Abstract
Performance and age of elite marathoners is well known. Participation and performance trends of elderly marathoners (75 years and older) are not well investigated. This study investigated participation and performance trends in elderly marathoners older than 75 years competing during 2004–2011 in four races (Berlin, New York, Chicago and Boston) of the ‘World Marathon Majors’ using mixed-effects regression models. Participation for women and men remained unchanged at 17 and 114, respectively, during the investigated period. For all finishers, marathon race times showed a significant and positive trend for gender, calendar year and age. For the annual fastest, calendar year and age showed a significant and positive trend. For the annual three fastest, gender, calendar year and age showed a significant and positive trend. The gender difference for the annual fastest and the annual three fastest showed no change across years. For the annual fastest and the annual three fastest, race times were fastest in the youngest age group (75–79 years) and slowest in the oldest age group (85–89 and 80–84 years, respectively). The gender difference in marathon race times remained unchanged across years at 19.7 ± 11.2, 28.1 ± 23.8 and 41.9 ± 22.6 % for the annual fastest in age groups 75–79, 80–84 and 85–89 years, respectively. For the annual three fastest men and women in age groups 75–79 and 80–84 years, the values were 23.7 ± 3.2 and 30.0 ± 13.2 %, respectively. In summary, for marathoners older than 75 years participating during 2004–2011 in four of the largest marathons in the world, participation for female and male runners remained unchanged, the fastest women and men became slower across years and the gender difference in performance remained unchanged. These findings might be the results of the relatively short period of time of 8 years. Future studies might investigate the performance trends in a large city marathon across a longer period of time.
Highlights
The first modern marathon run was held in the 1908 Olympic Games in London (Wilcock 2008) where Johnny Hayes won the race in 2:55:18 h:min:s (Predel 2014)
For the present intention to study age group athletes older than 75 years, we were not able to include the races held in London and Tokyo since age group runners in London are only recorded as runners older than 70 years with no further separation in older age groups and no age groups are recorded in the Tokyo Marathon
We considered interaction effects between gender and age
Summary
The first modern marathon run was held in the 1908 Olympic Games in London (Wilcock 2008) where Johnny Hayes won the race in 2:55:18 h:min:s (Predel 2014). A recent study reported significant improvements in marathon race times in men older than 64 years and women older than 44 years competing in the ‘New York City Marathon’ (Lepers and Cattagni 2012). Whilst these results may not be representative because only the data of the ‘New York City Marathon was used in the analysis, it might be suggested that both male and female age group runners have not yet reached their limits in marathon running. This study has examined the hypothesis of both an increase in participation and an improvement in performance in elderly marathoners (>75 years) by investigating marathon race times achieved in four of the largest city marathons as part of the ‘World Marathon Majors’ held between 2004 and 2011
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