What’s a good marathon time?
For a normal adult, most marathon finishers land somewhere in the 4-to-5-hour range. RunRepeat's global percentile data puts the median finisher at 4:14:29 for men and 4:42:09 for women (table below), and a separate RunRepeat study of over 10 million US results puts the 2024 age-bracket average anywhere from 4:19 (ages 18–24) to 5:35 (ages 65+). But for a first marathon specifically, finishing is the real benchmark: the bands below exist for runners who want a number anyway, not because a first marathon needs one.
The marathon is the distance where "was that good?" matters least and gets asked most. Most people who finish one never do it again, and the ones who do treat their own last time as the only time worth beating. Still, the honest published numbers exist, so here they are: by age where the data supports it, by sex where it doesn't, with the gaps stated plainly rather than papered over.
Marathon finish times by age (US, 2024)
Marathon data turns out to be more detailed than the 10K's or half marathon's: RunRepeat's "State of US Marathons 2025" study (published August 28, 2025) analyzed 10,482,628 US race results across 6,352 events from 1984–2025 (about 97% of total US race results) and reports average finish time by age bracket for 2024. It does not cross that by sex within each bracket, so the table below is age only; separately, the same study reports 2024 averages by sex: 4:24 for men and 4:51 for women, combining to an overall average of 4:34.
| Age bracket | Average finish time (2024) |
|---|---|
| 18–24 | 4:19 |
| 25–34 | 4:27 |
| 35–44 | 4:29 |
| 45–54 | 4:38 |
| 55–64 | 4:58:04 |
| 65+ | 5:35 |
These are averages, not medians, and they include every finisher (first-timers, run-walkers and charity participants along with trained runners), which is standard for marathon fields more than for shorter races. Worth noting: the same study found US marathon times have gotten faster since 2019, not slower, in every age bracket and both sexes, a reversal of the decades-long slowdown RunRepeat's earlier global research documented through 2018 (more on that below).
What counts as good: the bands
RunRepeat's percentile calculator, built on a larger, global, multi-year dataset (roughly 35 million race results from 28,000+ races, last updated March 2024) and different from the US-only 2024 study above, reports marathon finish times as percentiles by sex.
| Band | Women | Men | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-timer / just finishing | 5:56:31 or slower | 5:25:26 or slower | Slower than 90% of finishers, typical for a first marathon |
| Recreational (typical) | ~4:42:09 | ~4:14:29 | The median finisher, right in the middle of the field |
| Good | 3:49:22 or faster | 3:22:40 or faster | Faster than 90% of finishers |
| Very good | 3:11:35 or faster | 2:44:18 or faster | Faster than 99% of finishers |
Worth flagging, and different from the shorter distances: pace-standard calculators like Running Level put their "intermediate" marathon standard slower than RunRepeat's 90th-percentile "good" cutoff above: 3:34:56 for men, 4:08:09 for women. That's the opposite of the pattern on the 5K, 10K and half marathon pages, where Running Level's bar ran faster. The reason is in Running Level's own definition: it labels "intermediate" as roughly "faster than 50% of runners," a median-level bar, not a top-10% one, a different, looser standard than the "good" label on the table above, not a contradiction in the data.
For scale: records, Boston Qualifying, and popular milestones
At the far end, per World Athletics, the men's marathon world record is 1:59:30, run by Sabastian Sawe at the London Marathon on April 26, 2026, the first sub-2-hour marathon in a record-eligible race, beating Kelvin Kiptum's 2:00:35 (Chicago Marathon, October 8, 2023) by over a minute. (Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40.2 in Vienna on October 12, 2019, but that staged event used rotating pacemakers and was never record-eligible.) The women's record is split by race type, the same way it is at shorter distances: 2:09:56 in a mixed-gender race (Ruth Chepng'etich, Chicago Marathon, October 13, 2024), and 2:15:41 in a women-only race (Tigst Assefa, London Marathon, April 26, 2026). Nobody reading this needs to get near those times. They're here purely so "good" has a ceiling to sit under.
The marathon has one qualifying standard nobody has to guess at: the Boston Marathon's, set by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.). For the 2026 and 2027 races (the current standards, tightened by five minutes for everyone under 60 starting with 2026), the open (18–34) standard is 2:55:00 for men and 3:25:00 for women and non-binary athletes; the non-binary division uses the same time as the women's division at every age. Against the percentile data above, the open men's BQ (2:55:00) sits between RunRepeat's fastest-10% cutoff (3:22:40) and fastest-1% cutoff (2:44:18), and the open women's BQ (3:25:00) sits in the same band (between 3:49:22 and 3:11:35): Boston qualifying is a fast time by any measure, not a formality. Hitting the published standard isn't a guarantee of entry, either: because more qualifiers apply than there are spots, the B.A.A. accepts the fastest qualifiers relative to their own standard first, so an actual cutoff often runs several minutes faster than the number in the table.
| Age group | Men | Women & non-binary |
|---|---|---|
| 18–34 | 2:55:00 | 3:25:00 |
| 35–39 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 |
| 40–44 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 45–49 | 3:15:00 | 3:45:00 |
| 50–54 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 55–59 | 3:30:00 | 4:00:00 |
| 60–64 | 3:50:00 | 4:20:00 |
| 65–69 | 4:05:00 | 4:35:00 |
| 70–74 | 4:20:00 | 4:50:00 |
| 75–79 | 4:35:00 | 5:05:00 |
| 80+ | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 |
Sub-4:00 and sub-3:30 are the two time barriers recreational marathoners talk about most, and, same as sub-2:00 at the half marathon, they mean something different by sex. Sub-4:00 for men is faster than the median (4:14:29) by about 14 minutes but well short of the "good" cutoff (3:22:40), solidly above average, not yet "good" by this data. For women, sub-4:00 is a much bigger step: 42 minutes faster than the median (4:42:09) and within about 11 minutes of the "good" cutoff (3:49:22). Sub-3:30 sits just behind the men's fastest-10% cutoff (3:22:40), solid, trained territory, and comfortably inside the women's "good" band outright, since 3:30:00 beats the women's fastest-10% cutoff (3:49:22).
How to actually get faster
Comparing your time to the tables above is a snapshot, not a plan. What moves the number is training, and the same principles apply whether the current time is 5:30 or 3:15:
- Run consistently before running hard. A regular weekly habit does more for a first marathon time than any single long run. Streak tracking is built around exactly this.
- Add structure, not just distance. Runked's marathon training plan mixes easy running, one weekly long run, and tempo or interval work rather than just piling on miles.
- Know the actual number, not the guess. Runked's race time predictor estimates your current marathon, half, 10K and 5K times from recent training, so progress is measured, not assumed.
- Watch fatigue, not just mileage. The fitness & fatigue tracking flags when harder training is about to backfire, which matters more at marathon distance than anywhere shorter.
- Compare to yourself, not the table above. A running rank that moves with your own training is a better daily signal than any percentile.
Find out where you stand
Runked is free on the App Store. Connect your watch or track 3 runs, and meet your Runk.
Download on App StoreFrequently asked questions
What's a good time for a first marathon?
Finishing is the actual benchmark for a first marathon: completing 26.2 miles at all is the achievement, whatever the clock says. If a number helps anyway: RunRepeat's percentile data puts the slower-than-90% mark, a range typical for many first-timers, at 5:25:26 for men and 5:56:31 for women, and the overall median (all experience levels combined) at 4:14:29 for men and 4:42:09 for women. A first marathon anywhere from about 4:30 to 6 hours is ordinary, not slow.
What's the average marathon time?
Per RunRepeat's worldwide marathon study (19.6 million results from 2008-2018), the global average finish time was 4:29:53 in 2018, the study's most recently published year: 4:21:03 for men and 4:48:45 for women. A separate, more recent RunRepeat study limited to US races puts the 2024 average at 4:24 for men and 4:51 for women, with the full age breakdown in the table above. The two studies cover different populations and years, so treat them as two independently sourced data points rather than one trend line.
Is sub-4 a good marathon time?
It depends on sex. For men, sub-4:00 is about 14 minutes faster than RunRepeat's median (4:14:29) but still well short of the "good" cutoff (3:22:40), solidly above average, not yet "good" by that data. For women, sub-4:00 is a much bigger step: 42 minutes faster than the median (4:42:09) and within about 11 minutes of the "good" cutoff (3:49:22), closer to the front of the field.
What's a Boston Qualifying (BQ) time?
A Boston Qualifying time, or "BQ," is the finish time the Boston Athletic Association requires to register for the Boston Marathon, based on age and sex. For the 2026 and 2027 races, the open standard (ages 18-34) is 2:55:00 for men and 3:25:00 for women and non-binary athletes; older age groups get more time, shown in the table above. Hitting the published number isn't a guarantee of entry: the B.A.A. accepts the fastest qualifiers relative to their own standard first, so the real cutoff often runs faster than the posted time. Runked PRO's race time predictor estimates a runner's current marathon-equivalent time from recent training, a faster way to check BQ progress than waiting for race day.