The Chicago Marathon: Are the Fastest Runners Getting Faster?

Also, how has the age and composition of the field changed?

Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve been exploring the data around finishing times for marathon runners over the last few decades.

This project was spurred on by an article from Run Repeat — “American Runners Have Never Been Slower (Mega Study)”. As the title suggests, the article claims that American runners have been getting slower. And if you look at the average runner, that’s probably true.

But one claim in particular stuck in my craw — that that trend continued if you focused on the fastest runners finishing at the front of any given race.

This led me down a rabbit hole in search of data to refute or confirm this claim. You can read some more about the background in this introductory post, where you’ll also find links to all of the articles in this series.

So far, I’ve looked at data on finishers from the Boston and New York City Marathons. Today, we’re going to focus on the last World Marathon Major in the United States — Chicago.

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