Why does Python code run faster in a function?

def main():
    for i in xrange(10**8):
        pass
main()

This piece of code in Python runs in (Note: The timing is done with the time function in BASH in Linux.)

real    0m1.841s
user    0m1.828s
sys     0m0.012s

However, if the for loop isn’t placed within a function,

for i in xrange(10**8):
    pass

then it runs for a much longer time:

real    0m4.543s
user    0m4.524s
sys     0m0.012s

Why is this?

3 s
3