Trivia

Ø       Based on the scoring system of 25-15-10-5-1 points for 5th-4th-3rd-2nd-lst place, Kenyan Catherine Ndereba is the lifetime leader for most points. Her total of 332 consists of  eight first places, eight second places, one third and two fifths. Clarence DeMars' 236 points leads among men.

Ø       The shortest time interval between World Marathon Majors wins is 77 days by Grete Waitz in 1983. She won the World Championships on August 7 and the New York City Marathon on October 23. The men's best is 161 days by Martin Lel (New York City, November 4, 2007 & London, April 13, 2008).

Ø       The most consecutive World Marathon Majors victories is six by Bill Rodgers (New York City '77, Boston '78, New York City '78, Boston '79, New York City '79, Boston '80). He was fifth at the 1980 New York City Marathon. The women's record is also six by Uta Pippig (Berlin '92, New York City '93, Boston '94, Boston '95, Berlin '95, Boston '96). She did not finish the 1996 Olympic Games marathon.

Ø       All seven World Marathon Majors men's event records are held by African runners: five from Kenya and two from Ethiopia. Women's event records belong to just four runners from three countries: Paula Radcliffe, England (London, Chicago, World Championships), Margaret Okayo, Kenya (Boston, New York City), Naoko Takahashi, Japan (Olympic Games) and Mizuku Noguchi, Japan (Berlin).

Ø       Kjell-Erik Stahl of Sweden is the only marathoner to finish all seven World Marathon Majors. His best finishes: 15th, Boston '82 (2:12:46); 22nd, London '86 (2:12:00); 22nd, Berlin '91 (2:15:51); 8th, Chicago '84 (2:14:16); 12th, New York City '81 (2:13:32 – 148m short); 19th, Olympic Games '80 (2:17:44); 4th,World Championships '83 (2:10:38). Svetlana Zakharova has finished all seven races at least twice except once at Berlin.

Ø       The youngest World Marathon Majors winner since 1981 and the inception of the London Marathon, World Championships Marathon and women's Olympic Marathon have been Alejandro Cruz, 20 years old at Chicago '88 and Tegla Loroupe, 21 years old at New York City '94.

Ø       Geoff Smith is the only man to win a Majors since 1981 by more than five minutes. At the 1985 Boston Marathon, Smith (2:14:05) finished 5:06 ahead of Gary Tuttle (2:19:11). Mizuki Noguchi (2:19:12) was 8:22 in front of Luminita Zaituc (2:27:34) at Berlin in 2005.

Ø       The closest competitive finish was at the 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon with a 5/100ths of a second difference between first and second. The first two men also had the same official times at Chicago in 1980 and 1993, at Boston in 2000 and London in 1981 (intentional tie) and 2003. There have been one second differences at both Berlin (2003) and New York City (2005).

Ø       The 2002 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon was the fastest marathon ever for combined men's and women's winning time. Khalid Khannouchi ran 2:05:56 and Paula Radcliffe ran 2:17:18 for a total of four hours twenty three minutes and fourteen seconds. The fastest ever for combined course records is London at 4:20:40 (Martin Lel, 2:05:15 and Radcliffe, 2:15:25).

Ø       Both men's and women's debut world records were set at Majors events. In his first 26.2 mile race, Evans Rutto won the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:05:50. (Moses Mosop ran an aided 2:03:06 at Boston in 2011.) Paula Radcliffe similarly won her debut at the 2002 Flora London Marathon in 2:18:56.

Ø       The 2011 Virgin London Marathon was one of the fastest women's races in history for depth of performances..Edna Kiplagat (2:20:46) became the first third place finisher to break 2:21 and best ever times were set for eighth through 24th place.

Ø       The ING New York City Marathon set world records for the largest marathon in history for four consecutive years: 2004 (36,562), 2005 (36,856), 2006 (37,869) and 2007 (38,607). That last record was smashed in 2009 (43,660) and topped again in 2010 (44,829).