Most Popular Marathons: The Web Analytics View

Which is the most popular marathon in the US?  The Boston Marathon, by a long shot.

Looking at popularity using Web analytics and Google Trends data since 2004. for overall interest -- runners and online spectators -- the more revealing answer may come from a different perspective: via web analytics. When it comes to site visits and google searches on race day, the Boston Marathon is clearly the most popular, by a wide margin.

Google Trends data from 2004 to 2011 indicates interest in the Boston Marathon (blue line) is more than double relative web/search traffic of the New York City Marathon (green line). The Chicago Marathon (red line) lags both, but may catch up to New York City Marathon in 2012.

(While search and site visit traffic is high, it's a bit surprising to see a drop overall in 2007; we're not sure why).

Web analytics aside, The Boston Marathon, Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon easily rank among the best and most popular marathons events. The web analytics data does not necessarily match popularity in terms of runners' interest and participation.

Interest in Participating.  Interest in participating in each race is extremely high. All three sell out -- reaching the maximum number of entrants -- just days (Chicago), and even hours (Boston 2010) after registration began.

Number of Finishers. More than 100,000 runners finished all three events combined in 2012. In terms of number of runners, Chicago is 50% larger than Boston, and New York has roughly 100 percent more finishers. So you can say each race is extremely popular: sold out, maximum finishers each year.

But a quick recap shows that nearly the opposite is true when it comes to web searches and site visits. One wonders, if there were no limits on number of participants per race, if Boston would win the runners' most popular rank as well.

Going Mobile: 25+% of RunTri's Traffic is On the Run

As you're reading this, there's a good chance you're on the run, almost literally. More than 25% of visitors to RunTri.com (up to 500,000 this year) visit via a mobile device, an increase of 5x the volume of a year ago. It's enough to make us wonder if athletes are checking the site during running or cycling workouts.

What percent of your site traffic is from mobile devices? If it's less than 10%, there's a good possibility you're falling behind your competition. (not sure how to tell what percent of your site's visits are via mobile? we can help; send us an email, and we'll be happy to provide guidance)

How fast is mobile use growing? Only 4% of RunTri.com's website traffic came from mobile devices a year ago. From 4% ro 26% in 12 months. And it's still growing.

If your website isn't optimized for mobile visitors, you'd better get started. At WinSight Consulting, we're seeing an aggressive trend toward mobile in nearly all the companies we've studied.

As much as 20% of your site's traffic could be via a mobile device by the end of the year. Better be ready. If your customers/visitors have a disappointing mobile experience, they'll go elsewhere.

What number is right for your business? We can help; send us an email and we'll get your started.

Source: WinSight analysis. For more, Contact Us.

Boston Marathon Race Pace Charts: Actual Race Results

The legendary Boston Marathon course is one of the more challenging races in the world. Finding the right mile-by-mile pace is key to running your best marathon in Boston. Easier said than done. 

Most marathon pace charts simply take a range of goal finish times and divide them by 26.2, suggesting each mile should be run at the same pace. That's fairly impossible at Boston. The course map's elevation chart barely hints at the difficulty of finding the right mile-by-mile race pace to achieve or beat your goal when you cross the finish line in Boston.

What Boston runners need, when developing their race strategy, are realistic pace charts, based on real mile-by-mile results. We've run Boston 13 times, and have experienced just about every kind of result on the course: from terrible, bad, painful to average, fast and fastest. Here's an overview of our better results. 

Now, the details: race pace charts from three of our best performances. Want to finish with a time around 3:41, 3:12, or 2:54? Here's how to do it, from start to finish.

For more, see our analysis and commentary of Mile-by Mile Splits at Seven Boston Marathon Finishes or see our Complete Boston Marathon Coverage.