It is arguably the nation's biggest marathon and the most popular one at that.

It also happens to be the world's worst.

Slow average finish time

UK-based trainer review and news site, The Sole Supplier, recently released their list of the best and worse marathons in the world.

Sadly for Malaysia, we were placed in the latter category.

According to the website, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon only managed to get an overall score of 3.69 out of 10.

The ranking, the website said, considers factors such as "air quality, altitude, average finish times, average temperature and rainfall, starting entry fees, refreshment stations, medical aid, and toilets".

Explaining why our marathon is worse in the world, The Sole Supplier said that it is due to the city's air pollution levels and hot climate.

On top of that, we apparently have a slow average finish time and a lack of medical aid along the course.

So, that would explain the low score.

The IDBI Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon was named as the second-worst in the world, while the Standard Chartered Singapore marathon came in third.

In case you're wondering, Germany’s Haspa Marathon Hamburg was named as the best marathon in the world, with a score of 7.57 out of 10.

It scored high thanks to its low starting entry fee and favourable altitude (8 metres above sea level).

“It also has lots of toilet stations (42 along the course) and an average temperature of 12.3°C, which according to experts, is only 1.8°C higher than the ideal running temperature of 10.5 °C,” said the site.

While there's nothing we can do about our air quality or climate, but we sure do hope that our organisers would take note of the other factors.