Frequently Asked Questions

Strictly speaking, the marathon world record was only first recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federation (known as World Athletics today) in 2003. Before then, the term ‘world best’ or similar was used to describe the fastest time set in the marathon.

For me, the matter is simple. Even if it was not the official world record as recognised for shorter distances, there was clearly (or not so clearly at times) someone who ran 42.195 kilometres or 26 miles 385 yards at an appropriately certified event faster than anyone had before.

This is what I mean by the marathon world record.

The Association of Road Racing Statisticians, or ARRS for short, was co-founded by Ken Young in 2003. Young was arguably one of the pivotal figures in making marathon events as accurate as they are today. Back in 1973 he had started the National Running Data Center, whose goal was to provide accurate statistics for athletics events of all distances. In 1982 they launched a validation program for all courses where American records had been set.

This led to the re-measurement of the course used for the 1981 New York City Marathon. Despite the same course being used in previous years when Grete Waitz had set the world record, World Athletics did not invalidate those results. However, the ARRS did: Young and his fellow statisticians had collected data from across the world to determine the accuracy of various results.

This included the disputed time set by Derek Clayton at the 1969 Antwerp Marathon, which I note has as of June2024 been removed from the official world record progression for the marathon in the latest edition of the 'Progression of World Athletics Records' book published by World Athletics.

In short, ARRS have gone to significant efforts to maintain the accuracy of their list, and have clearly explained why they diverge from World Athletics. Having looked into these divergences as part of my research, I find their reasoning more than convincing.

Abebe Bikila. He not only set the marathon world record and the Olympic record simultaneously at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he did so barefoot. While I acknowledge the achievements of those athletes that went before him, Bikila set the benchmark for how fast you can run the marathon without any shoes at all.

There are several sources that claim Shivnath Singh ran barefoot when he won the marathon at the 1978 Indian National Championships held in Jalandhar. His time was 2:11:59.4, which would be significantly faster than Abebe Bikila's time set in 1960. Singh is still at the time of writing the National Record holder in India for the marathon. 

Although Singh definitely competed in shorter distances barefoot, as many photographs show, I've not come across any evidence that he competed at the marathon distance barefoot. In pictures of Singh at the 1976 Olympics and video of him in at the 1980 Olympics, both times competing in the marathon, he is clearly wearing shoes.

It would be unusual for an athlete to compete in shoes at one of the most significant races of their career when their best time was set barefoot only two years prior. Singh was without question an exceptional athlete, however his marathon time of 2:11:59.4 was almost certainly set in shoes. 

If someone has evidence to the contrary I'd happily be proven wrong.

Phạm Thị Bình. At the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, she won gold in the women's marathon in 2:45:34 and incredibly did so barefoot. This is the fastest such time I have found, and although it was not the world record at the time like Abebe Bikila's performance in 1960, it still answers the question of how fast a women can run the marathon without shoes. On this basis I've started my list with the first world record time faster than this benchmark, 2:43:54.5 by Jacqueline Hansen in 1974.

The Guinness World Records had erroneously claimed that when Tegla Loroupe battled through food poisoning to finish 13th in 2:29:45 in the women's marathon at the 2000 Olympics, she did so barefoot. They repeated this claim in print and on their website. This has since been repeated through other channels, including her Wikipedia page.

We have many photos from that event, including the one below, showing Loroupe in bib #2402 and notably wearing shoes, the same Nike Air Streak model she set the marathon world record in on two separate occasions, first in 1998 and again in 1999.

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I reached out to the Guinness World Records team to ask for their entry to be updated, and to their credit they have since updated their website to reflect that Phạm Thị Bình holds the distinction of the women's barefoot marathon world record. 

Of course, if you know of any women who have run the marathon barefoot even faster than Phạm Thị Bình, please get in touch.

I’m aware that in 2011 the International Association of Athletics Federations, known today as World Athletics, changed the rules so that the women's marathon world record could only be set in women's-only marathons.

The decision was met with considerable controversy, the World Marathon Majors and the Association of International Marathons releasing a joint statement at the time saying:

The current situation where the fastest time is not now recognized as a record is confusing and unfair and does not represent the history of our sport.

When this website launched I made the decision to only track the outright marathon world record for men and women, my criteria being simply the fastest time run over 42.195km or 26 miles 385 yards in an event properly sanctioned by World Athletics.

Having considered the matter further, and in light of some freelance work done with Nike since the launch of this website, I have decided to list the progression of the women-only marathon world record and the shoes worn to set it. While separate to the outright marathon world record, it is of sufficient importance to have been noted historically throughout the decades of reporting of distance running, which lead to World Athletics formally recognising the mark as its own world record.

My list starts from the first time a women-only marathon was held, which was the Women's Marathon in 1973 in Waldniel, Germany. As there has been to my knowledge no attempt to fully record the progression of the women-only marathon world record, I felt it an important opportunity to record this alongside the outright marathon world records.

Where there may be some initial confusion is that the marathon world record set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003 is not part of the list despite the London Marathon holding a seperate start for elite women runners, 45 minutes before the elite men's field. In 2002, the pacers for the event were women but in 2003 organisers has two men pace the field. On this basis that mark does not qualify for the women's only marathon world record. As only women pacers were hired for the 2005 event, that mark is accordingly eligible.

In creating the progression of the women's only marathon world record, I have noted some potential issues with the progression of the record in effect listed by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS). Their database has otherwise been an invaluable resource.

They claim the courses used for the 1983 Avon International Women's Marathon and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were not record quality. This was despite extensive efforts to ensure these courses were measured accurately to standards that still apply today, and that the courses were net uphill. Certification documents explicitely stated the course for the Los Angeles Olympics had its start and finish 17 kilometres apart, so within limits that still apply today for record eligibility by World Athletics. Based on the available documents, it would appear the course for the 1983 Avon International Women's Marathon also had its start and finish within the 50 percent distance specified for record eligibility.

In their database the ARRS also claim the course for the 1998 Asian Games was also not record quality. Unfortunately they do not specify on which basis this statement is made, there are no suggestions that it was either point-to-point or featuring an excessive drop over its distance. I have reached out to organisers to get further information on how the course accuracy was certified.

For the men’s list, they start at the same place, the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Abebe Bikila set the marathon world record at that event, barefoot no less, and would set the world record again at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo albeit this time wearing shoes. For the women's list, it was a landmark moment for women's distance running.

For many of the athletes featured on this website, Olympic gold was something they wanted as much as the world record. Inclusion of both also mirrors shorter distance events where there is both a world record and an Olympic record.

Without diminishing the achievements of those who have won gold at the Commonwealth Games or the World Athletics Championships, it is the Olympics that is the most significant international competition.

While there have been boycotts, in theory every nation should be able to compete. This is why the Olympic record is the only diversion from the world record. Plus, it allows me to include some more shoes, and tell some interesting stories along the way…

Quite possibly! Although there are many entries that were easy to research, some required educated guesses. There are some events that, for whatever reason, have few if any photographs available. Some of those photos are simply not clear enough for me to identify what the athlete was wearing.

Where I’ve had to make such guesses, I’ve tried to find images of marathons shortly before or after the event in question. Although this is not necessarily always the case, I’m assuming that professional athletes and particularly distance runners would not change their shoes at short notice without good reason.

If you have pictures or other evidence available, I’d love to chat. Part of this project involved getting things wrong initially, and later being corrected. Of course, I’ve provided full credit to those who have helped me along the way, the community have really helped with some of the trickier entries.

You can reach me at @MarathonShoeNrd on Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you!

Sorry about that! I’ve tried where possible to provide accreditation to the images I’ve used, including making reasonable efforts to contact the owner. Sometimes despite my best efforts I was unable to find the original source, or to contact the original photographer. If I’ve used one of your images, please get in touch via my Twitter account @MarathonShoeNrd. In some instances it has been extremely difficult identifying the original source for some of the images used, so I appreciate your understanding.

I'm on Instagram @marathonshoenrd, and you can also reach me via email on marathonshoenerd at Gmail.