Finisher and performance trends in female and male mountain ultramarathoners by age group

Abstract

BackgroundThis study examined changes according to age group in the number of finishers and running times for athletes in female and male mountain ultramarathoners competing in the 78 km Swiss Alpine Marathon, the largest mountain ultramarathon in Europe and held in high alpine terrain.MethodsThe association between age and performance was investigated using analysis of variance and both single and multilevel regression analyses.ResultsBetween 1998 and 2011, a total of 1,781 women and 12,198 men finished the Swiss Alpine Marathon. The number of female finishers increased (r2 = 0.64, P = 0.001), whereas the number of male finishers (r2 = 0.18, P = 0.15) showed no change. The annual top ten men became older and slower, whereas the annual top ten women became older but not slower. Regarding the number of finishers in the age groups, the number of female finishers decreased in the age group 18–24 years, whereas the number of finishers increased in the age groups 30–34, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64, and 70–74 years. In the age groups 25–29 and 35–39 years, the number of finishers showed no changes across the years. In the age group 70–74 years, the increase in number of finishers was linear. For all other age groups, the increase was exponential. For men, the number of finishers decreased in the age groups 18–24, 25–29, 30–34, and 35–39 years. In the age groups 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64, 70–74, and 75–79 years, the number of finishers increased. In the age group 40–44 years, the increase was linear. For all other age groups, the increase was exponential. Female finishers in the age group 40–44 years became faster over time. For men, finishers in the age groups 18–24, 25–29, 30–34, 40–44, and 45–49 years became slower.ConclusionThe number of women older than 30 years and men older than 40 years increased in the Swiss Alpine Marathon. Performance improved in women aged 40–44 years but decreased in male runners aged 18–49 years.

Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from 25–29 to 100–104 years at the FINA World Masters Championships from 1986 to 2014

“…However, there are few studies focusing on backstroke, an increase in participation in age groups older than 40 years was recently reported in a large cross-sectional study investigating master freestyle swimmers (Knechtle et al 2016 ). Apart from swimming these findings were similar for marathon (Jokl et al 2004 ; Lepers and Cattagni 2012 ) and ultra-marathon-running (Jampen et al 2013 ; Rüst et al 2013 ; Zingg et al 2013 ), Ironman triathlon (Lepers et al 2013 ; Stiefel et al 2014 ), Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (Knechtle et al 2012 ) and long-distance inline-skating (Teutsch et al 2013 ).…”

“…Since 1970, people in the general population are getting older ( www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2014/2014-world-population-data-sheet/data-sheet.aspx ) due to advances in medicine for example the high medication use (Chen et al 2001 ) and better prosthesis (Mascarenhas and MacDonald 2008 ). The findings of an increase in participation in different age groups in backstroke swimming over 100 m and 200 m distance in older age groups may reflect the trend that there is an increasing number of people older than 65 years in a good health condition in the general population and physically able to participate in different sport competitions ranging from swimming (Senefeld et al 2016 ), marathon (Jokl et al 2004 ) and ultra-marathon running (Jampen et al 2013 ; Rüst et al 2013 ; Zingg et al 2013 ), Ironman triathlon (Lepers et al 2013 ; Stiefel et al 2013 ), Triple and Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (Knechtle et al 2012 ) to long-distance inline skating (Teutsch et al 2013 ). Health benefits, social factors, physical fitness, competition, enjoyment and personal challenge are some reasons for masters’ participation in sport events (Reaburn and Dascombe 2008 ) and could reflect the trend of high participation in older swimmers.…”

“…In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in participation of master athletes and in several age groups athletes also improved performance in different endurance sport disciplines such as marathon (Anthony et al 2014 ; Jokl et al 2004 ) and ultra-marathon running (Jampen et al 2013 ; Rüst et al 2013 ; Zingg et al 2013 ) ultra-cycling (Shoak et al 2013 ), long-distance triathlon such as Ironman triathlon (Lepers et al 2013 ; Stiefel et al 2013 , 2014 ) and Triple and Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (Knechtle et al 2012 ), long-distance inline-skating (Teutsch et al 2013 ) and ultra-mountain biking (Haupt et al 2013 ). Although large cross-sectional studies in swimming already investigated changes of age, performance (König et al 2014 ) and sex differences (Wild et al 2014 ) in World Championships, cross- sectional studies investigating participation and performance trends of master backstroke swimmers are missing.…”

Physiology and Pathophysiology in Ultra-Marathon Running

“…With regards to sex differences in the age of peak performance, women achieve their best ultra-marathon race time at the same age as men (Knechtle et al, 2012d ; Rüst et al, 2013a ; Zingg et al, 2013b ; Peter et al, 2014 ; Cejka et al, 2015 ). In 100-km ultra-marathon running, the age of the fastest annual female and male finishers was ~35 years for both sexes (Cejka et al, 2015 ).…”

“…In addition to elite ultra-marathoners, the number of age-group runners has increased and their performance has improved (Jampen et al, 2013 ; Rüst et al, 2013a ). In the “Swiss Alpine Marathon,” the number of runners older than 30 years increased significantly and the performance of women in age group 40–44 years significantly improved (Rüst et al, 2013a ). In the “Marathon des Sables,” the number of finishers older than 40 years increased and the performance of men in the age groups 35–39 and 40–44 years improved (Jampen et al, 2013 ).…”