Philadelphia Distance Run

The Philadelphia Distance Run (PDR) is an annual half marathon road running event which takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States on the third Sunday of September.

Philadelphia Distance Run
Runners gathering at the 2010 race
Date	September
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  United States
Event type	Road
Distance	Half marathon
Established	1978
Official site	Philadelphia Distance Run

The competition was established in 1978 as the Philadelphia Distance Run and was founded by Gene H. Martenson, and was held under this name until 2009. Starting in 2010 when Competitor Group Inc. bought the rights to the race, it has been part of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series of running competitions. It is now a hybrid profit/non-profit model race.[1]

The race quickly became a top level race with international competition: four-time Olympic champion Lasse Virén of Finland won at the second edition and he was followed by further foreign Olympic medalists in New Zealand's Rod Dixon and Michael Musyoki of Kenya. Joan Samuelson took consecutive victories in the women's race in 1983 to 1985, which included world record times of 1:09:14 hours and 1:08:34 hours in 1983 and 1984. The latter mark stood as the American record for over twenty years and was broken by Deena Kastor at the 2005 edition of the Philadelphia Distance Run, with her winning time of 1:07:53 hours.[2] The men's race has also seen historically fast times: Michael Musyoki's winning time of 1:01:36 hours in 1982 was a world record and in 1985 Mark Curp ran a world record time of 1:00:55 hours.[3] On top of this, Dionicio Cerón's winning time of 1:00:46 hours in 1990 was recognised by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians as their world best mark, as per their stricter criteria.[4]

The current course records were set in 2011 and both are the fastest times ever recorded for the half marathon on American soil: Mathew Kisorio ran the fourth fastest time ever (58:46 minutes) while Kim Smith's women's record of 1:07:11 hours made her the seventh fastest female ever in the half marathon.[5]

The 2020 and 2021 editions of the race were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.[6][7]

In 2021 three running community leaders announced the return of the PDR with a focus on equity and inclusion. The three community leaders and new PDR race organizers were Ross Martinson, owner of Philadelphia Runner; Ryan Callahan, President of Runhouse[8] and Co-Founder of the Philly 10K;[9] and Andy Kucer, Executive Director of Students Run Philly Style.[1][10]

Nonbinary Division

In 2021, the Philadelphia Distance Run made history as the first U.S. road race to establish a nonbinary gender division up to the elite level.[11][12] Race organizer Andy Kucer said "we're looking at every angle of this race from an inclusivity standpoint, and making people feel included is so important to the character of the race."[10] In 2021, Kucer and staff at Students Run Philly Style, including C.C. Téllez, Associate Director of LGBTQ Programming for Students Run Philly Style and founder of Lez Run, a Philadelphia running team aimed at providing LGBTQ athletes with safe and supportive running spaces looked at ways to make the PDR more inclusive.[13] Téllez and Lez Run began working with local race directors to include the nonbinary division starting in 2018. “When we imagined an elite nonbinary division, we imagined it would be years and years in the future. We were struggling to just see this change at the local level,” Téllez told Runner’s World.[14] Kucer and the race organizers announced that the 2021 Philadelphia Distance Run would become the first road race in the U.S. to establish a nonbinary division all the way up to the elite level, with equal prize money awarded to winners of the male, female, and nonbinary categories.[14]

Following the 2021 Philadelphia Distance Run, major races across the U.S. and world modeled the PDR policy. In 2022, the Blue Cross Broad Street Run and the Philadelphia Marathon, plus five of the six World Major Marathons including the New York City Marathon,[15][16] Boston Marathon,[17] Chicago Marathon,[18] London Marathon,[19] Berlin Marathon,[20] adopted the PDR's policy.[21]