The role of weather conditions on running performance in the Boston Marathon from 1972 to 2018

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of weather conditions, together with sex and country of origin, with running performance in the Boston Marathon from 1972 to 2018. A total of 580,990 observations from 382,209 different finishers were analyzed using Generalized Additive Mixed Models. Different groups and subgroups were considered such as all runners, near elite 101:200 finishers, near elite 21:100, annual top ten finishers and annual winners. Weather conditions, over the hours of the event, were average air temperature (°C), total precipitations (mm), wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) (°C), wind speed (km/h), wind direction (head wind, side wind, tail wind) and barometric pressure (hPa). These effects were examined in a multi-variable model, together with: sex, country of origin, calendar year, an interaction term country:sex and a spline smooth term in function of calendar year and sex. The average temperature, when increasing by 1°C, was related to worsened performance (by 00:01:47 h:min:sec for all finishers and by 00:00:20 h:min:sec for annual winners). Also, the pressure and wet-bulb globe temperature, when increasing, were related to worsened performances. Tail wind improved performances of all groups. Increasing precipitation was significantly ( p <0.05) related to worsened performances in all groups except annual winners. Increasing wind speed was also related to worsened performances in all finishers and near elite groups. Kenyans and Ethiopians were the fastest nationalities. The sex differences (men faster than women in all groups) were the largest in near elite groups. Our findings contributed to the knowledge of the performance in Boston Marathon across calendar years, considering as main effects weather conditions, country of origin and sex.

Performance and Pacing of Age Groups in Half-Marathon and Marathon

“…Thus, caution would be needed to generalize its findings into other half-marathons. Moreover, the role of environmental conditions was not considered, since detailed data on temperature, humidity, and wind were not available, and these environmental parameters might influence endurance performance [34]. For instance, it has been observed recently that an increase in temperature by 1 °C was related to a slower race time by ~2 min in the Boston marathon [35].…”

“…For instance, it has been observed recently that an increase in temperature by 1 °C was related to a slower race time by ~2 min in the Boston marathon [35]. To study the effect of environmental conditions in the Ljubljana half-marathon and marathon in the future, it would be necessary to consider a large number of calendar years following the paradigm of the Boston marathon [34,35]. On the other hand, a strength of the study was its novelty, since it was the first to examine performance and pacing in age groups of half-marathon runners.…”

The Natural Environmental Factors Influencing the Spatial Distribution of Marathon Event: A Case Study from China

“…Indeed, research has found that marathon events are mostly distributed in spring (week 14 to 17) and autumn (week 41 to 44) and the average temperature of host cities varies close to optimal value for long distance races [17]. Some studies have analyzed the changing trend of meteorological values of marathon such as temperature, humidity, air quality, and wind speed over time, and found that the climate has an impact on participants' physical sensations and performance in the race [11,13,[18][19][20]. There is also a large body of literature investigating the impact of different climates on the physical conditions of marathon runners.…”

Diverse Effects of Thermal Conditions on Performance of Marathon Runners

“…Indeed, there is robust evidence of negative effects of weather on performance of marathon runners. Numerous researchers (e.g., Trapasso and Cooper, 1989 ; Suping et al, 1992 ; Ely et al, 2007 ; Montain et al, 2007 ; Maughan, 2010 ; Roberts, 2010 ; Vihma, 2010 ; Miller-Rushing et al, 2012 ; Del Coso et al, 2013 ; Maffetone et al, 2017 ; Knechtle et al, 2018 , 2019 ; and Nikolaidis et al, 2019b ) have found that higher temperatures result in slower finishing times for both elite and amateur runners.…”