Marathon Trivia
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48 free Marathon trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
41 free Marathon trivia questions with answers. Marathon trivia for runners, spectators and anyone who has ever wondered why the distance is such an odd number. These 48 questions start with the legend of Pheidippides and the first modern Olympic race in 1896, explain how a royal box in London fixed the distance at 42.195 km, and then run through the great races: Boston since 1897, New York's five boroughs, London's fancy-dress charity fields, Berlin's record-breaking flat course, Chicago, Tokyo and the World Marathon Majors. The people are here too: Spyridon Louis the water carrier, Dorando Pietri carried across the line, Emil Zátopek's Helsinki treble, Abebe Bikila barefoot in Rome, Kathrine Switzer and Bobbi Gibb breaking Boston's gender barrier, Rosie Ruiz's subway shortcut, Grete Waitz, Paula Radcliffe, Eliud Kipchoge's 1:59:40 in Vienna, Kelvin Kiptum's 2:00:35 and the women who have now gone under 2:10. Difficulty ranges from easy (where do you hit the wall?) to hard (which South American held the world record?), and every answer is verified against a documented source.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly how many miles long is a full marathon?
26.2
26.2 miles is longer than the legend it honours: the ancient messenger's run from Marathon to Athens is put at only about 25 miles.
Q 02The marathon's oddly precise distance comes from a course that ended before the royal box at which Olympic Games?
London 1908
London 1908 was a one-off at first: the 1912 and 1920 Olympic marathons used other lengths, and the 1908 figure was not fixed as the standard until the 1920s.
Q 03The Olympic marathon that fixed the race's modern distance started at which royal residence?
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle's private East Terrace hosted the start, and the royal children, among them the future George VI, came out to watch the runners set off.
Q 04Fred Lorz crossed the line first in the 1904 Olympic marathon after covering about ten miles of it how?
Riding in a car
Riding in a car got Lorz about ten miles down the course before it broke down and he jogged in to cheers. His lifetime ban was lifted, and he won the 1905 Boston Marathon on foot.
Q 05Per Herodotus, Pheidippides ran from Athens to which city before the Battle of Marathon?
Sparta
Sparta was where Pheidippides ran to seek help before the fighting; the famous dying dash from Marathon to Athens is a separate, later story that became attached to his name.
Q 06Spyridon Louis, who won the first Olympic marathon in 1896, is most often said to have made his living how?
As a water carrier
As a water carrier he hauled fresh water into Athens, and when the King offered him a reward he asked for a horse and cart for the business. Some accounts make him a shepherd instead.
Q 07Why was Dorando Pietri disqualified from the 1908 Olympic marathon?
Officials had helped him to the finish
Officials had helped him to the finish after he collapsed on the track, so his first place was struck out. Arthur Conan Doyle then raised over 300 pounds for him, enough to open a bakery back home.
Q 08The Boston Marathon, first run in 1897, is traditionally held on which holiday?
Patriots' Day
Patriots' Day marks the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord, and the race was set on it to link the Athenian struggle for liberty with the American one.
Q 09The Boston Marathon starts in which Massachusetts town?
Hopkinton
Hopkinton has hosted the start only since 1924, when the line moved west from Ashland to stretch the course to the full Olympic distance.
Q 10Who hid in the bushes near the 1966 Boston Marathon start and became the first woman to run the whole race?
Bobbi Gibb
Bobbi Gibb had her entry refused with a letter saying women were not physiologically able to run the distance. She finished ahead of about two-thirds of the men.
Q 11Which runner did official Jock Semple try to drag out of the 1967 Boston Marathon?
Kathrine Switzer
Kathrine Switzer kept running after her boyfriend shoved Semple aside, and finished. When women were admitted in 1972 Semple handed her a trophy, and the two became friends.
Q 12Rosie Ruiz lost her 1980 Boston Marathon title for joining the course roughly where?
Within a mile of the finish
Within a mile of the finish, witnesses saw her step out of the crowd. New York officials then found she had ridden the subway during the 1979 race that qualified her, and struck that result too.
Q 13Which two-word slogan became the city's rallying cry after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing?
Boston Strong
Q 21Which city's marathon joined the World Marathon Majors in 2013 as the first member outside Europe and North America?
Tokyo
Tokyo's mass race was only six years old when it was admitted, having first been run in February 2007. The five founding Majors were all decades older.
Q 22Eliud Kipchoge ran the marathon distance in 1:59:40 in October 2019 in which city?
Vienna
Vienna's Prater park staged a run built for the clock: 41 pacemakers dropped in and out to shelter him, which is why the time never counted as an official record.
Q 23Which Kenyan took the marathon world record from Eliud Kipchoge in 2023?
Kelvin Kiptum
Kelvin Kiptum ran only three marathons and won them all, each among the seven fastest ever at the time. Four months after the record he died in a car crash in Kenya, aged 24.
Boston Strong began on blue and yellow T-shirts that Emerson College students made within hours of the attack, selling them to raise money for the victims' fund.
Q 14The first New York City Marathon, in 1970, was run entirely as laps of which park?
Central Park
Central Park held the whole race: 127 runners entered and only 55 finished. The course did not spread across all five boroughs until 1976.
Q 15Which Norwegian won the New York City Marathon a record nine times?
Grete Waitz
Grete Waitz was a track specialist reluctant to try the distance, yet she won her first attempt in 1978 more than two minutes inside the women's best.
Q 16The first London Marathon in 1981 was founded by John Disley and which Olympic steeplechase champion?
Chris Brasher
Chris Brasher ran the 1979 New York City Marathon and came home asking in print whether London had the heart to stage one. Two years later he had launched it.
Q 17Berlin Marathon runners pass which landmark in the final stretch before the finish line?
The Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate only joined the route in 1990, days before German reunification. Until then the Wall had kept the whole race inside West Berlin.
Q 18What happened to Brazil's Vanderlei de Lima while he was leading the 2004 Olympic marathon?
A spectator grabbed him
A spectator grabbed him about four miles from the finish and cost him the lead. He still took bronze, and was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for his sportsmanship.
Q 19The modern Chicago Marathon began in 1977 under a name honouring which politician?
Mayor Richard J. Daley
Mayor Richard J. Daley had died in office nine months before the first race, which carried his name for its first two years until a sponsor took over the title.
Q 20Which city's marathon became the seventh World Marathon Major in 2025?
Sydney
Sydney had to pass two straight yearly assessments as a candidate before the series admitted it.
Q 24Ruth Chepngetich became the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10 in 2024 in which American city?
Chicago
Chicago is where she ran 2:09:56 in October 2024. A year later she was banned for three years over a banned diuretic, though her results from before the positive test were left to stand.
Q 25Which British runner's 2003 women's marathon world record stood for 16 years?
Paula Radcliffe
Paula Radcliffe never won an Olympic medal all the same: injury forced her out of the 2004 marathon mid-race and left her 23rd in 2008.
Q 26Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon with what famous distinction?
He ran barefoot
He ran barefoot because the shoes he bought in Rome gave him blisters. Four years later he kept his title wearing shoes, only weeks after having his appendix out.
Q 27Which runner won the 5,000 m, 10,000 m and marathon at the 1952 Olympics, having never run a marathon before?
Emil Zátopek
Emil Zátopek ran beside the favourite, Britain's Jim Peters, and asked him mid-race whether the pace was too fast. Told it was too slow, he sped up and left the field behind.
Q 28Who won the first Olympic women's marathon, held in Los Angeles in 1984?
Joan Benoit
Joan Benoit had knee surgery just 17 days before the US trials and won them anyway. In the Olympic race she broke clear after only three miles and was never caught.
Q 29At which Games did Frank Shorter win the 1972 Olympic marathon, helping launch the US running boom?
Munich
Munich was also the city of his birth. A hoaxer ran into the stadium just ahead of him, so the real winner arrived to boos meant for the impostor.
Q 30Which American won the 2014 Boston Marathon, the year after the bombing?
Meb Keflezighi
Meb Keflezighi had written the first names of the four people killed in the attack and its manhunt on the corners of his bib. He was the first American man to win in 31 years.