The History of the London Marathon Told by the Data

How have the field and finish times at this race changed through the years?

Photo by Dan Huddleston on Wikimedia Commons. Creative Common License: CC BY-SA 4.0

A few months ago, I wrote a series of articles exploring twenty years of data related to American marathons.

As part of that series, I did a deep dive on the three World Marathon Majors in the United States — Boston, Chicago, and New York.

Comparing the American Marathon Majors: Boston, NYC, and Chicago

At the time, a few readers asked about the history of the London Marathon, but my focus was American marathons. In part, that was the product of convenience. I had ready access to data on American marathons — but I was finding it more difficult to gather data on races from around the world.

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But it’s been on my to-do list. And since the London Marathon happened this past weekend, it seems like a good time to finally get down to it.