Will women outrun men in ultra-marathon road races from 50 km to 1,000 km?
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Retrospective observational analysis of historical race results by design analogy
PubMed 24616840 · doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-97
What was done
Authors analyzed historical race records from 1969 to 2012 for ultra-marathons worldwide at distances of 50 km, 100 km, 200 km, and 1,000 km. Using linear, non-linear, and multi-level regression analyses, they examined changes in running speed and sex differences among the annual fastest and annual top-ten finishers, as well as the all-time fastest finishers.
What was found
Running speeds and sex differences changed non-linearly over time in 50 km and 100 km events, but speeds and sex gaps remained unchanged across time for the annual fastest in 200 km and 1,000 km events. For the all-time fastest individuals, the sex difference was lowest at 100 km (5.0%) and highest at 50 km (15.4%). For the top ten fastest ever, the sex difference was lowest at 100 km (10.0 ± 3.0%) and highest at 200 km (27.3 ± 5.7%). There was no significant correlation between race distance and the magnitude of the sex difference for either the fastest (r² = 0.003, p = 0.82) or the top ten fastest ever (r² = 0.34, p = 0.41).
Why it matters
This study tests the hypothesis that women's physiological fatigue resistance enables them to surpass men at extreme endurance distances, finding that men maintain a persistent performance advantage across all ultra-marathon lengths.
Limits
The abstract does not report total participant counts or demographic distributions. Analysis is restricted only to elite/top finishers rather than general finishers, and confounding variables such as historical female participation rates, training volume, race terrain variations, and environmental conditions were not accounted for in the summary data.
Cited by
- context As endurance race distances increase, the performance gap between male and female competitors narrows.