Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis1,2, Beat Knechtle3,4. 1. Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Nikaia, Greece. 2. Laboratory of Exercise Testing, Hellenic Air Force Academy, Dekelia, Greece. 3. Medbase St. Gallen Am Vadianplatz, St. Gallen, Switzerland. 4. Institute of Primary Care, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Despite the increasing popularity of 50-km ultramarathons during the last few years, only limited information is available regarding the trends in its performance and participation. The aim of the present study was to examine the age of peak running performance in female and male 50-km ultramarathoners using second-order nonlinear regression analyses. METHODS: Data from 494,414 runners (124,045 women and 370,369 men) who finished a 50-km ultramarathon between 1975 to 2016 were analyzed. RESULTS: When the top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 41 years in both women and men. When the fastest finishers in 1-year age-group intervals were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 40 years in women and 39 years in men. CONCLUSION: In summary, the age of peak running speed in 50-km ultramarathoners is older than what has been reported by previous studies for marathons. Women seem to achieve the best race time in a 50-km ultramarathon later in life compared with men. These findings are of great practical value for coaches and fitness trainers when setting performance goals for 50-km ultramarathon runners.
PURPOSE: Despite the increasing popularity of 50-km ultramarathons during the last few years, only limited information is available regarding the trends in its performance and participation. The aim of the present study was to examine the age of peak running performance in female and male 50-km ultramarathoners using second-order nonlinear regression analyses. METHODS: Data from 494,414 runners (124,045 women and 370,369 men) who finished a 50-km ultramarathon between 1975 to 2016 were analyzed. RESULTS: When the top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 41 years in both women and men. When the fastest finishers in 1-year age-group intervals were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 40 years in women and 39 years in men. CONCLUSION: In summary, the age of peak running speed in 50-km ultramarathoners is older than what has been reported by previous studies for marathons. Women seem to achieve the best race time in a 50-km ultramarathon later in life compared with men. These findings are of great practical value for coaches and fitness trainers when setting performance goals for 50-km ultramarathon runners.
In competitive sports, each sports discipline seems to have its specific age of peak performance depending on the duration of the event.1 For example, in long-distance running, the age of peak ultramarathon performance seems to increase with increasing race duration.2In long-distance running, such as marathon and ultramarathon running, the age of peak performance has been well investigated. Recent studies demonstrated that the relationship between age and running time was U-shaped. In marathon running, the age of the fastest race time ranges between 25 and 35 years, depending on the analysis (age-group intervals) and the nationality and performance level of the runners.3–5 Whereas, in ultramarathon running, the age of the fastest athletes seems to be higher than in marathon running and has been investigated for 100-km running,6 for 100-mile (161-km) running,7 and running races held in hours and days.2 It appears that the running performance in these ultramarathon events peaks above the age of 35 years.2,6–8To the best of our knowledge, there is no information for the age of peak performance for the shortest ultramarathon race, such as the 50-km race distance, in men and women. Since many hundreds of thousands of runners participate in 50-km ultramarathons (http://statistik.d-u-v.org/index.php), such knowledge would be of great practical value for runners competing in this distance and for their coaches. Being aware of the age of peak performance can help coaches for planning and optimizing the preparation of their runners.Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the age of peak performance in female and male 50-km ultramarathoners. Since the distance of 50 km is very close to the marathon distance of 42.195 km, we hypothesized that the age of peak performance in a 50-km ultramarathon would be ~25–35 years and therefore younger than in a 100-km6 and a 100-mile7 ultramarathon due to the fact that the age of peak ultramarathon performance increases with increasing race duration.2 Furthermore, a secondary aim was to examine the variation in the trends of performance and participation across calendar years in 50-km ultramarathons.
Materials and methods
Ethical approval
The Institutional Review Board of Kanton St. Gallen, Switzerland, approved all procedures used in this study with a waiver of the requirement for informed consent from the participants, given the fact that the study involved the analysis of publicly available data. This study was conducted in accordance with recognized ethical standards according to the Declaration of Helsinki adopted in 1964 and revised in 2013.
Methodology
All runners who finished a 50-km ultramarathon held worldwide were considered. All data were obtained from the website of Deutsche Ultramarathon Vereinigung, where all ultramarathons are recorded under http://statistik.d-u-v.org/.We identified 494,414 runners (ie, 124,045 women and 370,369 men) who finished a 50-km ultramarathon between 1975 and 2016 after we excluded duplicate cases (ie, where runners were recorded both in the open race and in the championship race such as a European or a World Championship) and athletes with extreme scores (ie, average running speed <2.5 km/h or >30 km/h).
Statistical analysis
The acceptable type I error was set at p<0.05. Data were presented as mean ± SD. The linear and nonlinear regression analyses were performed by using GraphPad Prism Version 7.0 (GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA); all other statistical analyses were carried out by using IBM SPSS Version 23.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). The men-to-women ratio was calculated for the whole sample and each age-group. We examined the association of sex and age-group, ie, whether the men-to-women ratio varied by age-groups, using χ2 and Cramer’s φ (φC) to evaluate the magnitude of association. In addition, the association of sex and calendar year was examined. We used two approaches to classify the participants into age-groups: 1) 5-year groups from <20 to >84 years and 2) 1-year groups from 15 to 80 years. Furthermore, in each approach, we examined all runners, the top ten, and the single top finisher. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) examined the main effects of sex, age-group, calendar year, and the sex × age-group and sex × calendar year interactions on race speed, followed by a Bonferroni post hoc analysis. The magnitude of differences in the ANOVA was evaluated by using partial η2 as trivial (η2<0.01), small (0.01≤η2<0.06), moderate (0.06≤η2<0.14), and large (η2≥0.14).12 The abovementioned ANOVA was run twice, one considering all finishers and one considering only the top ten runners. The age with the fastest race time considering age-groups in 1-year and 5-year age intervals was calculated using a nonlinear regression model with a second-order (quadratic) polynomial function (y=ax2+bx+c) that fitted the data. The vertex of the quadratic function was calculated as . We determined the age with the fastest speed both for the fastest women and men and for all women and men in 1-year and 5-year age intervals.
Results
Participation trends
For both women (Table 1) and men (Table 2), participation increased in all age-groups across calendar years.
Table 1
Finishers by age-group and calendar year in women
Year
Age (years)
Total
<20
20–24
25–29
30–34
35–39
40–44
45–49
50–54
55–59
60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
>84
1977
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
1978
0
1
0
0
3
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
1979
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
1980
0
0
0
3
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
1981
0
0
1
5
1
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
1982
1
1
0
3
0
3
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
1983
1
1
0
3
3
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
1984
0
0
3
3
2
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
1985
0
0
2
1
2
2
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
1986
0
0
0
0
2
1
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
1987
0
0
0
1
2
2
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
1988
0
2
2
3
9
4
2
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
26
1989
0
2
3
8
15
11
11
2
4
2
0
0
0
0
0
58
1990
0
0
5
6
20
18
10
8
2
2
2
0
0
0
0
73
1991
0
0
2
4
2
5
3
2
1
0
2
0
0
0
0
21
1992
0
1
4
6
19
11
13
10
2
3
2
1
0
0
0
72
1993
0
0
4
8
8
12
11
9
2
1
1
0
0
0
0
56
1994
0
1
4
5
11
16
12
10
4
1
1
0
0
0
0
65
1995
1
4
6
15
22
37
18
26
20
3
1
1
0
0
0
154
1996
0
4
21
34
45
72
48
29
40
8
4
1
0
0
0
306
1997
2
0
7
32
34
46
27
37
28
3
3
3
1
0
0
223
1998
4
3
14
29
44
40
36
30
18
6
2
1
2
0
0
229
1999
1
6
18
38
54
59
67
39
23
12
6
1
0
0
0
324
2000
0
4
21
47
56
70
68
43
17
13
3
0
2
0
0
344
2001
1
31
89
216
274
280
226
91
37
21
8
0
2
0
0
1,276
2002
2
18
96
226
295
327
234
111
45
29
4
1
1
1
0
1,390
2003
0
21
92
177
239
257
182
119
44
30
5
3
1
1
0
1,171
2004
2
31
106
216
333
345
249
125
60
34
6
4
1
0
0
1,512
2005
2
24
74
149
290
288
270
130
71
25
7
5
0
1
0
1,336
2006
2
23
77
166
295
350
311
170
83
34
20
2
1
0
0
1,534
2007
4
40
86
204
319
399
407
230
116
55
23
7
0
1
0
1,891
2008
8
27
116
201
299
384
370
252
110
54
22
2
0
1
0
1,846
2009
7
44
175
333
442
504
483
345
160
69
29
5
2
0
0
2,598
2010
5
80
422
682
854
1,060
925
540
231
92
37
7
5
0
0
4,940
2011
9
129
613
1,010
1,404
1,493
1,244
822
363
117
52
13
6
0
0
7,275
2012
14
153
572
1,015
1,342
1,536
1,253
927
403
148
71
14
5
1
0
7,454
2013
32
332
1,254
2,278
2,689
2,988
2,432
1,671
823
341
110
28
7
0
0
14,985
2014
49
434
1,489
2,664
3,314
3,519
3,008
1,978
926
355
120
28
5
3
0
17,892
2015
45
321
1,132
2,267
2,839
3,200
2,612
1,809
790
335
110
36
12
2
0
15,510
2016
72
614
2,129
3,736
4,628
4,814
4,144
2,790
1,234
554
191
53
15
1
2
24,977
Total
264
2,352
8,639
15,795
20,214
22,160
18,695
12,362
5,659
2,347
842
216
68
12
2
109,627
Table 2
Finishers by age-group and calendar year in men
Year
Age (years)
Total
<20
20–24
25–29
30–34
35–39
40–44
45–49
50–54
55–59
60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
>84
1975
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
1977
2
4
13
15
26
14
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
78
1978
3
22
29
30
52
45
13
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
198
1979
4
24
34
25
54
53
14
4
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
214
1980
10
21
29
21
39
40
20
4
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
186
1981
4
3
16
25
20
25
15
6
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
117
1982
8
10
26
25
17
23
19
6
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
137
1983
8
5
20
31
17
29
25
11
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
149
1984
0
4
13
26
27
32
31
7
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
143
1985
0
4
6
34
27
36
26
12
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
148
1986
0
5
8
21
17
19
21
7
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
100
1987
1
4
14
11
25
20
22
9
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
110
1988
1
3
9
8
27
34
23
14
7
1
2
0
0
0
0
129
1989
2
8
19
43
69
63
70
54
22
2
2
1
0
0
0
355
1990
0
6
20
37
58
59
55
36
28
5
6
2
0
0
0
312
1991
0
1
2
3
10
14
11
9
6
6
5
1
0
0
0
68
1992
0
4
19
24
33
28
28
38
14
4
6
1
0
0
0
199
1993
1
2
11
14
25
28
21
34
6
9
4
2
0
0
0
157
1994
1
3
20
31
38
50
44
37
30
8
5
1
1
0
0
269
1995
5
9
38
58
108
132
143
85
92
33
9
3
1
0
0
716
1996
1
16
73
153
184
234
224
180
147
68
14
8
0
0
0
1,302
1997
4
15
22
84
119
168
153
132
97
44
14
11
2
0
0
865
1998
6
8
41
106
120
158
161
124
92
50
18
6
3
0
0
893
1999
4
29
75
148
220
229
260
213
133
80
22
12
7
0
0
1,432
2000
2
19
53
157
222
291
273
250
137
85
34
10
4
0
0
1,537
2001
9
125
493
888
1,227
1,198
924
595
294
175
45
9
4
1
0
5,987
2002
12
119
460
853
1,203
1,272
1,008
670
378
211
73
26
6
1
0
6,292
2003
9
85
370
692
913
1,007
799
579
335
179
75
25
9
0
0
5,077
2004
7
83
389
800
1,113
1,211
983
662
381
164
73
24
5
2
0
5,897
2005
15
61
273
610
816
931
881
604
410
191
103
41
8
2
0
4,946
2006
11
99
292
689
931
1,138
1,052
780
506
232
120
38
12
3
1
5,904
2007
11
118
281
650
901
1,182
1,161
895
607
326
156
51
12
6
0
6,357
2008
19
114
342
691
966
1,179
1,141
940
534
337
172
54
12
6
1
6,508
2009
29
180
548
963
1,379
1,557
1,557
1,107
724
444
181
101
12
1
0
8,783
2010
31
253
959
1,817
2,527
2,849
2,680
1,979
1,167
663
231
94
23
7
0
15,280
2011
48
409
1,580
2,862
3,925
4,011
3,791
2,662
1,494
808
355
109
39
1
1
22,095
2012
55
364
1,367
2,731
3,775
4,256
3,961
2,991
1,685
934
416
144
32
5
1
22,717
2013
133
792
2,850
5,663
7,093
8,077
6,994
5,629
3,226
1,739
775
245
57
7
5
43,285
2014
139
979
3,298
6,229
8,425
9,588
8,020
6,061
3,588
1,899
850
269
71
6
6
49,428
2015
108
664
2,689
5,422
7,277
8,507
7,259
5,599
3,432
1,672
764
231
66
12
2
43,704
2016
255
1,209
4,338
8,235
10,981
12,205
10,481
7,938
4,765
2,460
1,083
377
86
14
5
64,432
Total
958
5,883
21,140
40,926
55,006
61,993
54,367
40,965
24,356
12,837
5,614
1,896
472
74
22
326,509
Sex difference in running speed
For all finishers, we found a small main effect of sex on running speed (p<0.001, η2=0.011), where men were faster by +7.5% than women (8.35±2.26 km/h vs 7.77±1.91 km/h, respectively). For the top ten finishers, we found a medium main effect of sex on running speed (p<0.001, η2=0.116), where men were faster by +16.6% than women (14.29±2.82 km/h vs 12.25±2.89 km/h, respectively). That is, the magnitude of the sex difference was larger when the top ten finishers were considered rather than all finishers.
Performance trends across years
Considering the trend in running speed across calendar years, we found in 50 km a small main effect of calendar year on running speed (p<0.001, η2=0.053), with the slowest running speed in 2016 and the fastest in 1975 (Figure 1). Running speed decreased from 8.51±1.07 km/h (1977) to 7.29±1.77 km/h (2016) in women and from 14.64±1.56 km/h (1975) to 7.98±2.17 km/h (2016) in men. There was a trivial sex × calendar year interaction on running speed (p<0.001, η2=0.003), where sex difference decreased across calendar years.
Figure 1
Running speed across calendar years considering all finishers.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Finishers by age-group
Most finishers were recorded for both women and men in the age-group of 40–44 years (Figure 2). The total men-to-women ratio was 4.13. A sex × age-group association was found (χ2=3010.482, p<0.001, φ=0.083) with the smallest men-to-women ratio in the 25–29 age-group (2.45) and the largest in the >84 age-group (11.00; Figure 2). A sex × calendar year association was observed (χ2=1947.963, p<0.001, φ=0.067) with the men-to-women ratio being >30 before 1981 and being the lowest in 2016 (2.58).
Figure 2
Finishers by sex and 5-year age-group.
Running speed by age-groups
When all finishers were considered in 5-year age-groups, a small main effect of age-group on running speed was observed (p<0.001, η2=0.014) with older runners being slower than their younger counterparts (Figure 3). In addition, a trivial sex × age-group interaction on running speed was shown (p<0.001, η2<0.001) with the sex difference being smaller in the older age-groups than in the younger age-groups. When the top ten finishers by 5-year age-groups were considered, a large main effect of age-group on running speed was found (p<0.001, η2=0.949; Figure 4). Moreover, a large sex × age-group interaction on running speed was observed (p<0.001, η2=0.324). That is, the main effect of age-group and the sex × age-group interaction on running speed had larger magnitude when the top ten finishers were considered compared with all finishers. When all finishers were considered in 1-year age-group intervals, a small main effect of age-group on running speed was observed (p<0.001, η2=0.014; Figure 5). In addition, a trivial sex × age-group interaction on running speed was shown (p<0.001, η2=0.001). When the top ten finishers by 1-year age-group intervals were considered, a large main effect of age-group on running speed was found (p<0.001, η2=0.926; Figure 6). Furthermore, a large sex × age-group interaction on running speed was observed (p<0.001, η2=0.194). The main effect of age-group and the sex × age-group interaction on running speed had larger magnitude when the top ten finishers were considered compared with all finishers, as it has been found in the analysis using 5-year age-groups.
Figure 3
Speed by sex and age-group considering all finishers in 5-year age-groups.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Figure 4
Speed by sex and age-group considering top ten finishers in 5-year age-groups.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Figure 5
Speed by sex and age-group considering all finishers in 1-year age-groups.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Figure 6
Speed by sex and age-group considering top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Age by sex and calendar year
Men (43.2±10.2 years) were older than women (41.4±9.4 years; p<0.001; Figure 7). The age of finishers of both sexes increased through time (Figure 8). The age increased from 38.00±4.24 years in women (1977) and 33.33±7.51 years in men (1975) to 41.15±9.49 years in women and 42.95±10.26 years in men (2016). The regression equations were y=0.117 × x − 192.5 (R2=0.27, p<0.001) in women and y=0.220 × x − 397.4 (R2=0.53, p<0.001) in men.
Figure 7
Box plots presenting age by sex and race.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Figure 8
Age by calendar years and sex.
Note: Error bars represent SD.
Age of peak running speed
Considering all finishers in 5-year age-groups, the age of peak running speed was 35–39 years in women and 30–34 years in men (Figure 3; Table 3). Considering the top 10 finishers in 5-year age-groups, the age of peak running speed was 35–39 years in women and 35–39 years in men (Figure 4; Table 3). Considering all finishers in 1-year age-groups, the age of peak running speed was 36 years in women and 31 years in men (Figure 5; Table 4). Considering the top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups, the age of peak running speed was 41 years in both women and men (Figure 6; Table 4). When the single top finishers were examined in 1-year age-groups, the age of peak running speed was 40 years in women and 39 years in men (Figure 9; Table 4).
Table 3
Parameters in the second-order polynomial regression race speed (km/h)=a+bx+cx2 using the race speed of all and top ten runners in 5-year age-groups
Parameter
Women
Men
All finishers
a (km/h)
7.449
8.901
b (km/h/year)
0.309
0.215
c (km/h/year2)
−0.039
−0.029
Age (years)
35–39
30–34
Running speed (km/h)
8.17
9.30
R2
0.02
0.03
Top ten finishers
a (km/h)
11.630
14.350
b (km/h/year)
1.395
1.193
c (km/h/year2)
−0.128
−0.111
Age (years)
35–39
35–39
Running speed (km/h)
15.44
17.56
R2
0.91
0.91
Table 4
Parameters in the second-order polynomial regression race speed (km/h)=a+bx+cx2 using the race speed of all and top ten runners in 1-year age-groups
Parameter
Women
Men
All finishers
a (km/h)
6.428
8.188
b (km/h/year)
0.098
0.073
c (km/h/year2)
−0.001
−0.001
Age (years)
36
31
Running speed (km/h)
8.18
9.30
R2
0.02
0.03
Top ten finishers
a (km/h)
3.547
7.329
b (km/h/year)
0.546
0.482
c (km/h/year2)
−0.007
−0.006
Age (years)
41
41
Running speed (km/h)
14.64
17.15
R2
0.83
0.84
Top finishers
a (km/h)
6.868
10.640
b (km/h/year)
0.438
0.352
c (km/h/year2)
−0.005
−0.004
Age (years)
40
39
Running speed (km/h)
15.65
17.58
R2
0.86
0.80
Figure 9
Speed by sex and age-group considering the single top finisher in 1-year age-groups.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the age of peak ultramarathon performance in the 50-km race distance. The main finding of the present study was that the fastest 50-km ultramarathon race time is expected to be achieved at an older age compared with the marathon, and women seem to be older when achieving their best race time. The age of peak running performance varied depending upon whether all finishers, the top ten finishers, or the fastest finishers (in 1-year or 5-year age-group intervals) were considered: 1) when the top ten were considered in 5-year age-groups, the fastest runners were at the age of ~35–39 years; 2) when all finishers were considered, the age of peak running speed was 30–39 years; 3) when all finishers were considered in 1-year age-group intervals, the age of peak running speed was 36 years in women and 31 years in men; 4) when the top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 41 years in both women and men; and 5) when the fastest in 1-year age-group intervals were analyzed, the age of peak running speed was 40 years in women and 39 years in men.Lara et al9 showed for elite marathoners that the fastest race time was obtained at 27 years in men and at 29 years in women. When the relationship between elite marathon race times and age in 1-year intervals by using the world single age records in marathon running from 5 to 93 years was analyzed, elite marathon race times improved from 5 to ~20 years, remained linear between ~20 and ~35 years, and started to increase at the age of ~35 years in a curvilinear manner with increasing age in both women and men.10 In addition, Lehto11 showed recently that a second-order (nonlinear) polynomial with y=a+bx+cx2 best described the age-related changes in performance in recreational male marathoners competing in the Stockholm Marathon. Lehto11 found that the age of peak marathon performance waŝ34 years when both all runners and the fastest runners in 1-year age intervals were analyzed. Unfortunately, only male runners were investigated.Potential explanations for the older age of peak running speed in 50-km ultramarathoners than expected could be the trend across calendar years, where an increased age of finishers has been observed. The increase in age in peak ultramarathon performance appears typical for this sports discipline. When the age of runners competing in time-limited ultra-marathons held from 6 hours to 10 days during 1975–2013 was analyzed, the age of peak performance increased across calendar years.2 The increase in the age of peak performance has also been reported for elite Ironman triathletes competing in the “Ironman Hawaii.” When the changes in the age and performances of the annual top ten women and men competing at the Ironman World Championship, the “Ironman Hawaii”, from 1983 to 2012 were analyzed, the age of annual top ten female and male triathletes increased over the last three decades while their performances improved.13 In the present ultramarathoners, the fact that performance did not improve should be attributed to the concurrent increase in participation rates. In addition, the older age of peak performance in ultramarathoners compared with marathoners might reflect the corresponding older age of finishers in ultramarathons. For instance, Rust et al14 showed that ultramarathoners were older by 3 years than marathoners. An approach of ultramarathoners in selecting a distance to run is to aim at longer distances than that already covered in the past; thus, ultramarathoners are more experienced than marathoners. For instance, a comparative study reported 34 and 12 completed marathons for ultramarathon and marathoners, respectively.14In addition, we observed a trend that women were generally older than men when achieving their fastest race times. These results confirm recent findings of Hoffman15 in retrospective data analysis from 1977 through 2008 in 161-km ultramarathoners, which showed that the fastest race times were achieved by athletes in the age-group of 30–39 years in men and in 40–49 years in women. The sex difference in the age of peak performance might be attributed to the variation in participation rates by age-groups, where a trend of relatively less women participating in the older groups was observed; thus, it might be assumed that the older women are more “selected” compared with the men of their age and perform relatively better compared with men inducing a swift of the race speed–age curve to the right.In our study, the mean age of all men competing in 50-km ultramarathon race was older than the mean age of all women (43.2±10.2 vs 41.4±9.4 years), which was in accordance with age-related differences in the men-to-women ratio. The men-to-women ratio started to increase at about the age of 50 years; therefore, relatively more men competed in the older age-groups compared with women. The younger mean age of women, compared with men, should be mostly due to sociological factors, such as the delayed participation of women in this sport for the first time (1977 in women vs 1975 in men). The lower rates of women participation in 50-km ultramarathon race are in agreement with studies examining sex differences in sports participation and are associated with sex differences in motivation,16 which may have their origin in childhood,17 adolescence,18 and young adulthood.19The age of peak performance in 50-km ultramarathon race in the present study varied depending on the applied methodological approaches; that is, whether all, the top ten, or the fastest finishers were considered or whether the finishers were classified in 1- or 5-year age-group intervals. It should be highlighted that all approaches are useful; however, they have certain advantages and disadvantages. For instance, considering the top ten finishers results in well-fitted modeling of the relationship between performance and age (0.91≤R2≤0.96, 5-year age interval, Table 1; 0.72≤R2≤0.84, 1-year age interval, Table 2), whereas when all finishers are considered the modeling is weaker (0.02≤R2≤0.04, 5-year age interval, Table 1; 0.02≤R2≤0.04, 1-year age interval). The discrepancy between the two methodological approaches indicates that considering the top runners by age-group is more appropriate to study the relationship between performance and age. Furthermore, the analysis of top runners instead of all runners resulted in larger sex difference in performance (16.6% vs 7.5%, respectively). These differences partially reflect the higher scores of VO2max in men (eg, +9.3% in elite marathon runners20), which highlights that elite women runners are expected to reduce the gap to men in the future.The ages of peak performance in the 50-km ultramarathon race may be affected by the number of participants in each age-group. Most finishers in ultramarathon races were recorded in the age-group of 40–44 years for both women and men. The reasons for greater participation in this age-group are not clear. When the demographic characteristics of 161-km ultramarathoners were investigated, the mean age of 489 runners was 44.5±9.8 years, and the runners were generally men (80.2%), were married (70.1%), and had bachelor’s (43.6%) or graduate (37.2%) degrees.21With regard to the limitations of the present study, it should be highlighted that the age of peak performance varies by distance in ultramarathons; thus, caution is needed when generalizing the findings in these 50-km ultramarathons to other distances. On the other hand, the strength of the study is the very large number of finishers who were analyzed, which allows drawing safe conclusions about the estimation of the age of peak performance. These findings are of both theoretical and practical values. From a theoretical point of view, we observed that the age of peak performance in 50 km is older than the age of peak aerobic capacity, which suggests that a good aerobic capacity is not “transformed” into performance. From a practical perspective, coaches and fitness trainers working with runners competing in this distance might benefit from the knowledge of the age of peak performance, as this will assist them to design long-term training strategies and to set age-tailored goals for athletes participating in ultramarathon races.
Conclusion
The age of peak running speed in 50-km ultramarathoners (41 years for top ten finishers in 1-year age-groups) is older than that reported for marathoners, independently from whether the finishers were considered in 1- or 5-year age-groups. This is possibly due to the age of participants competing in these events.
Authors: Beat Knechtle; André Aschmann; Vincent Onywera; Pantelis T Nikolaidis; Thomas Rosemann; Christoph Alexander Rüst Journal: J Sports Sci Date: 2016-07-19 Impact factor: 3.337
Authors: Liang-Ting Tsai; Feng-En Lo; Chih-Chien Yang; Joseph Jordan Keller; Shu-Yu Lyu Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2015-01-15 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Filipe Manuel Clemente; Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis; Fernando Manuel Lourenço Martins; Rui Sousa Mendes Journal: PLoS One Date: 2016-03-29 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Emma O'Loughlin; Pantelis T Nikolaidis; Thomas Rosemann; Beat Knechtle Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2019-05-24 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Karin J Waldvogel; Pantelis T Nikolaidis; Stefania Di Gangi; Thomas Rosemann; Beat Knechtle Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2019-07-04 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Beat Knechtle; Margarida Gomes; Volker Scheer; Robert Gajda; Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis; Lee Hill; Thomas Rosemann; Caio Victor Sousa Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2021-05-05 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Pantelis T Nikolaidis; Elias Villiger; Luca P Ardigò; Zbigniew Waśkiewicz; Thomas Rosemann; Beat Knechtle Journal: Open Access J Sports Med Date: 2018-07-18
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