The 2025 London Marathon is set to be the biggest on record, with potentially over 56,000 runners expected to cross the finish line. Attracting everyone from the world’s best elites chasing record-breaking finish times, to first time marathoners seeking to find out whether they can rise to the challenge of covering 26.2 miles on foot.
Whether you’re racing in London this year, or feeling inspired and wondering where you might place in the field should you be lucky enough to get a spot on the start line in a future year. To get an idea of what a ‘good’ London Marathon finish time might be, we’ve crunched the numbers to get the average, good and exceptional finish times for amateur London Marathon runners.
Is London a fast marathon course?
Before we dive into the average finish times, let’s first take a quick tour of the London Marathon course to help put those times into context. Overall, the London Marathon is considered to be a fast marathon course. The route is point to point, which means it’s actually technically net downhill. It’s relatively flat all the way through – though there are a few little rollers along the way.
Congestion in the first few miles can make it tricky to get settled into your race pace. There are 3 different start points to spread out the tens of thousands of runners, but these obviously have to converge fairly soon into the race to make sure everyone is racing the same distance!
It’s also worth knowing that your GPS watch might drop signal, particularly around the tall buildings of Canary Wharf. Use heart rate as well as average pace to manage your effort so that if your watch drops out for a while, you’re not flying blind. The twists and turns as you make your way from the Isle of Dogs to Poplar might disrupt your flow a bit. But after that, the last 10km is more or less a straight line until you hit St James Park on your way to the finish line.
All of that, alongside the exceptional atmosphere and crowd supports, adds up to a pretty fast marathon course. London Marathon is packed with plenty of PB potential for seasoned runners. And for first time marathoners, you can count on the crowds to get you through the tough moments.
What’s a good London Marathon finish time to target? Average, good and exceptional results
In 2024, the average London Marathon finish time was 4hrs 49 minutes for women and 4hrs 11 minutes for men. Those times are slightly faster than the overall average marathon finishing times we calculated using Tokyo, Chicago and London.
Crunching the numbers from last year’s results, a good time for women that would have seen you finish in the top 30% of the 22,833 female runners is 4hrs 8 minutes or faster. To finish in the top 10% would have required a 3hrs 32 mins finish time or faster. The overall fastest female amateur runner in 2024 completed the London Marathon in a rapid 2:33:53.
For men, a top 30% finish out of the 31,000 male runners in 2024 would have required a 3hrs 35 mins finish time or faster. To get into the top 10%, you’d have needed to come in under 2hrs 58 mins. The fastest amateur male runner in 2024 finished in 2:14:27. Speedy!
Average finish times versus London Good for Age times
So how do those average, good and exceptional London Marathon times compares to the ‘Good for Age’ times you’d need to target to stand a better chance of getting a spot on the start line next year? Take a look at the table below to see how the average result stacks up.
| London Marathon Good For Age times | ||
| Age Group | Men | Women |
| 18-39 | sub-2hrs 55 mins | sub-3hrs 40 mins |
| 40-44 | sub-3hrs | sub-3hrs 45 mins |
| 45-49 | sub-3hrs 5 mins | sub-3hrs 48 mins |
| 50-54 | sub-3hrs 10 mins | sub-3hrs 55 mins |
| 55-59 | sub-3hrs 15 mins | sub-4hrs |
| 60-64 | sub-3hrs 37 mins | sub-4hrs 25mins |
| 65-69 | sub-3hrs 55 mins | sub-4hrs 55 mins |
| 70-74 | sub-4hrs 55 mins | sub-5hrs 55 mins |
| 75-79 | sub-5hrs 10 mins | sub-6hrs 15 mins |
| 80-84 | sub-5hrs 30 mins | sub-6hrs 40 mins |
| 85-89 | sub-6hrs 10 mins | sub-7hrs 10 mins |
| 90 and over | sub-7hrs 20 mins | sub-7hrs 45 mins |
On average, women hitting the Good for Age London qualifying times are likely to be somewhere between the top 10-30% of the field. Men under 60 are likely to be in the top 25% of finishers – and those under 40 should be well within the top 10% of the field. Showing that while the London Marathon Good for Age times aren’t quite as aggressive as the Boston Marathon qualifying times, they still represent a high standard of running performance!
Read more…
- Discover more about the London Marathon in our guide to the race’s history and the current course records.
- Get marathon training tips and gear advice.
- Find out about the other Major Marathons – and how to qualify.
