Marathons can be great for a city’s economy, generating foot traffic to businesses, meals in restaurants and hotel room nights, not to mention overtime pay for workers in sectors like security.
So who are the winners – and why? Turns out the data is a little harder to mine than anticipated. If you’re talking about races worldwide, Brand Finance has its own breakdown in which it calculates what it calls the Brand Strength Index (BSI), which is based “entirely on original market research, incorporating perception data from both the general public and self-identified runners from around the world and calculated using a balanced scorecard of metrics.”
Using that metric, Brand Finance says the London Marathon, New York City Marathon and Paris Marathon have the strongest brands. The Boston Marathon ranks in fifth place, with the San Francisco Marathon in eighth and the Los Angeles Marathon in tenth place. The Chicago Marathon, in case you were curious, came in 27th.
The Boston Marathon may not be the biggest race in the country – it typically has a field of about 30,000 registrants and just under 26,000 finished in 2024. But it is the oldest race in the country – and the world – dating back to 1897. It’s also one of the most difficult to enter since runners must either post a competitive qualifying time or raise money for charity. (Boston Athletic Association publishes a list of top qualifying races, found here.)
The Los Angeles Marathon had just over 20,000 finishers last year. It doesn’t have quite the history or prestige of the previous three races, although it does hearken back to the Olympics. The 1986 Los Angeles Marathon was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, which were hosted in the city.
Running with Rock also has a list of mid-size marathons, as well as a host of others, all found here.
If you want to rate races based on amounts raised for various charities, Forbes is your friend:
How about quantifying races based on economic impact? Turns out there is not one source that rates all the marathons that way, often because some are straight-up marathons (26.2 miles being the only distance offered) while others are running festivals, with marathons, half marathons, relays, 5Ks, 10Ks and kids’ fun runs – as well as assorted other events like Baltimore Running Festival’s .05K (no, that’s not a typo) that includes a beer. In some cases, only the marathons are counted, while in others, data compiled across the entire weekend may be analyzed.
Additionally, not every marathon (even the biggest) will perform an economic impact study every year; in some cases, the most recent statistics are two or more years old, with a few having research from 2011 as their most current. But for those who want a few of those more recent statistics, here they are:
The Boston Athletic Association and Meet Boston published a report detailing the economic impact of the 2024 Boston Marathon, which calculated a total of $509.1 million in in-state and local economic activity during the weekend.
The 2024 TCS New York City generated an estimated $427 million in economic impact for the city, said New York Road Runners.
Bank of America Chicago Marathon. According to a new report, the 2022 event contributed a record-high $386 million to the Windy City’s economy. That’s a 25% increase from 2021, according to an independent economic impact study conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Regional Economics Application Lab.
Of course, there are multiple other ways to measure success within the marathon equation, including the number of hotel room nights consumed, how much business increased at local restaurants and attractions, how many jobs were created – and of course, how many people traveled in to watch (or even decided to visit as a result of seeing the destination on television). Unfortunately, few of those statistics exist in isolation, much less as compiled ratings and rankings.
“Races are selling out, and the demand is certainly out there among the general pack of runners,” Michelle Taylor, global head of sports sponsorships for TCS (an information technology services company), recently told Front Office Sports. “We certainly hope this is a lasting trend of people wanting to be healthier and looking toward running as a way to do that.”
And, notes Jay Holder, executive director of Running USA, it’s not just the big marathons or the running festivals with the big names that are drawing people in. Events like Turkey Trots, as well as others covered in the organization’s Top Races Report, contribute to localized economic impact and to fostering a sense of community among participants.
“More than ever, runners want to race. From the 5K to the marathon, they have hundreds of world-class races to choose from,” said Jay Holder, Executive Director of Running USA. “Whether runners want to travel or run in their hometown, there are great events happening every weekend in every community in the country.”
