First, I haven’t heard from my friend, Kyle from the New York Post.  Kyle, darling, if you’re reading, I’d love to hear from you!  Seriously, let’s talk.

Nextly (that a word?!), onto our question!  I promise you I’m not being silly, and I’m not being condescending, but I’ve been getting this question a whole lot.

So I’m sure you’ve seen these little dooders cropping up on cars.  Do you feel a little confused when you see them? Or the 5k? The 26.2? There’s a whole language you adopt when you start racing, and I’m here to translate it for you.  I’m extremely multilingual.

• Marathon: 26.2 miles – a marathon isn’t an arbitrary term for running around without a purpose.  When someone says they’re running a marathon, generally, they’re running a 26.2 mile course.  This accounts for those 26.2 stickers and magnets you see on cars.
• Half-marathon: 13.1 miles
• 10K : 6.2 miles
• 8k: 4.97 miles
• 5K: 3.1 miles

So your friend tells you they’re running any of these? Or you see one of these stickers on a car? Here’s your cheat sheet!