Home > Sports > List > Athletics > Records > Marathon

Only since this century has the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) officially ratified a 'world record' in the marathon event. Prior to that 'world bests' were listed, and even earlier to that there was no official listing of best times. Actually, early marathon events varied in distance, with the official standardized length of a marathon of 42,195 meters (or 26 miles and 385 yards) being set 28 years after the first marathon in 1896. The current and official marathon distance corresponds to the length of the marathon event at the 1908 London Olympic Games.

Over the years the distance claimed for some courses have later been shown to be incorrect, and advantages of wind and downhill gradients have greatly assisted some times. In recent years, the IAAF has set guidelines for a marathon record to be set, such as "The start and finish points of a course, measured along a theoretical straight line between them, shall not be further apart than 50% of the race distance.", and that "The decrease in elevation between the start and finish shall not exceed an average of one in a thousand, i.e. 1m per km.". These criteria allow for records to be set on point to point courses as long as they satisfy these conditions, though there is a push to only recognize out-and-back marathon courses.

---

---

Getting Closer to under two hours

An official sub-2 hour marathon appears to be getting closer to reality (see our poll about it). In the 2023 Chicago marathon Kelvin Kiptum from Kenya, set a new marathon world record with a time of two hours and 35 seconds, taking 34 seconds off the previous best.

There has been a sub-2 hr marathon, though with disallowed assistance. In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge ran staged marathon, the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, and was successful in breaking the two hour barrier (1:59:40). However, because of various assistances it is not a IAAF ratified world record. Specifically, the problem was that it was not an open event, he was handed fluids by a team coordinator riding alongside him on a bicycle, the run featured a pace car which projected a laser to the ground in front of him to mark the desired pace, and the competition included rotating teams of pacers running in a 'V' formation designed to reduce wind resistance.

The current women's world record is held by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia. She shocked the running world by smashing the record on September 24, 2023. Assefa finishing the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, beating the previous record by over two minutes.

Below is the men's marathon running world record evolution (the more recent best times listed first), showing only those times that have been officially listed by the IAAF.

---

---

Related Pages

• Major marathon races from around the world
• More Athletics Records
• Other sports and fitness records
• Poll: Which record time will be broken next—100m or marathon?
• Sub 2-hour marathon blog post