Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012

We investigated age and performance in distance-limited ultra-marathons held from 50 km to 1,000 km. Age of peak running speed and running speed of the fastest competitors from 1969 to 2012 in 50 km, 100 km, 200 km and 1,000 km ultra-marathons were analyzed using analysis of variance and multi-level...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Romer, Tobias, Rüst, Christoph Alexander, Zingg, Matthias Alexander, Rosemann, Thomas, Knechtle, Beat
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Springer International Publishing 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258195/

id	pubmed-4258195
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-42581952014-12-17 Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012 Romer, Tobias Rüst, Christoph Alexander Zingg, Matthias Alexander Rosemann, Thomas Knechtle, Beat Research We investigated age and performance in distance-limited ultra-marathons held from 50 km to 1,000 km. Age of peak running speed and running speed of the fastest competitors from 1969 to 2012 in 50 km, 100 km, 200 km and 1,000 km ultra-marathons were analyzed using analysis of variance and multi-level regression analyses. The ages of the ten fastest women ever were 40 ± 4 yrs (50 km), 34 ± 7 yrs (100 km), 42 ± 6 yrs (200 km), and 41 ± 5 yrs (1,000 km). The ages were significantly different between 100 km and 200 km and between 100 km and 1,000 km. For men, the ages of the ten fastest ever were 34 ± 6 yrs (50 km), 32 ± 4 yrs (100 km), 44 ± 4 yrs (200 km), and 47 ± 9 yrs (1,000 km). The ages were significantly younger in 50 km compared to 100 km and 200 km and also significantly younger in 100 km compared to 200 km and 1,000 km. The age of the annual ten fastest women decreased in 50 km from 39 ± 8 yrs (1988) to 32 ± 4 yrs (2012) and in men from 35 ± 5 yrs (1977) to 33 ± 5 yrs (2012). In 100 km events, the age of peak running speed of the annual ten fastest women and men remained stable at 34.9 ± 3.2 and 34.5 ± 2.5 yrs, respectively. Peak running speed of top ten runners increased in 50 km and 100 km in women (10.6 ± 1.0 to 15.3 ± 0.7 km/h and 7.3 ± 1.5 to 13.0 ± 0.2 km/h, respectively) and men (14.3 ± 1.2 to 17.5 ± 0.6 km/h and 10.2 ± 1.2 to 15.1 ± 0.2 km/h, respectively). In 200 km and 1,000 km, running speed remained unchanged. In summary, the best male 1,000 km ultra-marathoners were ~15 yrs older than the best male 100 km ultra-marathoners and the best female 1,000 km ultra-marathoners were ~7 yrs older than the best female 100 km ultra-marathoners. The age of the fastest 50 km ultra-marathoners decreased across years whereas it remained unchanged in 100 km ultra-marathoners. These findings may help athletes and coaches to plan an ultra-marathoner’s career. Future studies are needed on the mechanisms by which the fastest runners in the long ultra-marathons tend to be older than those in shorter ultra-marathons. Springer International Publishing 2014-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4258195/ /pubmed/25520912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-3-693 Text en © Romer et al.; licensee Springer. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Romer, Tobias Rüst, Christoph Alexander Zingg, Matthias Alexander Rosemann, Thomas Knechtle, Beat
spellingShingle	Romer, Tobias Rüst, Christoph Alexander Zingg, Matthias Alexander Rosemann, Thomas Knechtle, Beat Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
author_facet	Romer, Tobias Rüst, Christoph Alexander Zingg, Matthias Alexander Rosemann, Thomas Knechtle, Beat
author_sort	Romer, Tobias
title	Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
title_short	Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
title_full	Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
title_fullStr	Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
title_full_unstemmed	Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
title_sort	age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012
description	We investigated age and performance in distance-limited ultra-marathons held from 50 km to 1,000 km. Age of peak running speed and running speed of the fastest competitors from 1969 to 2012 in 50 km, 100 km, 200 km and 1,000 km ultra-marathons were analyzed using analysis of variance and multi-level regression analyses. The ages of the ten fastest women ever were 40 ± 4 yrs (50 km), 34 ± 7 yrs (100 km), 42 ± 6 yrs (200 km), and 41 ± 5 yrs (1,000 km). The ages were significantly different between 100 km and 200 km and between 100 km and 1,000 km. For men, the ages of the ten fastest ever were 34 ± 6 yrs (50 km), 32 ± 4 yrs (100 km), 44 ± 4 yrs (200 km), and 47 ± 9 yrs (1,000 km). The ages were significantly younger in 50 km compared to 100 km and 200 km and also significantly younger in 100 km compared to 200 km and 1,000 km. The age of the annual ten fastest women decreased in 50 km from 39 ± 8 yrs (1988) to 32 ± 4 yrs (2012) and in men from 35 ± 5 yrs (1977) to 33 ± 5 yrs (2012). In 100 km events, the age of peak running speed of the annual ten fastest women and men remained stable at 34.9 ± 3.2 and 34.5 ± 2.5 yrs, respectively. Peak running speed of top ten runners increased in 50 km and 100 km in women (10.6 ± 1.0 to 15.3 ± 0.7 km/h and 7.3 ± 1.5 to 13.0 ± 0.2 km/h, respectively) and men (14.3 ± 1.2 to 17.5 ± 0.6 km/h and 10.2 ± 1.2 to 15.1 ± 0.2 km/h, respectively). In 200 km and 1,000 km, running speed remained unchanged. In summary, the best male 1,000 km ultra-marathoners were ~15 yrs older than the best male 100 km ultra-marathoners and the best female 1,000 km ultra-marathoners were ~7 yrs older than the best female 100 km ultra-marathoners. The age of the fastest 50 km ultra-marathoners decreased across years whereas it remained unchanged in 100 km ultra-marathoners. These findings may help athletes and coaches to plan an ultra-marathoner’s career. Future studies are needed on the mechanisms by which the fastest runners in the long ultra-marathons tend to be older than those in shorter ultra-marathons.
publisher	Springer International Publishing
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258195/
_version_	1613164830954356736

Age and ultra-marathon performance - 50 to 1,000 km distances from 1969 – 2012

Similar Items