Converting Mileage to Metric for Marathon

An interesting dynamic with running the marathon in Toronto, the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario, is all the race markers will be displayed in kilometers. One kilometer is about .62 miles.

I would like to commit the boldfaced kilometer markers below to memory before the race. I have run 5K races in the past and know it is the same as 3.1 miles. It will be easy to extrapolate to determine 10K is 6.2 miles, 20K = 12.4 miles, etc.

I wonder if anyone gets to the 26 kilometer marker looking for the race finish line ? Only to find out they have another 16 km's to run. (An 'American' marathon is 26.2 miles.) After 26K / 16 miles of running, your mind may begin to fade some.


I imagine you get a greater sense of accomplishment as you knock off the kilometers (in comparison to miles) but then you have to run to a higher number, i.e., 42.2 kilometers.

It should not matter whether the marathon is measured in miles or kilometers. The race is the same distance regardless. Although the kilometer based race is separated into shorter segments. I'm not sure how it will affect me mentally - I just have to remember 42.2 is the magic number.

I will have about 5 hours in which to do these calculations - so I will not be under any time constraints to figure out the mileages.