Performance and Age of the Fastest Female and Male 100-km Ultramarathoners Worldwide From 1960 to 2012

Abstract

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the change in 100-km running performance and in the age of peak performance for 100-km ultramarathoners. Age and running speed of the annual fastest women and men in all 100-km ultramarathons held worldwide between 1960 and 2012 were analyzed in 148,017 finishes with 18,998 women and 129,019 men using single, multivariate, and nonlinear regressions. Running speed of the annual fastest men increased from 8.67 to 15.65 km·h and from 8.06 to 13.22 km·h for the annual fastest women. For the annual 10 fastest men, running speed increased from 10.23 ± 1.22 to 15.05 ± 0.29 km·h (p < 0.0001) and for the annual 10 fastest women from 7.18 ± 1.54 to 13.03 ± 0.18 km·h (p < 0.0001). The sex difference decreased from 56.1 to 16.3% for the annual fastest finishers (p < 0.0001) and from 46.7 ± 8.7% to 14.0 ± 1.2% for the annual 10 fastest finishers (p < 0.0001). The age of the annual fastest men increased from 29 to 40 years (p = 0.025). For the annual fastest women, the age remained unchanged at 35.0 ± 9.7 years (p = 0.469). For the annual 10 fastest women and men, the age remained unchanged at 34.9 ± 3.2 (p = 0.902) and 34.5 ± 2.5 years (p = 0.064), respectively. To summarize, 100-km ultramarathoners became faster, the sex difference in performance decreased but the age of the fastest finishers remained unchanged at 35 years. For athletes and coaches to plan a career as 100-km ultramarathoner, the age of the fastest female and male 100-km ultramarathoners remained unchanged at 35 years between 1960 and 2012 although the runners improved their performance over time. (5): 1180-1190, 2015-The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the change in 100-km running performance and in the age of peak performance for 100-km ultramarathoners. Age and running speed of the annual fastest women and men in all 100-km ultramarathons held worldwide between 1960 and 2012 were analyzed in 148,017 finishes with 18,998 women and 129,019 men using single, multivariate, and nonlinear regressions. Running speed of the annual fastest men increased from 8.67 to 15.65 km$h 21 and from 8.06 to 13.22 km$h 21 for the annual fastest women. For the annual 10 fastest men, running speed increased from 10.23 6 1.22 to 15.05 6 0.29 km$h 21 (p , 0.0001) and for the annual 10 fastest women from 7.18 6 1.54 to 13.03 6 0.18 km$h 21 (p , 0.0001). The sex difference decreased from 56.1 to 16.3% for the annual fastest finishers (p , 0.0001) and from 46.7 6 8.7% to 14.0 6 1.2% for the annual 10 fastest finishers (p , 0.0001). The age of the annual fastest men increased from 29 to 40 years (p = 0.025). For the annual fastest women, the age remained unchanged at 35.0 6 9.7 years (p = 0.469). For the annual 10 fastest women and men, the age remained unchanged at 34.9 6 3.2 (p = 0.902) and 34.5 6 2.5 years (p = 0.064), respectively. To summarize, 100-km ultramarathoners became faster, the sex difference in performance decreased but the age of the fastest finishers remained unchanged a...

Age of Peak Competitive Performance of Elite Athletes: A Systematic Review

“…Of the studies that investigated changes in age of peak performance of top athletes over a number of years, five contained evidence of trends showing annual increases in age of peak performance since the year 2000 [12,14,15,21,27]. Five studies also included a substantial proportion of data from athletes prior to the year 2000 [3,21,[25][26][27], which we were unable to exclude from our results owing to either the analysis method of the study or the manner in which authors presented their estimates.…”

“…Between-subject SDs are shown for studies in which individual age-related career performance trends were developed [4,5,17,20] and for one study in which the age of best career performance of top athletes was calculated [3]. In studies where annual data on the age of top-ranked performers at pinnacle events over a number of years were presented [14,15,[21][22][23], we chose to calculate means of annual age of peak performance from the year 2000 onwards, in order to generate estimates relevant to modernday sport. To negate any confounding effects of secular trends, the presented SDs for these studies are the means of the between-subject SD for each year.…”

“…Between-subject SDs could not be obtained for a number of studies in which fixed-effects models produced mean estimates of age of peak performance [17,18,[24][25][26], but most authors provided standard errors for their models, which we used to compute confidence limits for these estimates. Attempts to contact authors of eight studies in which SDs and/or standard errors were not reported [14,18,21,[24][25][26][27][28] resulted in only one successful outcome [14].…”

Ultramarathon Running: Medical Issues

“…For 100-km ultra-marathoners, the age of the fastest female and male finishers remained unchanged at ∼35 years between 1960 and 2012 [33]. In 24-hour ultra-marathoners, the best performances were achieved at ~40-42 years [35].…”

“…The age of peak ultra-marathon performance and a potential change in the age of peak performance has been intensively investigated in very recent years [5,6,30,32,[33][34][35][36].…”