Running Blog

For 28 years, the Olympics could not settle on how far a marathon was. Athens in 1896 measured roughly 40 kilometers. Paris in 1900 came in at 40.26. London in 1908 ran 42.195, for reasons nobody had

The 75th-percentile male marathon finisher, the runner who crosses the line behind three-quarters of the field, runs about 12 minutes slower at 17.4°C than he does at his own best temperature, ten deg

Shopping for a running shoe in 2026 means wading through reviews full of marketing-speak such as featherweight foams and race-day carbon plates. The seven shoes you'll see in this article, each focusi

For 28 years, the Olympics could not settle on how far a marathon was. Athens in 1896 measured roughly 40 kilometers. Paris in 1900 came in at 40.26. London in 1908 ran 42.195, for reasons nobody had

The 75th-percentile male marathon finisher, the runner who crosses the line behind three-quarters of the field, runs about 12 minutes slower at 17.4°C than he does at his own best temperature, ten deg

In the closing weeks of 2025, 1,133,813 people entered the ballot for the 2026 TCS London Marathon, the random draw that decides who gets one of the race's public entry places, and fewer than 20,000 o

Take eight elite cyclists up to 2,340 meters and test them on their first day there. Their VO2max, the most oxygen their body can actually use during hard exercise, drops about 13 percent. Their stayi

In 2021, running a Boston qualifying time was not enough. You needed to beat it by 7 minutes and 47 seconds. In 2022 and 2023, hitting the standard by a single second got you in. Two years later, in 2

The sub-3 hour marathon sits at an odd intersection. It's one number. Three hours. And yet it separates roughly 97% of all marathon finishers from the other 3%. That gap is both smaller and larger tha

The First-Timer's Marathon Mistake Catalog: Learning from 50,000 Race Reports Every marathon finish line tells two stories. The first is the official race report, posted with pride in running forum

Running Tourism Economics: How Marathons Transform Small Cities The economics of running tourism tell a story that municipal planners and race directors have learned to read with increasing precisi

Decoding Marathon Elevation Profiles Marathon elevation profiles tell stories that finish times alone never could. A 3:45 finish on a rolling course means something entirely different than the same

Introduction and Summary Can you run too many miles when training for a marathon? Possibly. The data shows that runners who log more weekly mileage finish faster. Though it's not quite as simple.

No course in modern marathon history has produced than Berlin's. Between 1998 and 2022, men racing the BMW Berlin Marathon, one of t

The email landed sometime in June. You got in, screamed, maybe cried, probably told everyone within earshot. That was Seven months ago. Now it's late February, you have eight weeks left until April 26

Cape Town Marathon: Running Between Two Oceans at Africa's Southern Tip The morning air carries salt from two different oceans. Table Mountain looms above, its flat summit catching the first light.

The Best Races in Mexico Mexico offers runners something rare: world-class race organization, electric crowd support, and costs that make North American and European runners do a double-take. The c

Great Ocean Road Marathon: Running Australia's Most Scenic Coast The morning air in Lorne is cool and salt-tinged. Runners gather at the Surf Lifesaving Club Car Park, stretching beneath eucalyptus

Dubai Marathon: Chasing Fast Times Under Desert Stars It's 6:30 AM on a January morning in Dubai, and the air along Umm Suqeim Road hums with quiet anticipation. The sky shifts from indigo to soft

Valencia Marathon: Chasing Personal Bests on Spain's Fastest Course It's 8 AM on a December morning in Valencia, and the air hums with a particular energy. Runners from 80 countries stretch along w

Ljubljana Marathon: Slovenia's Charming Autumn Classic The morning light filters through the trees along the Ljubljanica River, casting golden reflections on water that has flowed through this city

Athens Marathon: Running Where It All Began It's 9 AM in the small town of Marathon, Greece, and you're standing beneath the Tumulus—the burial mound where 192 Athenian warriors fell fighting the P

Running Japan: Tokyo Marathon & Beyond It's 7 AM in Shinjuku, and I'm standing among 38,000 runners at the Tokyo Marathon start line, but what strikes me isn't the massive crowd—it's the silence. I

Running Through Mosaics: Discovering the Maratona di Ravenna, Italy's Hidden Gem Marathon A Mosaic of Memories at the Starting Line It's 6 AM in Ravenna, and the air is thick with anticipation

Running marathons isn't typically associated with indulgence, elegance, or Bacchanalian delight. But the Marathon des Châteaux du Médoc isn't your typical marathon. Scheduled for September 6, 2025, th

Hal Higdon publishes six free marathon training plans, and the hardest one asks for exactly the same longest run as the gentlest: 20 miles. Advanced 2 expects six running days a week and three hard wo

The Runner's Complete Guide to Race-Day Fueling: From Training to Finish Line You've logged the miles, conquered the long runs, and fine-tuned your pacing strategy. But here's the hard truth: all t

Training Load vs. Training Stress: What Runners Need to Know Your watch says you're recovered. Your legs say otherwise. This disconnect happens because modern running analytics track two fundament

The Runner's Holiday Survival Guide: Stay Training-Ready The alarm goes off at 5:30 AM on December 27th. You're sleeping in your childhood bedroom, three time zones away from home, and your trainin

Indoor Track Running: Your Weather-Proof Training Alternative The forecast shows freezing rain. Your treadmill sits in the basement, its belt squeaking ominously. You've got a tempo run scheduled,

Base Building for Spring Marathons: Your October-November Training Blueprint October arrives with cooler air and shorter days. While some runners wind down their season, the smartest ones are lacin

The Marathon Taper: Why Doing Less Makes You Faster You've logged hundreds of kilometers over sixteen weeks. You've conquered interval sessions that left you breathless, survived long runs that tes

Shopping for a running shoe in 2026 means wading through reviews full of marketing-speak such as featherweight foams and race-day carbon plates. The seven shoes you'll see in this article, each focusi

Post-Marathon Blues: The Emotional Comedown Nobody Warns You About You crossed the finish line. You got the medal. You posted the photos. Now you're standing in your kitchen three days later, stari

Race Week Logistics: Hotels, Packet Pickup & Peace of Mind You've logged the miles. You've dialed in your nutrition. You've visualized crossing that finish line a hundred times. Then race week arri

Garmin vs. Polar vs. COROS: Which Running Watch for Marathon Training? Standing in a running specialty store, staring at three nearly identical GPS watches with wildly different price tags, you mig

The Marathon Gear Audit: What Actually Matters After 26.2 Miles I've crossed 14 marathon finish lines, and each time I conduct the same ritual. Before I collect my medal, before I grab that foil bl

The Complete Marathon Spectator Guide: Making Race Day Special for Your Runner You've watched your runner disappear into the bathroom for the third time before breakfast, listened to endless discus

_Nailing Race-Day Logistics Before You Even Leave Home_ Nothing derails 4 months of training like a forgotten pair of shoes or gear lost in translation. Join me as I break down the travel tested esse

> TL;DR is still the go-to app for tracking and sharing every run, but a marathon is more than a string of GPS files; it's a months-long project with trave

We built 42Cal with the goal of inspiring more people to run long distance. Running is an art and we want to foster this art. The races we share on our site are curated and the list will be ever expan