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Improved Race Times in Marathoners Older Than 75 Years in the Last 25 Years in the World's Largest Marathons

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Improved Race Times in Marathoners Older Than 75 Years in the Last 25 Years in the World's Largest Marathons Chinese Journal of Physiology 59(3): 139-147, 2016 139 DOI: 10.4077/CJP.2016.BAE382 Improved Race Times in Marathoners Older than 75 Years in the Last 25 Years in the World’s Largest Marathons Baschir Ahmadyar, Thomas Rosemann, Christoph Alexander Rüst, and Beat Knechtle Institute of Primary Care, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland Abstract Performance trends of elite marathoners are well investigated. However, performance of elderly marathoners (> 75 years) competing in the world’s largest city marathons is not well-known. We exam- ined marathon race data of 1,691 marathon finishes (i.e. 218 women and 1,473 men) competing between 1990 and 2014 in 5-year age groups 75-79, 80-84, 85-89, and 95-99 years in four races (Berlin, New York, Chicago and Boston) of the ‘World Marathon Majors’. The number of female (r2 = 0.50, P < 0.0001) and male (r2 = 0.88, P < 0.0001) finishers increased significantly across years. The number of women (r2 = 0.36, P = 0.0019) and men (r2 = 0.88, P < 0.0001) in age group 75-79 years increased. In age group 80-84 years, the number of women (r2 = 0.36, P = 0.0111) and men (r2 = 0.54, P < 0.0001) also increased. In age groups 85-89 to 95-99 years, however, the number of female and male finishers remained unchanged. Across years, women (r2 = 0.26, P = 0.0090) and men (r2 = 0.31, P = 0.0035) reduced their race times. Women and men in age group 75-79 years improved race times. In age groups 80-84 to 90-94 years, women and men were not able to reduce race times. In summary, participation increased and performance improved in female and male marathoners competing in age groups 75-79 to 95-99 years where the largest increases in participation and the largest improvements in performance were found in women and men in age group 75-79 years. Key Words: age group, master athlete, running, sex Introduction tempting to speculate that the absolute limiting mar- athon times possible for a human being are not yet It is more than 100 years ago since the first mod- reached and might still decrease. Finishing a mara- ern marathon run with the official distance of 42.195 thon in less than 2 h is expected in 2021 (11). Several km took place during the 1908 Olympic Games in models accounting for mathematical as well as phy- London (32). Johnny Hayes won the race in a time of siological properties predict even faster race times 2:55:18 h:min:sec (25). The current world record for like 1:48:25 h:min:sec (24) and 1:36:11 h:min:sec (26) men is held by Dennis Kimetto (2:02:57 h:min:sec) as a potential world record time for men. For women, set in Berlin in 2014 whereas for women it is 2:15:25 the predictions are less precise because of the lack h:min:sec held since 2003 by Paula Radcliffe1. The of data due to the late onset of women’s participa- winning time of Hayes in 1908 has been surpassed in tion in Olympic marathon races in 1984. Neverthe- 2004 by Ed Whitlock (age group M70) in Toronto2. less, Péronnet and Thibault (24) estimated the world Considering the large reduction of marathon race record of the women’s marathon to be set at 2:11:41 time of more than 50 min in nearly a century, it is h:min:sec by 2033 while ultimate marathon limiting Corresponding author: PD Dr. med. Beat Knechtle, Facharzt FMH für Allgemeinmedizin, Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, Vadianstrasse 26, 9001 St. Gallen, Switzerland. Telefax: +41 (0) 71 226 82 72, E-mail: [email protected] Received: May 27, 2015; Revised (Final Version): September 17, 2015; Accepted: September 29, 2015. 1IAAF world records by category, website www.iaaf.org/records/by-category/world-records, accessed May 22, 2015. 2World Masters Athletics, records outdoor men, website www.world-masters-athletics.org/records/outdoor-men, accessed May 22, 2015. 2016 by The Chinese Physiological Society and Airiti Press Inc. ISSN : 0304-4920. http://www.cps.org.tw 140 Ahmadyar, Rosemann, Rüst and Knechtle times for women would be 2:00:33 h:min:sec. in age group W90 (Mavis Lindgren)3. Furthermore, Since the 1976 ‘New York City Marathon’ so a 90-year old male athlete with a valid birth certifi- called ‘urban tour’ marathons took place (2), marathon cate finished a marathon race very recently in 6:48:55 races are no longer restricted to athletes competing in h:min:sec (23). Clearly, some outstanding athletes the Olympic Games. Moreover, these races are open like the above mentioned runners do not represent to any motivated person who is willing to overcome the mass of age group runners. However, there is a the 42.195 km distance. Consequently, an increasing trend of improving performance and new world re- number of recreational runners are attracted by public cords in the age classes were set by aged athletes (15). marathon races. It is reasonable to assume that an increased number In the case of the ‘New York City Marathon’, of age group runners will reach and even outperform the numbers of male and female finishers increased the actual age group record times in the future. There between the decades 1980-1989 and 2000-2009 from are two questions of particular interest when exam- 170,523 to 350,919 (17). Interestingly, since 1976, ining for absolute marathon limiting times in aged a dramatic increase of people older than 40 years runners. First, what are the expected age-dependent participating in the marathon races was observed (2). individual limiting marathon times? Second, which Even runners in their 70’s accounted for ~0.6% (n = mean limiting marathon times in certain age groups are 593) of the ‘New York City Marathon’ finishers dur- feasible? Whereas the first aspect is rather a matter of ing the decade 2000-2009 (17). Because it is known interest for sports scientists or single athletes when that the optimal age for accomplishing marathon re- assessing individual development potentialities and cords is ~31-32 years (1, 6), it is expected that the maximal physical capacity. Particularly, the latter is of absolute world record marathon limiting times men- some social importance considering aged athletes as a tioned above will be most likely achieved by athletes model for successful aging (5). Research on physi- of this age group. However, the emerging field of age ological changes during aging can be advanced with group athletes showing significant improvements of the investigation of aging athletes because of their running times (17) opens the question of age-related obvious slowed age-related degenerative processes. absolute limiting marathon times. Improved running times can be correlated to avoiding Until now, only a few studies have investigated potential negative lifestyle parameters such as smoking performance trends of age group athletes in marathon and obesity. The cross-sectional assessment of aging running (1,11, 17, 18). These studies identified mainly athletes can be a tool for studying the ‘real’ age-related that in the last ~30 years runners improved participa- declines in humans apart from ‘artificial’ declines due tion and running times in marathon races aside from to a modern sedentary lifestyle (19). Recent studies certain age-group differences related to both age group investigating performances of age group marathoners and sex. One of the most recent studies clearly in- (11, 17, 18) have failed to include elderly runners dicated significant running time improvements over such as the geriatric athletes (8) older than 75 years. time in particular in male runners older than 64 years We tested the hypothesis of an increased participation and female runners older than 44 years (17). Although and an improved performance in elderly marathoners these results might be biased because the studies of (> 75 years) in the last ~25 years by investigating Lepers and Cattagni (17) as well as Jokl et al. (11) marathon race times achieved in four of the largest city analysed only the data of the ‘New York City Mara- marathons as part of the ‘World Marathon Majors’ thon’, it might be suggested that both male and female held between 1990 and 2014. age group runners have not yet reached their absolute limits in marathon running. Therefore, future studies Materials and Methods should overcome potential selection biases and incor- porate data across multiple marathon races. Data Sampling and Data Analysis There are impressive individual record times for the marathon distance of 42.195 km for men in age group This study was approved by the Institutional Re- M75 (3:04:54 h:min:sec, Ed Whitlock), age group view Board of St. Gallen, Switzerland, with a waiver M80 (3:15:54 h:min:sec, Ed Whitlock), age group of the requirement for informed consent given that the M85 (4:34:55 h:min:sec, Robert Horman), and age study involved the analysis of publicly available data. group M90 (6:46:34 h:min:sec, Ernest Van Leeuwen). We collected marathon race times of female and male For women, the records were 3:53:42 h:min:sec in age finishers in four of the world’s largest city marathons: group W75 (Yoko Nakano), 4:12:44 h:min:sec in age the ‘BMW Berlin Marathon’, the ‘ING New York group W80 (Gwen McFarlan), 5:14:26 h:min:sec in age City Marathon’, the ‘BOA Chicago Marathon’ and the group W85 (Betty Jean McHugh) and 8:53:08 h:min:sec ‘Boston Marathon’.
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