The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. More than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.
The New York City Marathon is an annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 finishers in 2019 and 98,247 applicants for the 2017 race. Along with the Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon, it is among the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States and is one of the World Marathon Majors.
An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres. Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of 50 kilometres (31 mi) to over 100 kilometres (62 mi). 50k and 100k are both World Athletics record distances, but some 100 miles (160 km) races are among the oldest and most prestigious events, especially in North America. Around 100 miles is typically the longest course distance raced in under 24 hours but there are also longer multi-day races of 200 miles (320 km) or more, sometimes raced in stages with breaks for sleep. While some ultras are road races, many take place on trails, leading to a large overlap with the sports of trail running and mountain running.
Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian retired long-distance track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion. Just like very few other great Ethiopians, Haile has repeatedly put Ethiopia's name to the world and many countries have showed great admiration to him outside of the sports world.
Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive. He also won the London to Brighton Ultramarathon three years in a row. He is the former world record holder over 50 miles and the former world record holder over 100 km.
Dean Karnazes, is an American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, which details ultra endurance running for the general public.
Land's End to John o' Groats is the traversal of the whole length of the island of Great Britain between two extremities, in the southwest and northeast. The traditional distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists 10 to 14 days; the record for running the route is nine days. Off-road walkers typically walk about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) and take two or three months for the expedition. Signposts indicate the traditional distance at each end.
Yiannis Kouros is a Greek ultramarathon runner based in Greece. He is sometimes given the epithets "Running god", "Pheidippides' Successor" or "Son of Pheidippides". Kouros holds many men's outdoor road world records from 100 to 1,000 miles and many road and track records from 12 hours to 6 days. In 1991, he starred as Pheidippides in the movie The Story of the Marathon: A Hero's Journey, which chronicles the history of marathon running.
Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly competed at the 5000 metre distance. He is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, and holds the world record in the marathon with a time of 2:01:39 set at the 2018 Berlin Marathon. His run broke the previous world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds. He is widely regarded as the greatest ever marathon runner and one of the greatest sportsmen in history.
William Morley Sichel is a British long-distance runner.
Michael Wardian is an American marathoner and ultra-marathoner. He won the 2008, 2009 and 2010 US 50 km championships and the 2011 US 50 mile championship. In 2008, he won the U.S. National 100 km championship. Wardian also is the 2007 JFK 50 Mile winner, and won the National Marathon in Washington D.C. three consecutive years (2006–2008), and in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He ran in Maldives Addu marathon on 29 June 2018 and got first place and MVR12000. In 2020, Wardian won the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, running nearly 263 miles over the course of 63 hours without sleeping in a repetitive neighborhood loop in Arlington, VA to follow social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
Geoffrey Kiprono Mutai is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. On 18 April 2011 at the Boston Marathon, Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever at the time in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds, though the time was not recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations as a world record since the Boston course does not meet the criteria to be eligible for the mark.
Tony Mangan is an ultra distance runner from Ireland. He completed on 27 October 2014 a 50,000 km (31,000 mi) distance running around the world for Aware, a charity helping to defeat depression. He is the current world 48-hour indoor track record holder 426.178 km (264.815 mi). Also the world 48-hour treadmill record 405.22 km. Mangan states, "I didn't start running till I was almost 30. Then I dreamed of running around the World. I got delayed for over 20 years for many reasons, breaking a few world ultra records. Now I am retired from competition I can finally live my dream."
Camille Herron is an American ultramarathon runner. She is the first and only athlete to win all three of the International Association of Ultrarunners' 50K, 100K, and 24 Hour World Championships. She won the 2017 Comrades Marathon and holds several World Record times at ultramarathon distances, along with the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in a superhero costume. She is known for running with her hair down, drinking beer, and eating tacos during ultramarathons. In November 2017, she broke Ann Trason's 100-mile Road World Record by over an hour in 12:42:40. She broke her 12-Hour and 100 Mile World Records in February 2022 at the Jackpot 100/US Championship, winning the race outright and beating all of the men. In April 2022, she became the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime miles. She is the first and only woman to run under 13 hours for 100 miles, exceed 150 km for 12-Hours, and to reach 270 km for 24Hrs.
The Lagos Marathon is a silver label marathon held annually in Lagos, Nigeria.
Jasmin Karina Paris is a British runner who has been a national fell running champion and who has set records for the Bob Graham Round and the Ramsay Round.
Kieren D'Souza is an Indian ultramarathon runner and endurance athlete. In 2016, he became the first Indian to qualify for and finish the Spartathlon, a 246 kilometre footrace from Athens to Sparta held annually in Greece. Kieren, then aged 23, completed the race in 33 hours, 2 minutes and 25 seconds, standing 85th among 370 participants. Up to 2016, only 29 athletes under the age of 25 had completed the race that has been held annually since 1983.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a Norwegian middle- and long-distance runner. Ingebrigtsen won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 1500 metres event, setting Olympic and European records. Ingebrigtsen also won two gold medals at the 2018 European Championships for the 1500 and 5000 metres events, a feat he repeated in 2022. At the 2022 World Athletics Championships, he won the gold medal in the 5000 metres and the silver medal in the 1500 metres. At the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold, Ingebrigtsen broke the world record in the indoor 1500 m.
The 2019 Chicago Marathon was the 42nd annual running of the Chicago Marathon held in Chicago, Illinois, United States on October 13, 2019. The men's race was won by Kenyan Lawrence Cherono in 2:05:45 while the women's was won by Kenyan Brigid Kosgei in 2:14:04, a world record by 81 seconds. The men's and women's wheelchair races were won by Daniel Romanchuk and Manuela Schär in 1:30:26 and 1:41:08, respectively. More than 45,000 runners completed the race.
Great Britain