Marathon Comparisons
This section compares various statistics across marathons. For example, you can find out what the largest prize purse awarded for a marathon or you can find out which marathon has awarded the most prize money over the period of its existence. The information is drawn from the individual race histories.
Quality Performances. This section ranks the races according to the number of quality performances achieved at that race over the lifetime of the race (men and women separately). The ranking is based on a score that is calculated as the sum of the numbers of quality performances at each level, i.e., the sum of all the table entries for that race. This effectively weights faster performances more than slower performances.
Prize Money. This section presents the races that have awarded the most prize money over all years (combined) and for men and women separately. In addition, the largest single year prize purses are presented, again combined and for men and women separately.
Race Time Bias. This section presents the average race time bias for all races in the Race Histories section that have sufficient data to calculate this statistic. A positive race time bias indicates the race is slower than average; a negative race time bias indicates the race is faster than average. Races held at altitude or under warm and humid conditions typically have positive race time biases.
Event Records. This section lists the fastest event records for men, women, and combined (sum of men's and women's times).
National Records. This section lists the top ten races according to the number of national (and world) record listings for that race. Separate lists are also provided for the number of men's and women's records.
Most Competitive Marathon Fields. This section presents the most competitive men's and women's fields (separately). Note that competitive levels were not computed prior to 1990.
Longest Running Marathons. This section lists all known marathons with 20 or more runnings with links to the lists of winners for most of the marathons listed.