The shortest standard ultramarathon distance, 50 kilometers, is increasingly dominated by younger, faster runners, while much older runners continue to reign supreme at extreme distances such as 1,000 kilometers, according to an analysis of ultras run between 1969 and 2012 published in Springerplus.
Swiss researchers looked at annual best times and ages of the 10 fastest performers for 50K, 100K, 200K, and 1,000K races. They found that the front of the pack has gotten much faster at the shorter events studied.
At 50K, the fastest women have gone from averaging 6.5 miles per hour (mph) to 9.5 mph, and the fastest men, who used to average 8.8 mph, were covering 10.8 mph by the end of the study period. Similarly, at 100K, the fastest women went from 4.5 mph to 8 mph, while the pace increase in men was from 6.3 mph to 9.3 mph. In contrast, the top runners’ speed at 200K and 1,000K, which are contested less frequently, didn’t change during the study period.
One factor in leading 50K times getting faster is that younger runners have increasingly turned to the event. In 1988, the average age of the year’s 10 fastest women was 39, while in 2012 it was 32. Between 1977 and 2012, the age of the year’s 10 fastest men decreased from 35 to 33. At the other end of the range studied, the age of the top 1,000K runners remained unchanged; the leading women and men are an average age of 42 and 49, respectively.
The trend noted at the shorter end of the ultra spectrum has, if anything, accelerated since 2012, the last year the analysis included. Runners such as 2:16 marathoner Sage Canaday (seen above) and 2:14 marathoner Max King have successfully expanded their range to races between 50 and 100 kilometers. There is now more prize money in trail and ultra racing than a decade ago.
In addition, the increasing popularity of trail running has given runners such as Canaday and King sponsorship opportunities that might be unavailable for them at shorter races, where they are less likely to win or place high.
Article by Scott Douglas, Runners World Newswire.