The History of the Berlin Marathon, According to the Data
An exploration of twenty-five years’ worth of results
This weekend, over 50,000 runners are set to participate in the Berlin Marathon. It’s the 50th anniversary of the race, which started in 1974. And it will be the largest marathon in Berlin’s history — by quite a margin.
In the past year, I’ve used data to explore the history of the other World Marathon Majors, including Boston, New York, Chicago, and London. This seemed like as good of a time as any to explore the history of Berlin.
I’ve collected twenty-five years’ worth of race results, dating back to 1999. I had some issues collecting data for earlier editions of the race, but twenty-five years’ worth of data is good enough to give us a good sense of things.
So let’s dive in and see what the data can tell us.
The Growth of the Berlin Marathon
The first Berlin Marathon was held in 1974. Like most races of that time period, it was pretty small. There were 244 finishers — 234 men and 10 women.
