What’s Going On With American Marathoners? Are They Speeding Up or Slowing Down?

Let’s use data from six of the largest races in the United States to help determine how runners in different subgroups are performing.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been taking a deep dive into data from some of the biggest marathon races in the United States.

This journey was prompted by a discussion around an article claiming that America’s marathoners were slower than ever. In particular, this article claimed that even the fastest runners in a race were getting slower.

I was ready to believe that average times were increasing — with more participation from newer, less experienced runners. But I just wasn’t ready to believe that experienced runners were actually getting slower over time.

It just didn’t make any sense. So I dug up a lot of data, and I set about trying to answer the question: Have serious runners, finishing towards the front of the pack in marathons, gotten faster or slower?

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For more context and background, check out the original article in this series. That article also includes links to the rest of the series, where you can find a more detailed analysis of the individual races I’ve looked at.