One of my favorite websites, www.marathonguide.com, released its summary of statistics for the 2005 year in marathons. It's got a lot of detail - naturally, I checked the stats to see where I fit in the big picture.I finished (6:33) the biggest marathon in the USA in 2005, the ING New York City Marathon, with 36,872 finishers. It seemed that Staten Island would float away from all that pre-race pee.
Baltimore Marathon, where I (5:59) was one of 2410 finishers, didn't make the list of the biggest 25 marathons in the country (3249 finishers and up). The closest big race to us, Marine Corps Marathon (19,110 finishers), moved up one place to 5th largest marathon.
Overall, men's finishing times averaged 4:32, while women marathon finishers averaged 5:06. I'm still much slower at the marathon distance than the average finish in my age group (women 45-49), which was 5:11, but as I age up in another year I hope to get much closer to the average time (overall and in my age group). In the 50-54 age group, average women's finish time was 5:31. There's still hope for me to catch up with the middle of the pack - just give me time!
8 comments:
Doesn't it make you feel great to be one of the select few humans who do this?
These races have gotten WAY too big for me...I get claustrophobic!
I guess that's why I moved over to Xterra. Back to my roots of trail running in the 80's.
With that many people it doesn't feel as "special" to me.
I like to be...uh..different I guess...:-)
I don't think a 4:22 first marathon is a very reasonable goal for most folks unless they already have a strong history of running several 5Ks sub-25-minutes or numerous 10Ks sub-55-minutes. Maybe then.
"To finish" is a GREAT first marathon goal. :-)
Well, I fit right in the average category for my age-group.
I guess.
But I think in other perhaps GOOFY ways, I'm not at all AVERAGE.
;-)
Thanks Nancy! FINISHING before they shut the clock off is my goal for my first marathon! If I finish in under 6 hours I will be MORE than satisfied!
I still have a lot of work before I hit the middle of the pack but the scenery at the back can me mighty nice *wink*.
wahoo -- I'm average! Wait... that's for a 50-54 yo! Only about 20 years off.... I'll catch up eventually. If not, the hardware and bragging rights are enough reward!
Hi Nancy
Thanks for popping by my blog. A large group of us are planning a run in honor of Terence. We'll also be passing the hat around. As with Terence's care-free outlook the runners can run any number of laps they want.
Great thing you've got going - I can't swim, so the tri is out for me at least for now. My cross training is chasing after my 3-year old!
Cheers
www.jamiepang.com aka Carboman
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