American Women in the Marathon

Abstract

American women have made great advances in the sport of marathon running over the past 4 decades. The purpose of this study was to examine the trend of marathon times among American female runners between 1976 and 2005, and to compare physiological characteristics of male and female runners. The best marathon times of American female and male marathon runners for each year (1976-2005) were collected from several published sources. Two research studies were reviewed that examined a variety of physiological variables of female and male elite distance runners. While the best marathon times of American men have remained fairly constant in recent decades ( approximately 2:10:00), the best times of American women have decreased dramatically from 2:47:10 in 1976 to 2:21:25 in 2005, a decrease of 15.6% over the 30-year period. The physiological characteristics of elite American female marathon runners differ from those of elite male marathon runners (e.g. maximal oxygen uptake = 67.1 +/- 4.2 mL/kg/min vs 74.1 +/- 2.6 mL/kg/min). These differences are comparable with the differences seen in marathon performance. Over the past 30 years, participation by women in marathon running has grown dramatically and during that same period the marathon performances of women have improved at a remarkable rate.