Marathon Running Sets Milestones

Running is built on booms. In the 1970s, the original explosion introduced people to something called jogging.

- By RACHEL BACHMAN AND NIKKI WALLER

In 1994, Oprah Winfrey ran the Marine Corps Marathon, spurring millions of women to flood half-marathons and other races. In 2024, the marathon boomed.

The Paris Marathon in April set a record for the biggest ever with 54,175 finishers. That mark was broken not once, but twice—first in September by Berlin (54,280), then in November by New York (55,646). And hundreds of thousands more people entered lotteries to get into those races, a sign that demand for spots is outstripping supply. No longer the exclusive domain of super-slim Type As, the 26.2-mile distance has drawn in runners of all sizes and speeds and, notably, younger ones. While the number of marathon finishers remains below the half-million who ran in 2019, new groups of people are taking on the distance. The share of finishers between ages 20 and 24 has grown from about 5% to 8% since 2021, according to leading industry tracker Running USA.