The Fastest US City and State

Since the Boston Marathon attracts the top runners from around the US, I thought it would fun to see how the US cities and states compare in last year's 2004 Boston Marathon. I looked at the top 1000 men and 1000 women. I then took an average of the runners from each city and state. The state had to have at least 20 runners in the top 1000. Cities had to have at least 10 men and 5 women. Here are the cities and states with the fastest averages for both men and women:

Fastest State - Women

Florida was the top. It's 31 women averaged 3:31:37. Also, the fastest US time (2:34:08) came from Florida.

Fastest City - Women

The Florida City of St. Petersburg took this honor. It's 5 women avergaed 3:21:00. This easily beat out the second fastest city (Boston) which averaged 3:28:20.

Fastest State - Men

Virginia's 44 runners had the fastest average time of 3:00:51. This was just less than 2 minutes faster than the second place state of Georgia. 22 runners from that state averaged 3:02:28.

Fastest City - Men

The battle of the fastest city was a Massachusetts contest between Boston and Cambridge. Boston won it. It had 11 runners in the top 1000 who averaged 2:54:49. They easily beat the second place city of Cambridge. Cambridge had 12 runners who averaged 2:58:34.

These stats are based on Boston 2004 race results from marathonguide.com. For more details on these stats, refer to my previous posts for the men and the women.