| Event: | Men's marathon |
| Games: | 1979 |
| Venue: | Estadio Sixto Escobar |
| Dates: | 14 July |
| Win Value: | 2:24:09 |
| Win Label: | Winning time |
| Gold: | Radamés González |
| Goldnoc: | CUB |
| Silver: | Luis Barbosa |
| Silvernoc: | COL |
| Bronze: | Rich Hughson |
| Bronzenoc: | CAN |
| Prev: | 1975 |
| Next: | 1983 |
The men's marathon competition of the athletics events at the 1979 Pan American Games finished at the Estadio Sixto Escobar.[1] [2] The defending Pan American Games champion was Rigoberto Mendoza of Cuba.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Pan American Games records were as follows:
| World record | 2:09:05.6 | Japan | February 5, 1978 | ||
| Pan American Games record | 2:22:40 | Cali, Colombia | 1971 |
| KEY: | WR | World Record | GR | Pan American Record |
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time[3] | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radamés González | 2:24:09 | ||||
| Luis Barbosa | 2:24:44 | ||||
| Rich Hughson | 2:25:34 | ||||
| Héctor Rodríguez | 2:25:51 | ||||
| Edmundo Warnke | 2:26:14 | ||||
| Tom Fleming | 2:28:06 | ||||
| Tom Howard | 2:28:50 | ||||
| Francisco Vargas | 2:29:11 | ||||
| Elói Schleder | 2:29:42 | [4] | |||
| 10 | Virgilio Herrera | 2:31:53 | |||
| 11 | José de Jesús | 2:34:35 | |||
| 12 | Raymond Swan | 2:42:15 | |||
| 13 | Hipólito López | 2:43:08 | |||
| 14 | José Hernández | 2:43:16 | |||
| 15 | Wallace Williams | 3:22:12 | |||
| Robert Doyle | [5] | ||||
| Hilario Álvarez | [6] | ||||
| Rafael Ángel Pérez | |||||
| Miguel Ángel Legorreta | |||||
| Aldo Allen | |||||
| José Medina |