A World Economic Forum article described development as a marathon, not a sprint. But what about the connections between development and actual marathons?
Desiree Linden of the USA holds up the American flag after winning the Women’s Division of the 2018 Boston Marathon. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
The first Olympic marathon was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, but the history of the event traces back more than 2,300 years from its Olympic debut to Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens, carrying not dreams of a medal but rather news of the Greek’s victory at the Battle of Marathon. The distance from Marathon to Athens is the basis of the race’s distance, although the length of the race was not standardized until 1921.
The first Olympic marathon winner crossed the finish line in just under three hours, and speculation about the possibility of breaking the two-hour barrier has loomed large since the first sub-2:20 finish in 1953. Sponsored by Nike and their innovative shoe technology, May 2017’s “Breaking2” attempt resulted in the closest recorded time yet: 2:00:25.
While many cannot even fathom running a marathon in two hours, or even running such a distance at all, the activity became increasingly popular in the second half of the 20th century.
The New York City Marathon of 1976 was the first to usher in the era of “big city” marathons. However, the Boston Marathon—the third-biggest US marathon in 2015 by number of finishers—goes back more than a century.
According to data from Runner’s World, the year 1966 saw 1,593 finishers compete in 29 marathons across the US. By 2015, these numbers exploded: 532,305 runners completed the distance in 1,175 events.
Though the US has historically registered the highest number of marathon finishers in the world, Japan has recently taken the number one position. In 2015, 579,795 people finished marathons in Japan, over 40,000 more than the US. China came up third with just over 180,000 finishers.
Between 2009-2014, marathon running grew by 300% in Russia, nearly 260% in China, and just shy of 212% in the Philippines. The remaining top-10 countries for marathon growth all recorded growth of over 100% and included Greece, Israel, Argentina, Hong Kong, India, Romania, and Singapore.
The correlation between the popularity of running and development is rather intuitive. With more disposable income and time, individuals have more opportunities to practice the sport. But marathons and running play a significant part in sports tourism in many cases. For example, Jamaica’s Minister of Sport Olivia Grange highlighted the opportunities in running events for the country’s sports tourism industry at the 2017 Reggae Marathon.
For business sponsors, marathons are also a winning opportunity, and multinational companies often host marathons in first- and second-tier cities across the world. For example, Vodafone has locked up sponsorship annually for both the Istanbul Half Marathon in the spring and the full event in the fall.
In India, the sport has grown incredibly fast from its first Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon as one of the only running events in 2004 to 10 years later more than 130 events per calendar year. Indian companies have also grown from sponsoring domestic events to international ones as a marketing and growth strategy. Earlier in April, finishers of the New York City Marathon sported t-shirts and medals thanks to TCS—India’s Tata Consultancy Services.
But with increased marathon hype comes skepticism about the economic benefits of running events. Though China has embraced running in recent years, small marathons outside of major cities will not bring great economic benefits to the country anytime soon.
Most analysis of the economic benefits of marathon events, and sporting events in general, focuses on the positive effects of event-related investment and tourism in the short term. But the long-term effects, that is the ability for host cities and countries to sustain investment and tourism, are more difficult to quantify.
Nevertheless, following the latest Boston Marathon, runners have laced up their kicks in Serbia, Romania, Morocco, Kazakhstan, and the UK over the past week, proving that the marathon is continuing to promote the sport across the world.
