Half-Marathons as fastest growing road race distance in US

Jessica Cickay

Although the Boston Marathon, ING New York City Marathon and Bank of America Chicago Marathon support the evidence for US marathon growth, Running USA's first ever Half-Marathon Report shows that half-marathons are the distance America loves. Since 2003, the 13.1 mile half-marathon has been the fastest growing road race distance in the US and since 2006 half-marathon participants have increased by 10% each year.
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The Running USA inaugural Half-Marathon Report found that the distance gained extreme popularity among runners from 2008 to 2009 as registration for the distance grew from 900,000 runners to over 1.1 million runners--a whopping 24%! This record setting stat is supplemented by another stating that during the same time period, there was an 18% increase in half-marathon finishers for the 626 events held in each year.
Since 2000, US half-marathon finishers have jumped from 482,000 to over 1.1 million (or a 131% increase) to secure the distance's spot as America's favorite. New half-marathon races are popping up all over the country, and many major marathons are starting to offer half-marathon portions. In 2009 alone, 17 US half-marathons had over 10,000 finishers, whereas 2000 had one. Half-marathons also maintain the largest female showing of any US road race, and events such as the More Magazine Fitness Magazine Women's Half Marathon surely help the cause.
So far, 2010 looks to be shaping up well for the half-marathon distance as the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon, Houston Half-Marathon, ING Miami Half-Marathon, NYC Half-Marathon and multiple Rock 'n' Roll series half-marathons have sold out.
The Running USA Half-Marathon Report comes at the same time that news broke that the USA Half-Marathon Championships will be held in Duluth, Texas in 2012 and 2013. Instead of being held in conjunction with the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon as it has since 2005, the USA Half-Marathon Championships will now be held along with the Grandma Marathon in Duluth in June. In 2003 and 2004, Duluth hosted the Championships and Colleen DeReuck (1:10:00) and Deena Kastor (1:10:30) respectively won.