It's not just a sport of men who are 25 years old. Now there's a real cross section of society out there. Bill Rodgers has seen a boom in marathon interest. View a 28.8k video. Calculating a Race Many runners, including Bill Rodgers, divide the distance of marathons into sections and aim to achieve a certain time for each.
Marathoners tend to start slowly in order to conserve energy for the long road ahead.
You try to compete with your competition sensibly. Here at Boston, it's a famous course because of 'Heartbreak Hill' at about the 21-mile mark. It's the last hill in a series of four hills, so you really need to conserve your energy for these hills. Suddenly you feel really tired, and you might even drop out of the race. I've dropped out three times in the Boston Marathon.