In 2024, the marathon boomed globally, as younger runners and multiple clubs join the trend with the help of high technologies and fashion gears, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday.

According to the report, the Paris Marathon in April set a record for the biggest ever with 54,175 finishers. That mark was broken not once, but twice -- first in September by Berlin (54,280), then in November by New York (55,646). And hundreds of thousands more people entered lotteries to get into those races, a sign that demand for spots is outstripping supply.

"While the number of marathon finishers remains below the half-million who ran in 2019, new groups of people are taking on the distance. The share of finishers between ages 20 and 24 has grown from about 5% to 8% since 2021, according to leading industry tracker Running USA," noted the report.

Gen Z women in particular appear to be embracing marathons. On Strava, a social network where runners and other athletes track workouts, 20 percent of marathon runners were Gen Z women in 2024, outpacing Gen Z men, who made up 15 percent of marathoners, it said.

Also spurring marathon sign-ups are run clubs around the country. Some 25 percent of regular runners on Strava belong to a club, up from 19 percent since 2019, according to the company. 

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