With the 2024 London Marathon on the horizon (on April 21, 2024) new data released by Strava has revealed the top trends from last year’s 2023 London Marathon.
Strava has delved into the data from last year’s race, which saw more than 50% of the 48,000 people who completed the event upload their runs onto the platform.
Included in the findings are average finishing times – which were faster in 2023 than 2022 – as well as generational trends, and the average number of miles that runners completed in training.
The data also reveals the international marathons with the fastest finish times on Strava, offering an insight into what to expect as key races on the global running calendar get closer.
Key takeaways from the data are:
- Runners are getting faster: The median finish time on Strava for the London Marathon in 2023 was 4:06:39, down from 4:18:34 in 2022.
- Training for a 3:30 finish: Runners who clocked an impressive 3:30 finish ran anywhere between 313 and 517 miles in the 16 weeks leading up to the race, with the athletes who ran the most running nearly twice as much (1.8x) as those who ran the least.
- The typical athlete ran 499 miles in 16 weeks of training before the marathon, which is roughly the equivalent of running the distance from London to Aberdeen.
- Gen X on par with Gen Z: The average training pace for runners across different age groups who clocked a 3:30 finish is more similar than might be expected. Gen X runners maintained an average pace of 8.38 minutes per mile, only slightly slower than their younger Gen Z counterparts who averaged 8.28 minutes per mile. However, Gen X put in 47% more training miles than Gen Z.
- Is ‘bonking’ normal?: Nearly half (46%) of runners slowed down by 10% after the first 20 miles, and more than one in six (16%) slowed down by 20% – meaning that those targeting a sub 4 hour finish instead clocked 4:24 and 4:48 respectively.
- ‘Sub-3’ versus ‘Sub-4’: Of all Strava uploaders, 8% registered a sub three-hour finish time, whilst 45% finished the race under four hours.
- International comparisons: the London Marathon appears to be one of the most challenging major marathons to complete, placing second last based on the median finish time ahead of New York City.
The median finish time and paces across all major’s via Strava uploads are as follows:
- Boston Marathon: 3:24:55 (4:51 min/km)
- Berlin Marathon: 3:54:24 (5:33 min/km)
- Chicago Marathon: 3:55:55 (5:35 min/km)
- Tokyo Marathon: 3:57:45 (5:38 min/km)
- London Marathon: 4:07:39 (5:52 min/km)
- NYC Marathon: 4:19:04 (6:08 min/km)
