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Why the World Is Running 42.195 Kilometres: Inside the Marathon Boom

  • Apr 15
  • 4 min read

Updated: Apr 17

Your coworker is eyeing a half-marathon in the spring. Your neighbor is out the door before sunrise, logging intervals in the dark. The Zurich Marathon sold out last Sunday¹. London broke its own Guinness World Record in 2025 with 56,640 finishers.¹ New York set a new high in 2024 with over 55,000 participants.³

But here is what the numbers do not show. Most of these people are not running to win. They are running because a marathon gives you something modern life rarely does: a clear goal, a measurable result, and proof that you improved


Runners compete in a marathon on a sunny day, wearing race bibs and colorful outfits. Trees and cones line the road in the background.

Record races, sold-out fields: the marathon boom by the numbers

Marathon participation has been rising for years, but the recent data reveals something more nuanced than simple growth. According to RunRepeat's 2025 State of US Marathons report, three things are happening simultaneously.⁴

  • Runners are getting faster for the first time in decades. After years of slowing average finish times, American marathon runners are now improving. The average finish time dropped from 4:39 in 2019 to 4:34 in 2024. Men improved by 2.2%, women by 1.1%, with gains across all age groups.⁴

  • Younger runners are joining in far greater numbers. The under-25 age group grew from 9.2% of total participants in 2016 to 12.1% in 2024. The marathon — once the territory of a certain kind of determined thirty-something — is now pulling in a generation that grew up on Strava segments and social running challenges.⁴

  • And run clubs are multiplying at a pace no one predicted. Strava's 2025 Year in Sport report counted running clubs growing three and a half times in a single year. Most new members said the same thing: they joined primarily to meet people in real life.⁵

That last point is worth sitting with. A generation that built its social life online is now looking for something a Monday morning run can give it that an app cannot.


Yellow sign with bold red text "CAUTION RUNNERS" on a pole; blurry outdoor background under a blue sky.

Reasons why people are starting to run

Trace the boom back and you land somewhere in 2020. When gyms closed, the permitted daily walk turned into the permitted daily run. Nearly three in ten runners on any starting line today first laced up during the lockdowns.⁶ Most of them never stopped.

But the pandemic was the trigger, not the cause. About one in three people run specifically to reduce stress, a similar share for better mental health.⁷ ⁸ Clinical evidence supports both—regular running is consistently linked to fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, sharper cognition, and better sleep quality.⁹ And then there is something harder to quantify, but most runners will recognize immediately: a run has a clear start and a clear finish. Modern life blurs a lot of lines. Running redraws one of them.

Whether you are just starting or already at marathon level, running is good for your health and your brain. But you might be wondering: what does any of this have to do with an insole company?

A person jumps in mid-air wearing red shoes and patterned socks. The clear blue sky is the background, displaying the text "MOXXIS" in corners.

What your mind demands, your feet have to deliver

Here is the connection. Every clear head, every stress-free kilometer, starts with how your feet meet the ground. A single marathon covers somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 steps, each one absorbing two to three times body weight in ground reaction force.¹⁰ Sometimes the hidden source of discomfort is a small misalignment at the point of ground contact. A slight overpronation, an arch that is not supported for the specific shape of your foot, can create compensation patterns that show up far from where they actually started.

The foot has a lot to say about how the rest of the body feels. That is exactly where we can help to prevent future injuries. And last Sunday in Zurich, we put that to the test at zurich marathon


Putting it to the test: the Zurich Marathon

We released 20 spots for the moxxis Run Lab — and they filled up instantly. The full team lined up at the OCHSNER SPORT Zürich Marathon.¹ Fourteen completed the half marathon. Four ran the full 42.195 kilometres. And two completed the On Z10 -10K run. All twenty wore customized moxxis insoles, built from in-store 3D pressure scans and AI-powered gait analysis, tested under real race conditions across the distances where cumulative load reveals what is working and what is not.

The conversations before the race told the same story the data does. Some runners were about to complete their first 21 kilometres. Others were chasing a new personal best. All of them wanted the same three things: to reach the start line healthy, to finish on their own terms, and to feel ready to train again for the next run. But we're not there to make a point. We're there to learn and to be part of what Zürich's running communities are building.


A group of people in gray and pink shirts cheer in a waterfront park, holding signs reading "Go! MOXXIS RUN LAB GO!" Evokes excitement.

moxxis Monday - Start your week on the right foot

What we saw on Sunday confirmed something we already believed: the best thing about running right now is not the race. It is the people doing it together.

That is exactly what the moxxis Run Lab is built for. Every Monday starting at 18:30 from the moxxis Concept Store at Augustinergasse 12 in Zurich. All are welcome to get better together and connect. Come join us. Let Monday set the tone.




Join the moxxis Run Lab!



Sources:

¹ OCHSNER SPORT Zürich Marathon, official race data: https://www.zurichmarathon.ch

³ TCS New York City Marathon 2024 by the numbers, New York Road Runners: https://www.nyrr.org/media-center/press-release/2024_1104_tcsnycmbythenumbers

⁴ RunRepeat, The State of US Marathons 2025: https://runrepeat.com/the-state-of-us-marathons-2025

⁶ RunRepeat, New Pandemic Runners report: https://runrepeat.com/new-pandemic-runners

⁷ Running Insights, Report reveals running improves mental health: https://www.running-insights.com/features/report-reveals-running-improves-mental-health/

⁸ Hu et al., The effects of running on mental health outcomes, PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7663387/

⁹ PMC, Running and mental health, systematic review, 2025: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12235383/

¹⁰ Wang et al., Comparison of ground reaction forces as running speed increases between male and female runners, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2024: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2024.1378284/full

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