The median time for US marathon finishes is, as of 2005:
Men: 4:32
Women: 5:06
According to:
http://www.marathonguide.com/features/Articles/2005RecapOverview.cfm
So fully half of all 382,000 US marathon finishes are slower than those times.
Sometimes I get the impression that faster runners have a very distorted idea of the pace and finishing times of the typical runner. (See many discussions rebuking slower runners for "poor pacing" or "lack of fitness" or "disrespecting the distance" in this year's Chicago Marathon, for example.)
I looked up the median time for finishers in my age group (50-54) on this course last year (2006) and it was 5:19.
So I have a huge set of tiered finishing goals for the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon, my 10th marathon:
- Dream Goal: Any chip time beginning with a "4" (under 11:27 min/mile pace)
- Under 5:06:00 (faster than the average USA female marathon) (under 11:40 min/mile pace)
- Under 5:19:00 (faster than the average finisher in my age group on the MCM course last year) (under 12:10 min/mile pace)
- Under 5:51:34 (PR - faster than my fastest previous marathon, Richmond in 2004) (under 13:25 min/mile pace)
- Beat my previous 2001 Marine Corps Marathon time (~6:17)
- Upright and smiling
If you would like to track my race position online next Sunday, the race goes off at 8:00 AM EDT and runner tracking is available here.
My MCM mantra: The race starts on the 14th Street Bridge. And oh yeah, BELIEVE!
