.

Who’s Finishing When: The Distribution

Rock didn’t just stop at averages. He dug into when people finished, minute by minute.

Some highlights:

• For men, big spikes land around 3:00, 3:30, and 4:00.
• For women, most finishers come in between 4:00 and 5:00, with a long tail stretching out past 6 hours.

This is useful because it counters a common belief: that loads of people are strolling to the finish after 6:30. In reality, more men finished under 3:00 than finished over 6:30. The slowest group is actually pretty small.

What Counts as Fast in 2024?

If you’re wondering where you stack up, Rock calculated the top 10% times by age group:

• Men 30-34, 90th percentile: Just under 3:00
• Women 30-34, 90th percentile: 3:27:46

So if you’re a 42-year-old guy running sub-3:10 or a 38-year-old woman finishing under 3:30, you’re in rare company. That’s not just above average. That’s top-tier amateur.

The Rise of the Young and Fast

Maybe the most interesting trend? Runners in their 20s and 30s are not just signing up — they’re actually running fast.

This generation of marathoners is:

• Plugged into training culture via Strava, YouTube, and Instagram
• Leaning into accountability through running clubs like the November Project and Latinas Run
• Motivated by the cultural wave of marathoning as identity (see: Tracksmith and HOKA vibes)

In short: the kids are alright. And they’re running 26.2 miles at a clip.

So… Are We Getting Slower?

If you asked 20 different runners, you’d probably get 20 different answers. But according to Brian Rock’s 2024 data:

• We’re slightly faster than last year
• But slower than a generation ago

And that’s okay. Because the real story here isn’t just about pace, it’s about participation.

More people are running marathons than ever before, and the majority fall somewhere between chasing PRs and chasing personal milestones.

“You’re running your race,” Rock writes. “You don’t need to measure your goal time against other people.”

Whether you finish in 3 hours or 6, you’re part of something bigger. And based on the trends, that finish line is only getting more crowded.