Every weekend during this fall marathon season, long after most runners have completed the 26.2-mile course  and very likely after many have showered, changed and headed for a meal  a group of stragglers crosses the finish line.

Many of those slower runners, claiming that late is better than never, receive a finisher’s medal just like every other participant. Having traversed the same route as the fleeter-footed runners  perhaps in twice the amount of time  they get to call themselves marathoners.

And it’s driving some hard-core runners crazy.

“It’s a joke to run a marathon by walking every other mile or by finishing in six, seven, eight hours,” said Adrienne Wald, 54, the women’s cross-country coach at the College of New Rochelle, who ran her first marathon in 1984. “It used to be that running a marathon was worth something  there used to be a pride saying that you ran a marathon, but not anymore. Now it’s, ‘How low is the bar?’ ”

Tens of thousands of runners are training for marathons this time of year. As the fields continue to grow  primarily by adding slower runners  so has the intensity of the debate over how quickly an able-bodied runner should finish the once-elite event that is now an activity for the masses.