James Milner just ran a marathon faster than any footballer we've got on record

James Milner's retirement glow-up continues. The 40-year-old, who spent his playing days looking less like a distance runner and more like someone who'd wrestle you for the ball, just smashed through the New York City Marathon in 3 hours, 9 minutes and 4 seconds. That's an average of 7 minutes 13 seconds per mile. Not exactly elite marathon territory, but genuinely impressive for a guy who's been dealing with injuries and, well, is 40.

Milner himself reckoned he could've gone sub-3:00 if he'd trained for this a few years back, before the late-career knocks caught up with him. Fair point — the bloke's earned the right to have regrets about his marathon time.

Here's where it gets interesting though. Back in 2012, we checked what footballers had actually run marathons in decent times. Muzzy Izzet, the former Leicester midfielder, held the record at 3 hours 22 minutes 36 seconds from the 2011 London Marathon. That was the best we could find among players who'd actually given it a proper go.

Milner's time beats that by more than 13 minutes. So unless some random footballer we've never heard of has quietly run a marathon in under 3:09 — and honestly, we'd have heard about it by now — the Premier League's all-time appearance record holder just becomes the fastest footballer marathoner on our radar.

It's a weird flex, isn't it? Most players retire and disappear into punditry or a coaching badge. Milner goes and sets what might be a footballing record in a completely different sport. Then again, this is the same guy who made a career out of doing literally everything asked of him, so maybe a marathon was just the next logical step.