How long is a marathon? How long is a half marathon?
You know, we get this question more often than you might imagine. And, if you’re new to the whole running/walking thing, it’s a darn good question. Better to ask it now instead of halfway into the race, because you might not like the answer at that point. An official full marathon is 42.195 kilometers or, if you prefer to use miles, 26 miles and 385 yards. For simplicity’s sake, most people just call a full marathon 42.2 km. A half marathon is, you guessed it, half the distance of the 42.2 km full marathon course – 21.1 kilometers, or a little over 13 miles. The current marathon distance was set for the 1908 London Olympics so that the course could start at Windsor Castle and end in front of the Royal Box at the Olympic stadium. It wasn’t until 1921, however, that the International Association of Athletics Federations, otherwise known as the IAAF, adopted the distance as the “official” marathon distance. I guess between 1908 and 1921, you could just make up something that was “close en
