Is マラソン always 42.195 km?


ALC translate the Japanese マラソン into the English "marathon", which the English
Wikipedia says has an `official distance of 42.195 kilometres`.

Is マラソン always 42.195 km?

Or has the Japanese word a broader meaning, describing any kind of running
race?

For instance, [this
page](http://www.solius.jp/marathon/categories/short10.html) is a list of マラソン
under 10 kilometers: `1km～10kmのマラソン大会一覧`

So, what is actually a マラソン?




マラソン by its own strictly means running 42.195 km, as long as it is used as the
name of professional athletic competitions. For example, "10000m走" (10,000
metres) is never マラソン. 長距離走【ちょうきょりそう】 is the generic term which corresponds to
"long-distance running" (usually >= 5 km), which of course includes マラソン.

When it comes to amateur events or PE classes at school, マラソン can refer to
many types of long-distance running (or any other "very long" events,
metaphorically).

There are ハーフマラソン (≒21 km) and クォーターマラソン (≒10 km) mainly for amateur runners.
So if you do need a distinctive word, you can also call the 42 km version as
フルマラソン. (And I think English has words like "full marathon" and "half
marathon", too.)




マラソン by its own strictly means running 42.195 km, as long as it is used as the
name of professional athletic competitions. For example, "10000m走" (10,000
metres) is never マラソン. 長距離走【ちょうきょりそう】 is the generic term which corresponds to
"long-distance running" (usually >= 5 km), which of course includes マラソン.

When it comes to amateur events or PE classes at school, マラソン can refer to
many types of long-distance running (or any other "very long" events,
metaphorically).

There are ハーフマラソン (≒21 km) and クォーターマラソン (≒10 km) mainly for amateur runners.
So if you do need a distinctive word, you can also call the 42 km version as
フルマラソン. (And I think English has words like "full marathon" and "half
marathon", too.)

