The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 km, 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 Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world's best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.
Alberto Salazar is an American former track coach and long-distance runner. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school. Salazar won the New York City Marathon three times in the early 1980s, and won the 1982 Boston Marathon in a race known as the "Duel in the Sun". He set American track records for 5,000 m and 10,000 m in 1982. Salazar was later the head coach of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the IAAF Coaching Achievement Award in 2013.
The World Marathon Majors (WMM) is a championship-style competition for marathon runners that started in 2006. A points-based competition founded on six major marathon races recognised as the most high-profile on the calendar, the series comprises annual races for the cities of Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. In addition, each edition of the series recognises and includes the results of the major global championship marathon held in that year, usually on a one-off lapped course. These races are the biennial World Athletics Championships Marathon, and the quadrennial Olympic Games Marathon.
Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized at the 5000 metre distance. Regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, he is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion and the world record holder in the marathon with a time of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon. He has run five of the seven fastest marathons in history.
Inga Eduardovna Abitova is a Russian long-distance runner, who specializes in the 10,000 metres and the marathon. She was the 2006 European Champion in the 10,000 m and reached the final at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a British-Somali retired long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals make him the most successful male track distance runner ever, and he is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.
Galen Rupp is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the men's marathon in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the marathon at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta with a time of 2:09:20, and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he finished eighth.
Liza Marie Hunter-Galvan is a New Zealand long-distance runner. She qualified to run the Women's Marathon in both the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She resides in San Antonio, Texas and has won the Marathon of the Americas on four occasions. During her collegiate career she competed for UTSA and won the 1992 SLC Cross Country individual title, helping lead the Roadrunners to their second of three straight league crowns, and also qualified for the NCAA Championships.
The athletics competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held during the last 10 days of the Games, on 3–12 August. Track and field events took place at the Olympic Stadium in east London. The road events, however, started and finished on The Mall in central London.
Hellen Onsando Obiri is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. She is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country. Obiri is a two-time Olympic 5000 metres silver medallist from the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she also placed fourth over the 10,000 metres. She is a two-time world champion after winning the 5000 m in 2017 and again in 2019, when she set a new championship record. Obiri also took world bronze for the 1500 metres in 2013 and silver in the 10,000 m in 2022. She won the 3000 metres race at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, claimed silver in 2014, and placed fourth in 2018. She is the 2019 World Cross Country champion. Obiri triumphed in the 2023 Boston Marathon, her second marathon race. She places fifth in the half marathon on the world all-time list.
Jemima Jelagat Sumgong is a Kenyan long-distance runner specialising in marathon races.
Games Done Quick (GDQ) is a semiannual video game speedrun charity marathon held in the United States, originally organized by the Speed Demos Archive and SpeedRunsLive communities. Since 2015, it has been handled by Games Done Quick, LLC. Held since 2010, the events have raised money for several charities.
Sifan Hassan is an Ethiopian-born Dutch middle- and long-distance runner. She is most recognized for her versatility in running championship and world leading performances in widely disparate distances. She completed an unprecedented triple at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning gold medals in both the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres and a bronze medal for the 1500 metres. Hassan is the only athlete in Olympic history to win medals across a middle-distance event and both long-distance races in a single Games. She is only the second woman to complete an Olympic distance double.
Zane Robertson is a New Zealand middle and long-distance runner. He won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Robertson is the Oceanian record holder for the 10 kilometres and half marathon, and New Zealand record holder for the marathon. He also holds the area best in the road 10 miles. He is currently serving an eight-year ban for breaching two World Athletics anti-doping rules.
Konstantinos Tsimikas is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Liverpool and the Greece national team.
Abraham Kiptum is a Kenyan long-distance runner and former half marathon world record holder. On 28 October 2018 Kiptum ran the Valencia Half Marathon in Valencia, Spain in a time of 58:18, which would have been a world record, but in 2019 this world record was nullified, because of a doping violation verdict in 2019. The half marathon world record was then improved by Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor on 15 September 2019, to a time of 58:01.
Gloria Privileggio is a Greek long-distance runner. She competed in the Marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, finishing in the 29th place. A former swimmer, she got involved in running in 2013.
Stella Barsosio is a Kenyan long-distance runner. In 2021, she won the Rotterdam Marathon.
Augustus Mbusya Kavutu is a Kenyan long-distance runner and marathoner who has won several long-distance races and finished in the top ten of multiple international marathons. He ran one of the fastest half-marathons in the world in 2003, clocking 1:01:19.
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