
36. Amateur Athletes
A surprising trend you may not have considered is the rising popularity of amateur athletes. In the past decade, the amount of beginners training for a marathon had nearly doubled. Many amateur runners are training hard to qualify for marathons around the world.
So many resources are available for marathon runners these days. There are online marathon training programs that allow you to train without a coach or running club. New marathons start each year, making it easy to find one to race in. Also, training periods have become shorter, so people with full-time jobs have no problem training for a big marathon.