What Is The Average Marathon Time?

Perhaps two of the greatest fears of all recreational first time marathon runners are the fear of not being able to finish the race at all or finishing last behind everyone else. Their marathon time is usually an irrelevant fact and not something that really matters.

It is only after completing their first marathon that they will really believe they can go faster and from then on set a target of beating their own marathon time on each successive race.

Whilst accomplished runners will be aiming for finishing times of around 2 hours 30 minutes, the world’s fastest time ever is 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds which was set by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia on September 28, 2008. This finishing time equates to an average pace of just under 3 minutes per kilometer or 4 minutes 44 seconds per mile which is an average speed of over 20.4 km per hour.

For most runners however the average time for completing a marathon is 4 hours 30 minutes for men and 5 hours 10 minutes for women.

The majority of recreational runners have other reasons for entering a marathon such as to achieve a lifetime goal or to raise money for a worthy cause. They usually don’t enter a race to win, but simply to finish a first time marathon and improve personal finishing times or placements for subsequent races.

One goal in particular that some runners strive to achieve is to break certain time barriers. For example, recreational first timers may plan to complete the race in under 4 hours, whilst seasoned and more experienced marathon runners could be aiming to finish in under 3 hours.

If you want to learn how to train for a marathon and run your best marathon time possible, you need to learn all you can about marathon running. ‘Marathon Training For Beginners’ is an entertaining and easy to use marathon training schedule for beginners that want to discover how to successfully run a marathon in the shortest possible time. Click here for more details.

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