JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Ultra-marathon running is the most popular ultra-endurance competition in terms of the number of races and runners competing annually worldwide; however, no study has compared pacing and performance over a long period.

Objective:

The present study analyzed the pacing of successful finishers and non-finishers in multi-stage ultra-marathons worldwide.

Methods:

A total of 4,079 athletes (male=3,288; female=791) competing in 99 multi-stage ultra-marathons events from 1983 to 2021 were analyzed, including the number of participants, age, sex, rank and running speed of successful finishers.

Results:

The results showed a significant increase in the number of events (400%) as well as a significant increase in the number of finishers and non-finishers (250%) in the ultra-marathons worldwide during this period. Furthermore, there was a significant main effect for both sexes (F = 33.7; p < 0.001; p2 = 0.012) and rank (F = 136.6; p < 0.001; p2 = 0.048) on performance, with men being faster than women. Pacing varied greatly due to sex (F = 4.0; p = 0.047; p2 = 0.001), with a lower (i.e., more even) pacing variation for male athletes in the top three finishers. Male non-finishers showed a higher performance than female non-finishers (F = 25.6; p < 0.001), and no difference was identified for pacing variation (F = 1.5; p = 0.228) based on sex. In addition, a weak but significant correlation (r = -0.130; p < 0.001) was identified between the average running speed and pacing variation for both female and male non-finishers.

Conclusions:

In summary, multi-stage ultra-marathon competitions showed an increasing number of competitors and a higher performance challenge. Men have a higher pacing (i.e., less even) variation than women, especially observed in longer events. A higher pacing variation was associated with a lower performance for men, women, and non-finishers.