Average Marathon Time: What's Good by Age and Sex
Run these workouts on your iPhone, or hands-free on Apple Watch. Get PEAKVO2 The average marathon time is about 4 hours 30 minutes. The largest study of race results, 107.9 million finishes, put the global average at 4:32:49, with men around 4:22 and women around 4:52. Under 4:00 is the recreational milestone, under 3:30 is a strong club-level run, and under 3:00 is close to the Boston standard for men aged 18 to 34, which is 2:55.
A marathon is the one race where almost everyone knows their time to the minute, and the one where comparing times is least fair. Age and sex shift what a given finish is worth by an hour or more. This guide gives you the real averages from the biggest datasets first, then the age-graded standards the sport uses to compare runners properly, then the pace you need for each goal time.
Contents: Average · Good in plain terms · By age · Pace table · Boston · Fastest age · Training · FAQ
What Is the Average Marathon Time?
Unlike the mile or the 5K, the marathon has an average that actually means something, because almost everyone who runs one does it in a timed race. The question is which races you count.
The broadest answer comes from RunRepeat's State of Running 2019, an analysis of 107.9 million race results from more than 70,000 events between 1986 and 2018, produced with the IAAF. The global average marathon finish was 3:52:35 in 1986 and 4:32:49 in 2018. The slowdown is a participation story, not a fitness one: more people run marathons, and more of them run to finish rather than to race. Men averaged 4:15:13 in 2001 and slowed by about 7 minutes more by 2018, which puts them near 4:22. Women averaged 4:56:18 in 2001 and sped up by about 4 minutes, which puts them near 4:52.
Single big races come out faster, because their fields are self-selected toward trained runners. Across 387,222 finishers of the Berlin Marathon from 2008 to 2018, men averaged 10.74 km/h and women 9.64 km/h (Nikolaidis et al., 2019). Held for the full distance, those speeds work out to about 3:56 for men and 4:23 for women. Berlin is a flat course with a fast reputation, so treat these as the quick end of the range.
At the far end sits Boston, which most runners must qualify for. Among 917 runners surveyed before the 2022 race, men averaged 3:35 and women 3:53 (DeJong Lempke et al., 2026).
| Dataset | Men | Women | What it describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| All races worldwide, 2018 | about 4:22 | about 4:52 | Everyone who finished a marathon |
| Berlin Marathon, 2008 to 2018 | about 3:56 | about 4:23 | A fast big-city field |
| Boston Marathon, 2022 | 3:35 | 3:53 | A field that mostly had to qualify |
So "average" ranges from 3:35 to 4:52 depending on who was counted. The next step is to make the comparison fair for your own age and sex.
What Is a Good Marathon Time?
For a rule of thumb, three milestones carry weight among runners, and the age-graded standards explain why:
| Marathon time | Pace per mile | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5:00 | 11:27 | A normal first marathon, often with walk breaks |
| Under 4:00 | 9:09 | The recreational milestone; a 50 percent age grade for a man of 30, about 55 percent for a woman of 30 to 40 |
| Under 3:30 | 8:01 | Strong club level for most men; about 3:45 is the women's equivalent |
| Under 3:00 | 6:52 | About a 67 percent age grade for a man in his prime; five minutes slower than the Boston standard for men aged 18 to 34 |
If you have a recent half marathon time, Riegel's endurance formula, the standard method for predicting one race time from another (Riegel, 1981), multiplies it by 2.085. A 1:45 half predicts a 3:39 marathon, a 2:00 half predicts 4:10. The prediction assumes you trained for the longer distance; see average half marathon time for that distance's own benchmarks, and our running pace calculator for the math.
What Is a Good Marathon Time by Age?
Age grading is how the sport compares runners fairly. It expresses your time as a percentage of the world-best standard for your exact age and sex, using tables compiled by Alan Jones and Rex Harvey and approved by World Masters Athletics and USA Track & Field. The 2025 open-class marathon standard is 2:00:35 for men and 2:09:56 for women, which are the current world records.
The table below is derived from the 2025 road standards for the marathon. Each column is the time that earns that age grade at that age.
| Age | Men 70% | Men 60% | Men 50% | Women 70% | Women 60% | Women 50% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 2:53:39 | 3:22:35 | 4:03:06 | 3:14:19 | 3:46:42 | 4:32:02 |
| 30 | 2:52:16 | 3:20:58 | 4:01:10 | 3:05:56 | 3:36:55 | 4:20:18 |
| 40 | 2:56:04 | 3:25:25 | 4:06:30 | 3:11:46 | 3:43:43 | 4:28:28 |
| 50 | 3:12:11 | 3:44:13 | 4:29:04 | 3:26:17 | 4:00:40 | 4:48:48 |
| 60 | 3:31:33 | 4:06:48 | 4:56:10 | 3:53:03 | 4:31:53 | 5:26:16 |
| 70 | 3:55:14 | 4:34:27 | 5:29:20 | 4:30:37 | 5:15:43 | 6:18:52 |
Read a row across to see what the percentages are worth. A 4:56 at 60 is the same calibre of run as a 4:01 at 30 for a man. A raw-time chart would call the older runner 55 minutes slower; age grading calls them equal. Note that the women's standards are slightly slower at 20 than at 30, because the tables put women's peak marathon age around 30, which matches the race data below.
The bands are standard across the sport:
| Age grade | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 90% and above | World class |
| 80% and above | National class |
| 70% and above | Regional class |
| 60% and above | Local or club class |
| Below 60% | Recreational |
Most people who finish a marathon land between 45 and 55 percent, which is why 4:00 feels like the dividing line. To work out your own grade, divide the standard for your age and sex by your own time. The standard for a 45-year-old man is 2:08:39, or 7,719 seconds. If he runs 4:00:00, that is 7,719 divided by 14,400, which is 54 percent. The same method works at the mile and the 5K.
Marathon Pace for Every Goal Time
Pick your goal, then hold the pace. The table uses the exact distance of 26.219 miles, or 42.195 km.
| Goal time | Pace per mile | Pace per km | Speed (mph) | Speed (km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:00 | 6:52 | 4:16 | 8.74 | 14.06 |
| 3:30 | 8:01 | 4:59 | 7.49 | 12.06 |
| 4:00 | 9:09 | 5:41 | 6.55 | 10.55 |
| 4:30 | 10:18 | 6:24 | 5.83 | 9.38 |
| 5:00 | 11:27 | 7:07 | 5.24 | 8.44 |
| 5:30 | 12:35 | 7:49 | 4.77 | 7.67 |
| 6:00 | 13:44 | 8:32 | 4.37 | 7.03 |
Two cautions. First, the pace is for the official distance, and your watch will almost always measure longer than 26.2 miles, because you cannot run every tangent in a crowd. Budget a few seconds per mile for that. Second, the marathon punishes a fast start more than any other distance. In an analysis of more than 4 million race records, 28 percent of men and 17 percent of women slowed enough late in the race to count as hitting the wall, and those who did slowed by about 40 percent from their earlier pace for roughly 10 km (Smyth, 2021). Even pace, or a slightly faster second half, is the goal.
What Are the Boston Marathon Qualifying Times?
Boston is the reference point for a "good" marathon because it is the only major that most runners must qualify for. These are the standards for the 2027 race as published by the Boston Athletic Association:
| Age group | Men | Women and non-binary |
|---|---|---|
| 18 to 34 | 2:55:00 | 3:25:00 |
| 35 to 39 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 |
| 40 to 44 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 45 to 49 | 3:15:00 | 3:45:00 |
| 50 to 54 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 55 to 59 | 3:30:00 | 4:00:00 |
| 60 to 64 | 3:50:00 | 4:20:00 |
| 65 to 69 | 4:05:00 | 4:35:00 |
| 70 to 74 | 4:20:00 | 4:50:00 |
| 75 to 79 | 4:35:00 | 5:05:00 |
| 80 and over | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 |
Meeting the standard gets you an application, not a bib. When more qualifiers apply than there are places, the B.A.A. accepts the fastest relative to their standard. For the 2027 race the cut-off was 5 minutes 17 seconds, so a man aged 18 to 34 needed roughly 2:49:43.
On the age-graded scale, the Boston standards sit at about 69 percent for a man of 30 and 63 percent for a woman of 30, and they stay in the 60s through the age groups. That is a useful calibration: a Boston qualifying time is a run in the 60s on the age-graded scale, at every age.
At What Age Are Marathon Runners Fastest?
Later than most people expect, and later for men than for women. In 451,637 finishers of the New York City Marathon from 2006 to 2016, the fastest times came at 29.7 years for women and 34.8 years for men (Nikolaidis et al., 2018). The Berlin data put the peak five-year age groups at 30 to 34 for women and 35 to 39 for men.
The decline after the peak is gentle. In Berlin, men aged 55 to 59 and women aged 60 to 64 were still running at about 90 percent of the speed of the fastest age group (Nikolaidis et al., 2019). That is why the age-graded table above barely moves between 30 and 40, and why a 50-year-old who keeps training can still run a time that beats most 25-year-olds in the same race.
How Long Does It Take to Train for a Marathon?
No study fixes a minimum, but the data on what faster finishers do is consistent. Among the 917 runners at the 2022 Boston Marathon, those who ran more kilometers per week, more sessions per week and more hard sessions per week in both the year before the race and the final four months ran faster. The group averaged 64 km a week for women and 68 km a week for men (DeJong Lempke et al., 2026). Among recreational men, those with four or more marathons behind them ran 59 km a week on 4.6 days and had a best time of 3:44, while runners with three or fewer finishes ran 47 km a week on 4.1 days and had a best of 4:20 (Nikolaidis et al., 2021).
Our advice from those numbers: give yourself at least four months of consistent running before a first marathon, and treat the year before as the real preparation if you want a time rather than a finish. The components are the same at every level:
- Easy volume. Most of your weekly distance at a conversational pace. This is what builds the endurance that keeps your pace steady after mile 20.
- One long run a week. The session that teaches your body to burn fuel efficiently and your mind to tolerate the distance.
- One tempo run a week. Marathon pace is a fraction of your lactate threshold, so raising the threshold raises the pace you can hold for 26.2 miles.
- One interval session a week, in the first half of the build. Raising your VO2 max raises the ceiling everything else sits under. Efforts of three to five minutes at hard pace with similar recovery, such as the Norwegian 4x4, do this most reliably; see interval training for running and the VO2 max training plan. PEAKVO2 runs these sessions on Apple Watch with a target heart rate for each phase, so you hit the right intensity without watching the clock.
- A disciplined taper. In 158,000 recreational runners, those who cut volume steadily over the final three weeks finished a median 5 minutes 32 seconds faster than those who barely tapered (Smyth & Lawlor, 2021). Most runners taper less strictly than that.
Build the engine behind your marathon
PEAKVO2 guides the interval sessions that raise your ceiling, on iPhone and Apple Watch, with a target heart rate for each phase and your VO2 max tracked over time, so your marathon pace gets faster before the long runs even start.
Get PEAKVO2 freeFrequently Asked Questions
What is the average marathon time?
About 4:30. Across 107.9 million race results, the global average was 4:32:49 in 2018, with men around 4:22 and women around 4:52. Fast big-city fields such as Berlin average about 3:56 for men and 4:23 for women.
What is a good marathon time?
Under 4:00 is the recreational milestone, about a 50 percent age grade for a man of 30. Under 3:30 is strong club level for men, with 3:45 the women's equivalent. Under 3:00 is near the Boston standard of 2:55 for men aged 18 to 34.
What is a good marathon time by age?
At a 60 percent age grade: 3:21 for a man of 30, 3:25 at 40, 3:44 at 50, 4:07 at 60 and 4:34 at 70. For women, 3:37 at 30, 3:44 at 40, 4:01 at 50, 4:32 at 60 and 5:16 at 70.
What pace do I need for a 4 hour marathon?
9:09 per mile or 5:41 per km, which is 6.55 mph. For 3:30 it is 8:01 per mile, for sub 3 it is 6:52 per mile, and for 5:00 it is 11:27 per mile.
What is the Boston Marathon qualifying time?
For 2027, 2:55:00 for men and 3:25:00 for women aged 18 to 34, relaxing by five-year age group to 3:50 and 4:20 at 60 to 64. The 2027 cut-off was 5:17 under the standard.
How long does it take to train for a marathon?
At least four months of consistent running, and ideally a year of steady volume. Faster Boston finishers ran more kilometers and more sessions per week, averaging about 65 km a week. Experienced recreational men ran 59 km a week and finished 36 minutes faster than first-timers.
At what age are marathon runners fastest?
About 30 for women and 35 for men, based on 451,637 New York City finishers. Men at 55 to 59 and women at 60 to 64 still run at about 90 percent of peak speed.
References
- Jones A, Harvey R. Age-graded tables for road running performances, 2025 edition. Approved by World Masters Athletics and USA Track & Field Masters Long Distance Running. Age-Grade-Tables repository
- Andersen JJ. The State of Running 2019. RunRepeat and the International Association of Athletics Federations. 107.9 million race results from more than 70,000 events, 1986 to 2018. RunRepeat
- Nikolaidis PT, Alvero-Cruz JR, Villiger E, Rosemann T, Knechtle B. The age-related performance decline in marathon running: the paradigm of the Berlin Marathon. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(11):2022. PubMed
- DeJong Lempke AF, Ackerman KE, Stellingwerff T, et al. Training volume and training frequency changes associated with Boston Marathon race performance. Sports Med. 2026;56(1):243-256. PubMed
- Riegel PS. Athletic records and human endurance. Am Sci. 1981;69(3):285-290. PubMed
- Smyth B. How recreational marathon runners hit the wall: a large-scale data analysis of late-race pacing collapse in the marathon. PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251513. PubMed
- Boston Athletic Association. Qualifying standards for the 2027 Boston Marathon. B.A.A.
- Nikolaidis PT, Rosemann T, Knechtle B. Sex differences in the age of peak marathon race time. Chin J Physiol. 2018;61(2):85-91. PubMed
- Nikolaidis PT, Clemente-Suárez VJ, Chlíbková D, Knechtle B. Training, anthropometric, and physiological characteristics in men recreational marathon runners: the role of sport experience. Front Physiol. 2021;12:666201. PubMed
- Smyth B, Lawlor A. Longer disciplined tapers improve marathon performance for recreational runners. Front Sports Act Living. 2021;3:735220. PubMed