Has the Valencia Marathon field become faster than Boston?

For the second straight year, last weekend’s Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Zurich Marathon produced a staggering amount of sub-three-hour finishers. The benchmark, once seen as the dividing line between recreational and sub-elite running, has almost become routine in Valencia, where nearly 20 per cent of all participants broke the barrier.

To put Valencia’s depth into perspective: if you ran 2:59:59, you would have finished 5,450th out of 30,500 runners. The same finishing time would have placed you 254th overall at the 2025 Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and around 4,400th at this year’s Boston Marathon.

This year’s race saw nearly 5,500 runners finish under three hours, 75 athletes run faster than 2:15 and 520 dip under 2:30—a time that, a century ago, would have been a world record. Last year’s edition saw 560 runners finish in under 2:30:00.

Only a few races in the world can compare with the depth of the Valencia Marathon field: London, New York and Boston. But none of the three marathon majors are even close to having similar numbers at the front of the pack. In New York, a sub-2:30 time would’ve placed you in the top 100 for 2025, and in London, in the top 200. Both races have double the number of participants as Valencia, and are also usually run in favourable conditions. 

Of the 30,500 finishers at the 2025 Valencia Marathon, 7,324 were women, making up just 24 per cent of the field. The deepest category was the men’s 18-35 age group, with around 1,200 sub-three-hour finishers.

There are plenty of theories about what exactly makes Valencia so fast: great weather, a meticulously flat course and modern shoe technology at the top, all fuelled by the momentum of the global marathon boom. Year in and year out, Valencia continues to attract runners chasing records, personal bests and qualifying times for other races. While the sub-three milestone may not hold the same mystique it had in the late ’90s, it still ranks among the top 10 per cent in marathon times, just maybe not in Valencia.