I've been out of town 2 days and just saw this topic.
For what it is worth: the Marathon World Record on a paved surface is 2:03.59 for the full 26.2 miles.
By way of comparison, the Ascent half marathon (13.1 miles) on Pikes Peak is 2:01.06, not that much faster for HALF the Marathon distance. The same runner has done the full Pikes Peak Marathon in 3:16.39 vs his best road marathon 2:19.44 (Matt Carpenter)
I have referred to Matt several times on the Whitney Boards and suggested he could easily run Portal to summit and back to Portal in under 3:20. Google his name if you want to see impressive Mt racing results, especially under Wikipedia.
I have run 10 marathons, including Pikes Peak twice and Mt Evans with the other 7 on roads, including Boston, Western Hemisphere twice, Ave of the Giants Redwoods, White Rock, & Denver Marathon twice. It is hard to say which is more difficult as the degree of fatigue varies, but obviously the road marathons are faster and I recovered quicker than the Mt Races or hiking many 14ers over the years due to altitude and terrain.
