How Long Is A Marathon?

Running a marathon is a very popular lifetime goal for anyone with an interest in running and keeping fit. But how long is a marathon? 

The marathon is 26.2 miles or 41.2 kilometres in length and can take anywhere from 2 hours 4 minutes (Paul Tergat of Kenya) to 8 hours or more for some of the more unfit, older or less experienced runners. 

Over 800 organised marathons take place each year in some of the most famous cities in the world such as London, New York, Athens, Stockholm to name just a few. 

Many of these will have tens of thousands of entrants and some are so difficult to take part in because of the high volume of interest, that they operate a lottery system whereby entrants are randomly selected as opposed to simply choosing to run. 

Marathons have become a very popular way for charities to raise funds and awareness of their causes. Many people choose a charity which has a particular relevance to them, for example they might have lost a relative or friend to a particular disease or know someone that is fighting an illness.

Regardless of what the charity is, the opportunity to raise money for a worthy cause at the same time as overcoming a personal challenge holds a huge appeal for the many people who enter marathons each year. 

Running a marathon isn’t easy to do, you need to be fully prepared and above all completely understand how your body responds to the stresses and strains you will be putting it under. The truth is most people are capable of running a marathon, but they won’t simply because they don’t follow the right training advice. 

If you’ve often wondered ‘how long is a marathon' and are considering running your first one then you need to follow a schedule designed specifically for a beginner. ‘Marathon Training For Beginners’ is an entertaining and easy to use marathon training schedule for complete beginners that want to learn how to successfully run a marathon in the shortest possible time, without experiencing potentially serious long term injury problems and overtraining pitfalls that most beginners face.

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