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El maratón empezó hace una hora y siguen corriendo.

El maratón empezó hace una hora y siguen corriendo.
The marathon started an hour ago and they're still running.
From Lesson 209:Continuing actions (seguir / continuar + gerund)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El maratón empezó hace una hora y siguen corriendo.

Why do we use "siguen corriendo" here instead of just saying "todavía corren"?
Both express that they are still running, but using the verb seguir followed by a gerund (like corriendo) is the most natural way in Spanish to say "to keep doing" something or "to still be doing" it. It strongly emphasizes that the action is actively continuing from the past right into the present.
Is "hace una hora" a set phrase for "an hour ago"?
Yes! To say "ago" in Spanish, you use the formula hace + [amount of time]. Here, hace una hora literally translates to "it makes an hour," which is the standard way to express "an hour ago."
Why is it "el maratón"? Aren't words ending in "-ón" usually feminine?
You might be thinking of words ending in -ción or -sión (like la canción), which are feminine. However, many other words ending in just -ón are masculine (like el corazón or el jabón). Maratón is generally treated as masculine (el maratón), though you will occasionally hear native speakers say la maratón.
Why is "empezó" in the preterite tense if the marathon is still going on?
The verb empezó (started) refers only to the very beginning of the race, which is a single, completed event that happened an hour ago. The ongoing part of the event is entirely handled by the second half of the sentence: siguen corriendo.

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