Table 1: Gender,Age and Median Times

	1980	1995	2000	2006	2007	2008
Women	10.5%	26%	38%	40%	40%	41%
Men	89.5%	74%	62%	60%	60%	59%
Masters (40 yrs+)	26%	41%	44%	46%	46%	45%
Open (20 to 39 yrs)	69%	57%	54%	52%	52%	53%
Juniors (under 20)	5%	2%	2%	2%	2%	2%
Median Age
	1980	1995	2000	2006	2007	2008	(Mean)
Males	34	38	38	40	40	39	(39.9 yrs)
Females	31.3	35	35	35	36	35	(36.1 yrs)
Median Age Overall			37	38	38	38	(38.4 yrs)
Median Times for U.S. Marathon Finishers
	1980	1995	2002	2006	2007	2008
Males	3:32:17	3:54:00	4:20:01	4:15:34	4:20:04	4:16:00
Females	4:03:39	4:15:00	4:56:46	4:46:40	4:49:48	4:43:32

2008 Marathon Snapshot
In the U.S., there was a solid 3.7% increase in finishers for the same 243 marathons for 2007 and 2008 (398,874 vs. 413,644), while outside the United States, the same 75 marathons in both years grew 4.3% (345,237 vs. 360,104).
Overall, in the U.S., there was a 3% increase in the estimated number of marathon finishers (425,000). More than 18 U.S. marathons debuted in 2008 and two of them had more than 1,000 finishers: 26.2 with Donna in Jacksonville Beach, FL (1,680) and Indianapolis Monument (1,114).
Year Estimated U.S. Marathon Finisher Total
1976 25,000
1980 143,000
1990 224,000
1995 293,000
2000 353,000
2004 386,000
2005 395,000
2006 410,000
2007 412,000
2008 425,000
Record number of U.S. marathons with more than 1,000 finishers.
Last year in the U.S., 77 marathons had at least 1,000 finishers. The previous record was 73 U.S. marathons in 2007. Ten years ago, there were 41 U.S. marathons with 1,000 finishers or more. Also, in 2008, twelve U.S. marathons had more than 7,000 finishers in the same year (see the listing below).
The U.S. again had 7 of the 15 largest marathons in the world
Table 2: 2008 U.S. Marathons (>1,000 finishers) with the...

… Fastest Median Times
	1995	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
U.S. Men's Olympic Trials		2:23:29			2:22:34
U.S. Women's Olympic Trials		2:48:25				2:45:25
Boston		4:19:42	3:53:03	3:44:47	3:48:40	3:46:13
Steamtown		3:54:29	3:55:36	3:54:24	4:03:05	3:56:13
Suntrust National					4:01:36	3:58:01
Grand Rapids					4:07:30	3:58:15
… Slowest Median Times
	1995	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Bataan Memorial March				7:45:52	7:38:57	7:47:50
Honolulu	5:15:19	5:42:41	5:39:40	5:43:29	5:50:11	5:49:00
City of Los Angeles	4:50:30	5:53:01	5:26:49	5:23:454	5:36:57	5:31:57

… Most sub-4 hour finishers
	1995	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Boston	6467-68%	5490-33%	10260-59%	13341-68%	12996-64%	14547-66%
ING NewYork City		10750-34%	8270-22%	12168-32%	11959-31%	13106-34%
Bank of America Chicago	4280-50%	8868-27%	10740-37%	11608-35%	3643-14%	6382-21%
Philadelphia				2770-45%	3149-47%	3193-43%

… Most >6 Hour Finishers
	2006	2007	2008
Honolulu	10428 (42%)	9450 (45%)	8761 (44%)
City of Los Angeles	6764 (33%)	7881 (39%)	6420 (37%)
Walt Disney World		2572 (23%)	3217 (25%)

… Most Finishers in certain Age Groups
	Event	2007 Subtotals	2008 Subtotals
Female Juniors	City of Los Angeles	1279	1256
Male Juniors	City of Los Angeles	1799	1726
Females 20-29	Bank of America Chicago	3670	5073
Males 20-29	Bank of America Chicago	3194	4023
Females 30-39	Bank of America Chicago	4438	4543
Males 30-39	ING New York City	8206	7554
Female Masters 40+	ING New York City	5507	5595
Male Masters 40+	ING New York City	14911	14667
Females 50+	Honolulu	1895	1960
Males 60+	Honolulu	1516	1540

20 marathons worldwide had more than 10,000 finishers in 2008

The ING New York City Marathon kept its crown as the world's largest marathon based on finishers with 38,096 in 2008 - the second largest marathon ever (only the 2007 race was larger). For the first time, 12 marathons had more than 16,000 finishers and 20 marathons surpassed the 10,000 finisher total in the same year (see the listing below).

2008
World's Largest Marathons (finishers):
1) ING New York City, NY 38,096
2) real,- Berlin, GER 35,746
3) Flora London, GBR 34,603
4) Bank of America Chicago, IL 31,343
5) Paris, FRA 28,846
6) Tokyo Int'l, JPN 26,672
7) Boston, MA 21,945
8) Honolulu, HI 20,061
9) Naha, JPN 18,654
10) Marine Corps, DC 18,228
11) City of Los Angeles, CA 17,247
12) Rock 'n' Roll, CA 16,760
13) Conenergy Hamburg, GER 15,782
14) Arakawa Shimin, JPN 13,867
15) Stockholm, SWE 13,542
16) Standard Chartered Singapore 13,028
17) Walt Disney World, FL 12,964
18) Ibusuki Nanohana, JPN 11,215
19) Rome, ITA 10,511
20) Chosunilbo Chunchon, KOR 10,073

U.S. Largest Marathons (finishers):
1) ING New York City, NY 38,096
2) Bank of America Chicago, IL 31,343
3) Boston, MA 21,948
4) Honolulu, HI 20,061
5) Marine Corps, DC 18,228
6) City of Los Angeles, CA 17,247
7) Rock 'n' Roll, CA 16,760
8) Walt Disney World, FL 12,964
9) Medtronic Twin Cities, MN 7,979
10) Portland, OR 7,879
11) Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio, TX 7,618
12) Philadelphia, PA 7,341
13) Grandma's, MN 6,876
14) P.F. Chang's RnR Arizona 6,499
15) Chevron Houston, TX 5,516
16) California Int'l, CA 5,204
17) St. George, UT 5,033
18) Nike Women's, CA 4,916
19) AT&T Austin, TX 4,835
20) Cincinnati Flying Pig, OH 4,734

Source: Running USA

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