The short answer: the typical big-city marathon finisher has not got faster in 20 years, but the field has changed enormously. At New York the median finish drifted from 4:18:12 in 2006 to 4:28:54 in 2026, at Berlin from 4:08:04 to 4:11:19, and at Chicago it is essentially unchanged (4:22:50 to 4:22:33). Look at men alone and Berlin and Chicago have got faster by 3 to 6 minutes. The share of finishers breaking 3 hours has roughly doubled at Berlin and tripled at Chicago.
What drives the headline drift is participation. Women were 31% of New York finishers in 2006 and 48% in 2026; in Berlin they went from 19% to 36%. Fields grew from about 30,000 to 50,000 to 61,000 finishers. More people, and a more diverse crowd, means a slower median even as the front of the race gets quicker.
This page uses 2,035,000 official finishes from 50 verified editions of the three races.
Median finish time by year
Three patterns are worth separating:
- Berlin is flat. Its median has stayed between 3:59 and 4:13 for two decades. Berlin's field is capped and heavily international, and its mix did not change as quickly as New York's.
- Chicago is the most weather-sensitive. The hot editions of 2008, 2010 and 2011 all have medians above 4:37, and Chicago 2026 (4:22) was again warm after the fast, cool 2023 and 2024 editions (4:11 and 4:05). Chicago 2024 is the fastest median in this whole series.
- New York trends slowly slower, from the 4:18 to 4:23 range before 2014 to 4:29 to 4:32 since 2016. The 2022 spike to 4:44 was a warm November day. The last three editions (4:23, 4:24, 4:29) are back near the long-run average.
Men and women separately
The pooled median hides the fact that the typical man has got faster at two of the three races.
| Race | Men 2005/06 | Men 2026 | Change | Women 2005/06 | Women 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 4:10:07 | 4:14:23 | +4:16 | 4:35:24 | 4:43:49 | +8:25 |
| Berlin | 4:02:14 | 3:58:45 | ā3:29 | 4:29:22 | 4:30:56 | +1:34 |
| Chicago | 4:09:51 | 4:04:07 | ā5:44 | 4:36:27 | 4:42:20 | +5:53 |
So at Berlin and Chicago the men-only trend is the opposite of the pooled trend. The pooled median rose or held steady only because the share of women rose, and women's medians run 25 to 35 minutes behind men's at every age (see the age guide). At New York both sexes slowed a little, which is consistent with a field that grew by 80% and admits more first-timers.
The front of the race got faster
| Race | Sub-3 share 2005/06 | Sub-3 share 2026 | Sub-4 share 2005/06 | Sub-4 share 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 2.6% | 2.9% (peak 4.1% in 2025) | 35.1% | 31.0% |
| Berlin | 3.5% | 7.5% | 43.2% | 43.2% |
| Chicago | 2.0% | 6.1% (peak 6.8% in 2023) | 32.6% | 37.7% |
The sub-3 share has more than doubled at Berlin and tripled at Chicago since 2005, and it climbed steeply after 2021. Carbon-plated shoes arrived for amateurs in 2017 to 2019, and the post-pandemic running boom brought a wave of serious club runners to the majors. The sub-4 share, by contrast, is flat or down: the middle of the pack is not faster, it is just larger.
Women as a share of the field
This is the single biggest change in 20 years of results. New York's field went from less than a third women to almost half. Berlin nearly doubled its share from 19% to 36%. Chicago, which was already at 43% in 2005, has stayed between 43% and 47% throughout and is now, with New York, close to parity.
A rising share of women mechanically slows the pooled median, which is why the headline "marathoners are getting slower" is mostly a story about who is running rather than how fast anyone runs.
Finishers are getting younger at New York
New York publishes exact ages, so we can also track the median age of its finishers: 40 in every year from 2006 to 2016, 41 in 2017 to 2019, then 39 in 2024, 38 in 2025 and 36 in 2026. The post-pandemic boom skews young. A younger field would normally make a race faster, so the fact that New York's median held near 4:25 suggests the newcomers are, on average, running to finish rather than to race.
Field sizes
| Race | Finishers 2005/06 | Finishers 2019 | Finishers 2021 | Finishers 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 33,468 | 53,464 | 24,906 | 60,878 |
| Berlin | 30,365 | 43,960 | 23,008 | 50,005 |
| Chicago | 32,842 | 45,844 | 26,046 | 54,230 |
There were no races in 2020, and the 2021 editions ran with roughly half-sized fields under pandemic restrictions. Every race has since set its own record for finishers.
Where the data comes from
Every figure is computed from official per-finisher results compiled in the open Pace Notes dataset (CC BY 4.0). We used only editions verified against the organiser's published finisher counts, which is why some years are missing: New York 2012 (cancelled), 2014 and 2015, Berlin 2010, 2024 and 2025, Chicago 2007 (stopped mid-race in the heat), 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2025 are not yet verified in the dataset and are left out rather than estimated. Wheelchair and handcycle divisions and records flagged as unreliable are excluded. Medians rather than averages are used throughout because the slow tail drags averages upward.
Frequently asked questions
Are marathon runners getting slower?
The typical finisher at a big-city marathon is a few minutes slower than 20 years ago: New York's median went from 4:18 in 2006 to 4:29 in 2026, Berlin's from 4:08 to 4:11, Chicago's is unchanged. But this is mostly because fields are bigger and nearly half women now, not because individual runners are slower. Men at Berlin and Chicago are 3 to 6 minutes faster than in 2005.
Has the number of sub-3 marathoners increased?
Yes, sharply. Sub-3 finishers were 3.5% of the Berlin field in 2005 and 7.5% in 2026; at Chicago the share went from 2.0% to 6.1%. In absolute terms that is roughly 3,700 sub-3 finishers at Berlin 2026 against about 1,100 in 2005.
What was the slowest year at the Chicago Marathon?
In this verified series, 2008, with a median finish of 4:43:38 on a hot day, followed by 2010 (4:40:34) and 2021 (4:38:37). The 2007 edition, which was halted mid-race, is not in the verified data.
What percentage of New York Marathon finishers are women?
47.5% in 2026, up from 31.1% in 2006 and above 44% every year since 2021.
What is the median age of a New York Marathon finisher?
36 in 2026, the youngest in the series. It was 40 or 41 every year from 2006 to 2023 before dropping to 39 in 2024 and 38 in 2025.