How long is the Boston Marathon? The distance remains the same, but your times may vary
We've seen enough of those little white oval stickers on the rear windows of cars around the region to know exactly how long a marathon is.
Those little 26.2 stickers for a full marathon. Stickers showing 13.1 miles for those who've run a half-marathon.
But if you're wondering if you can get a sticker that shows how far you have to run to the fridge, we understand.
So let's take a deeper look at how long the Boston Marathon actually is.
Why is the Boston Marathon 26.2 miles long?
Legend has it, the marathon can trace its roots to ancient Greece and mythic run of Pheidippides from the plains of Marathon to Athens. According to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races, Pheidippides delivered the message of victory a battle against the invading Persian Army. “Rejoice, we are victorious,” he announced and then fell dead.
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So was his run 26.2 miles?
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Probably not. According to Brittanica.com, Pheidippides was sent from Athens to Sparta to request assistance in battle, covering about 150 miles in about two days.
So why are modern marathons 26.2 miles?
Royalty.
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For the 1908 London Olympics, the marathon started at Windsor Castle and finished in the White City stadium, measuring 26 miles, according to Runners World. And, the royal family wanted the runners to finish directly in front of their viewing box, which added on 385 yards.
How long is a marathon in kilometers?
For our friends who were taught the metric system, a marathon is 42.16 km. So that's four 10Ks or eight 5Ks back-to-back with a little more for good measure.
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How long does the Boston Marathon last?
So we know the distance of the Boston Marathon. But when you ask how long is the race, that brings up the question of time.
And the answer to that question varies as widely as the legends surrounding its origin.
The fastest any human has ever completed the Boston Marathon is 2 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds. That mark was set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. The fastest female finisher was Firiya Sultanova-Zhdanova who finished in 2:27:58 in 2002.
What could you do in the time it takes to run the Boston Marathon?
So you could catch the start of the race, watch all of "Rocky," and still see the fastest runner ever cross the finish line. You could now, however, watch "Patriots Day," the Mark Wahlberg movie about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing as the runtime is 2 hours and 13 minutes.
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So that's the fastest anyone has run the marathon. But how long could it take?
The final finisher in last year's race left the starting line around 10 a.m. and crossed the finish line a little before 5:30 p.m. that evening. The official time was 7 hours, 21 minutes and 24 seconds.
All in a day's work. Actually about as long as an 8-hour workday.
That's enough time to start watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. You won't be able to finish the 9-plus hour saga, but it's a start.
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If you're looking to cut down on your screen time, maybe ditch the movie marathon for a road trip. You could almost make it to Washington D.C. from Boston in 8 hours. Or ditch the cities and head west. Google says it's just over 7 hours to drive from Boston to Niagara Falls.
Heck, if you want to hop on a plane, you could fly from Logan to Las Vegas, or Los Angeles or even London in the time it took the final Boston Marathon runner to finish the route last year.
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What is the average Boston Marathon time?
We've looked at how long the fastest Boston Marathon was, and how long last year's slowest was.
But let us get away from the extremes.
On average, how long does it take a runner to complete the Boston Marathon?
According to RunTri.com, the overall average time of the 2019 Boston Marathon was 3 hours, 53 minutes.
So yeah, were going back to the movies, because that happens to be just five minutes shy of the runtime of "Gone with the Wind." So the average Boston Marathon runner could fire up the 1939 classic on their cell phone and finish it just after crossing the finish line.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: How long is the Boston Marathon? A simple answer and the long answer
