Abstract
Age and sex are well-known factors influencing ultra-marathon race performance. The fact that women in older age groups are able to achieve a similar performance as men has been documented in swimming. In ultra-marathon running, knowledge is still limited. The aim of this study was to analyze sex-specific performance in ultra-marathon running according to age and distance. All ultra-marathon races documented in the online database of the German Society for Ultra-Marathon from 1964 to 2017 for 50-mile races (i.e., 231,980 records from 91,665 finishers) and from 1953 to 2017 for 100-mile races (i.e., 107,445 records from 39,870 finishers) were analyzed. In 50-mile races, race times were 11.74 ± 1.95 h for men and 12.31 ± 1.69 h for women. In 100-mile races, race times were 26.6 ± 3.49 h for men and 27.47 ± 3.6 h for women. The sex differences decreased with older age and were smaller in 100-mile (4.41%) than in 50-mile races (9.13%). The overall age of peak performance was 33 years for both distances. In summary, women reduced the performance difference to men with advancing age, the relative difference being smaller in 100-mile compared to 50-mile races. These findings might aid coaches and ultra-marathon runners set long-term training goals considering their sex and age.
Highlights
The oldest entry in the collection of ultra-marathon running statistics provided by the “GermanSociety for Ultra-Marathon” [1] was a 89 km run from London to Brighton taking place in 1837
The vast majority of finishers participated in races in the United States of America (USA) (85.2%); 6.1%, 3.8%, and 0.1% of the sample participated in Great Britain, Canada, and South Africa, respectively, and 4.1% in races taking place in 43 other countries
The main findings were that the (i) sex difference in performance was smaller in older than in younger athletes; (ii) the relative sex difference in performance was smaller in 100- than in 50-mile races; (iii) the sex difference in performance approaches a historical minimum; (iv) the peak performance age was 33 years; (v) the average performance worsened over the last three decades
Summary
The oldest entry in the collection of ultra-marathon running statistics provided by the “GermanSociety for Ultra-Marathon” [1] was a 89 km run from London to Brighton taking place in 1837. The number of ultra-marathon competitions [7] as well as the number of participants in these races has increased exponentially [8]. This increase appears to be mostly due to increasing numbers of athletes aged over 40 years (i.e., master athletes) [7], as well as women increasingly participating [3,8]. While very few women participated in the first ultra-marathon running competitions, their share has increased ever since [7,9,10]. Since 2004, approximately 20% of the runners have been women, but there are no records documenting women participating in the USA
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