What is the men’s marathon world record, in minutes?

How to get close to this number

Everyone knows the record sits right at the two-hour mark, so the real question is which side of it. Converting to minutes is then the whole task. The interesting part is the pace: this site puts the distance at 42.195 km, so dividing the time by the distance gives under three minutes per kilometre.

That pace is the number that conveys the achievement. Under two minutes fifty per kilometre is a speed most recreational runners cannot hold for one kilometre, sustained for forty-two consecutive ones — which is roughly twenty-one kilometres an hour maintained for two hours. Many players still guess just over two hours, because that was the answer for so long.

The two-hour barrier had the same cultural status the four-minute mile once did, and for the same reason: a round number that sat just beyond the physiological frontier. Records approach such barriers asymptotically, which is why the last few minutes of improvement took decades while the first hours took a century — and why a margin of 65 seconds below the old mark counts as a leap.