How many miles is a marathon?
A marathon is 26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometres, and the odd figure has a story. Walked, it is a full day on foot. Here is what it is in steps, minutes and calories, and the road it is named after.
The numbers
42.2 km · 26.2 miles, in steps
| A child, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | about 84,900 steps |
| 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) | about 63,700 steps |
| 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), the average adult | about 60,000 steps |
| 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | about 56,600 steps |
| 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | about 53,600 steps |
| A giraffe, 5.5 m (18 ft) | no idea, sorry |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
How long it takes to walk
| A stroll, 4 km/h | 10 h 33 min |
| A normal walk, 5 km/h | 8 h 26 min |
| A brisk walk, 6 km/h | 7 h 2 min |
Walking without stops, on level ground.
Calories, by body weight
| 55 kg (121 lb) | about 1,479 kcal (1,967 incl. resting) |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | about 1,883 kcal (2,503 incl. resting) |
| 85 kg (187 lb) | about 2,286 kcal (3,039 incl. resting) |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | about 2,690 kcal (3,576 incl. resting) |
The walk's own cost at 5 km/h. The second number adds what you would have burned sitting still, which is what some fitness trackers show.
Try your own distance
Steps
about 60,000
54,000 to 66,000 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
42.2 km · 26.2 miles
Time on foot
8 h 26 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is the whole Marathon route.
How many steps is a marathon?
About 60,000 steps for an adult of average height, from roughly 63,700 at 1.6 m to 53,600 at 1.9 m, because a walking step is about 41% of your height and a 1.7 m adult covers about 0.70 m a step. Your own count can sit 10% either side of the figure for your height.
How many calories does walking a marathon burn?
About 1885 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult at a normal pace, from roughly 1480 kcal at 55 kg (121 lb) to 2690 kcal at 100 kg (220 lb). Body weight decides most of it. That is the walk’s own cost above sitting still. Some fitness trackers report the total including what you would have burned anyway, which comes out about a third higher. The figures come from a model of walking energy cost built on height, weight and speed, tested within a few percent of measured values across body sizes.
Where 26.2 miles came from
The distance is 42.195 km, or 26.219 miles, and it was not chosen. The original marathon of the 1896 Athens Olympics ran from the town of Marathon to the stadium in Athens, about 40 km, in memory of the messenger of the 490 BCE battle. At the 1908 London Olympics the course was laid out from Windsor Castle to the stadium and extended so that it finished in front of the royal box: 26 miles 385 yards. That figure was adopted as the standard in 1921 and has been the marathon ever since.
How long does it take to walk a marathon?
About eight and a half hours at a normal pace of 5 km/h, seven at a brisk one, and ten and a half at a stroll, without stops, which nobody manages over that distance. Walked marathons exist and are usually done in eight to nine hours with breaks. It is the distance of one very long day, and the reTrek route of the same name follows the original road from Marathon to Athens.
Walk the distance first
A race is a day. The way to be ready for it, and the way to enjoy the same distance without a start line, is to walk it in pieces on the days you already have. A marathon is the whole Marathon route, and reTrek is built for exactly that: pick a route, Everest Base Camp is free, and your everyday steps carry you along it with a short film waiting at each milestone. Something to look forward to. Progress you can see.
Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there, and find out which of you skips fewer evenings.
Other race distances
Sources: Road running disciplines and standard distances, World Athletics · Marathon, the 1908 and 1921 standardisation of 42.195 km, World Athletics · Energy expenditure during level human walking, Ludlow and Weyand, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2016