Marathon passion unites us all—it's considered the most iconic distance in athletics and the one hundreds of thousands of people worldwide dream of completing each year. Here are five facts you probably didn't know about the 42.195 kilometers:
1. An average runner takes 44,421 steps to complete a marathon. How so? Well, according to a study of over one million marathoners worldwide, the average time for everyone to complete the distance was 4:21:21. If we multiply that average time by 170—the number of steps per minute a typical runner takes—we get 44,421 steps.
2. Men are faster than women. That same study found that the average time for men to finish the marathon is 4:13:23, while women take an average of 4:42:33. Regardless of the gender debate, it's interesting to compare yourself against these numbers if you've already run a marathon or if you're planning to run one and measure yourself against "everyone."
3. Why the heck 42.195 kilometers? Why not a round 42 kilometers, or 40? Well, although there's some historical disagreement on this, it seems that Queen Alexandra of England asked for the marathon at the 1908 London Olympics to start from the East Terrace of Windsor Castle so that the little ones could watch it from their room. From there to the Olympic Stadium, the route measured 42.195 meters, and many years later, in 1921, the IAAF decided that would be the official marathon distance forever and ever. So now we all run (or drag ourselves through) those extra 195 meters thanks to Queen Alexandra's kindness. Long live the queen!
4. The oldest runner to finish a marathon is, to date, British-Indian Fauja Singh, who completed the Toronto Marathon at age 100. He did this in 2011 and finished in 8:11:06. He then did an Ironman the next day to cool down. That last part isn't true, but it would have been even more INCREDIBLE, don't you think?
5. And the youngest marathoner? This is perhaps something sad, or well, let's call it controversial so we don't bias it. The youngest marathoner is the (now famous) Indian boy Budhia Singh, who by age four had run 48 marathons under the guidance of his "coach." In 2011, HBO released a documentary about him titled "Marathon Boy" and it was nominated for Emmy Awards. Budhia's coach was murdered in 2008, and now Budhia, age 13, is at a sports school under the guidance of another coach who has him play and do other sports with his teammates instead of imposing the brutal distances he used to run.
