Chart showing london marathon finish times from Strave

Ahead of Sunday’s London Marathon, Strava has revealed data highlighting the key numbers from last year’s London Marathon. Of the 80,000 people to complete the marathon 2021 – in person and virtually – more than half were on Strava.

Other key data points include:

  • Law of averages: The average Strava uploader completed the London Marathon in 4:19:54, just under three minutes quicker than average time for the race as a whole – 4:22:50. The top 25% of runners finished in 3:36:45. The average time for men fell just outside the four hour barrier (4:05:08), while women on average completed the race in under 4 hour 45 minutes (4:43:20).
  • Setting the pace: Just over 8% of Strava uploaders registered a sub three-hour finish time. More than one in ten women logged Strava times under 3 hours 35 minutes, while 15% of men who uploaded their race completed the course in under 3 hours 5 minutes.
  • The slowest mile by average pace – mile four, 11:39 – was immediately followed by the fastest – mile five, 09:01.
  • The international perspective: The country with the fastest marathon times on Strava is Mexico, where the average upload is 3:26:06. The other quickest nations are: Norway (3:32:22); Portugal (3:35:46) and Poland (3:41:30).