The Boston Marathon versus the World Marathon Majors

Abstract

The Boston Marathon course is deemed ineligible for world record status due to its unidirectional nature and excessive negative elevation change, yet performance times across the World Marathon Majors (WMM) races have not been compared. Purpose: To compare finish times across WMM races for Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York Marathons. Methods: Race times of the top 10 male and 10 female finishers were analyzed from 2005 to 2014 using the high-performance mixed linear model procedure in the Statistical Analysis System. Venue-to-venue comparisons, as well as comparisons between Boston and other WMM races, with and without factors of temperature, humidity and altitude change were examined. Results: Performance from 2005 to 2014 in the WMM races was found to improve at a rate of ~1% each 7 years. Despite its higher variability, comparison between Boston’s estimated mean finishing time and all other venues revealed moderate positive differences, indicating the Boston event to be typically slower than other venues. Conclusions: Across the 10-year study period, performance times improved ~1% each 7 years for both genders for the WMM, with the Boston Marathon being slower on average than other WMM venues. Weather rather than course metrics appeared to impact performance times most.