Average Marathon Times

The average marathon time is 4:42:36, based on 485,616 race results.

The average time for women is 4:48:05, and the average time for men is 4:37:07.

Comparison of Marathon Times by Age & Gender

Mean Marathon Times by Age Category

Mean is the average time. It's calculated by adding all times together and dividing by the number of runners.

View by: time | mins/mile | mins/km | mph | kph

Age Cat.	Men	Women
15–19	4:51:58	4:44:54
20–29	4:02:11	4:18:26
30–39	3:55:14	4:22:59
40–49	4:02:21	4:28:48
50–59	4:23:27	4:51:18
60–69	5:08:14	5:13:07
70–79	6:13:28	5:55:14
15–19	10:07/mi	9:53/mi
20–29	8:24/mi	8:58/mi
30–39	8:09/mi	9:07/mi
40–49	8:24/mi	9:19/mi
50–59	9:08/mi	10:06/mi
60–69	10:41/mi	10:51/mi
70–79	12:57/mi	12:19/mi
15–19	6:17/km	6:08/km
20–29	5:13/km	5:34/km
30–39	5:04/km	5:40/km
40–49	5:13/km	5:47/km
50–59	5:41/km	6:17/km
60–69	6:38/km	6:45/km
70–79	8:03/km	7:39/km
15–19	5.93 mph	6.07 mph
20–29	7.14 mph	6.7 mph
30–39	7.36 mph	6.58 mph
40–49	7.14 mph	6.44 mph
50–59	6.57 mph	5.94 mph
60–69	5.61 mph	5.53 mph
70–79	4.63 mph	4.87 mph
15–19	9.54 kph	9.77 kph
20–29	11.5 kph	10.78 kph
30–39	11.84 kph	10.59 kph
40–49	11.49 kph	10.36 kph
50–59	10.57 kph	9.56 kph
60–69	9.03 kph	8.89 kph
70–79	7.46 kph	7.84 kph

Median Marathon Times by Age Category

Median is the middle time. It’s the time that falls exactly halfway through the results when all finish times are listed in order.

View by: time | mins/mile | mins/km | mph | kph

Age Cat.	Men	Women
15–19	4:14:06	4:26:12
20–29	3:50:25	4:02:00
30–39	3:37:48	4:11:36
40–49	3:49:06	4:18:39
50–59	4:13:56	4:38:39
60–69	4:38:40	5:02:54
70–79	5:23:27	5:34:10
15–19	8:49/mi	9:14/mi
20–29	7:59/mi	8:23/mi
30–39	7:33/mi	8:43/mi
40–49	7:57/mi	8:58/mi
50–59	8:48/mi	9:40/mi
60–69	9:40/mi	10:30/mi
70–79	11:13/mi	11:35/mi
15–19	5:28/km	5:44/km
20–29	4:58/km	5:13/km
30–39	4:42/km	5:25/km
40–49	4:56/km	5:34/km
50–59	5:28/km	6:00/km
60–69	6:00/km	6:32/km
70–79	6:58/km	7:12/km
15–19	6.81 mph	6.5 mph
20–29	7.51 mph	7.15 mph
30–39	7.95 mph	6.88 mph
40–49	7.55 mph	6.69 mph
50–59	6.81 mph	6.21 mph
60–69	6.21 mph	5.71 mph
70–79	5.35 mph	5.18 mph
15–19	10.96 kph	10.46 kph
20–29	12.09 kph	11.51 kph
30–39	12.79 kph	11.07 kph
40–49	12.16 kph	10.77 kph
50–59	10.97 kph	9.99 kph
60–69	9.99 kph	9.19 kph
70–79	8.61 kph	8.33 kph

View by: All | Men | Women

Average Marathon Time in Australia

In Australia, the average marathon time is 4:30:54, the fastest among the four countries featured.

Australian men run an average of 4:11:45, and women come in at 4:50:02.

Average Marathon Time in the United States

The average marathon time in the United States is 4:23:53.

American women typically run 4:32:57, while the average for men is 4:14:48.

Average Marathon Time in the United Kingdom

Runners in the UK average a marathon time of 4:30:55.

For UK women, the average is 4:43:02; for men, it’s 4:18:48.

Average Marathon Time in Canada

The typical marathon finish time in Canada is 4:24:09.

Women average 4:32:19, and men average 4:16:00.

Average Age Gradings for Marathon

The average marathon age grading for all runners is 59.7%.

The average for women is 57.96%, and the average for men is 61.44%.

Mean Age Grades By Age Category

Age Cat.	Men	Women
15–19	56.04%	55.37%
20–29	59.80%	56.13%
30–39	61.58%	55.08%
40–49	62.76%	56.62%
50–59	63.51%	57.63%
60–69	62.65%	61.39%
70–79	60.96%	63.66%

Visit our age grading calculator

Average VO₂ Max for Marathon

The average Marathon Vo₂ max for all runners is 35.88.

The average for women is 34.6, and the average for men is 37.17.

Mean Vo₂ Max By Age Category

Age Cat.	Men	Women
15–19	35.10	34.60
20–29	42.16	39.05
30–39	43.65	38.12
40–49	42.08	37.13
50–59	38.06	33.77
60–69	31.69	30.76
70–79	25.19	26.29

Visit our Vo₂ max calculator

How It Works

Race Data

We collect anonymized, aggregated running performance data from users of our Age Grading Calculator and Race Profile Tool. This gives us a large pool of real-world marathon times and other race results submitted by runners worldwide.

To ensure accuracy we filter out outliers and duplicates, especially when it's clear someone is experimenting or checking how different race times affect their results. And we apply minor corrections based on various signals, erratic patterns, or suspicious submissions, in order to ensure the data reflects genuine performances as much as possible.

From this clean and filtered data, we generate average marathon times by age, gender, and country, and then use those figures to calculate VO₂ max and age-grading estimates. All data is fully anonymous and used only in aggregate.

Types Of Averages

There are three main types of average: mean, median, and mode.

Let's say we have five runners who have run the following marathon times:

Runner	Time
Runner 1	2:45:13
Runner 2	3:12:42
Runner 3	4:02:05
Runner 4	5:07:00
Runner 5	5:07:00

20:14:00
4:02:48

Mean

This is what most people are referring to when they talk about "average". It simply involves adding all times in your category together and dividing by the total number of times.

For the five runners in our example, the total time is 20 hours and 14 minutes.

20:14:00 ÷ 5 = 4:02:48

So, the average time of these runners is 4:02:48

Median

The median is the exact middle value. Half the runners are slower than this time and half the runners are faster than this time. Median values tend to be less affected by very fast and slow values, so can give you a better idea of what a typical runner achieves.

In our example, the middle value is 4:02:05, so the median of these times is 4:02:05

Mode

Mode is the value that appears most often. For our purposes of reporting average race times it would be the most common finish time for the marathon.

In the example above, the most-common time is 5:07:00, so the modal time is 5:07:00.

Country	Men	Women
AUS	4:11:45	4:50:02
CAN	4:16:00	4:32:19
GBR	4:18:48	4:43:02
IRL	4:11:52	4:52:41
USA	4:14:48	4:32:57