The purpose of this study was to examine that the reciprocal relationship between every 5km and full course running time record. In this study we extended our research scope to investigate whether any notable running time differences were existed among top level of marathoners. Comparisons were made using data which were drawn from 34 championship competitions had been held between year 2000 and year 2009 in Korea. Total 340 full time data was obtained from 340 marathoners who successfully completed their 42.195km running race, and divided into one of two categories, either upper ranked group (URG, ranked 1st~5th position in competitions they participated) or lower ranked group (LRG, ranked 6th~10th position in competitions they participated). Mean and standard deviation were calculated from SPSS (VER. 20.0), and repeated measures of ANOVA and Pearson's correlation was adopted to perform statistical analyses. There was no statistical difference of the running record during first 5km, however running time form all other 5km running sections was significantly faster in URG than LRG (p<.001). The gap of running time record between URG and LRG was getting more and more significant after 20km running. The quickest running record was found during 2nd 5km section (i.e., 5~10 km) and the each section's race time was getting drastically slower during 6th~7th 5km section running regardless of the study groups. Drawn conclusions from this study were that athletes use the strategy of deciding victory in both the beginning and the latter phase of marathon running. This implies that athletes who have the capacity, which make them run faster than others during the very beginning of marathon competition, and/or during 25~35km running sections would be the most preferable for the victory at the finish line.
